I had a rescue plan worked out for one of my characters. It relied on the idea that is was easier to break INTO a maze, than get out. Thus my followers and henchmen would rescue me should it ever come to pass. I actually used the idea when I mazed myself to get out of a Planescape: Torment WigWag thread that I wanted to abandon.
Planescape- How secure are the Mazes?
Jupp
Explorer
Long time since I read the 2e material but from what I can remember is is more or less impossible to escape the Maze if the Lady wants it so.
The fluff text explained something along the lines that everyone that gets thrown in to the maze has the chance to escape it again IF he is able to find the portal location and the key to it. Problem is that you do not know what the portal looks like nor do you know how to use the key or how the key even looks like. In Sigil a portal can be everything from a door frame to a stone on the ground. And the key can be everything from a whistled tune to a complicated hand gesture.
I think it is the fact that you "would" be able to escape the Maze, but you will most probably never find out how, which is the thing that is eventually going to drive you crazy in the Maze.
Edit in reply to Ash'aman:
As far as I know you cannot wish yourself out of the Maze the same way you cannot leave/enter Sigil without going through a portal.
The fluff text explained something along the lines that everyone that gets thrown in to the maze has the chance to escape it again IF he is able to find the portal location and the key to it. Problem is that you do not know what the portal looks like nor do you know how to use the key or how the key even looks like. In Sigil a portal can be everything from a door frame to a stone on the ground. And the key can be everything from a whistled tune to a complicated hand gesture.
I think it is the fact that you "would" be able to escape the Maze, but you will most probably never find out how, which is the thing that is eventually going to drive you crazy in the Maze.
Edit in reply to Ash'aman:
As far as I know you cannot wish yourself out of the Maze the same way you cannot leave/enter Sigil without going through a portal.
wingsandsword
Legend
Of course, a Wish to know the location of and key to the exit portal would be far more useful.
Nothing says it has to be easy even if you know what and where it is. What if the key is a phrase in a long-lost language (or even the true name of a being that would rather not have such things spoken), or that the Portal Key would be the dead body of an innocent person (and the person who is Mazed is a Paladin, and gee, they find an innocent child in the mazes, the only person besides themselves there, and there is no apparent way out until they die, nice Paladin's Dilemma there).
Then it's a matter of was the Mazing merely a perfunctory matter from the Lady, or are you going to get flayed the moment you get out for daring to escape. In other words: were you safer back in the Mazes?
Thanks, everyone! Lots of good information here. Customized mazes was something I never considered, but in hindsight it's the obvious explanation. It's pretty cool/useful for gaming, too.
I will say, though, that I think "as secure as the DM needs them to be" isn't usually a good answer, because it's the underlying assumption about everything in D&D: As long as the players don't revolt, the DM can make everythign work however he likes. But while a DM can make all these decisions ad hoc, the reason I ask the question is that I want to know other people's views and/or the canon answer, both for information (don't want to ad-hoc), inspiration (what intriguing features or loopholes do the various explanations have) and simply to know what I'm deviating from and what changes I'd need to make, if I decided a maze needed a spesific feature for plot reasons.
I will say, though, that I think "as secure as the DM needs them to be" isn't usually a good answer, because it's the underlying assumption about everything in D&D: As long as the players don't revolt, the DM can make everythign work however he likes. But while a DM can make all these decisions ad hoc, the reason I ask the question is that I want to know other people's views and/or the canon answer, both for information (don't want to ad-hoc), inspiration (what intriguing features or loopholes do the various explanations have) and simply to know what I'm deviating from and what changes I'd need to make, if I decided a maze needed a spesific feature for plot reasons.
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