As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my blog pace here has slowed a bit because I'm blogging for the "big leagues" by making weekly blog entries on Paizo's front page! This has been a lot of fun for me, because I have very focused assignments but a lot of flexibility in how I approach them. I've done mini-encounters, new alchemical items, NPC write-ups, new downtime activities, and more! There are a total of 12 of these blogs, and about 8 (maybe?) have already been released. Near the end of January, I'll make a post here compiling the links, so it's easy to get to them all.

For now, though, I wanted to talk specifically about one of my blog posts, this one about mazes in your game. Pathfinder Second Edition makes "skill challenge"-type encounters very easy, with the different degrees of success, and I've applied this to navigating a maze. If you followed the Skaldwood Blight Adventure Path I wrote here on this blog about a year ago, you may recall that I had an earlier, simpler version of this maze system for the Descent into Wastingdeep adventure. So there are definitely sliding scales of complexity when you want to include a maze in your game. The only thing that doesn't work, really, is a top-down solve of the maze like a traditional RPG map--that's nearly always too tedious and immersion-breaking to have the players solve.

Mazes are such a classical element of fantasy stories that they really should have a place in the game; what form that is, though, should suit the table and the needs of the story. I hope my framework on the Paizo page is a good way for many people to approach this!

And finally, Happy New Year to all!