Hey everyone, I've been toying with the idea of a Zelda sourcebook for a bit and have starting writing up a rough draft and have started adding numbers to some ideas I've had. My sister is also doing the illustrations for the book. I don't want to how anything just yet as its mostly placeholder numbers and stats, but i'd like to give a rough outline of what will be in the book.

This also gives me an opportunity to gain some insight into what the community would like to see, and also happy to credit anyone that inputs stats or ideas that make in in the final product (The main reason I chose Genesys as the system for this source book is because of the great community i see here, and i'd love it to be something that many people contribute to to make it great).

The supplement will also focus on BotW (Breath of the wild) era style of world. Which is high fantasy, with advanced ancient tech that focuses a lot on exploration in a world in the process of being rebuilt. Its a great world that avoids some of the slightly... i wouldnt say sillier but different stuff thats been in zelda in the past *cough* trains *cough*.

So the supplement will contain:

[ spoiler]

6 playable species, each with haveunique species abilities AND drawbacks:

Hylians - The 'humans' of the world.

Gorons - Brawny, large, heat resistant golems,

Zora - Aquatic fish like people, and the more i think about them they really are like the elves of the Zelda universe

Rito - A bird like humanoid species, fragile, but they have the ability to fly and are adept at archery

Gerudo - An all female, amazonian like species that resides in the desert. Tall, strong and lean, they make excellent warriors.

Sheika - Ninjas and scientists. That pretty much sums up the sheika.

A list of setting specific careers as well as SPECIES specific careers.

A generalized "Traveler" career available to all species that follows a slightly different character generation format (think lifepaths from torchbearer/burning wheel)

A comprehensive list of talents, which includes species and career specific talents.

Setting specific gear, adversaries/bestiary

New cooking/crafting system.

A section of the book detailing interesting locations and locales of Hyrule with a brief history on the society and cultures of various species.

Legends - A section of 'legendary' items, artifacts and locations that are statted out. they are for all intents and purposes 'game breaking; but are designed to be used as plot seeds for campaigns and quests.
[ /spoiler]

Is there anything people would like to specifically see?

You have my interest, and my kids. Do you think you will open up the shika slate Powers to everyone as a magic system? Or is that Shika species only? I would love to run something for my eldest and his friends so I’ll be eagerly following your progress

1 hour ago, Richardbuxton said:

You have my interest, and my kids. Do you think you will open up the shika slate Powers to everyone as a magic system? Or is that Shika species only? I would love to run something for my eldest and his friends so I’ll be eagerly following your progress

I've already added some numbers and toyed with this idea.

The sheika slate ITSELF seems like one of these legendary items that are quest worthy/campaign worthy.

But I have been bending the rules a bit and have been assigning sheika runes to specific, individual pieces of gear that function like magic (a stasis slate, magnesis slate etc).

Been toying around with augments and so far a lot like magic, but its tied to a seperate skill that deals with sheika technology. Nothing stops other species from using this techm but a certain sheika career gives a starting bonus to this skill.

I'd have to double check my lore for stuff, I'm under the impression Shieka is something a Hylian can become rather than one is born into. From what I recall of Breath of the Wild people identify Link as Hylian but he became a Shieka.

Or I'm 100% wrong and Link is a Hylian with access to Sheika tech/training/etc.

This is great. I literally started working on my own Zelda conversion a couple of weeks ago. I have most of the races and racial talents worked out. In addition to the races you've mention, I've also added Deku, Twili, Kokiri/Koroks/Kikwi in my conversion. I'm doing gear stats and location sourcebooks mostly at the moments while I still brainstorm on the magic system. I'm hoping the Alpha Corebook will be ready in 2 to 3 months.

One thing I've being trying to implement from a homebrew D6 Zelda version is the " Virtues " system. I think it would add a cool mechanic, but am still working out the kinks.

One thing that I would love to see is some sort of puzzle mechanic. I am terrible at coming up with puzzles, but they are classic staple to LoZ. If there was some way to represent a classic Zelda puzzle via GeneSys mechanic beyond a one or two skill checks, I would be a happy nerd.

54 minutes ago, kaosoe said:

One thing that I would love to see is some sort of puzzle mechanic. I am terrible at coming up with puzzles, but they are classic staple to LoZ. If there was some way to represent a classic Zelda puzzle via GeneSys mechanic beyond a one or two skill checks, I would be a happy nerd.

What about a Skill Challenge? Theme the challenge in different ways such as “this is a physical test

2 hours ago, kaosoe said:

One thing that I would love to see is some sort of puzzle mechanic. I am terrible at coming up with puzzles, but they are classic staple to LoZ. If there was some way to represent a classic Zelda puzzle via GeneSys mechanic beyond a one or two skill checks, I would be a happy nerd.

We do have the benefit of having 40 years of DnD puzzles and traps for inspiration. I've been going through a few dungeons in different games to get an idea of how to set things up and work out some example puzzles.

16 hours ago, ASCI Blue said:

I'd have to double check my lore for stuff, I'm under the impression Shieka is something a Hylian can become rather than one is born into. From what I recall of Breath of the Wild people identify Link as Hylian but he became a Shieka.

Or I'm 100% wrong and Link is a Hylian with access to Sheika tech/training/etc.

Oh the Sheila are definitely a 'race' in the Zelda world. Serveral Sheila across various games refer to the Sheila bloodline. And you can get into some massive theory crafting and even suggest that the Sheila are lorule versions of hylians (Sheila refered to as the shadows of hylians).

But lore wise they did hold a special role tied to the royal family so it's easy to see why you might think anyone could become one in the same way anyone may become a knight.

Reading up on the Sheikah, seems it's kinda like Sith, with vastly more emphasis on the race part. This is cool!

1 hour ago, ASCI Blue said:

Reading up on the Sheikah, seems it's kinda like Sith, with vastly more emphasis on the race part. This is cool!

That's a good way of seeing it.

I'm planning on having a Skill for Instruments as well. It would work under the magic category, and would give players access to things like warping, (limited)time travel and other things you see in the games.

You definitely need a wind waker. Definitely Magic.