Do you like mazes? Do you like drinking in pubs? If so, then I recommend getting a group of friends together and trying to solve a pub maze. It's basically a cross between a maze and a pub crawl, and is a great way to spend a day! The idea is that competitors split into teams to navigate between pubs in an attempt to drink as many different alcoholic beverages as possible.
Creating your own pub maze is easy! All you have to do is fill in the form below (up to 48 hours before you intend to start the maze), specifying the town/city where you'll be holding your pub maze and the names of seven pubs in that town/city. Each pub is associated with three drinks (a pint, a wine and a shot). You can choose these yourself or just go with the default drinks that are already listed.
Once you have created your maze, you will be redirected to a dedicated page where you can register teams and entrants to take part. Each entrant will then be able to log in to their own personalised maze view, where they can read the rules, view the map of the maze (revealed gradually as the maze progresses), record their moves, and keep track of team/individual scores.
Have fun!
Create your maze
Everyone will start the competition in the first pub listed, and their first drink will be the pint associated with this pub.
FAQs
Do I have to choose seven pubs?
Seven works out quite nicely in terms of maze complexity and the amount of drinking involved. If you want to organise a pub maze for a town with fewer than seven pubs in it, then I'd suggest using some pubs twice. You could even create a maze that contains only a single pub: just use the same pub name for each of the seven rows in the above table.
Which pubs should I choose?
The ones with the best beer! Having said that, you'll be moving between pubs quite often, so it's best to keep them reasonably close together.
How many people can take part?
As many as you like. Once you've created the maze, you'll be able to create some teams and register entrants to join those teams. You could even just register a single team and all go around as one big group.
How long will the maze take?
That depends on how much time you want to spend in each pub. I'd recommend giving yourself a full day, although you may be able to fit it into afternoon or evening if you're particularly fast drinkers!
Is there a time limit?
There's no particular time limit. However, your maze will only remain live for 48 hours after the last user interaction. After that, it'll be deleted.
Does each competitor need to have a smartphone?
For the best experience, I'd advise that everyone taking part brings a smartphone. However, this is not strictly necessary, as long as at least one member of each team has one.
Is anything else required?
I'd strongly recommend that each team carries a supply of stationery. It will be much easier to solve the maze by working it out on paper.
Where can I view the maze rules?
The rules will appear once the maze gets underway. For maximum enjoyment, I'd recommend saving them as a surprise until then.
Who will be the winner?
There are separate team and individual competitions. The winning team/individual will be the one that has accumulated the most points before giving up.
Do I have to drink to take part?
You'll be asked to consume a drink in each pub you visit. Failure to finish your drink means you'll be awarded an individual penalty point; half of all team members must finish their drinks to avoid a team penalty point. However, even those who drink very little can play a big part: the odd drink, consumed at the strategic time, can give the team's heavier drinkers a much-needed break – and even teetotallers will appreciate the challenge of solving the maze itself.
The important thing is that everyone has fun. Having a drink in every pub you visit will be a Herculean – nay, Oliver Reedian – feat. Rather than attempt this, I would advise pacing yourself and accepting the odd penalty point, here and there. Everyone is in the same boat and it's better to enjoy your day out rather than getting completely wasted.
Are all the mazes the same? Can I take part more than once?
The pub maze is randomly selected from a list of possible mazes, so it's very unlikely you'll end up with the same maze twice in succession. This means that you can experience the thrill of solving a pub maze as often as you like!