The Legend of Zelda ALTTP in HeroQuest

[Davane]

I have been toying with Quest creation for HeroQuest, and decided to try my hand at creating some of the dungeons from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in HeroQuest. My ultimate aim, I think, is to try and make a quest book for the entire campaign, but I figured that I would try a test version of the Eastern Palace (technically the 2nd Dungeon in ALttP), since it's one of the easiest for me to remember by heart.

So here is, the Eastern Palace:



The Introduction:

QUEST #
The Eastern Palace
"You are to recover the Pendant of Courage from the Eastern Palace. It is a long dungeon full of dangerous monsters and cunning traps."

The Notes:

NOTES:

All portcullises cannot be opened without the Master Key.

Any Potions of Healing found in the Treasure Deck should be consumed immediately, and the card returned to the Treasure Deck.

A: This room and the adjacent corridors are a complex trap. Immediately place the Deep Pit traps on the positions marked D. There is no chance that the Heroes will fall into these Deep Pit Traps and may move over them freely.

At the start of Morcar's turn, roll 1 combat die if there are any Heroes in Room A or adjoining corridors.

On a Skull, roll 1 red die. If the result is odd, place a Rolling Boulder token on B, else place a Rolling Boulder token on C. On a Black Shield, place a Rolling Boulder token on both B and C, as well as on the spaces in front of them, to represent a Giant Rolling Boulder.

After placing any relevant Rolling Boulder tokens, you may move every Rolling Boulder token 3 spaces towards the deep pits at D. The Rolling Boulders can move through the open doors. When a Rolling Boulder token moves onto the deep pits at D, remove it from the board.

The Rolling Boulders block movement. If a Rolling Boulder lands on a Hero, the Hero takes 2 points of Body damage, which can be defended against as normal. If the Giant Rolling Boulder lands on a Hero, they instead take 5 points of Body damage, which can be defended against as normal.

E: This Door can only be opened from the other side.

F: This Treasure Chest contains a Dungeon Map. You may place all the doors on the board, but do not reveal the room contents of any room until the Heroes explore through the door.

G: This Treasure Chest contains a Compass. You may point out Room Q as being the Boss Room, and the objective of the Heroes quest.

H: Do not place the Skeletons on the board when you reveal the contents of the room.

The Fimir in this room each roll one extra combat die in Defence.

At the start of Morcar's turn, you may place the Skeletons in the room, as close to their marked positions as possible. The Skeletons move and fight as normal this turn.

Morcar may do this once every time the Heroes enter or pass through this room, and there are no Skeletons in this room.

The Treasure Chests cannot be opened without the Master Key. The chests contain two Longbows and two sets of Arrows.

I: The Death Mist may move 4 spaces per turn around this room. If the Death Mist passes through a Hero, the Hero must lose 1 Body Point. The Death Mist cannot move through each Hero or space more than once per turn.

The ONLY way the Heroes can leave the room through the south door is to search the room for Traps. When they do so, they will find a suspicious button, which if they choose to press, will open the door to the south.

J: This room is filled with magical darkness. The Heroes must roll 1 less die when moving, attacking, or defending.

The Death Mists may each move 4 spaces clockwise around the walls if this room. If the Death Mist passes through a Hero, the Hero must lose 1 Body Point. The Death mists cannot move through each Hero or space more than once per turn.

The Door to the south is locked, and cannot be opened until the have retrieved the Key from Room K.

K: This room is filled with magical darkness. The Heroes must roll 1 less die when moving, attacking, or defending.

The Treasure Chest contains a Key, which can open the south door in Room J.

L: Do not place the Skeletons in this room when you reveal the contents of this room.

At the start of Morcar's turn, you may place the Skeletons in the room, as close to their marked positions as possible. The Skeletons move and fight as normal this turn.

The Door to the north cannot be opened until all the Skeletons are defeated.

M: The Fimir in this room each roll 1 extra combat die in Defence.

