Shrinky Maze Runner – The Game

Shrinky Maze Runner was a hit at Forbidden Dish, an unrequited successful idea. It was especially popular for business groups to have their department outings at Forbidden Dish. Managers and department heads would often bundle a group of their employees that were considered bubble material as a perk for their attractive female employees. It was a win-win, with the female employees enjoying the thrilling opportunity to chase and eat their colleagues and it was a win for the business, a way of culling their workforce. Besides the scheduled sessions, impromptu matches would take place from time to time, once it had been deemed that enough people were willing to participate, both at the giant/giantess level and at the shrinky level. Sometimes, different small groups would mingle with others and agree to play a match, with one side getting to play the giants/giantesses and the others the shrinkies, then switching sides, with the survivors becoming the predators – these were typically the 5 minute quick play sessions, done to ensure enough players survived from the first game. The games were always refereed by FD staff, who occasionally participated, if necessary or requested.

As a benefit to volunteers and to assist in recruitment for games, a database was kept for player’s to receive ‘Frequent Runner Points’ – surviving players could use their points for all-you-can-eat buffets and drinks while as a shrinky, along with points going towards merchandise from the sundry store located near the foyer lounge. In an effort to make it an every-man-for-himself format, the number of points awarded was greater the lower the percentage of survivors. This had led to some cut-throat actions during gameplay. 

In addition, versions of ‘safe’ Shrinky Maze Runner games were possible for purchase. These involved the volunteers typically becoming captured instead of eaten, with fanny packs distributed to the giants and giantesses to place their captors in. Captured players would be resized later, with possible time delay due to the necessity of normal volunteers to be shrunk (a person could only be regrown back to normal size at the same time as a person was being shrunk, in order to use the volunteer’s body mass to regrow the Runner shrinky. The resizing resulted in additional substantial fees, of course. The caveat for this ‘safe’ type of game was that in the fine print of the legal waiver, it was indicated that even though Runner shrinkies were ‘expected’ to be captured, it was actually up to the capturing giant or giantess whether they wanted to show mercy or not.

For all games, especially the non-safe ones, as an incentive to capture or eat the most shrinkies, the giant/giantess participants with the most acquisitions was entitled to a free meal on the house as well as a ride on the Virtual Vore.

The Shrinky Maze arena was set up on the third floor, between the pool/spa area and the Virtual Vore ride. The Arena itself was not really a maze, though maze-like elements existed in small portions throughout. Rather, it was a rectangular 40 by 20 enclosure from within were small towers and structures, all interconnected in clear plastic-like material and see-thru, with buildings interconnected via bridges, slides, ziplines, tunnels and elevators, but some strategic parts had panels where shrinkies could hide and gather their wits or their breath, though generally they had to keep moving to avoid capture.

Importantly, there were also 3 teleporters within the maze – all interconnected – 2 of them were used to retreat to the back, in the far north and the far south. One was right in the center, out in the open, but not far away from a safe haven. The shrinky players were restricted to only using the teleporters once, so they had to choose wisely. Using them twice would result in termination, regardless of whether it was a ‘safe’ game or not.

Spread around the ‘arena’ were a handful of ‘safe havens’, where a shrinky could make it to ensure survival. Since the games were set to time limits (and these varied at either 5, 10 or 15 minute intervals, depending on what the parties agreed to), it was also possible for shrinkies to simply wait out and hide until the time expired. The downside of the latter was that Frequent-Runner points were only awarded to those shrinkies having reached a safe haven spot.

The image below shows the setup for the upcoming Shrinky Maze Runner game. Observers can watch from any side of the arena, though most typically watch from the side of the arena entrance so that they can keep an eye on the wall monitor as well for the instances when the camera zooms in on a particular shrinky.

***