Mazes
There are few things that can be as frustrating as a good maze a group of player characters have to explore. However, except for the habit of mazes and labyrinths to be placed in many modules and dungeons, there is very little to help the aspiring Game Master to create one from scratch. For the players that explore them, there are books that include some info on them but it is nice to see player information here as well.
Mazes is the first real release by Emerald Press. They have released some small free products, but Mazes is the first book that shows what they can do. Mazes is a one hundred and eight page pdf. The pdf comes in a zip file that is a little under five megs and the pdf inside is a little over five megs. The pdf cost is pretty good coming in at a bit under six dollars.
The pdf has good content; however I found it tough to read. The layout is in three columns and makes the type small to read on a screen. Some of the backgrounds and borders are also distracting and a little bit of an ink eater when printed. There are two pages of a table presented with text going from top to bottom instead of right to left. It is basically shifted ninety degrees. Once it is printed it is easy to use, but on the screen it is not. The bookmarks are okay, they did a good job on them. The art I am not a fan of. It was more distracting and sometimes hard to see what the picture was of.
While the layout is not to my liking, the substance of the book is. At the beginning under the credits it has a great disclaimer that this product does not use American English. I believe that Todd Crapper, the author, is Australian. I like that this is stated nicely at the beginning. There is also a good note from the author. I like this. Anything that helps me understand the author and his point of view helps. It also allows me to read something a little more about the author and helps him stick in my mind a little bit more. So many times authors seem to be almost nameless on products. We get their name but little else. Anything that helps separate them from each other is a good thing in my mind.
The PDF starts with a good introduction asking and answering the right questions. Why Build a Maze? Why Enter a Maze? These are important and basic questions that a DM should consider. The introduction also discusses Theseus and the Minotaur, the famous story from Greek mythology. I like the look at real world inspirations, but they could have had more of that. Te introduction goes into some basic ways to handle and run a maze of labyrinth.
The second chapter goes into the creation process. It covers some basic things like background and goals. It then covers some basic things a maze can be classified from like natural cavern, hedge mazes, one path mazes, psychic mazes, pictures mazes, etc. Each is briefly described and gives a few ideas to start the brain juices flowing. Then the chapter gets to the meat of it with the creation. There are many good ideas and advice here. One can design something from scratch or use their tables to help define the labyrinth. There are twenty three different types of maze options presented here like aquatic, fire, and dragon types. Each list what defines it, type of environment it might be found in, types of encounters inside it, and appearance.
The next chapter describes some templates that can be added to any maze. There are over fifty different maze templates. There are mirrored walls, darkness, clockwork, underwater, and many, many more. The templates can be combined and some even require the prerequisite of another. Like an invisible wall maze needs to be magical. These options can defiantly make a maze something even a veteran player has never experienced.
Creatures and more importantly Minotaurs are an important part of most mazes. The third chapter goes into these choices. It starts with a history of the Minotaur, how to role play one, and some expanded rules on them. Then they present the Authaur, a human/bull centaur like creature. My personal favorite is the Cave ooze, a hunter in the maze. There is also the Daeotaur, which is like a Minotaur except bigger, badder, four arms, and a temper. Then there is the Grii, a small earth elemental type creature. And finally there is the Urdlaw, a telekinetic creature with a CR that seems a little high for it. After those it discusses random encounters with in the maze. Over all it is a nice collection of creatures very fitting to the book.
Now we get to the sections intended for the player characters. It starts with the explorer core class, a skill based character with spells and a few good abilities for exploring. It seems like a fun class but it looks a little on the weak side. The prestige classes are the Blind Vangaurd, the Mathematician, the Minotaur Scout, and Savage Tracker. Each fits a nice place that is not easily done through the core classes. They have a good amount of cool abilities without seeming overpowered. Next it gets into some skills and my only concern here is the scent skill. Scent is a special ability in the DMG and I don’t think it’s is also needed as a skill. There are a decent amount of feats and spells presented here.
The last chapter has equipment and magical items. There is some basic equipment here that is pretty important and useful. The magical items are nicely created and the lone artifact here is really cool. Lastly we have a complete adventure featuring a maze.
Overall, I think it is a good product. The information on designing a maze and the options presented I found more useful then the player options. I did find the layout to be difficult for reading. That makes it a high three in my book.