The Death Mists will not move until ALL other creatures in the rooms marked M have been defeated. Once the final creature has been defeated, IMMEDIATELY move each Death Mist 4 spaces. The Death Mists may move freely between both rooms marked M, ignoring the walls between them. If a Death Mist passes through a Hero, the Hero must lose 1 Body Point. The Death mists cannot move through each Hero or space more than once per turn.

The Treasure Chest contains the Master Key.

The Door to the north of the room cannot be opened until all the creatures are defeated.

N: Immediately place all the Deep Pit Traps in this room when the contents are revealed. There is no chance that the Heroes will fall into these Deep Pit Traps, and the Heroes may move over them freely.

The ONLY way the Heroes can leave the room through the west doors is to search the room for Traps. When they do so, they will find a suspicious button, which if they choose to press, will open the doors to the west.

On Morcar's Turn, you may place a number of Rolling Boulder tokens on the Deep Pit Traps of your choice whilst there is a Hero in this room. Roll one Combat Die: On a Skull, you may place 1 Rolling Boulder Token; On a White Shield, you may place two Rolling Boulder tokens; On a Black Shield, you may place three Rolling Boulder tokens.

After placing any relevant Rolling Boulder tokens, you may move every Rolling Boulder token 1 space towards the deep pit on the opposite side of the room. When a Rolling Boulder token moves onto a Deep Pits, remove it from the board.

The Rolling Boulders block movement. If a Rolling Boulder lands on a Hero, the Hero takes 1 point of Body damage, which can be defended against as normal. The Rolling Boulders are magically enchanted to be able to move through each other, and multiple Rolling Boulders may occupy the same space.

O: When a Hero enters this Corridor, IMMEDIATELY move the Fimir in Room P one square into the corridor and attack any heroes they can reach. The Fimir may still move and attack normally during Morcar's turn from now on.

P: These Fimir in all have +1 Body Point and roll two extra combat die in defence.

These Treasure chests each contain 2 Potions of Healing.

Q: These rooms all count as a single 8x8 room.

The Chaos Warriors are a special "Boss" monster and attack as described below, using two different formations, which alternate until they are defeated. They each have +3 Body Points and roll two extra combat dice in defence. In addition, they defend using White Shields instead of Black Shields.

In the First Formation, the Chaos Warriors move 2 squares forwards, and attack any Hero they can reach. They will continue this formation on each of Morcar's turns until at least one Chaos Warrior reaches the wall. On the following turn, the Chaos Warriors will switch to the Second Formation.

In the Second Formation, roll 1 red die, and place each Chaos Warrior on a numbered space going clockwise from the number rolled. The Chaos Warrior will then attack any Hero they can reach. On following turns, the Chaos Warriors will each move to a numbered space clockwise before attacking, until they have returned to their original starting point. On the following turn, the Chaos Warriors will return to their starting locations as marked on the map.

If a Chaos Warrior enters a space with a Hero, the Hero will be moved to a free adjacent square before the Chaos Warrior makes an attack.

When there is only a single Chaos Warrior left, it will go Berserk. The Chaos Warrior will IMMEDIATELY move to the space of the nearest Hero, moving the Hero as required, before making a single attack against EVERY Hero it can reach. The Chaos Warrior will then repeat this during every Morcar's phase until defeated.

The Treasure Chests contain the Pendant of Courage and 1000 gold coins to be shared between the surviving Heroes.

And finally, the Wandering Monster:

Wandering Monster in this Quest: Goblin

[Davane]

There's a lot of notes there, so I figured I'd use a seperate post to cover them all, and some of the thinking behind them. I am expecting this to be a somewhat brutal quest, which may need some balancing.

All portcullises cannot be opened without the Master Key.

This is fairly straightforward, as the Legend of Zelda dungeons are renowned for requiring the Hero to find the Master Key to get to the boss, turning each dungeon into a puzzle as well as a monster fest.

Any Potions of Healing found in the Treasure Deck should be consumed immediately, and the card returned to the Treasure Deck.

I expect this dungeon to be extremely tough, and the Legend of Zelda games are renowned for having pots full of hearts to heal the Hero between rooms. I thought that this might be a good mechanic to simulate this, whilst keeping it still HeroQuest-like.

