An Evil Maze to make players hate you: What to do?

[Collin152]

So, suppose, entirely theoretically, I wanted to design a lengthy maze with the intent of screwing over the players through sheer frustration. Entirely theoretically.
What kind of traps, monsters, and other such elements, would you suggest I incoorperate and why so as to make the entire experience as frustrating and grating for the poor saps subjected to it? Kinda like Tomb of Horrors, but less "Instantaneous Death" and more "Prolonged Torment, that, since you've still got a chance, it might take you a while to say 'I Give Up!'"
Entirely hypothetical, honest.

See, the idea spawned from the idea of putting a trap of Maze inside of a maze...

[Graymayre]

backtracking is the best friend of annoyance.

Have them collect pieces of a key (or item) that opens up the next level. But, when they collect the pieces and try to activate the door, either tell them there is another door behind it or these pieces go to a completely different door.

Either way, make the next pieces of the item they need to collect even harder to find.

It also doesn't hurt to have the maze constantly morph, thus negating standard methods of mapping the place.

[Satyr]

Is there any horror known to mankind greater than the lair of Rambozo the Clown Lich? He may be immortal, but he has the sense of humor of a drunk, fifteen year old clown. The whole dungeon follows a strong circus / clown theme ( including the music and the permanent sickenly sweet smell of too much popcorn), while he uses Magic Mouth spells to constantly mock the players and tell fart jokes.
Include some deeply embarassing (and crotch-targeted) traps for addtional cheap laughs.

[Dogmantra]

Invisible walls, and illusionary walls.
Twice as many illusionary traps and "key pieces" as there are real traps and "key pieces"
Traps that look like one kind, but are actually another (i.e. swinging blade trap that's really a poison gas trap)
Illusionary floors over pits that go down (or lifts that go up) to the previous level.
Teleport traps.

[Graymayre]

Teleport traps.

Those traps should bring you to the end of a completely different maze, forcing that person to work there way through it to even get back to the previous maze.

[Xuincherguixe]

Is there anything so fun as sneaking up behind Euclid and punching him? The maze should have various points where the players are essentially "teleported". And they might not teleport to the same place.

You could also do various spooky stuff. If any of your players know anything about the Cthulhu Mythos, feel free to put in some depictions of tentacles. And as they walk past it, the depictions might become more detailed. Eventually resulting in actual tentacles sprouting out of the walls.

There would of course be nothing particularly terrible in the place. Just strongly hint that there is. The person who made the place just likes messing with peoples heads.

Personally, I'm fond of the idea of having some swords that constantly follow the players around. Just kind of floating there.


Of course, that's not so much frustrating as deeply unnerving. I suppose the only real difference is that instead of creepy events, you toss in really stupid ones. Instead of swords, nerf bats. Instead of tentacles, tentacle porn. And every so often you can have someone leap out screaming, "ARE YOU HAPPY YET?!"

[Dogmantra]

Those traps should bring you to the end of a completely different maze, forcing that person to work there way through it to even get back to the previous maze.

And after throwing a couple of them at your players, have one that's just an illusion trap, that makes it look like they teleported.

[BRC]

Put some gold statues (Actually, stone with a thing layer of gold leaf over them, not worth very much considering how heavy they are any how much work it would take to move them), The statues are electrified. You can do the same thing with, any metal treasure.

[MammonAzrael]

Moving walls.

No actual exit.

Doors, or better yet, random segments of hallways that function like a portal. They turn on and off randomly, and looking through them looks just like normal, so no visual indicators. And they're one way.

Also, needs moar Mind Rape.

Make it the "wrong" maze. (i.e. They have to go through a maze to find the McGuffin. Turns out this isn't that maze).

Spheres of Annihilation.

Unnecessary puzzles. (a room is clearly designed to move levers to open the giant locked door. The dey is under the potted plant next to said door. The levers do nothing. Except maybe trigger traps or summon monsters)

[adanedhel9]

Provide a subtly incorrect map. It should be close enough to the real thing that the players will begin trusting it, but just when they need it the most, that left turn to safety will instead be a dead end.

