We’d like to begin this review of Mazes – Fantasy Roleplay, a fantasy role-playing game created by Chris O’Neil, by thanking Grumpybear. The physical copy of the manual provided to us allowed us to discover it and tell you about it. You can find it here for 9th Level Games on sale in English for $37.95 + shipping or $18.95 for the digital-only edition

Its creator defines it:

(…) An attempt to test oneself and capture the magical spark of that original fantasy role-playing experience.

Did he succeed in his intent? Let’s find out!

Mazes: Into the Labyrinth Review

A Maze is a story in which a character must face a series of linked trials to reach a truth or reward.In particular, in this game, scattered around the world there are numerous ruins of a previous civilization now buried. As in the best tradition of dungeon crawling, our adventurers will set out to discover immense treasures or dangerous paths. They will be guided by the Voice, or the deus ex machina (narrator) of this game.

We will find ourselves wandering through lands ravaged by wars so ancient that we no longer remember them. In these places, ignorance is almost totally the norm. The elves have left this world to return to their lands. Of the dwarves nothing remains except the magnificence of their underground constructions. In their place, goblins, beasts and monsters swarm the night. They crawl out of their lairs and make life hell for anyone who encounters them. Expectations do not seem at all on our side, in Maleterre.

But for a seasoned adventurer, every discovery about what happened centuries ago will bring him one step closer to his goal, be it knowledge or purely pecuniary.

Game Mechanics

In Mazes only the players will roll the dice and it will be necessary to have at least a d4, a d6, a D8 and a d10. During character creation, in fact, it will be possible to choose between four roles, each of which will always and only use one type of die for any roll. A fighter, for example, will have a d8 at his disposal.

We will then have three main types of evidence:

• Action Shooting: the main activity performed during the player’s turn.
• Saving Throw: the main activity when it is the Voice’s turn.
• Effect Shot: determines the impact of what the character did.

Any advantages and disadvantages brought by the situation will be added to our rolls. Obviously the results requested will be in line with the die rolled and we will have to try to obtain one of the target numbers listed on our character sheet.

In the manual we will also find a summary page of the possible resolutions based on the challenge we are facing, with the numbers to reach to be successful.

Keep markers (or, more commonly, a pen and paper) handy to track four key stats:

• Hearts: the vital force.
• Stars: the special power that a character possesses, which can be used to cast spells or perform particular actions.
• Treasure: the riches accumulated within our adventure.
• Darkness: the indicator of the level of danger that can grow and decrease within the game.

This game system is known as Polymorph. Are you ready to try it?

Mazes Review: Character Creation

Needless to say, you will have a much better chance of overcoming adversity if your group is made up of a mix of different roles. In this way, different skills and abilities will mix and compensate each other. The role indicates what we are best suited to, while the class indicates how we would like to do it.

We find four roles:

• Emblem(d4): He is a cerebral character, more inclined to communication than to combat.
• Avant-garde(d6): He is a jack of all trades who adapts to situations, whether there is fighting or reasoning involved.
• Fighter(d8): He is always in the front line during a battle. Indispensable to give his companions time to find a solution.
• Sentinel(d10): This is a purely defensive role. When it hits, its damage has greater effects, but it is more inconsistent in its successes than the fighter.

Instead, we will have 24 classes to choose from, to make our character deeper and more credible. Each page will give instructions on how to recruit the character into your group, motivations that might push him to want to join, any recommended names and what his basic inventory is. We could therefore opt for example for a dazzling occultist and deep connoisseur of magic, or a crafty mercenary, perhaps particularly superstitious and with swords that he considers his faithful helpers. Now all you have to do is download the sheets for your character here. The choice is yours!

Magic: the Domains

As for magic, we know that it contributed greatly to the downfall of the old world. Many deities and powerful sages fought for its control. Today, however, characters have access to this knowledge in different ways, but often the most interesting effect is that of being able to cast spells or having magical powers. In Mazes, casting spells consists of combining a Domain with a School.

The Domains are the five cores of force with which the world was created:

• Sky: Air mastery.
• Sea: Domain of water and ancient times.
• Earth: Domain of rocks and soil.
• Forge: Mastery of human passion, fire and heat.
• Night: Domination of darkness and entropy, but not of evil.

Each of them is opposed to a different Domain, but in turn controls another.. The Sky rules the Sea, the Sea sweeps the Forge, the Forge shatters and the Earth, the Earth encloses the Night and the Night swallows the Sky. This scheme will be to be kept well in mind depending on the obstacle we must overcome.

Magic: The Schools

The Schools instead define how magic is channeled. There are five of them

• Revelation: the use of magic to establish or conceal the truth of the senses.
• Evocation: the art of using magic to attract elemental forces.
• Convocation: deals with spells to call and control living and undead beings.
• Invocation: its task is to collect, channel and bind magical power.
• Enchantment: the act of pouring magical power into objects or creatures.

Under each of these Schools we will have a small table with the most used spells depending on the chosen Domain. Let’s take for example the School of Convocation: if our Domain is the Sky, we can summon birds and insects, for the Sea fish, and so on. The 31 pages of the Grimoire chapter will be a fundamental tool to rummage through to find the spell that can make the difference.

Mazes: The Perils Review

In Mazes, Dangers are represented by monsters, obstacles, challenges, etc.

They have two distinct characteristics: Hearts, which are the amount of damage you must achieve to overcome the challenge, and Damage, which is the effect given by that Danger in case of failure.

The Voice will have Darkness points at its disposal, which it can use to strengthen obstacles (for example, regenerating a monster’s hearts) or let them accumulate to create a negative situation next. Darkness is created each time the adventurers encounter danger, but it can increase if the group gets into even bigger trouble.

The Voice has several suggestions on how to use his Darkness or how to better define the obstacles that he will insert into his adventure. We also find a real collection of predefined dangers to make his task easier.

Mazes Review Conclusions

Mazes is a very well-made role-playing game, which leaves a lot of room for inventiveness regarding the setting, but guides the Voice a lot with versatile tables and obstacles already ready. It is no coincidence, for example, that we will find a chapter on how to ensure safety at the table, so as not to make any player feel uncomfortable about their experience, or the methodologies with which we could think of setting up our story. The roll of the dice limited to the characters only gives the group great power, partly mitigated by the possibility of the Voice to add power to the dangers encountered.

Manual presents itself as a real tome also in its dimensions. Its 320 pages, vaguely yellowed, reflect the setting. Illustrations of A. Shipwright, simple but with great impact and in shades of black and red, they do an excellent job as we immerse ourselves in a lost era that is eager to be discovered.

In the pages of the manual you will find many quotes from the greatest classics of fantasy literature and cinema, a sign that the author has a huge culture on the subject behind him. If you are nostalgic for the most famous fantasy stories, this is the product for you.

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