I am our group’s usual DM, and my players want me to run a legend of Zelda campaign. Since only 2 people are doing it, they decided they want to be Link and Zelda. What storyline should I do? What level should they start at?
I’d greatly appreciate help!
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I would play breath of the wild and use what you like in that. Also try to home brew some monsters. I would look at the home brew page. Sounds like a hard challenge but go for it.
Is this something you want to do? DMing is too much work if you're just doing it to please your friends. If you're not into the idea, putting the campaign together is going to get old real fast.
That being said, I think you have a lot of options. You could go with the storyline of any of the games with the twist of "Zelda's there too," or you can just do a totally new adventure where the enemies, items, etc are all inspired from the games.
I would not recreate any single Zelda game shot-for-shot--if your players are fans, they will already have played the game and that would not be particularly fun for them. Instead, consider what makes a real Zelda game fun. I would distill most Zelda games down to the following elements:
1. You have a large overworld map with a lot of different areas to explore, usually populated by a number of fun towns full of amusing characters.
2. You have some sort of world-changing gimmick that must be used in order to advanced in the campaign. This could be time travel, like in Ocarina of Time or Oracle of Ages, changing the seasons like in Oracle of Seasons, moving to the Mirror World in Link to the Past, shrinking to a small size, like in the Minish Cap.
3. You have dungeons that are every bit about solving puzzles as they are about fighting monsters, and even the monsters themselves
4. As you unlock and find new equipment, more of the world is available to you. In some Zelda games, this can be very linear--you cannot get to dungeon three without first completing dungeon two, etc.--but that is not true of all of them. Link to the Past, for example, allows you to do many of the dungeons in whatever order you want, which lends itself better to a D&D campaign.
5. You have some sort of high stakes, world-defining quest, often focused around a BBEG (usually Ganon, but there have been others also) who wants to take over the world.
If you take those elements together, you can easily make a campaign that feels very much like other Zelda games, while still being a completely unique homebrew that players have not experienced. I would also note this is why you should not use Breath of the Wild as your sole inspiration--that game is missing so many of the above elements that it is hardly recognizable as an actual Zelda game.
I am our group’s usual DM, and my players want me to run a legend of Zelda campaign. Since only 2 people are doing it, they decided they want to be Link and Zelda. What storyline should I do? What level should they start at?
I’d greatly appreciate help!
I would play breath of the wild and use what you like in that. Also try to home brew some monsters. I would look at the home brew page. Sounds like a hard challenge but go for it.
I’ve played a ton of BoTW. You think I should use the same plot (starting on the great platuea, complete open world, etc.) with Zelda alongside Link?
Is this something you want to do? DMing is too much work if you're just doing it to please your friends. If you're not into the idea, putting the campaign together is going to get old real fast.
That being said, I think you have a lot of options. You could go with the storyline of any of the games with the twist of "Zelda's there too," or you can just do a totally new adventure where the enemies, items, etc are all inspired from the games.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I would not recreate any single Zelda game shot-for-shot--if your players are fans, they will already have played the game and that would not be particularly fun for them. Instead, consider what makes a real Zelda game fun. I would distill most Zelda games down to the following elements:
1. You have a large overworld map with a lot of different areas to explore, usually populated by a number of fun towns full of amusing characters.
2. You have some sort of world-changing gimmick that must be used in order to advanced in the campaign. This could be time travel, like in Ocarina of Time or Oracle of Ages, changing the seasons like in Oracle of Seasons, moving to the Mirror World in Link to the Past, shrinking to a small size, like in the Minish Cap.
3. You have dungeons that are every bit about solving puzzles as they are about fighting monsters, and even the monsters themselves
4. As you unlock and find new equipment, more of the world is available to you. In some Zelda games, this can be very linear--you cannot get to dungeon three without first completing dungeon two, etc.--but that is not true of all of them. Link to the Past, for example, allows you to do many of the dungeons in whatever order you want, which lends itself better to a D&D campaign.
5. You have some sort of high stakes, world-defining quest, often focused around a BBEG (usually Ganon, but there have been others also) who wants to take over the world.
If you take those elements together, you can easily make a campaign that feels very much like other Zelda games, while still being a completely unique homebrew that players have not experienced. I would also note this is why you should not use Breath of the Wild as your sole inspiration--that game is missing so many of the above elements that it is hardly recognizable as an actual Zelda game.
Thanks so much for the advice, everyone!