Planescape review: The Mazes
For the last three years, I've run a Planescape1 campaign through almost all of its modules. Now, after successfully finishing it, I want to look back and review these adventures, highlighting the pros and cons of each one.
Each module will be rated in three categories, up to 3 points in each:
- Presentation: how easy is to understand and run the adventure.
- Openness: how open the adventure's scope is, regarding the freedom of choice.
- Quality: Overall quality of the adventure, including the originality and richness of its content, and players' enjoyment.
The full list of currently published reviews is available under the #planescape tag.
The Mazes
In which the Many seek the One, and the Heroes must retrieve a Sword lost amid myriad Threats to the Flesh.
- Designer: Colin McComb
- Source: The Well of Worlds2, Chapter II
- Party: up to 6 characters of 2nd-4th levels
- Play-time: 1 session
- Locations:
- Sigil / Mazes
Overview
In this adventure, the player characters will enter one of the Lady's Mazes racing against three competing adventuring groups to retrieve a fabled sword that was lost about a millennia ago along with its legendary owner — the factol of long-defunct Expansionist faction Vartus Timlin.
A factol representative of a faction the characters are aligned to will instruct them on how to enter and exit the Maze — the information that is soon become known by the competing parties from the Harmonium, the Mercykillers, and the Fated that will follow the character into the Maze.
The Maze itself is a proper labyrinthine dungeon hiding some unpleasant surprises for the characters, one of which is its infinitely looped nature, which will make mappers mad until they figure this trick out. Exactly for this reason you just must describe the dungeon for the players so they could map it themselves.
⚠️ Map spoilers: Here you can observe the meandering path of my players trying to figure out "where this damned maze ends".
Presentation
🖋️🖋️🖋️ superb
Not only does the adventure have a full description of the imprisoned factol and his daily schedule, but it also provides the timeline of events that would happen, assuming the player characters do not change the course of events by their actions. The descriptions of rivaling parties and their leaders' personalities and motivations are also present.
The map is big and clear, leaving no place for misunderstandings. The sparse keyed locations lost between the winding corridors of the Maze are described pithily but thoroughly.
Openness
☀️☀️☀️ open
After the characters enter the Maze, no one knows how the adventure will end for them, including the DM who only knows where and when the prisoner and three other parties will be and what they will do. The players are free to choose any course of action for their characters, throwing a proverbial wrench into this device, which may result in most peculiar situations for them and others.
Just as a small example, when I ran this adventure, the party managed to encounter Timlin who immediately took one of the characters as a prisoner, demanding them to disclose the way out. After a couple of minutes of negotiation, they agreed to free Timlin in exchange for his sword — their real goal. Thus, after dispatching one of the other parties that walked in soon after, the characters kept their part of the deal, gaining a valuable ally.
Quality
★★★ outstanding
This is undoubtedly one of the best short-length adventures for the setting, enjoyable both for the players and the DM. It is also distinctly tied to the setting and Sigil, taking place in one of its most famous locations. I highly recommend including it between your longer adventures and see what your players will achieve and if they manage to survive at all.
Notes
Write down a turn-by-turn timetable of Timlin's whereabouts and scheduled events to keep track of what is happening and when, and if the characters encounter the factol or a rival party at some specific location. If you run your games using a computer, a spreadsheet will serve superbly for this task.
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