So... I devised a system that was bought up on here talking about the Spire of Quetzel.
When I originally made the system it was a thought experiment on how to create a maze for an RPG and have it be fun. It kind of fits for this when talking about particularly large places.
The system can be found here.
https://forum.frialigan.se/viewtopic.ph ... hilit=maze
In terms of time, and incorporating another thread of light, each roll traveling the inbetween paces can be a turn or half a turn, or whatever. Up to how big you want to make the place and how difficult traversing it you want it to be.
Thanks for the link — it's quite an interesting read. As far as I understand, the “traversal cycle" goes like this:
1. From the moment Party starts traversing the path, each PC is given an opportunity to roll a certain Skill (either predetermined by DM or chosen by Player).
2. Players continue rolling, one after another, until either they achieve the needed number or successes or their resources run completely dry. What would you do if they ran out of light? Plus, are there any particular consequences to failing those "navigation rolls" or is "wasting time and resources" kind of punishing enough?
1) I wouldn't have every player roll for each "cycle". I would have 1 player roll not dissimilar to the Lead the Way roll for map travel.
2) The resource depletion is dependent on the nature of the maze you are building. Getting lost in the woods is not the same as being lost in a sewer, is not the same as being lost in a city, is not the same as the classic minotaurs labyrinth.
In the classic minotaurs labyrinth, food and water are a concern. Sources of it in the maze will be rare. Light in the sewers is a problem where it isn't in the woods during the day. Getting lost isn't enough if it has no consequence. Resource depletion is one of the pressures that gives getting lost meaning.
Each cycle is a roll on the GMs table for events. Fights, wrong turns, traps and treasures. The players not reaching the next landmark is more risk of events. So rolling and getting no successes means not only did you make no progress but basically you stood still and had 2 events. And some of those events are/can be negative progress.