Paper maze relay — Printable Materials & Rules

Choose one shared route

Use the supplied eight-by-eight maze and give each team of two to four a pencil. Up to eight guests can run two separate teams. The printed S marks the starting cell at the upper left; F marks the finish at the lower right. Walls are solid black lines. A legal step crosses one open edge to an orthogonally adjacent cell. Diagonal movement and crossing walls are not allowed. The host keeps the separate solution page face down. This is a paper navigation relay, not a treasure hunt around the room.

Take short, equal turns

Choose a clockwise order and place the pencil at S. On a turn, extend the route from its current end by exactly one cell, then pass the pencil. Partners may discuss the route, but only the current player marks the page. Retracing one existing segment backward is a legal step and still uses that player’s turn. Keep retraced lines light so their overlap does not become a false wall. Put a small dot at the current end whenever the pencil changes hands, making its position clear to the next player.

Handle a dead end honestly

Suppose the team reaches a cell whose only open exit leads back where it came from. The current player takes that backward step and passes; the team continues reversing until it reaches a branch. Do not jump to a new branch or erase several turns at once. If somebody accidentally crosses a wall, undo only that last illegal segment before passing the pencil. No point is lost. If the line becomes difficult to follow, circle the actual endpoint and verbally confirm it together before any further move.

Finish as a team

A round ends when the route reaches F through an open edge. Trace it from S, checking every crossing and confirming that no solid wall was crossed. The host can use the answer page to find a missed wall or to offer a hint about the next branch; there is no need to match the answer’s drawing style. Agree a ten-minute stop before play and allow a shared assisted finish if time expires. The goal is cooperation, so this starter version does not award a prize to the fastest individual or eliminate someone for a wrong turn.

Use the printed pack

The player page contains only the unsolved maze and a turn record. The host page shows the complete checked route; do not distribute it to players accidentally. Print both at one hundred percent on the selected Letter or A4 paper, then separate the sheets. A participant may name up, down, left, or right while a partner draws the step. Teams wanting a quieter activity can point instead of speaking. The maze is a fixed supplied puzzle with a verified route, not a new randomly generated maze on every page load. Reprinting gives the same board, which is suitable for comparing different teams’ approaches.

Keep the answer from showing through

Place the answer sheet on a different pile or behind an opaque cover so players cannot read the dashed route through thin paper. A player may ask the host whether a particular crossing is open without seeing the whole solution. Record which branch needed help if the team wants to discuss its decisions after finishing. That record is optional and stays on the host’s paper.