Legend of Zelda RPG

A homebrew produced by the collective efforts of the /tg/ community, aiming to put the characteristic elements of the Legend of Zelda video games into a pen-and-paper RPG format and hopefully do it better than the existing d20 Zelda ruleset.

As a work-in-progress, expect the contents of this page to change fairly frequently until the game nears a more finalized form, and please be understanding if something important is missing.

Please Note: Since this is a joint effort of the /tg/ community and is currently in an unfinished state, changes to this system should be proposed on /tg/ before being added to this wiki. It's always best to get community feedback to assess whether something is unbalanced or unnecessary, and we don't want this system to become a dysfunctional patchwork of rules added by individuals without any community review for quality and coherence with the system as a whole. The project's been pretty dormant for awhile, but that doesn't mean everyone's gone -- you should be able to catch at least one or two of the regular contributors if you post a thread, and who knows, maybe your suggestion might be the spark it takes to get things kicking again!

You can find the previous projecthere.

The Core Mechanic

D6 dice pool. To make a check, roll a number of 6-sided dice equal to the sum of your ranks in the relevant attribute and skill, plus any additional dice you may receive from racial bonuses or demonstrating a particular Virtue. Each die that comes up 4 or higher is a success; the more successes you get, the more impressive your performance. Particularly difficult tasks may require multiple successes to accomplish.

The Stats

Attributes

Attributes represent your character's general, basic abilities. Each Attribute has a minimum rank of 1 and a maximum rank of 5. A basic starting character has 2 ranks in each of two different attributes of their choice, and 1 rank in the rest.

• Strength represents your brawn and physical might.
• Agility represents your coordination and reflexes.
• Wits represents your cunning, intellect, knowledge, and perceptiveness.
• Mysticism represents your attunement to and ability to harness magical forces.
• Guts represents your determination, passion, and fortitude, both mental and physical.

Skills

Skills represent specific capabilities your character has learned through practice and training. Each skill starts at 0 and can be raised to a maximum rank of 5. A basic starting character has 2 ranks in each of two different skills of their choice, 1 rank in each of three additional skills of their choice, and no ranks in the rest.

• Melee
• Heavy
• Ranged
• Shields
• Spellcraft
• Instruments
• Tools
• Acrobatics
• Athletics
• Riding
• Stealth
• Perception
• Presence
• Survival
• Lore

Virtues

Virtues are a special stat, representing the three aspects of the Triforce. These aren't so much about what you do as how you do it. In order to add your rank in a Virtue to your dice pool, you have to do something in a way that demonstrates that Virtue. Virtues start at 0 and can be raised to a maximum of 3, but raising a Virtue is extremely difficult. A basic starting character has 1 rank in a single Virtue of their choice, and no ranks in the rest.

• Power
• Wisdom
• Courage

Hearts, Magic, and Stamina

Hearts function like hit points, with each heart being equivalent to 4 HP. Damage and health are measured in hearts or fractions thereof, using the shorthand terminology of #H or #♥ -- eg, 2H, ½♥, 1+1/2H, etc. When you run out of hearts, you are down, but not dead. A character whose hearts are depleted has one "Final Heart"; only if the Final Heart is depleted does the character die, and the vast majority of enemies will leave a downed character alone until more active threats are dealt with. Hearts can be recovered through enemy drops, foraging (cutting grass, breaking pots, etc.), extended rest, and healing items/magic (such as fairies, potions, healing spells, etc.).

Magic is used to power spells and magic items. Each such effect consumes a certain amount of magic power (MP), which is acquired in blocks of 4. Recovering MP requires magic jars (obtained through enemy drops or potions), extended rest, or potions (or a similar effect).

Stamina is mainly used to power special techniques, but is also needed for certain actions that any character can do (such as sprinting). Like MP, stamina is acquired in blocks of 4. Stamina can be recovered in combat by giving up your action and reaction for the round to rest (see below); doing this restores ??? stamina (we never really did settle on this, but then again it's probably not important at this point in time). Outside of combat, you can easily recover all your stamina with a short break of only a minute or so.

A basic starting character has 3 hearts, 3 blocks (12 points) of MP, and 3 blocks (12 points) of stamina, plus one additional unit of any one of these three.

Combat

When a fight starts, each combatant rolls for initiative with a dice pool of Agility + Wits to determine turn order. Turns go in order from most to least successes on the initiative roll. In the case of a tie, the one with the highest Agility goes first; if that doesn't break the tie, then the highest Wits; if that still doesn't break the tie, each party rolls a d6, with the higher roll going first.

Each turn, you can move a distance up to your speed (defined by your race, and possibly modified by items or other effects) and take one action. An action can be any number of things, such as attacking, using an item, moving up to your speed again -- anything that can reasonably be done in the span of a few seconds. You also get one reaction each round, which is used when it's not your turn to respond to an enemy's action (including actions directed at an ally rather than yourself); however, reactions can only be used for specific things, as described below. If you wish, you can give up your normal action for the turn to get an extra reaction to use before your next turn starts.

(I realize a more general system of 3 actions, spent as movement, actions, or reactions as you please, though with limitations on how many attacks you can take, is being seriously considered, but since this is supposed to be a summary of what's been decided by the group as a whole, I'm using the move/act/react setup here until we conclusively decide to change.)

