{"id":3644,"date":"2017-06-07T07:18:57","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T11:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=3644"},"modified":"2017-05-17T09:20:27","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T13:20:27","slug":"the-rotating-labyrinth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=3644","title":{"rendered":"The Rotating Labyrinth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy James Eck
\nMindWeaveRPG
\nd20
\nLevel 5<\/p>\n

This fifteen page \u201cadventure\u201d centers around one gimmick: a rotating gear-like maze. A large & interesting map has to be constructed by printing it out, glueing it to cardboard, cutting out other parts and glueing to more cardboard. What you then have is a large dungeon map with some sections, circular, that can rotate entire portions of the map. And some other circular sections within those larger circles that ALSO rotate. This is combined with some sliding stone slabs that cut off access to areas, secret doors, dark portals that imps come through and some windows that give glimpses of a devil at the center. It\u2019s a one-trick pony, the maze, with little else to recommend it beyond that. It IS a very nice trick though. And I\u2019ve got a soft spot in my heart for gimmicks.<\/p>\n

The dungeon has three rooms: the entry room, the prison room, and a treasure room. The entry room has a large stone statue and is the only room lit. It speaks to you, essentially introducing the purpose of the maze: to keep a devil locked up. The treasure room has a couple of unique items. The jail cell in the \u201cmiddle\u201d has a devil. It\u2019s not quite true to say the rest of the dungeon is procedural, but it\u2019s close enough. The circles turn. The slabs move. There are some dark portals that bring in little imps when you encounter them. And so it goes. Wander about. The maze changes. Maybe encounter some imps. Wander about. <\/p>\n

The five rumors provided are directly related to the maze. The maze changes. There\u2019s no light. There\u2019s no water. Clues on how to prepare. The descriptions are bland. There\u2019s not a lot to describe, but, even then, it\u2019s \u201ciron bars block access\u201d and corridors dry & cold with smooth granite. It\u2019s bland. The initial room, with the statue, is the best, along with \u201cdark blobs on the walls\u201d that the imps come through. There\u2019s just not much to this.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s both a blessing and a curse. It\u2019s generic nature means you can drop almost anything in to it. Looking for an item? Or an oracle? Or a person in prison? The maze can easily be co-opted to insert your own plot point\/thing in to it. Maybe that humble ant from DMG1e is locked in the center. But .. it\u2019s a bland environment. Random corridor findings, more window dressing, SOMETHING to liven the place up more is needed. There\u2019s a suggestion to include a rival adventuring party but, even then, this would need more. A four to six hour session of wandering around in corridors isn\u2019t my idea of fun. <\/p>\n

Enlivened a bit, I could see this as being a level of a megadungeon or a mythic place to go fetch something from. There IS prep time in this, in constructing the physical map. If you build the map AND liven the place up a bit then this would be a nice little thing. It\u2019s the closest thing I\u2019ve seen to a good maze and reminds me a bit of the Maze Runner movie. The map\/rotation alone is worth it to have, then you can gut the place for your own adventure. Would you pay a buck for a kick ass map? That violates some core Bryce beliefs related to Setting Expectations when purchasing and Only Review Adventures \u2026 and I have ripped products apart for those two reasons. But \u2026 <\/p>\n

If you view this as a map, and only a map, with all of the text really describing the physical characteristic of the map \u2026 then it shouldn\u2019t end up on Tenfootpole \u2026 but it would be a cool thing to build off of if you were looking for a map to co-opt for your own adventure.<\/p>\n

It is Pay What You Want on DriveThru. The three page preview doesn\u2019t really show you a good example of the writing but there IS a video of the physical construction in which you can see the map and how the wheels work. It\u2019s really quite nice, and the map and the rotation ARE the highlight.https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/209116\/Rotating-Labyrinth?affiliate_id=1892600<\/p>\n

God, I\u2019m such a hypocrite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By James Eck MindWeaveRPG d20 Level 5 This fifteen page \u201cadventure\u201d centers around one gimmick: a rotating gear-like maze. A large & interesting map has to be constructed by printing it out, glueing it to cardboard, cutting out other parts … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/rotlab.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3645,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions\/3645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}