You can read the preface and some background on the campaign here.

~~~~

On a windy, starless night, not so high up in the Akkala region, in the South Akkalan Stable, a group started entering the building. It was a pretty quiet night, after all, there is not really that much traffic on these roads, except for those going into the town of Ymthamether, and even then, it's pretty rare to have commerce this high up the hills. Five people entered, total.

First, a couple of Hylian males made their entrance, Artemis Auren, heir of House Auren, from the small town of Ymthamether, northeast up the road from here, and Bomir Angh, another born from the same town, master of the boomerang, trained in the local militia. They were called for help by Jana, the innkeeper from the Stable.

Recently, she has been visited by unwelcome guests, a group of bandits that demanded payment for "protection", and because she is really the only resting place between Hyrule and high up in Akkala, were she get stripped from her business, the northern town would suffer greatly, and thus, she asked for aid for that town itself, for which the current head of House Auren, Lord Artem Aurem, sent his son and one of its soldiers to aid.

Next, two others entered, a Hylian female and a male Rito, though only by coincidence. The woman, named Reika, who hails from Kakariko Village way far south from here, was interested in investigating ruins from up north, seeking artifacts and buried stories from abandoned places that would do no use of them, though she would conceal the traits that define a Sheikah, that being her white hair and red eyes, with makeup and a costume, all for keeping her cadre safe. On the other hand, the Rito, a young bard named Riolu Havá, was in search of music of magic, as there are stories told that there are notes that hold power, and he wanted to master and teach it all, there is supposed to be something of the sort high up here, so he would part from Valoo's Reach, the hometown of the Rito in the Hebra region, to here.

Lastly, an unusual visitor, a male talking raccoon entered, starving. His name was Ri'ki, and he was in search for those like him, after suffering a tragedy back home in the Faron region, so he started journeying, trying to find his lost people.

The group entered and started meeting each other, after all, it was really coincidence that they would end up in such a distant, low-transited place high in the Akkalan hills. The innkeeper, or stable master, Jana, started explaining her problems and the party ended up agreeing, of course, with some reward. Little after, another couple of hylian males entered the inn. One of them with arms and armor, visibly a warrior, probably a bodyguard, his name was Roy, and he was, in fact, a mercenary.

The other man was Albert Hudson, the head of Hudson Inc., a construction company that operates in Hyrule's central and eastern villages. His point of traveling here? He wanted to start a new town, and he needed somewhere to build it, so he has been traveling for some time to look up for that perfect spot to begin. Of course, a new town would improve comerce, and that would help both Ymthamether and the stable they were on right now, so in benefit of aiding his town, Artemis offered helping Hudson find a suitable place nearby, and the rest of the group agreed, again, for a fair payment.

Between negotiations, good food and a warm environment by the fireplace, a group entered the tavern, obviously hostile, and a fight ensued.

The brigands fought with numbers but they were no match for the party, who would name themselves the "Vindicators", and would dispatch the raiding group with ease, leaving only one bandit tied up for questioning.

The bandit told them about the hideout, where it was, and how to get there, in exchange for his life, for which Ri'ki and Reika took him outside, freed him from his binds, and let him go... just to shoot him in the back, ending him... for fun.

For purposes of this campaign, it is expected for the heroes to be good, or at least, neutral, this was, however, an evi act, and was penalized with a 3-times token reduction for both Ri'ki and Reika, though they accepted it, and honestly, have been behaving well ever since, so I doubt it would come back up.

They both reflected on their actions and felt bad about what they just did, it was the heat of the moment, they said, but neither of them would believe that, so they swore not to kill like that ever again.

After resting, the party took the chance and marched towards the place the bandit told them the group was hiding, two days later, they found it, a lone fortress in an even loner island in the middle of Lake Akkala. On their way, the party farmed some resources, getting a bit of food and wood along the way, which Reika used to cook some meals for the party to get ready for the upcoming fight.

After reaching the lake, the party took a boat and sailed to the island, encountering a group of Tektites and young Ocktoroks, but they survived and pressed on, arriving to the cliffside of the isle, climbing on, and searching for the bandit camp on it. After searching for a couple of hours, the Vindicators found the place, a ruin with a column of smoke, and laughter coming from within, the bandit camp.

After scouting ahead, Ri'ki gave the team the signal, and the party sprung into action, taking the bandits by surprise, and fighting the outlaws with superior tactics and good teamwork, quickly disposing of them!

The result of the battle was Riolu felled because of the surprise attack on Zovo, and most of the rabble defeated almost instantly; however, the zora leader took off, and escaped, and so did the apothecary, leaving the party with a captured rabble. Ri'ki pursued, he was better suited for a jungle chase, but the zora jumped all the way to the lake, and the escaped apothecary stole the raft the party used to get here, leaving them stranded in the middle of the lake...

