Words From Nora Blake

Legends of Hyrule

Vellum turns the stone tablet in the slot, and an ancient device clicks within. He smiles to Krii as the cobweb-draped door slides away with a stony groan. She steps forward, holding their torch aloft as they proceed deeper into the ruin…

You are adventurers in the fantastical world of Hyrule. Whatever your background, your heart longs all the same for the sweet open air of Hyrule Fields and the thrill of exploration in the ruins and catacombs of the world.

Creating a Legend

First, create your adventurer. Give them a name, a race, and a set of pronouns. The most common races are Hylians, Gerudo, Zoras, Gorons, and Rito. While Hylians and Gerudo are mostly human-like, the others have some special abilities: Zoras can breathe underwater, Gorons are unharmed by fire & lava, and Rito can fly.

Attributes

Your character has 3 Attributes: Courage, Power, and Wisdom. Courage represents your affinity for risky and bold actions, Power represents how forceful you can be, and Wisdom represents your cunning and mental consideration. Distribute 7 points between your Courage, Power, and Wisdom attributes. They should have a minimum of 1 point each and a maximum of 5.

Rolling the Dice

To accomplish a heroic deed, choose the appropriate Attribute and try to roll under that number on a d6. Which attribute applies to your roll depends on your approach to the situation. A head-on attack might use Power, but a well-placed shot or a sneaky backstab might use Courage or Wisdom. Talk with the GM about how you’re approaching the action in the fiction.

Teamwork

When you put your strength, ability, and skill into helping someone else, they may roll two dice and choose the lower of the two.

Skills

Skills make rolls easier. Subtract one point from your roll if you have a skill that applies to what you’re doing. When you make your character, choose two skills from the following list: Attack, Endure, Navigate, Seek, Assess.

Items

Lina drops down, landing with one hand on her sword. As she draws it, the blade flares to life, igniting with magic fire. She stands her ground as the Keese descend on her…

Equipment will also aid you in your adventures. For your starting gear, select one Mobility item and either one Combat item OR one Apparel item.

Combat Items:

  • Sword (Melee, One-Handed)
  • Hylian Shield (Armor, One-Handed)
  • Magic Rod (Ranged, One-Handed)
  • Boomerang (Ranged, One-Handed)
  • Bow (Ranged, Two-Handed)
  • Crossbow (Ranged, Two-Handed)

Mobility Items:

  • Glider (Vehicle, Two-Handed)
  • Hookshot (Vehicle, One-Handed)
  • Clawshots (Vehicle, Two-Handed)
  • Horse (Vehicle)
  • Boat (Vehicle)
  • Climbing Gloves (Vehicle, Cling, Two-Handed)

Apparel Items:

  • Rocfeather Cape (Vehicle, Hover)
  • Reinforced Tunic (Armor)
  • Zora Sash (Waterbreathing)
  • Goron Tunic (Heatproof)
  • Iron Boots (Stable)
  • Twili Medallion (Teleport)

Health

If you are injured, whether in battle or by misadventure, you’ll lose a point of health. You have three health, with one additional health per rank of Power. If you run out of health, you’re knocked out or otherwise removed from the scene. Health can be restored by fairies, found in dangerous or hard to find places, or potions, sold for exorbitant prices in shops.

Combat

It may not solve every problem, but sometimes there’s simply no other option available but to fight. For characters with low Power or who don’t have the attack and endure skills, this can be quite dangerous! Keep these rules in mind as you play.

A single good hit will fell your foe, but that doesn’t mean combat will be easy! An enemy with a shield will block your blows, and a large monster may even be immune to your strikes. Combat in Legends of Hyrule is about finding an enemy’s key weakness and exploiting it. Dodongos are only vulnerable from within, for example. Think of it more like a puzzle than a duel.

To this end, sometimes you need to work together to take down a particularly tough enemy. Remember that when you spend your turn in a fight helping another character or setting them up to succeed, they get to roll an additional die and select the lower of the two for their result.

Running the Game

This isn’t a game just about fighting monsters (though it can be). It’s about exploration and adventure. That’s why the players have to choose between a weapon and a cool magic item. They should not feel like a weapon, or even a character capable of violence, is required to play the game. Present them with grand challenges like royal tournaments, ancient ruins, and mountaintop expeditions. Make your own magic items for them to play around with. Give them puzzles to solve and environments to traverse and always a bit of danger. Just remember: there is more to Hyrule than moblins and stalfos!

Creating Quests

Gorun creeps forward, doing his best to keep his heavy stonelike footfalls from startling his target. The cucco doesn’t notice him until it’s too late, and his giant hands enclose the creature before it can fly away. Now, to deliver this precious cargo…

The following tables are designed as GM tools to help create quests. Just roll a ten sided die three times to build a fun quest! Of course, it’s easy to take these prompts and spin them out into more involved adventures. Add a twist by introducing a new hazard or obstacle when the players think they’ve got everything figured out!

Someone needs help!

  1. A cucco farmer
  2. A patrolling town guard
  3. A wayward Zora family
  4. A Gerudo merchant
  5. A young Goron child
  6. A bumbling shop owner
  7. A Rito bard
  8. An exhausted mailperson
  9. A grumpy Rito sailor
  10. A Goron mayor

They need something done!

  1. Retrieve a lost toy
  2. Defeat a group of bokoblins
  3. Find an exotic fruit
  4. Light a distant beacon
  5. Chop some firewood
  6. Escort some cows
  7. Scare away some keese
  8. Find a missing pet
  9. Escort the person across dangerous terrain
  10. Deliver a love letter

But they can’t do it themselves!

  1. The objective is atop a mountain
  2. A group of moblins just moved in
  3. Heavy rains make it hard to see
  4. There are ancient and dangerous ruins in the way
  5. You must cross a frozen river
  6. Hyrule Guards have quarantined the area
  7. The way to the objective is blocked by an unpersonable denizen
  8. The bridge is out
  9. It’s snowing and it shouldn’t be
  10. There’s a sleeping Hynox in the area

Of course you can also pick what you want from the lists if you don’t feel like rolling!

Creating Items

Each item has tags that tell you how they help you. If two items with the same tag would apply to the same roll, you receive both benefits. When making your own items, select 2 tags from the list. Pick a third for special item, and a fourth for truly impressive artifacts.

  • Armor: this item reduces the result of any Endure rolls by 1. This stacks with the effects of being trained in Endure. If you equip multiple items with this tag, its effect stacks with itself.
  • Ranged: attacks with this item can benefit from the Assess or Seek skills (but not both).
  • Melee: attacks with this item benefit from the Attack skill.
  • Vehicle: actions with this item benefit from the Navigate skill.
  • Two-Handed: this item requires two hands to use.
  • Waterbreathing: this item allows the wearer to breathe underwater.
  • Heatproof: this item gives the benefit of having the Endure skill against heat-based
    effects. If you already have the Endure skill, you receive double the benefit.
  • Stable: this item can make the wearer more surefooted and harder to displace.
  • Hover: this item allows the user to move above the ground just enough to avoid
    triggering traps or stepping into harmful substances.
  • Cling: this item allows the user to traverse walls and other vertical surfaces.
  • Teleport: this item allows the user (and only the user) to teleport, moving about two
    meters in any direction.