Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: Mini Quest: Maze of the Man Bull

Mini Quest: Maze of the Man Bull by David Dudka is a role playing game supplement published by Survive RPG. This is an adventure aimed at the Dungeons & Dragons game, although no particular system is specified.

This is a two page adventure that is available for free from RPGNow.

It begins with an opening paragraph, which explains that the characters are hired to go to the island of Cretos to pay a ransom to the Merchant King Mirovan to free Ariadne. Instead of accepting the money, for which he claims he has no need, the king has the characters escorted into a maze, without their agreement, with the challenge that they will be freed and get Ariadne if they defeat the champion, a minotaur.

The maze itself is circular, and there are fifteen encounters in it, not just the minotaur at its centre. The characters will need to defeat the minotaur, but can have a number of other encounters on the way. Success will result in Ariadne’s freedom, but the maze is apparently cursed, so success is not all it could be.

The PDF lacks bookmarks and, at two pages, does not need them. Navigation is fine. The text maintains a two column format and is almost error-free. There are a number of custom black and white illustrations, as well as a map of the maze. Presentation is very good for a short supplement.

The adventure is clearly inspired by the Minotaur myth as can be determined from the various names. It can function as a simple side quest, although the GM will have to determine what level it is suitable for, as this isn’t given anywhere, which is inconvenient. If a GM wants to add more, they could design a follow on adventure aimed at lifting the curse; no suggestions are made regarding this though.

Perhaps the biggest problem might be actually running the maze. The maze itself is circular, which will make describing it for a map rather tricky, and showing characters the map, even with the labels removed, defeats the object of a maze.

Mini Quest: Maze of the Man Bull is a decent enough short adventure, even though it may have a few flaws, and it can be downloaded for free by clicking here.