On Monsters: I have recreated some of the memorable rooms and encounters. So you have Skeletons representing Stalfos, and Fimir representing Eyegores. Goblins are the weakest creatures in the game and represent Gels, Zols, and other such critters.

The Chaos Warriors represent the Boss of the Dungeon - the fallen Knights of Hyrule. I wanted a more Zelda feel for these, whilst still keeping it HeroQuest like, hence the complex notes for the final room.

The Orcs and the Zombies are filler, as are many of the Goblins, so that there's plenty of combat, rather than a lot of empty rooms, because I didn't want a completely puzzle dungeon, and the Legend of Zelda is full of random monters scattered throughout the rooms.

The Death Mists represent Bubbles, a type of enemy that is all but invulnerable at this point in ALttP, and which are best avoided rather than attacked and defeated.

I chose Goblins as wandering monsters simply because they are the easiest creatures, and I didn't want wandering monsters distracting from the quest.

[Davane]

Now, on to the rooms themselves:

A: This room and the adjacent corridors are a complex trap. Immediately place the Deep Pit traps on the positions marked D. There is no chance that the Heroes will fall into these Deep Pit Traps and may move over them freely.

At the start of Morcar's turn, roll 1 combat die if there are any Heroes in Room A or adjoining corridors.

On a Skull, roll 1 red die. If the result is odd, place a Rolling Boulder token on B, else place a Rolling Boulder token on C. On a Black Shield, place a Rolling Boulder token on both B and C, as well as on the spaces in front of them, to represent a Giant Rolling Boulder.

After placing any relevant Rolling Boulder tokens, you may move every Rolling Boulder token 3 spaces towards the deep pits at D. The Rolling Boulders can move through the open doors. When a Rolling Boulder token moves onto the deep pits at D, remove it from the board.

The Rolling Boulders block movement. If a Rolling Boulder lands on a Hero, the Hero takes 2 points of Body damage, which can be defended against as normal. If the Giant Rolling Boulder lands on a Hero, they instead take 5 points of Body damage, which can be defended against as normal.

Room A and the adjacent corridors are a complex trap that is is signature obstacle in the Eastern Palace. The idea is that the Heroes need to run down a corridor that is continually throwing Rolling Boulders at them. In the Eastern Palace, you usually get alternating Rolling Boulders, with the occasional Giant Rolling Boulder (2x2) thrown in. The sides of Room A represent alcoves that the Heroes can hide in to avoid the Boulders.

E: This Door can only be opened from the other side.

A staple of the Legend of Zelda are one ways doors that force the Hero to take specific routes and solve puzzles before moving quickly back to progressing through the dungeon. In this case though, the aim of this side loop is to get the Dungeon Map, which actually sits on a Ledge that can only be entered from the north, so I opted for a one-way door to represent this.

F: This Treasure Chest contains a Dungeon Map. You may place all the doors on the board, but do not reveal the room contents of any room until the Heroes explore through the door.

G: This Treasure Chest contains a Compass. You may point out Room Q as being the Boss Room, and the objective of the Heroes quest.

A staple of the Legend of Zelda series is that you explore the dungeons to find six things: At the heart, you have the Boss and the Objective Treasure, which is quest related. In this case, the Objective Treasure is the Pendant of Courage. You will often also have to find a Dungeon Treasure, which is an item or artefact to increase your abilities in the game, and in the Eastern Palace, it is the Bow. Both the Boss and the Dungeon Treasure are often locked behind doors requiring the Master Key. In addition to these four objects, each dungeon will also have a Dungeon Map and a Compass.

The Dungeon Map simply allows you to see where you are and what rooms you have explored, but also reveals the locations of most rooms in the Dungeon. Some puzzles may revolve around using the Dungeon Map to discover certain points or unmarked rooms to progress, especially if the dungeon forms a recognisable shape. I figured revealing the doors, but not the contents, of all the rooms in the dungeon would achieve this quite well.

The Compass is often less useful, especially if you aren't a new player, because it's key purpose is to point out where you need to go to complete the dungeon. In this case, simply pointing out Room Q is enough to accomplish this, although you might want to consider placing some sort of BOSS token in the room as a reminder.