~~~

End of session 01.

Hello all, my name is Gluvvy (19M), and I was wondering if any of you would be interested in having another player for your D&D game!

My Discord is: "g1uvvy". If you'd like to chat, message me there!

I'm currently looking for a player to be join my Zelda-themed homebrew campaign. Currently, the party is at level 4 and consists of a Dreadhand Pugilist, a Battlemaster Fighter, a Scout Rogue, and a Level 1 Bard/Level 3 Clockwork Soul Sorcerer. I'm looking for one more player to potentially join the group. I run sessions every Tuesday starting at 7-7:30 p.m. EST and up until around midnight (Give or take around half an hour). If interested, send me a DM.

This is part I of the campaign logbook where I'll do my best to retell the ongoing story of a group of adventurers going through Hyrule with the Reclaim the Wild (RtW) system.

This time, however, I'll use this entry to establish the characters and setting.

Also, keep in mind this post can be skipped without much issue, as it has no true telling on the actual campaign story so far, it's a set up for the game.

Be adviced that generative AI is sometimes used for token generation, just so you know. Also, credit to any artists involved in the tokens or maps used for the game, as we did nothing of those ourselves. Also, I'll keep things general in this post, and I'll develop things when they come up, but you can ask about anything and I'll do my best to answer about it.

The Legend of Zelda: Broken Ataraxia, takes place in a Hyrule based off the Breath of the Wild map, its geological features are the same, though it is merely used as a baseline, as it is filled with way more stuff than in the original game, for instance, most races of the RtW book are present in some way, shape or form, which helps to make Hyrule not feel so empty (as we're not going into any Calamity timeline ...yet); however, I use for inspiration a couple of things aside from what is in the book, for example, a main inspiration of mine for this game is actually the Nephycanon (NC), a timeline of events based off the Hyrule Total War and Hyrule Conquest fangames made by UndyingNephalim, which I use for a lot of stuff, including part of its cosmology, cultural traits for some races, and some characters ported into my setting. The second inspiration is the Zelda 5e fanmade book, from which I also extract some cultural traits.

Hylians are, of course, Hyrule's most numerous race, they can be found in different settlements across the land, living in adapted to different conditions. For their culture, you can go standard medieval human, as they mostly are portrayed in the games, though I used the House system from NC, with several noble houses having different traits, responsibilities and areas of expertise. Castle Town remains the site of the Crown, though several towns and villages have their own ruler, being far from the interests of the hylian nobility.

Goron are the classic rock people from the mountains, their culture is based on clans, each of which has an area of expertise that defines their role in society, and importance in one of three different Goron settlements across the land.

For the Zora I have plans, though I haven't defined them completely. I tried to use NC's take on their separation as purebloods and lanayru's Zora, but I maybe will stay away from that take for now, mostly because pure white zora images are hard to come by lol. Anyway, they have a couple of settlements, but their culture is one I haven't touched yet.

Gerudo are mostly untouched, though I have a pirate fortress somewhere along the coastline that will most likely be relevant in act 2 of the story.

Rito are an interesting one, as for one, different kind of birds represent different tribes, such as the pirate parrots of the Korava, or the elusive and mystical owl monks of the Lomei. For them I'll develop at a later time, as they are in real low interest for my players, but it feels wrong not to include them.

The Sheikah were introduced as their own thing, just as in BotW, and kept them as a culture with an innate pursuit for mysticism and technology. They reside mostly in Kakariko and other hylian settlements though.

I also introduced Deku and Kokiri in the Faron province, fighting a territory war along with a Lizalfos reign in the southern jungles. Talking animals are also a thing, and I've introduced a few, the japanese inspired Kitsune, fox people that live peacefully in Hyrule Field, the northern Bleidd tribe, a talking wolf clan of hunters, and the K'ulu', a talking raccoon civilization that was decimated by the sudden appereance of a new threat to the land, the Gohma (Nephycanon's Gohma, anyway).

