Dungeon Mastering

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Warning: Legends of Hyrule is still very unfinished and its content may radically change. In particular, there are plans to radically revision classes. Please download an offline copy of any page you may need. "Alt+Shift+P" can be used to make a printable PDF of any page. See also archives.
Player's Guide Character Creation the next level Classes champ, opportunist, researcher, sage, scion Species gerudo, goron, hylian, rito, zora anouki, deku, korok, twili, zonai Equipment armor, weapons, gear, tools, goods, services	System Reference Hyrulean Guidelines Using Ability Scores str, dex, con, int, wis, cha Time & Movement Environment Rest Combat Conditions Downtime Dungeon Mastering encounters, progression, treasure, variant rules	Compendium Languages Feats Fighting Styles Techniques Spellcasting spell list, spell gallery Creature Overview monsters, NPCs, other creatures Magic Item Overview item list, item gallery

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This page or section is incomplete, and will eventually be expanded with more information.

Some system-specific guidance for a DM can be found in Encounter Building, Progression, Treasure, Downtime, and Variant Rules. Of course, the entire bestiary is full of Hyrulean creatures for a DM to employ as well.
     While Legends of Hyrule has hundreds of pages full of monsters, treasure, and even geography—and the Zelda games themselves provides plenty of inspiration on top of that—the greatest DM relies on skills which cannot so easily be presented. Know your players, learn the rules or material you want to use, plan but improvise, keep the players at the center of the action, create credible threats and challenging conflict, reward investment but create unexpected twists, and more. What kernels of advice are most useful vary depending on your style and your group. The greatest asset you can ever have is personal experience and practice.
     Eventually there may be a full in-depth guide for DMing Hyrule specifically. In the meantime, there are countless resources available on how to be a great Dungeon Master for Dungeons & Dragons and other great tabletop adventure games.

Tips

• Focus on the players.
• Variety. (Don't repeat the same type of encounters.)
• Keep it moving. (This is why combat is group-based in LoH.)
• Learn to say yes. ("You can try." Can I use my swim speed to burrow?)
• It's a social gathering as much as a game. ("Don't forbid people from talking unless that talk is disruptive. This is why texting exists.")
• Have fun. (If you don't, the players probably won't either.)

Bend the Rules

Legends of Hyrule includes a Player's Guide. Never forget that every bit of text on this website, and in Dungeons & Dragons itself, is only a guide. It is your campaign. Most of the material assumes a very narrow set of circumstances which center around combat, but the world you create and portray need only follow the rules you decide.
     If a player slits the throat of a sleeping enemy, you needn't roll 1d4 damage—you can decide the enemy is slain then and there. If a player casts a fiery spell on a pile of unattended firewood, you needn't make an attack roll—you can simply decide the wood catches flame. Dice exist to provide a sense of risk and chance, to make every action with weight to it feel like a risk, but sometimes the best part of an adventure can be the one which forgoes dice entirely—at least for a moment.

Economics

Both The Legend of Zelda and Dungeons & Dragons do not simulate a realistic economy. These systems are built with the assumption that "adventuring" will be the most profitable use of a character's time and effort. While there is a variant rule for haggling, even this is an abstraction that doesn't reflect reality and isn't included in either Zelda or base-game D&D.
     Fundamental economic concepts—buy low and sell high, supply and demand, economics of scale, and more—are intentionally not realistic. If Hyrulean economics reflected reality, simple narrative elements like a timeskip of even a few days could be exploited for huge wealth. Commonplace supernatural abilities like fire bolt could be used for nearly infinite free energy, and swift travel with spells like teleport would absolutely shatter medieval-esque economies in the players' favor. It is for these reasons and more that prices are meant to be standardized wherever you go; that wood somehow costs the same in a village adjacent to a forest and in the depths of a desert devoid of trees for miles.
     Legends of Hyrule may have a functional economy if players are focused on adventuring and quests, but if strained it will not hold up to realistic standards.

Dungeons & Adventures

Some day Legends of Hyrule might include entire dungeon spreads or full adventure paths, but for now there are none. You can either build your own from scratch, adapt existing D&D paths to Hyrule, or come up with adventures based on Zelda canon. These few pieces of advice can help guide your choices.
     First, when designing or running your own Legend of Hyrule, it's best to remember on a fundamental level this still runs like a TTRPG and not a video game. Your players will often find a way around a locked door before they find a Small Key. Most dungeons in the Zelda series are designed for a single player with very limited options, where death is inconsequential. Needless to say, the dungeon should be designed very differently when there's a party with thieves' tools and spells like passwall, and many choices risks permanent death. If you want to replicate a canonical dungeon 1:1 in a tabletop RPG, nothing is stopping you, but just don't expect it to play out like it would in a video game. Arguably, the best tabletop puzzles have several different solutions.