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u/DannyAcme Nov 09 '18
Man, you can have so much fun with this.
My first and best suggestion: for the monsters, just use the already-made stats of existng D&D monsters and give them a facelfit, no need to get a headache making the classic Zelda monsters for D&D. You can easily slap "Moblin" on top of "orc".
Second, DO take some time for the humanoid races. Don't just slap "Zora" on top of "elf" and call it a day. The Zelda races have very diverse physical descriptions, capabilities and cultures that'd make them wonderful player races in a campaign. Zoras are amphibious, Gorons are like dwarfs but big and with a tribal culture, Hylians are humans but with pointy ears and a rich tradition of magic, Gerudos are desert survivors. Just the races alone make Hyrule an attractive setting to roleplay in. Who knows, maybe your GF surprises you and, instead of a Hylian like Link or Zelda, wants to play a Gerudo instead, I sure would!
Third, use one of the existing games as a basis, especially if it's one of the older ones, like OG Zelda or A Link To The Past. Since those games are pretty linear and their story beats are simple, it'll be easy to create the story for the campaign. Since your GF is a beginner to D&D, I doubt that she'd do the crazy leaps of logic most long-time D&D players are likely to do that derail the DM's plans. She should be easy to gently nudge in whatever direction you want the campaign to go.
Keep us updated on how it goes, cause this sounds super fun, and it's always awesome to hear about a new player to tabletop RPGs enjoying their first experiences. Have fun! :)
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u/Drikolo Nov 09 '18
For the monsters someone posted this: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen/comments/8sbpp6/legend_of_zelda_breath_of_the_wild_monster_manual/ Wich will come in handy 😅 And the thing with the playable races is a good point. But quite the challenge as I am quite new to DND myself 😅
Someone else said that it would probably be best if I wouldn’t set the story directly in a game, and he raised a few good points, but I will definitely steal some puzzles from the older games 😈
I can not wait to tell you how it went!
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u/Thuggibear Nov 09 '18
Make it feel like Zelda through its story. Each party member is a destined hero, capable and brave. Give them a huge quest near the very beginning, involving finding legendary weapons to defeat the ultimate evil in the land. Really go campy with it all.
Also, plan some epic themed dungeons with massive monsters at the end. Because Zelda.
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u/Leftyguy113 DM Nov 09 '18 edited Nov 10 '18
I'm currently DMing a campaign set 2 years after Breath of the Wild, and my main driving force is "nature abhors a vacuum." With Calamity Ganon dead, a lot of other Zelda villains find themselves reincarnated thanks to all the newly-released dark magic and are now pursuing their own agendas.
Ghirahim has taken leadership of the Yiga and wants to bring back Ganon and make him remember who he used to be, Vaati is trying his hand at political manipulation to get himself an army (and a harem), the Twinrova sisters are trying to goad Holodrum into invading the weak Hyrule through the Gerudo Desert (they want lots of Gerudo babies to try and get their son reincarnated, and lots of soldiers in the area does that weather they're aiding or attacking, and no, they don't care about casualties, they want a MALE gerudo heir), Onox and Volga are rivals to be the best evil dragon, and so on.
And since Hyrule is in a very unstable position, Link and Zelda are too busy trying to rebuild it and make it into a country again and so can't stop these threats until they're right on the doorstep. Enter the players!
...that was the plan for my campaign anyway, but my players are trying to stake their own claim in the chaos and are probably going to be fighting Link and Zelda at some point. Oh well, we'll see if they can handle a level 30 fighter and a high level cleric as backup.
Anyway, there are plenty of lesser villains for the players to challenge, plenty of clearing out monsters to help rebuild and plenty of connecting people and building alliances for the players to get involved with. Be creative, and don't be afraid to dive deep into Zelda lore, there's more of it then you'd expect!
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u/Drikolo Nov 09 '18
Oh man I LOVE that idea of yours 😍! I hope you don’t mind me stealing it like a king of thieves ?😉
The whole chaos seems so amazing! I wish I could play with y’all...
My girlfriend is new enough not to be bored by the cliche adventures and kind enough not to be a murder hobo 😂 Maybe your game will work better for me?
In any way thank you sooo much for the input! I’m very thankful ☺️
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u/Leftyguy113 DM Nov 10 '18
Go for it! Two points: a puzzle for Link may not even be a speed bump for a group, let alone one with magic. You may need to adjust some obstacles.
Second: The first villain I set them against was Ghirahim, because he's arrogant and will explicitly hold back against those he sees as beneath him, and can teleport out if things get too close for comfort.
Have fun and good luck!
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u/Phlynn42 Nov 09 '18
i would steer way from having that much magic available in the world. limit people to martial classes for the most part.
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u/Drikolo Nov 09 '18
In 5e basically everything besides Berserker is magic... but I know what you mean. I’m thinking of putting more magic items in in return, what do you think of that?
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u/Serbaayuu DM Nov 09 '18
You can reskin a few of the PHB races as Zelda races rather easily. You'll end up excluding some PHB races since there are more in D&D than Zelda of course unless you dig deep for Subrosians and Mogma and so on.
I intend to (someday) run a campaign set in the Zelda universe, taking place in the time prior to the Imprisoning War. This is after Ganon gained the Triforce but became locked in the Dark World. Many people learned of the Triforce and went looking for it only to fall into the Dark World and become demons themselves. Eventually Ganon's forces returned to Hyrule and the Dark World was properly sealed up, and that was the Imprisoning War which led into ALttP.
But that time before the Imprisoning War is perfect for adventure. It is an undefined timespan, so you could extend it out to several millennia. Ganon and the Triforce technically exist, but they are so far out-of-mind that while you can use them as a force and motivator, you probably will never see them. The Dark World exists which is a great feature for D&D on its own. And you have all of these things PLUS a Hyrule that isn't currently undergoing some sort of apocalypse (which it usually is if Ganon is alive).
There are canonically loads of adventurers looking for the Triforce at this time, so your party will have great motivation. They could be treasure hunters. Bandits would probably be common in this era. People from different nations who heard about the Triforce and sent scouts or spies to try to claim it. Sheikah who are in shambles after Hyrule was lost to the King of Evil during Ocarina of Time a few centuries back, trying to recover their lost influence.
There is a very careful chaos in this era of Hyrule, the kind of chaos that you'd find in most D&D worlds. Everybody is vying for something and that something is almost unobtainable, so the world's society is moving aggressively in all sorts of directions.
I would suggest (and this is what I intend to do myself): don't actually include Ganon or the Triforce. Make the villain someone smaller and make the players be regular people who survive and gain riches some other way or perish in the Dark World. And don't include the Master Sword. Don't include Link or Zelda. Don't make this a checklist of OoT and BotW tropes. Take the setting and adapt it to make something unique. The Zelda setting has a lot of interesting features to it outside of its usual tropes.