A slight variant (taken from the old module Needle): let the players see the entire (or nearly entire) maze before they go in. What they can't see, however, is the invisble walls blocking most paths.

Invisible walls in general could be frustrating (I can see the key! But how do we get to it?). Once the players successfully navigate around an invisible wall, throw in an illusion of an invisible wall with goodies behind it; the players would probably try to navigate around it only to find an empty room or a deadly trap.

Throw some multi-part puzzles in, but don't enforce any order to how the players encounter them. They could very well spend a lot of time trying to solve the last part without having even seen the rest of the puzzle. And once they do have all the clues, they'll have do some serious backtracking.

One-way doors also come to mind; always provide a way back, but make it very circuitous (and, optionally, lethal).

Split up the party? Though this can be just as frustrating for the DM as for the players.

[Broler]

find monsters able to use spells like passwall

[Yukitsu]

The invisible spell feat, shadow walls, real invisible walls, semi real invisible walls, figmentary walls, invisible figmentary walls, dimensional anchor everywhere and nothing but shadows to fight.

[The Glyphstone]

Or incorporeal enemies.

[MeklorIlavator]

I think the hypercube trap suggested here would work. The first post:

This is an elaborate trap I once concieved to make my players rage and sweat. It was a great success, if I remember it, and my players were lost in it for a whole gaming session.

If you have seen the movie Cube 2: Hypercube, you'll be somewhat familiar with it.

The party, while exploring the abandonned ruins of [random] climb a ladder into a strange cubic room, which is 15 feet x 15 x 15. The trapdoor trough which they enter the room is at the center of the floor. The floor is painted black with golden scripts 5 feet around the trapdoor, while the rest of the floor is white. All of the sides of the cube seem to be painted the exact same way, and each of the other side seems to have the same trapdoor.

When the last party member has entered, the door closes behind him, and the Cube closed on them.

The Cube is a semi-plane, which is finite (27 cubes), but there aren't any edge. (if you keep going forward, you will simply go back to the room your started in at your 3rd room-transition.

Gravity is subjective, so the characers can always walk on the floor/walls (much like a perfect Spider Walk spell). It can be very, very, very disorienting, so, Sadic GMs, non-intellectual PCs should get maluses over time. I would also say that PCs may get tired (intellectually) quickly during the first days of travel.

The golden writing is the scripts upon which the whole HyperCube demi-plane exists. A wizard can try to decipher them, and if not, use another prisonner of the plane to inform them of the riddle. To free itself, someone has "To walk his own steps three time".

Which means, the party has to get into a room, and go back into the door it just got in. Then, when in the room, go back trough the same door. And then one more time

You may invent whatever good riddle to get out of the HyperCube, but make it hard.

One more thing.. there is a reason why it's "Hypercube", and not merely "cube". The scripts reveal that every time a door is open, it leads to the other room. But if the spatial movement is determinate, there is a random temporal movement. Technically, HyperCube always existed, and will always exist. You can mess your player's mind by making them meet NPCs that have encountered them in their past, them make them (later) encounter them again. Or make them find their own piece of equipment (hey! that's my family's sword! But.. it.. looks 5000 years old...)

The "temporal randomness" can help them encounter ennemies, other poor souls trapped into HyperCube for centuries.. even if mere days happened outside. Or, on the other side, they could have entered centuries in the past, but spent a mere hour in the HyperCube..

You can make them encounter wizards who are there to study this.. magical marvel, or other prisonners who have fell to cannibalism to feed and drink.

Sometime, it's possible to make your players see furniture that have been created/summoned by a wizard long dead/eaten. It's possible for them to encounter themselves..

My favorite encounter should be a somewhat early one. It's a dusty skeleton of a man who had his throath cut cleanly. He is dressed in [your choice], but hold a piece of paper.. upon which is writter (I hand-wroted in a hurry this piece. It's supposed to give a desperate feeling to the PCs):

I'm gonna die. I know it. I had hope to get out of this wretched labyrinth, forsaken by the gods.. but now, I know I'm gonna die. As I wrote it, my hands are covered in blood... mine.

