I've ran mazes lots of times, but the thing I alwasy try to do is keep them fairly simple. I don't show the players the maze, I describe where they are. "You come to a four way split, you can go left, right, forward, or back the way you came." I love watching them trying to keep track, I allow them to draw out their path as they go. I had one maze once that turned out to be a mimic, the looks on their faces when they realized what was going on was hilarious.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

A mimic maze??? Devious!

I have used a maze in my campaign before. It was technically an extensive cavern network but effectively it was the same. I did it digitally by using vision limits on roll 20. We were within initiative for the majority of the dungeon and the players were using dancing lights to light the way. There was a few memorable encounters including one with a pair of Umber Hulks. They eventually reached the ancient buried skyship crash site which was the dungeon proper.

@krootmen

2 жыл бұрын

yes keep players in initiative does help in these situation i find. also as traps like rolling boulders activate ect.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Roll 20 seems to be a great tool for mazes or similar dungeons. I may need to make one someday. Cheers!

So a maize Maze? 🌽 Getting ready to do a couple smaller mazes soon. Maybe adding some awakened shrubs...moving around so the path changes constantly. Maybe a spoof on children of the Corn? Just replacing the children with kobolds led by a sorcerer.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Maize maze. Definitely. Also dig the idea of moving plants and shrubs. Well done!

When I wanted my group to deal with a maze-like Dwarven Mine (full of Oozes and Ochre Jellies), I drew it out, full-sized, beforehand, and then covered it in index cards until they had line-of-sight down a corridor. It worked very well, and took them several nights to complete.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Oozes are one of my favorite parts about mazes. Those and minotaurs. Dig the index card idea. Cheers!

Once again thanks for great content on the channel Im recently ran a maze for my campaign set in Theros, and what would a greek mythologi campaign be without a giant maze. But instead of have the players search a lot of different paths, deadends and roads to find the center, i skipped that part. Instead i created a lot of rooms and connected those. Each room had a different encounter ( Minotaur fight, A hundred handed, a murder mystery, a market, different minotaur clans, an ambush and different puzzles including your "painted minotaur room". Some of the room also had quests that would have them search parts of the labyrinth for a missing person etc. Some might even award them maps of small parts of the maze. Each encounter room had an amount of paths that could choose, and would lead them to a new room, and they had to figure out how the rooms where connected. This way we skipped all the searching hallsways, but it still felt very much like a maze to the players. (I would have loved to post a picture of the setup, but im not certain that i can do that in the comments) And of the inventor had made a pretty clear path for the worthy to follow. A simple lumberjack needed his saw back from a different npc and would point the players in that dirrection, He would offer them a single coin to aid him. When they reached the npc the saw was broken and he needed his hammer back from a third npc to obtain it, and would lead the players in his dirrection. This quests continued for a long time, and if they followed it through they would be let to the center. If they after that chose to return the saw to the lumberjack they would get one of five coins Athreos is searching for which will allow them to make a deal with him to avoid death a single time. Hope this made sense

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Made perfect sense! I love everything about it. The mini quests to obtain items, rooms instead of corridors and the fact that it is Theros is even more impressive. Super well done, I really dig your idea!

I ran a maze, but it was sorta a challenge dungeon as well. There were "floors", and each floor had 9 rooms, the starter room, and 8 other rooms. Doors randomly connected to other rooms by a dice roll when they opened the door. They had to collect moustaches, and once they had X number of moustaches they could unlock the stairs to the next floor, or do all the rooms and collect more moustaches to get down faster, or use the moustaches as expendables that would grant advantage. Some rooms had puzzles/tests you had to figure out (one was a strong man competition lifting weights that got heavier each round, the strong man rewarded you moustaches based on how far you made it and fi you beat him). Some were just fight rooms. If they ran again, the room was the same, so they could get through it faster the next time they started the maze.

thank you for sharing! I put on around the Grandfather Tree in the High Forest, It made sense to have some extra protections to such power... place, I mean tree

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Great idea. I love it.

I've actually run a maze on a virtual tabletop with dynamic lighting and barriers. Each player had their own little maze actually, and the goal was to move their tokens through the maze as fast as possible. Maze Race! I think we all had fun. As a player I've gone through a couple of mazes too, and they're either suuuuper fun or a big slogfest. It really seems mazes are a bit hit or miss.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Maze race, lol. I dig it.

