Mazes

[SableWyvern]

Just picked up FFG's The Dragon's Wish instant adventure.

Within, is a great big maze. Big enough, at least, that it takes up to a minute or so to get from one side to the other just by looking at the map.

How are you supposed to run this sort of maze in a RPing session?

I gave up on mazes after the first one I ran, a long, long time ago. Very, very, very boring. Especially since in this case, the PCs need to travel back and forth within it to and from three seperate locations before exiting the other side.

At the moment my plan is to redesign to a simpler version. I'm just wondering if anyone out there actually has an interesting and functional way of running a full-on maze.

 

[Frosty]

"You stand in a hallway. A corridor runs both left and right. The right one turns east after 30 feet and the left one turns east after 90 feet. There are no doors. What do you do?"

Sheesh. Don't bother.

 

[rounser]

Whenever confronted with a maze, just use the old standby - follow either the left or right wall all the way through, and you're bound to come out the other side eventually...

One thing that could make a small maze a lot more interesting: a running combat, in which the NPCs/monsters know the maze and exploit it with their hit-and-run tactics. That way you can also map the maze on your battlemap as the battle unfolds, which saves describing it...

 

[Frosty]

Whenever confronted with a maze, just use the old standby - follow either the left or right wall all the way through, and you're bound to come out the other side eventually...

Exactly! It has always bothered me that Baskerville (Sean Connery) in the Name of the Rose can't recall that simple rule...

 

[Rel]

How are you supposed to run this sort of maze in a RPing session?[/B]

Wand of Passwall? Better yet, portable hole.

 

[SableWyvern]

One thing that could make a small maze a lot more interesting: a running combat, in which the NPCs/monsters know the maze and exploit it with their hit-and-run tactics. That way you can also map the maze on your battlemap as the battle unfolds, which saves describing it...

Actually, I've done that, and it was a lot of fun (for me).

A level 10 Magician and level 10 Illusionist absolutely hammered the PCs, whose average level was around 50. (We were playing Rolemaster, BTW)

 

[Bonedagger]

The few times I have had to run mazes I have just decided that the speed at wich you completed the maze in was based on the characters Int.. (It's the PC's and not the players who are supposed to figure out the maze )

Hey. The guys who use mazes as a challenge are usually not stupid. Constantly walking left or right will most likely cause you to walk into many mean traps... And in big mazes take a very long time.

 

[Frosty]

Hey. The guys who use mazes as a challenge are usually not stupid.

Yes, they are. Anyone who protects his treasure with a maze is a moron.

 

[Bonedagger]

If you really want to scare your players. Just let them enter a living maze (The wines on the wall becomes alive and start attacking if someone tries to break through a wall (Magic or not) + it regenrates damage done to it's walls. It also changes form at a certain cycle (The walls rearrange themself).

 

[alsih2o]

let them tie a string to the door so it is easy to retrace their way out.....when they are almost to the end, have something bite it in two