Megaton

A tabletop wargame set in the Legend of Zelda universe.

Premise

Before the ascendancy of the one known as the Hero of Time, the lands knew nothing but war. The goddesses Din, Farore, and Nayru, in their creation of the world did not foresee the eternal strife that would occur between the races. Or perhaps they did. Nevertheless, eventually the warring lands were brought to heel by an ambitious leader named Gustav the Uniter. Thus came to be born the land of Hyrule.

The lands would remain united for the most part although occasional internal conflicts would occur, and the Kings of Hyrule could not exert their will fully upon the lands. Banditry and looting were well-known throughout the fringes in the kingdom. It was not however until the reign of Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule, however, that the kingdom would see its decline. In a fell act of treachery, an aspiring Gerudo vassal called Ganondorf performed a coup-de-état against the reigning king although the Princess and her guardian were nowhere to be found in the process. Although Hyrule fell after a few days, underground resistance continued to occur, supported by funding and training from the Goron and Zora kingdoms.

Over the years, Ganondorf would consolidate his reign over Hyrule Castle, practicing his magic and rooting out resistance cells, all while continuing to search for the remaining Triforce pieces. However, he found himself continually hounded by the elite warriors of the Zora and Goron kingdoms.

The Zora kingdom was first to fall. Calling upon the power of the Triforce, he engaged the Zora infantry in pitched battle to buy his sorcerers time to call upon the magic of death. The battle at its climax, everyone in Zora lake froze, although their princess had disappeared, whisked away by a masked interloper. The Goron Kingdom would fall next. Death Mountain was considered unassailable at the time, due to its impregnable mountain position as well as its being shielded by Kakariko village. Callously, Ganondorf sent his minions in a meat-grinder against the Kakariko, Gerudo warriors testing the defenses before he deployed his heavier infantry. Nevertheless, the archery of the Kakariko villagers and the bombs of the Gorons kept them at bay... (to be continued)

Faction List

• Hylians: Rank and-file spearblocks, with a smaller core of elite foot knights, archers, and ball-and-chain infantry. They have the Lore of Light as their magic, which bolsters courage, blinds enemies, etc.

• Kokiri Forest: A reclusive force of nature...people avoid this area for it being cursed...occasionally the Great Deku Tree may dispatch its Deku servitors into the wild war for unfathomable goals. They have rock-hard static shooting, due to the ability to entrench themselves in the ground, with decent secondary aerial harassment ability.

• Death Mountain Gorons: Lightning bruisers, all. They can roll around, and defeat enemies by their sheer impact. Their monopoly on bomb flowers gives them deadly close-range artillery support. They wield the Lore of Fire.

• Zoras: Expert swimmers all, and lithe and agile. They have expert martial artists, fin boomerangs, and the ability to summon Jabu-Jabu's avatar into combat. They wield the Lore of Water.

• The Shiekah. They still exist. These are the ninja faction. The Lore of Shadow lets them control undead, and manipulate the powers of darkness.

• The Gerudo: Our light cavalry faction, with decent close-ranged support in their Bandit leaders armed with dual scimitars. The Lore of Spirit is a mix of illusion and trickery.

• Mercenaries: Numerous other smaller groups, from Lizardmen Tribes (capable of taming Dodongos) to undead composers Sharp and Flat, may be available for hire.

• Twili: Versatile army. Can use any unit from another army as long as there's one Twilight Priest for every non-Twilight unit. Actual Twilight units are heavily-armored foot soldiers, priests, and living things turned into twilight beasts, mostly spiders, wolves, and other such. Possibly involves Majora somehow.

• Blins: The overwhelming barbarian horde faction, comprising 5 sub-races and various tamed beasts, but no caster units. They are Ganondorf's main henchmen in timelines where the Gerudo died out.

Game System (Under Construction)

Core attributes would be:

• Move: Movement determines how far you can move in inches per turn.
• Hearts: How much health you can take. Most models have 3 heart points. This it generally takes 3 hits to kill a model, but also that excess wounds are discarded unless a attack is able to otherwise carry over wounds (for instance, a spin attack). For every X number of wounds suffered, remove 1 model...this helps minimize bookkeeping.
• Skill: How trained you are with a certain weapon. This can vary between different weapon types (for instance, Goron Grenadiers may not be as effective equipped with Crossbows).
• Toughness: All damage removes hearts based on powers of 2. Each pt of defense divides the damage taken by that amount. Defense is on a power of 2, so 1, 2, 4, etc. If this reduces damage to less than a heart, then the wound is discarded.
• Defense: How hard it is to actually hit a unit in close combat. This involves rolling a D20 and adding the user's Skill to the result. If you beat the combined sum of Base, Shield, and Armor Defense values, then the target gets hit.
• Base Defense: This represents skill of dodging, mystical forcefield auras, or plot armor. Base defense can NEVER be taken away by any means.

• Armor Defense represents a tough carapace or suit of armor. Some weapons may have an armor-piercing value which reduces the maximum bonus one can gain from armor. Some particularly powerful attacks ignore armor outright.

• Shield Defense represents the target using a shield in order to block an attack. This is a generally versatile means to defend oneself, provided you're focused on one foe at a time. To represent this in-game, a unit can only get its shield defense from ranged attacks provided its not engaged in close-combat, and close combat attacks when engaged by one unit. If engaged by multiple units from multiple directions, the defending player must declare each turn which one to use the shield against and may not declare shield use against a unit which newly charges into a close combat. For example, if a unit of Hylian Knights is engaged by a units of Gerudo Thieves and a unit of Gerudo bladedancers, and a unit of Gerudo Light Lancers decides to charge them from the rear, the Hylian Knights could decide to use their shields against the Thieves or Bladedancers, but not the Lancers.

Races

Zora

Aquatic: May move up to double speed through water terrain.

Kill It With Fire: Fire-based attacks are treated as twice their damage rating against Zoras. This can help offset armor, or even in the case of area-effect spells, royally mess them up.

Winter Woes: Ice-based attacks inflict twice as much damage against Zoras. This is the ice version of Kill It With Fire!.

Move: 5

Defense 1

Heart Points: 3

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Gorons

Flameproof: Fire-based attacks do half as much damage to Gorons.

Rock And Rolling: A Goron unit may forfeit its turn to attempt to roll. It declares the direction of the rolling...at the end of the next turn, the Gorons move 12 inches forward, with anything in the way taking an automatic Attack 2 hit for every Goron in the unit. If the unit is able to use spikes, then the unit takes an Attack 4 hit for every Goron in the unit.

Move: 3
Defense 2
Toughness 4
Special rules:

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Deku

Kill It With Fire: Fire-based attacks are treated as twice their damage rating against Dekus.

Rooted: A Deku unit in forest terrain may elect to burrow itself into the ground. While in this terrain, the unit has defense 4 before terrain modifiers are taken into account.

Move: 3

Defense: 1

Heart Points: 2

See Also

• Hammerbro, a companion game set in the Mario universe.
• Legend of Zelda RPG, which is exactly what it sounds like.