Thanks for having me on the channel Wally. A great discussion. Sorry I talked so much.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Lol, no worries Fred! Glad I was able to cut this down a bit. :-) Cheers!

I made a hedge maze for players that insisted they wanted mazes and puzzles, but that campaign quickly went on hiatus so I haven't run it yet. In mine, I had various traps mixed in such as pitfall traps, a teleport trap that returns them to the start of the maze, illusions of hedges that suggest a dead end (successful Investigation check or touching the illusion will reveal it as such), and doors that ask riddles to allow passage. In addition, the exit is always the same to start, but every 5 minutes I roll 2d8 and choose the exit furthest from the players as the new exit. The players can enter for free in the hedge maze without traps or magic, or gamble gold trying to solve the version with the traps and magical effects present. If they are in the magical maze, there is a time limit at which point they're teleported outside the maze. In addition, a successful investigation check on potential exits currently sealed off appear to have shorter thorns and smaller leaves, as if grown more recently. Pushing through the hedges is also technically an option, but the thorns deal considerable damage and the hedge quickly restores itself, so the players wouldn't last long trying to brute force their way.

@StupidButCunning

2 жыл бұрын

To be clear, there are 8 potential exits including the original. I roll 2d8 in case the one rolled is directly in front of them. If I roll the same number on the d8's and the exit opens up directly in front of them, then I yield it as mercy from the dice gods. ^_^

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

I love the illusionary hedges idea. This maze sounds like a lot of fun to play through!

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

I dig the random factor

Amazeing video, many different ways to go and getting lost in the explanation.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

aMAZEing indeed. Cheers, my friend!

I ran a one shot at work with a corn maze motif. Scarecrows, something making slimy trails that cut across the maze. Everyone had a blast. I set the context as a VR game they were doing on a company fun outing.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds fun, well done!

I just finished running Castle Ravenloft. Definitely a maze. :) I've been thinking about converting the boardgame The aMAZEing Labyrinth into a shifting dungeon for a one-shot D&D game. Could be wild!

@WallyDM

Жыл бұрын

That could be wild, for sure. I need to check out that board game. Cheers!

The "follow one wall" trick wouldn't work if 1. The goal is in the centre, 2. The centre "floats" with no connected wall, just a circular hall that goes around it.

@michaelhuett9916

2 жыл бұрын

Or if the corridors shift!

Check out the maze on Dungeon Craft episode #98, it’s my favorite use of a maze in D&D.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

I am a fan of Dungeon Craft, so Ivwill definitely check it out!

This was a fun one man, I’m glad I got to sit down with y’all!

@BearBardTales

2 жыл бұрын

You could say the convo was aMAZEing

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Always good to hang out with you, my friend. Cheers!

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Marvelous Astounding Zany Exciting!

In response to Mr. Welch, You can still totally run Maze's digitally. You just utilize Token Vision and turn OFF Fog Exploration. That way they can only see what their token can see (the current room), and it will not map out previous rooms.

I have a small maze that hides a chest containing a key item for progressing to the end of the dungeon. I put the maze down a level and the submost floor has a single flooded 30ft hallway and room (20ft×20ft). The PCs have to either navigate together or send someone out by themselves. There are no enemies in the maze (currently) so the PCs don't actually have to worry about much other than navigation and then making a short swim and then making a roll to open the chest and then retrieving the correct item. No biggie. 🤣🤣

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

I am sure they will be on alert though. Well done, sounds fun. Cheers!

I would love to have some of those doors or rooms that lead to somewhere completely different that if they backtracked and mapped it there was a different room there.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Would be fun, for the DM anyways, lol.

Ive done MAZE mazes, i find my players are racked with indecision; a mixture of fear and not wanting to boss each other around, which creates an atmosphere that i did not intend. The first trap on gelatinous cube they encounter and suddenly they move at a snails pace. I think the best dungeons are maze like which is adverse to the standered 5 room dungeon. They are also much harder to create and run then the 5 room approach and i would have love you guys to have talked about this nuance.

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

I have a hard time limiting dungeons to just 5 rooms, lol. Ya know, we may do a future discussion on these.

@The-Strong-One

Жыл бұрын

@@WallyDM 5 room dungeon pdf says that the 5 rooms are just abstractions, not actual physical rooms so it can be any number of rooms

Is the first dm round table live play going to be a maze adventure?

@WallyDM

2 жыл бұрын

Hmmm. Sounds like a fun idea!