I learned to prey upon other prisonners.. to get their food. Sometimes, it's a wandering beast, and I can eat it's flesh. So, when I saw a sleeping man on the floor of a room, I just went ahead, and cut his troath. When I saw his face, I recognised him. I've always knew him.. because he was me. He was an older me.. but he was me.

I will kill myself. I know it.

I cannot even leave this wretched place.. Because what will happen if I change what will be..?

PEACH and propose random encounters..

[AmberVael]

I think some of the best puzzles and tricks are mundane, or only enhanced by magic.

Make a few consecutive hallways that are completely identical. Every time someone goes through this hallway and to the next one, describe them entering a hallway that looks exactly the same.
It's also good to have their minds on teleporting magic during this- have some kind of hint of that while they're doing this. They'll likely conclude that they're being teleported or otherwise transported back to the beginning of the hallway each time, when in fact they're just moving between a number of entirely identical hallways. Watch them try tons and tons of magic tricks to get past the hallway, only to finally realize all they need to do is walk.

A number of spells can enhance this, such as some kind of illusions to keep the hallways identical (no matter what PCs do to them) and various tricks to keep teleportation and gates in their minds.

[BRC]

I think some of the best puzzles and tricks are mundane, or only enhanced by magic.

Make a few consecutive hallways that are completely identical. Every time someone goes through this hallway and to the next one, describe them entering a hallway that looks exactly the same.
It's also good to have their minds on teleporting magic during this- have some kind of hint of that while they're doing this. They'll likely conclude that they're being teleported or otherwise transported back to the beginning of the hallway each time, when in fact they're just moving between a number of entirely identical hallways. Watch them try tons and tons of magic tricks to get past the hallway, only to finally realize all they need to do is walk.

A number of spells can enhance this, such as some kind of illusions to keep the hallways identical (no matter what PCs do to them) and various tricks to keep teleportation and gates in their minds.

That's nasty, especially if you say "This hallway is perfectly identical to the last", as opposed to "This hallway looks just like the last one"

[afroakuma]

I have just the thing: this.

The Thief King's Palace is a wandering phenomenon that possesses important locations.

The Palace can perceive foes within the structure it occupies, and will send shadow creatures to harass them, often diverting them into confusing intersections or away from visible doors. If enemies actually find its room, the Palace will likely pretend to be inert, allowing foes to enter and engulf themselves. Should it be forced to fight, it will attack only long enough to inflict some inconvenience on foes before slipping away and dispatching more shadow servants. Ultimately, it would prefer that hostile entrants be lost forever within its grasp than to simply kill them outright.

[Paramour Pink]

I really hope Proven Paradox never sees this topic...

Anyway, poison. The contact kind. Put all over various doors. They don't have to be lethal, but that's going to put a real damper on your players.

[AmberVael]

That's nasty, especially if you say "This hallway is perfectly identical to the last", as opposed to "This hallway looks just like the last one"

I had fun when I introduced that to my players. It took them ages, and I was just sitting there giggling at them the whole time.
^-^

[littlebottom]

simple, put them through "the worlds largest dungeon" its designed to take players from level one to twenty... and at a session a week that lasts 4 or 5 hours, will take approx 5 years to complete... so yeah, they would either love that or give up, and trust me some of it is horrific, it has some winding maze like areas, and other wide open areas too, some completly underwater sections, areas covered with lava, and is just simply the most wrong invention ever i do intend to force my group to go through it though, some day, when i read the 3.5 rules again, as at the moment only 4th ed ever comes to mind

[Shalizar]

Just make sure that you have a wall or something protecting you so then they dont start throwing dice, bottles or what every they have on them at you.

[Collin152]

Alright, so invisible walls, backtracking, and things not being what they appearing to be.

I've also decided to include an area of pitch darkness, in which they are likely to be eaten by a Grue.

[Starscream]

I suppose the only real difference is that instead of creepy events, you toss in really stupid ones. Instead of swords, nerf bats. Instead of tentacles, tentacle porn.

You don't find tentacle porn creepy?