Attacks and Damage

To make an attack, roll the appropriate dice pool for your weapon. For instance, a typical sword would use Strength + Melee, a Biggoron's sword would use Strength + Heavy, and a bow would use Agility + Ranged. If you make at least one success, your attack hits, and you deal an amount of damage defined by your weapon. Each additional success you score beyond the first increases the damage you deal by ¼♥ (for now, anyway -- eventually different weapons may have different kinds of effects for extra successes, but that can wait). A target that defends itself may cancel out some or all of your successes, as described below.

To attack with a Heavy weapon, you must give up either your move or your reaction for the round.

If you're using two weapons, you can make a second attack on your turn with your off-hand weapon, but you must give up either your move or your reaction to do so, and you take a -1 penalty to your dice pool for that attack.

If the target is wearing armor, the damage dealt by a successful attack is reduced by a certain number of hearts based on what kind of armor the target is wearing (see below).

Types of reactions

Defensive reactions: A reaction can be used to defend yourself in one of three ways. Regardless of which option you choose, each success you roll cancels one of the attacker's successes. If you roll at least as many successes for your defense as the attacker rolled for their attack, you've negated the attack completely. If you roll some successes, but not enough to negate the attack, you've managed to avoid some of the attack, mitigating it to an extent, but not quite all of it. If you roll no successes, you've failed utterly. Each defensive option has additional effects, as described below.

Block: If you have a shield, you can roll Guts + Shields to block an enemy attack. In addition to cancelling out the attacker's successes, as long as you roll at least one success you gain an armor bonus (in addition to any you may have from other sources), which further reduces the damage taken if you fail to negate the attack entirely. The magnitude of this bonus depends on what kind of shield you have.

Dodge: As long as you're not weighed down with a Heavy weapon or other bulky gear, you can attempt to leap, roll, or sidestep out of the way of an attack. To attempt a dodge, there must be an open space adjacent to your current position that isn't affected by the enemy's attack. A regular attack affects only the space you're currently in, but special attacks (like a Jump Attack or a Spin Attack) may affect additional spaces. Since a defensive reaction is used in response to a declared attack, you'll know which spaces are threatened and which (if any) are safe. To attempt to dodge, roll Agility + Acrobatics. In addition to cancelling out the attacker's successes, as long as you roll at least one success you move into an adjacent safe space of your choice. If you roll no successes, you failed to react in time (or you really goofed and zigged when you really should have zagged) and you don't move.

Parry: If you're using a Melee or Heavy weapon, you can use it to turn aside an enemy's Melee attack. A Heavy weapon is also capable of parrying an attack from another Heavy weapon, but Melee weapons are too small and flimsy to adequately accomplish this. To attempt a parry, roll Wits + your weapon skill - 1. If you roll more successes than the enemy does, not only do you negate the attack, but you manage to put the enemy in a disadvantageous position, giving you a +1 bonus to your dice pool the next time you attack that enemy, provided you make the attack before the enemy's next turn.

Counterattack: If you completely negate an enemy's attack with a defensive reaction, you can spend another reaction (obtained by trading your normal action or through some other source, such as an item or technique) to immediately attack that enemy with a weapon you have on hand. Since a counterattack takes advantage of the momentary opening created when an enemy fails to land an attack, the target can't use a reaction to defend against it; however, Heavy weapons are too unwieldy to use for such a quick response, and thus cannot be used to counterattack.

Prepare: If you suspect an enemy might try to do something in particular, and you have an idea of how to counter it, you can prepare a response to such an eventuality. To prepare a reaction, you must spend a reaction in advance and declare that you will do a certain thing when a given condition is met. For example, your prepared reaction might be, "if the Dodongo tries to breathe fire, I'll throw a bomb in its mouth". When the condition you prepared for is met, you can immediately take the action you prepared without spending a reaction (since your reaction was spent in advance when you declared the prepared reaction). If the condition isn't met before your next turn starts, your preparation is wasted. If you don't trust your Sage not to change what the enemies do to avoid triggering your prepared reaction, you can make a secret declaration by writing down the condition and what you plan to do, revealing it when the condition is met. You can prepare a reaction any time before the event triggering it happens, as long as you have a reaction available to spend for it.

Combat equipment stats

("Some stats for weapons, armor, and shields were proposed in thread #3, but frankly I'm not happy with the weapon stats at all -- the difference between a longsword (Melee; 1½H) and a megaton hammer (Heavy; 2H) is way too small for my tastes. I'm guessing That New Guy has his own (presumably more reasonable) weapon stats he's been using for his playtesting so far, so we'll see what he's been using first.

The armor and shield stats posted in that thread seem reasonable, though, so I'll put those here. (Though I did change the names of some of the armor for accuracy purposes.)")

Cloth Armor: -¼H Leather Armor: -½H Chain Mail: -1H Plated Mail: -1½H Full Plate: -2H

Small Shield: -¼H Medium Shield: -½H Large Shield: -1H Tower Shield: -1½H

External Links

• Source of info: http://www.zeldawiki.org/Main_Page
• Summary of thread contents up to Thread 10: http://www.mediafire.com/?xpboltmdiicta7z
• All current original art in one package: http://www.sendspace.com/file/xc0at7

• Thread 1
• Thread 2
• Thread 3
• Thread 4