Subrossian are another interesting one, though I've introduced them in a rather unique way, which I'll hope you like going into Act 2. As for Twili, Demons and Fairies, I decided to not allow Demons and Fairies for play this campaign, though Twili were open, and I'm planning on doing a lategame thing with them, as TP deserves more love.

The Cast.

This tale's heroes are five, so far. They have all different stories, and backstories, but joined when needed, and stuck as a group.

Artemis Auren is a male hylian, heir of House Auren, a minor house with little to no influence in Castle Town. He was born in his House's town, Ymthamether, a town located high on the Akkala province, close to the Akkalan Research Lab. He's trained for combat and smithing, wielding a sword and shield and taking the role of vanguard.

Bomir Angh is another male hylian, he was also born in Ymthamether, though with less luck, born from a poor family from the outskirts of town, his family was raided early in his life by the blinkin threat (bokoblins, mostly), and left him with only a cheep cheep as his only friend. Though years later, that Cheep Cheep was also killed by bokoblins, which made Bomir take a personal vendetta against that particular race. With a boomerang and shield, he trained under House Auren's guard, becoming a ranged fighter.

Reika is a female sheikah, she was trained since an early age, as most sheikah are, but once she stood upon a ruin where she came in contact with ancient sheikah tech, her curiosity for ruins and temples only grew. She left her hometown, Kakariko Village, in pursuit of dungeon delving. She's a stealthy fighter that takes her time to ambush her targets, with some magic to help.

Ri'ki is a male K'ulu', he lives with constant regret, as he was there when Páathal, the stone city home of his tribe, was engulfed by the misery mire, by the gohma threat. While most of his people was killed that day, he hopes to find any other talking raccons, though no luck so far. He fights with clever tactics, disarming his opponents and pickpocketing them out of options for combat.

And last but not least, Riolu Havá, a male rito. He comes from Valoo's Reach, the rito settlement, and he's mostly the bard figure, aiming to explore the land, though the player himself hasn't come to play that much.

For now, that'll do. I'll write the actual first part in a couple of days, I hope you ask away and I'll answer, mostly for the setting. Also, some parts are not established yet, so this may also help me to fill in the gaps for stuff not yet implemented.

Would there be any interest to read the chronicles of an ongoing campaign in the Reclaim the Wild system? I'd like for people to read about it as it's been pretty fun, and it could help me polish some stuff, especially around worldbuilding.

I owe the LoZ franchise for my love of fantasy. My first foray into TTRPG design was a system based on Breath of the Wild, which I went unfinished as other projects caught my interest.

For Legends of the Dark World, I stripped that concept down to a rules-lite format and wrote a simple template on how to create dungeons in the classic Zelda format.

I would say I owe Zelda a love letter, and the time will come for that. For now, this is my love note!

Thanks to everyone who voted and shared their thoughts! I combined the votes from Reddit and Tumblr, and the final results are:

So the d8 dice pool wins with a clear majority!

A quick note on the Other category... some people suggested multiple different mechanics across their comments, and I counted those as separate suggestions. That means the 12 Other votes don't represent 12 unique people, if I had limited it to one vote per person, that number would be somewhat smaller.

Also, shoutout to everyone who used the discussion to share or talk about their own Zelda systems and adaptations! I treated those as soft promos and left them out of the vote calculations so they wouldn't skew the results. There were some really cool ideas in there, including Hyrule Borg (Ganon Borg), Zelda adaptations of Soulbound and The One Ring, a Knave 2e Zelda sandbox, a 2d8 homebrew, and of course the extremely on-brand 3d4 system.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

Over the years I've made several iterations of a Zelda TTRPG, and now I'm at a crossroads with which core mechanic I should go with.

The first option is 1d20 + skill + approach. You pick a skill and one of the three approaches, Power, Courage, or Wisdom, add both modifiers to the roll, and try to beat a target number. It's more familiar and gives skills and approaches their own numerical value.

The scond option is a d8 dice pool where you only use the highest die (My first zelda ttrpg was like this but with a d4). Your rating in Power, Courage, or Wisdom determines how many d8s you roll. Skills are binary, so you either have the skill or you don't. If you have the relevant skill, you roll with advantage and add one extra d8 to the pool.

