I spent some time ignoring something else and pondering what to do next in my #Dungeon_World lunch-session game.
I had originally planned to put a semi-dangerous dungeon #maze between points A and B, but started to just feel “blah” about the inevitable…
“We go left”
“Ok, the hall goes 20 feet and forks left and right”
“We go left”
Bore-fest!
Sure, some players enjoy drawing a map and figuring out where they are. But when you’ve got two 1-hour sessions in a week (if you’re lucky) there’s really no time for that.
My solution? Present them with the fact that they are in a maze, and ask them how they want to deal with finding their way through it. Come up with some time-frames based on the nature of the maze, and some different ways of getting through.
Example:
*They’ve got the map/widget that lets them take the shortcuts: 1 hour.
*Leaving a trail or making marks of some sort: 12 hours.
*Wandering around in the dark: 3d10+20 hours.
Advance your fronts and such when they spend too much time walking in angular circles. Use up those rations. Enemies use the time to prepare an ambush at the exit. You get the idea.
Perhaps more importantly, take advantage of all this time the characters are getting to spend with each other in a (possibly) relatively safe environment, and prompt for some interludes.
In the end, you didn’t have to draw a precise maze map, the players didn’t get bored, the maze was navigated, things possibly happened elsewhere, and the players got to RP with each other.
Thoughts?