Because there's a maze maker online?
Good point about having only one entrance, though I'm not completely sold on only one path.
Labyrinth Combat
- Thread starter jorgeo
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Because there's a maze maker online?
Good point about having only one entrance, though I'm not completely sold on only one path.
Because there's a maze maker online?
Good point about having only one entrance, though I'm not completely sold on only one path.
That's what a labyrinth is though
.The whole point I'm making is that the old-style labyrinths were one-course, one-entrance. You can D&D it up by actually then having the place change. You're supplying a maze AND a labyrinth! Value-added encounters with the Minotaur
.Slainte,
-Loonook.
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
Last summer, I created a maze chamber that consisted of square stone columns going from floor to ceiling on a grid placed at points 10' apart. From appearance it was a rectangular open room with evenly spaced columns about 50' x 100' in dimension.
In reality, between some columns the spaces were open so one can pass through, between others there were walls of force preventing passage between, still others contained illusions of open spaces that gave the idea you could see past it into the squares behind it, yet actually hid pit traps, pools of black pudding, etc.
Then in 3 chambers behind illusionary walls along the outer wall (which appeared as solid stone), contained minotaurs ready to charge, as they could clearly see through the illusion walls (from behind), while the PCs assumed they were solid walls like the rest of the exterior walls. Because the PCs were so wrapped up in trying to figure which was an open path vs. a wall of force vs. an illusion wall hiding a hazard behind it (mostly by firing arrows at spaces between columns to find the walls of force) they completely missed the danger lurking behind the exterior walls.
There was an 'apparent' clear path going from one door (entry) to another door across the 50' width of the chamber. In reality, the path was separated by an illusion wall with a black pudding in a pit behind it. But the open path illusion drew one PC straight into the pudding pit in his attempt to cross the room. The opposite door turned out not to be an exit, rather an illusion wall that seemed transparent with a clear path beyond, but in reality a gelatinous cube was trapped hidden behind the wall (a rune on the floor in front of that doorway, prevented the cube from passing into the main chamber.) This led to the first PC death.
I killed 2 PCs with this maze. It turned out to be very problematic for the players.
In reality, between some columns the spaces were open so one can pass through, between others there were walls of force preventing passage between, still others contained illusions of open spaces that gave the idea you could see past it into the squares behind it, yet actually hid pit traps, pools of black pudding, etc.
Then in 3 chambers behind illusionary walls along the outer wall (which appeared as solid stone), contained minotaurs ready to charge, as they could clearly see through the illusion walls (from behind), while the PCs assumed they were solid walls like the rest of the exterior walls. Because the PCs were so wrapped up in trying to figure which was an open path vs. a wall of force vs. an illusion wall hiding a hazard behind it (mostly by firing arrows at spaces between columns to find the walls of force) they completely missed the danger lurking behind the exterior walls.
There was an 'apparent' clear path going from one door (entry) to another door across the 50' width of the chamber. In reality, the path was separated by an illusion wall with a black pudding in a pit behind it. But the open path illusion drew one PC straight into the pudding pit in his attempt to cross the room. The opposite door turned out not to be an exit, rather an illusion wall that seemed transparent with a clear path beyond, but in reality a gelatinous cube was trapped hidden behind the wall (a rune on the floor in front of that doorway, prevented the cube from passing into the main chamber.) This led to the first PC death.
I killed 2 PCs with this maze. It turned out to be very problematic for the players.
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Rogue Agent
First Post
That's what a labyrinth is though
But it's not what the labyrinth built by Daedalus to hold the minotaur was. (You don't need Ariadne's skein to find your way back out if the path is unicursal.)
It's unclear when scholars first started attempting to treat labyrinths and mazes as being two different things; but the origin is certainly not classical. Nor is it colloquial. (And, notably, the OED still doesn't recognize it.)
Sure about that one?
Top 3 being images of labyrinth coins from ancient Greek interpretations of the term Labyrinth, and an even older depiction in Sardinia off the cost of mainland Italy. Depictions from this area and others of such a maze are pretty common, and the use of the symbol to represent the Labyrinth at Knossos has been standardized since before the Common Era.
Slainte,
-Loonook.
MortalPlague
Adventurer
I think this is the key. Having the maze shift at periodic intervals (say every 1d4+1 rounds) creates a lot of tension. It allows for you to switch various PCs into and out of contact with the minotaur. Bonus points if your PCs can predict the shifting of the maze, and make a break for a spot that's about to switch so they can escape from / get to the minotaur.
Rune
Once A Fool
If you want a maze that traps creatures inside it, but allows for easy entrance, the best (mundane) way to do it would be to create a maze that has a single path to the center, but multiple paths from the center that lead back to the center.
(That paragraph, by the way, is representative of a labyrinth--a single path [sentence] that eventually winds its way toward a single destination.)
(That paragraph, by the way, is representative of a labyrinth--a single path [sentence] that eventually winds its way toward a single destination.)
fireinthedust
Explorer
I used the boardgame Master Labyrinth, and just said each tile is 4 spaces.
done.
done.
Rogue Agent
First Post
Yes.
I fully encourage you to actually do some meaningful research into (a) the history of the term labyrinth; (b) it's earliest known usages; and (c) the actual story of Daedalus' labyrinth (and its variants). But I'm just not interested in doing your homework for you.
Now I present with multiple images that show the labyrinth on coins from the period from Knossos, the meaning of labyrinth vs. maze, and the whole 'these images are from the period of accounts of the labyrinth' thing. There is no historical labyrinth, but the term itself has been branched from maze for quite some time... of course, we can also appeal to interpretations as they appear in texts of the era, such as presented by Socrates in Euthydemus (yay Wikipedia saving me from going through my books again!):
"Then it seemed like falling into a labyrinth: we thought we were at the finish, but our way bent round and we found ourselves as it were back at the beginning, and just as far from that which we were seeking at first."
Now this is particularly quoted by Kerényi to illustrate the use of the term not as a branching, multicursal form, but as a spiral meander, single-lined, single-coursed, and patterned off of multiple traditions of such forms. There is even a discussion of the symbol of the labyrinth and the fact that the symbol (a spiral) and the item (a spiraling, meandering unicursal path) became one in the same.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. My decades of mythology, my degree in religious studies and history of the ancient world, and my love for all things trivial could just be 'off' on this one. Now, the fact that noone had entered the thing other than Daedalus, dead virgins, and a light-starved man-bull who may have a bit of a time navigating such passages at full-size.
Again, not even all of the myths have Ariadne giving him thread... But again, you are quite aware of all that comes about in this sort of thing. Cheers.
Slainte,
-Loonook.