And a tesseract dungeon will drive you players mad. Especially if they try to map it. Unless you have a mathematician in your group, it should take them quite a while to figure out what's going on.

If you really want to be cruel, use some sort of illusion magic that prevents them from marking rooms effectively. If they carve their names on a door in room A, an illusory copy of the carving appears on every door in the place.

This'll drive them to tears, guaranteed.

[RTGoodman]

I think the hypercube trap suggested here would work. The first post:

I came here to suggest the EXACT thing. Man, I love me some Cube and Hypercube (but NOT Cube: Zero).

[Olo Demonsbane]

Here is a mass of ideas:

Use traps that reroute the players: for example, a giant trap door that drops the players down a long chute.

Use invisible walls in many different ways. For example:
A small pit of lava the characters could jump over. On the opposite side is an invisible wall. Works best if the characters just exited a passage with only invisible walls, so they will hit themselves multiple times.

Use illusions, invisibility and other spells to confound the players. For example, put a pit of lava in the character's path. It is actually water enchanted to look like lava. Above this, where the characters would try to fly, is an antigravity field holding up a mass of invisible lava . Good times.

Make invisible walls with spell turning. Then put monsters on the other side. When the characters try to fireball the monster(s), they will get fried. After this, they will be cautious, letting any monsters they encounter get the drop on them.

Put a thick illusionary wall in the characters way. Inside of it, put a monster with continous true seeing.

To open a treasure door, there are three levers. There is a riddle telling which of the levers open the door. If a character attempts it and fails, he/she will never be able to try again and must undergo a random permanent restriction (you must never eat meat, you must never wear clothing, whatever you want). None of the levers open the door.

[ericgrau]

Mazes are particularily annoying because players must deal with poorly drawn areas. When you redraw when you shift from area to area it might not be clear what used to be where. It's also very time consuming. If you don't be careful to get around all that then your players might hate you in the wrong way. As in "This game is annoying and boring" kind of way not "Dang this is hard and scary but challenging". Just like you could be afraid to watch a horror flic but that's only a good thing if you're on the edge of your seat not if you're afraid of the bad acting.

Basically try to make the challenges as clear as possible so that the main obstacle is the challenges themselves not the player's ability to understand dry erase markings. And then after all that you still need to make it fun like any campaign.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

The invisible spell feat, shadow walls, real invisible walls, semi real invisible walls, figmentary walls, invisible figmentary walls, dimensional anchor everywhere and nothing but shadows to fight.

This. In the maze, there are 5 types of walls: Invisible walls, real walls, illusions of walls, Walls of Force, illusions of walls over Walls of Force, and any or all of the walls have traps if you touch them. And secret passages. Also, the maze is 3d. And the entire thing is covered in Magic Auras. Also, the entire time the party is being chased.

[Starbuck_II]

So, suppose, entirely theoretically, I wanted to design a lengthy maze with the intent of screwing over the players through sheer frustration. Entirely theoretically.
What kind of traps, monsters, and other such elements, would you suggest I incoorperate and why so as to make the entire experience as frustrating and grating for the poor saps subjected to it? Kinda like Tomb of Horrors, but less "Instantaneous Death" and more "Prolonged Torment, that, since you've still got a chance, it might take you a while to say 'I Give Up!'"
Entirely hypothetical, honest.

See, the idea spawned from the idea of putting a trap of Maze inside of a maze...

Ban the spell: Find the Path? (Spell tells them exactly how to get to exit otherwise)

[Collin152]

Ban the spell: Find the Path? (Spell tells them exactly how to get to exit otherwise)

Oh, don't worry about that. Specific problematic spells including Teleport, Find the Path, Divination, Augury, and so on, are not going to be problems.

[The Deej]

Just the other night my party was in a maze-like area where all of the walls were reflective. As in light, sound, AND magic. I tried to shatter part of one wall but ended up shattering some of a party member's stash of alcohol.

And then there was the invisible basilisk (or something) that kept us busy for 3 hours. All we had to show for it afterwards was some expended healing and a petrified arcane monk.

P.S. - I hate getting power word stunned