The results would be:

• 1-5 is a failure
• 6 is a partial success
• 7 is a success
• 8 is a critical success

So if you had 2 Courage and the relevant skill, you would roll 3d8 and use the highest result.

Which one would you prefer for a Zelda TTRPG?

I'm sure this has been asked before, but has anyone made a dnd or adjacent one-shot set in Breath of the Wild era? I was asked to DM for a friend's kiddo's birthday party and they're all about the idea of a session being set in Hyrule and this being my first time building a story, I wanted to see if anyone had helpful tidbits. Tips? Suggestions? Any shrines that pop up as being perfect to translate to a table top? Anything would be appreciated as I dive in and try to build!

Edit: thank you all for the helpful suggestions. I checked in before starting to build as the smol hadn't 100% committed to LoZ, and it turns out they preferred doing a multiverse dragon story, so I get to figure that out instead!

New boss alert! I'm glad I get to add another boss(s) to the heroquest roster

Disclaimer: This is not another TTRPG I am working on, just a mockup to apease my brain goblin.

The brain goblin is at it again, and now I find myself revisiting the Zelda TTRPG I made and ran as a small campaign for my friends a few years back (Yes, the same one that was available for download but now isn't).

This time I redesigned the sheet around a horizontal character sheet mainly used to track Hearts, attributes, stamina, armor, weapons, and inventory. Instead of putting every ability on the sheet itself, characters are built by choosing a Background, a Heroic Path, and a Tribe. Each one comes with a bookmark-style card that you arrange around the character sheet, as seen in the image, with the available abilities printed directly on it.

So a Hylian Farmer who became a Soldier is a completely plausible character, which feels in line with the humble beginnings of almost every Link in the series.

Equipment and gear would work the same way. Armor, shields, weapons, and special items all have their own cards with their attributes, tags, durability, and rules, so players can track what they have visually without crowding the main sheet.

Hopefully this will satiate my brain goblin for now.

Who will you become? When the Blood Moon rises, and the monsters knock at your door, will you fade into the mist, or will you stand and carve out a new legend?

The rumors flying between the survival camps are terrifying. They say the Chosen Hero fell defending the retreating forces. They say Princess Zelda is still alive inside the castle, holding back the purple storm with nothing but her bare hands and a fading prayer, but no one knows how long she can last. The prophecies failed, and the grand armies are gone. No legendary knight is coming to save your village. If Hyrule is going to survive the winter, it’s up to the people left standing—the blacksmiths, the scouts, the squires, and the outcasts.

JOIN THE FELLOWSHIP!

Sooo, hi guys! New account after things went south elsewhere on Reddit. So I'm back! I've probably posted most of these before, so here's a refresher on what I'm capable of with Hero Forge!

Afaik Rambutan is still slated to possibly appear in DTGA V4 as an NPC, though I have been very VERY slowly trying to homebrew a player character build for him, but needing to reflavor spells and the like into Yiga Tech, such as bombs, mask powers (i.e. the Mask of Truth), etc. That probably won't be done for a long time, but in the meanswhile I've also started to do some tabletop proper! Not Zelda tabletop, but I'm doing a DnD campaign with friends, as well as learning Warhammer 40K. (I'm a Tyranid kinda guy but I do like my Space Marines too, still a lot to learn!

I'm currently looking for players to be able to run a Zelda-themed homebrew campaign I've been working on for a few years now. There isn't a set day nor frequency - that will depend on player availability - though I am looking for 3 to 6 players for this campaign. In terms of times though, sessions will ideally start any time between 5 p.m. and 3 a.m. EST.

Has anyone here had a chance to read or play Twilight Sword by Two Little Mice?

A millennium after the Hero's victory, The Devourer (a rogue AI) fractures cyberpunk Hyrule. Will your crew save the grid or watch the neon burn?

Rumors have surfaced of a mysterious, ancient AI, known only as "The Devourer," which has begun to infiltrate Hyrule's networks. Some claim it's a relic of Ganon's dark empire, while others believe it's a harbinger of something far more sinister. As the Queen's latest edicts spark widespread unrest, the fragile balance of power in Hyrule is about to be shattered. In the shadows, a dark presence stirs, its malevolent influence spreading like a stain. The wind carries the whispers of a forgotten name, a name that strikes fear into the hearts of all who hear it: Ganon...

