5.0 Course of Play

General Rule

"Death Maze" consists of players performing specific actions in a strictly defined order. The goal is for the party to find and destroy the magical Black Gate.

Decisions about how characters behave during play may be made jointly by all the players, or, if agreed, each player may make decisions individually.

"Death Maze" is played in stages. Each stage is a block of actions the players must complete before moving on to the next stage. These actions must be performed in the order listed below:

A. Placing a New Segment

1. The party decides which way it will leave the segment it currently occupies, i.e. the direction it will go.
2. One player randomly draws a new maze segment (tile) from the container.
3. The new segment is placed next to the one the party is leaving, extending the path it chose.

The new segment must be placed so that it matches the segment being left, that is, a corridor must extend a corridor, and a doorway must connect to a doorway. When more than one valid placement is possible for such a segment, it's up to the players to decide how it is placed.

B. Searching for Traps

1. One player rolls 1K6 to check whether the door the party is about to pass through contains a trap. Searching for traps (rolling the die) only happens when the party wants to enter a room it hasn't visited before, or is leaving a room by a different way than it entered. So the party does not search for traps when moving through a corridor. The door contains a trap if a 1 is rolled.
2. Once a trap is found (a 1 was rolled), one character must be delegated to examine it. The delegated character must have the "traps" ability within the group, since only then can an attempt be made to disarm the found trap (see 7.0).
3. If the attempt to disarm the trap fails, or is not attempted at all, the trap is considered to have "gone off". Players must determine its type by rolling 1K6 and reading the result from table 7.1 "Traps".

C. Encountering a Monster

1. The party makes its move. This is done by placing its tile on the new segment. The next step is to check whether the new segment contains any monsters. One player rolls 1K6. An encounter with a monster occurs on a roll of:

   • a. 1, 2, or 3 if the new segment is a previously unexplored room,
   • b. 1 if the new segment is a stretch of corridor, or a room the party has already visited.

2. The party need not immediately engage the monster it has encountered. It may first attempt to negotiate or bribe its way past (see 8.0).

3. If attempts at negotiation or bribery fail, or are not made, combat begins. It consists of the following phases (actions):

   • a. party attack
   • b. monster attack
   • c. Black Gate attack
   • d. party reorganisation
   • e. monster group reorganisation

   These phases must be carried out in the order given.

4. Once a monster (or all the monsters making up an encountered group) is killed, the party has the right to take whatever treasure it possessed. Determine how much treasure, and of what kind, the monster had (see 14.0), then divide it among the party members.

5. If a monster is killed, the surviving party members gain a set number of experience points (see 12.0).

D. Investigating Finds

Finds are things found by the party in rooms (only).

1. One character is delegated to investigate the find.
2. The investigating character (player) rolls 1K6. The exact name of what was found is read from table 13.9 "Finds", from the column matching its type.
3. All effects tied to that find are then applied.

All the actions listed in points A through D together make up one stage of the game. Once they're completed, players proceed to the next stage, i.e. back to point A.