Originally posted by zanzibar
You\'d be making the death realm bigger than the land of the living....
Why not ... it is just another Realm like the one you are in when you\'re alive. Since our universe is considered to be infinite and I\'m guessing the PS universe is too I don\'t see why the death realm universe can\'t be friggin\' huge as well.
As for ways to make passing through this realm hard enough ...
I like the riddle suggestion but I also agree with what someone said. Not everyone is good at solving riddles, not in character and not out of character so it would be the same as letting people fight monsters. Only the strong/smart \'d get out. But why not let people choose how they want to reach the exit?
Smart people, or at least people who think they are can enter a maze of riddles. Here they will have to solve a riddle every time they pass through a door. The layout could be a big square divided into smaller square rooms, each room has two doors, except the exit room which has only one door and a teleporter to the exit of the Death Realm. The doors of the rooms change places and make a constantly changing maze. Every room would have its own riddle you need to answer before you can pass through the other door into the next room. If you answer wrong the doors change place. If you\'re lucky you\'re only a few rooms away from the exit if you\'re not you\'ll have to go through every room in the maze or more to reach it. Depending on the number of rooms and the difficulty of the riddles this maze can be made harder or easier to pass through.
Stealthy rogues can choose to pass through a battlefield of undead monsters. These will be large castle ruins where there is an ongoing battle between two very powerful monster races. Creatures constantly respawn on both sides and will usually engage eachother but also fight you if they notice you. Without timing your approach and taking advantage of the shadows or hidden passages when possible you\'ll surely be killed. To make it even harder the castle can also have loads of hidden traps around. The teleporter can change locations to several predetermined points in the castle so you never really know where you have to go.
Strong warriors can choose to enter a huge arena where they will have to take on several opponents. The arena is filled with monsters but not densely packed together so you can move through fighting them one at a time, the strenght will be a bit random but beyond the level of rats or clackers. They will constantly respawn and some of them will drop a crystal but most drop nothing. You need to collect a set number of crystals and set them in one of the teleportation pillars to activate it before you can get out of there.
Of course there is always still the long boring walk out of there but one of the three above choices should provide a quicker exit, at least usually.
To make getting out of the death realm by simply walking a bit harder you can add things like mazes, jumping platforms and climbing things, gigantic dark wastelands or huge stone forests in which you could easily get disoriented and lost.