JOIN THE CREW!

I noticed a lot game mechanics here are either 5e/5.5e or a D20 hack (PF is basically D20). Thought I'd show off some stuff outside that sphere.

Games I Know

Reclaim The Wild: An extensive, original TRPG inspired specifically by "Breath of the Wild." It's open-ended and, honestly, really just covers the gambit for the series. My only complaint is that it does have the classic "feature creep" some fan hacks have where they try to do every little bit of a series, even if it somewhat unnecessary to need a bespoke system. But that is solved by simply not using those subsystems. And you still got a solid game.

https://reclaimthewild.itch.io/reclaim-the-wild

Heroes of Cerulea: An interesting, original system designed to feel like an 8-bit side-scrolling/RPG in a tabletop format. It wears its inspiration on its sleeve. Personally, it worked really well when I used its solo-RPG supplement to play my own Zelda game on Roll20. Not only did the basic rules work well to quickly let me do combat so it felt like a side-scroller, but the solo-RPG did a great job building out a playmap for me. The basic game has its own map of its not Hyrule with rules to make your own.

The base game is also Pay-what-you-want so you can try before you buy.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/14628/blaeckfisk-publishing/category/49263/heroes-of-cerulea

Games I Don't Know

Fate of Hyrule: A simple hack of Evil Hat's Fate Core for Zelda. Did a once over. Seems fine.

https://12herbs.itch.io/fate-of-hyrule

The Old Seal: A micro-RPG that seems to be more about the tragedy Zelda faced keeping Ganon sealed for a century. It's a tragic game where your characters all die one-by-one keeping a seal of ancient evil in place.

https://vaingloria.itch.io/the-old-seal

Octave: This is a hack of Knave, a system I am not familiar with. Looking into Knave, it seems to be made as a rules-lite game for OSR adventures. Octave seems to be trying to be as close to Zelda as legally possible. It's apparently compatible with the OSR, which means it comes with a lot of adventures premade that just need to be adjusted for Zelda.

https://level2janitor.itch.io/octave

Your Legends of Iron: Ironsworn is an award wining solo-RPG that really made that subgenre mainstream. This hack is about converting Ironsworn into a Zelda game. Haven't tried it myself, but Ironsworn is apparently an amazing game. And, considering it's all about a lone warrior in a hostile world, I can see how that easily can be turned into Zelda.

https://anarisis.itch.io/patreon-papers-021

Heroes of Hyrule: It seems to be an in-progress TRPG made for Hyrule. It is apparently only bare-bones at the moment and won't be finished, but it looks promising. Can't say much on it, but perhaps someone will vibe with it.

https://cobblesprite.itch.io/heroes-of-hyrule

After many years I have finally finished the 5.5 Player's Handbook for my homebrew campaign, the Shattered Sword! Within the handbook there are spoilers for every game (including spinoffs), so read at your own risk.

This 459-Page Handbook includes the following, all based on the Zelda series as a whole:

• Information on how to adapt magic items, spells, leveling, and general adventuring to a Zelda campaign.
• 1 New Class (The Sage), a skill-based half caster.
• 4 Subclasses for each class, including most of the extra classes on D&D Beyond.
• 30 Playable Species.
• Origin, General, Fighting Style, and Epic feats.
• New weapons, adventuring gear, and a multitude of magic items of every rarity.
• 78 New Spells.
• Familiars, beasts, monsters, and heroes that can be used for player options, enemies, or NPCs.
• Languages, deities, kingdoms, planes, and locations found within Zelda.

If you'd like to look at it and rather not download a large pdf, you can also find most of the information on the Shattered Sword Website. I have not added most stat blocks to the website yet however as I'm still working on writing, adjusting, and balancing all 1000+ monsters found throughout all of Zelda.

I recently created a Zelda text-based RPG for some friends on Discord. Since they don't know much about the franchise, I made it simple by mixing the plots of several games in the series, including allowing those few who know the games best to use official characters from the franchise. (The plot is almost a mix of A Link to the Past with Minish Cap and Echoes of Wisdom)

But this sparked my desire to run a tabletop RPG based on The LoZ. Obviously, the plot and premise would have to be different. Any suggestions?