H: Do not place the Skeletons on the board when you reveal the contents of the room.

The Fimir in this room each roll one extra combat die in Defence.

At the start of Morcar's turn, you may place the Skeletons in the room, as close to their marked positions as possible. The Skeletons move and fight as normal this turn.

Morcar may do this once every time the Heroes enter or pass through this room, and there are no Skeletons in this room.

The Treasure Chests cannot be opened without the Master Key. The chests contain two Longbows and two sets of Arrows.

Room H is the treasure room. It's common in LoZ to have the Hero encounter the Dungeon Treasure locked in the dungeon before they find the Master Key. As mentioned, the Dungeon Treasure in the Eastern Palace is a Bow, allowing the Heroes to fire at range, and are useful for taking on tough monsters like the Eyegores.

The Dungeon Treasures refer to a couple of cards I made inspired by Carlos' Starter Pack, which can be found at http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=5483. The Longbow is a powerful ranged weapon (3 Combat Dice), and the Arrows can be used for a single Quest to provide an extra combat die when attacking with Shortbows or Longbows. The idea is that these Dungeon Treasures allow two Heroes to make ranged attacks of 4 combat dice against the Eyegores, and the Chaos Warriors.

In LoZ, common monsters tend to respawn between rooms, but I figured this might be a little overkill for the dungeon. However, I did want to have the Skeletons (Stalfos) respawn, simply so that this room has a combat when the Heroes return for their treasure.

The Skeletons (Stalfos) are also an example of another common trope in LoZ - the creature Ambush. In these cases, some or all of the creatures in the room aren't revealed until after the Hero has entered the room. This can thwart the idea of crowding around the door for crowd control, and is often a feature of Trap rooms where the Heroes are unable to progress until after defeating the creatures. Quite often, the creatures will activate only after ALL the Heroes have entered the room and the door seals behind them, but I haven't included examples of these in this dungeon.

Finally, in Room H, we have the two Eyegores, represented by the Fimirs. In the Eastern Palace, Eyegores wear armour that make them almost impossible to defeat without the Bow. I don't like making things impossible, but I am not adverse to making things tough. Hence the Fimir (Eyegores) here roll one additional combat die for defence, making them tough foes to defeat without the Longbow and Arrows. Later on, more advanced Fimir (Eyegores) roll two extra combat dice in defence, representing armour that makes them nearly invulnerable without the Longbows and Arrows.

[Davane]

More notes:

I: The Death Mist may move 4 spaces per turn around this room. If the Death Mist passes through a Hero, the Hero must lose 1 Body Point. The Death Mist cannot move through each Hero or space more than once per turn.

The ONLY way the Heroes can leave the room through the south door is to search the room for Traps. When they do so, they will find a suspicious button, which if they choose to press, will open the door to the south.

The Death Mists represent Bubbles, which are essentially impossible to kill at this point of the game. They are extremely dangerous, and the point is to avoid them, rather than killing them.

This room features another common trope of LoZ games, in which the Hero is required to enter a dangerous situation in order to find a means to open the door allowing them to escape and continue. Common mechanisms are to find buttons or switches that open the door. In these cases, the door isn't secret - it's just closed, so I thought that the Search for Traps option is the best for this type of situation.

J: This room is filled with magical darkness. The Heroes must roll 1 less die when moving, attacking, or defending.

The Death Mists may each move 4 spaces clockwise around the walls if this room. If the Death Mist passes through a Hero, the Hero must lose 1 Body Point. The Death mists cannot move through each Hero or space more than once per turn.

The Door to the south is locked, and cannot be opened until the have retrieved the Key from Room K.

K: This room is filled with magical darkness. The Heroes must roll 1 less die when moving, attacking, or defending.

The Treasure Chest contains a Key, which can open the south door in Room J.

The idea of needing keys to open doors is common in the LoZ, and aside from the Master Key, dungeons don't tend to be picky what keys open what doors, as long as they are from the same dungeon. Here, the Heroes are required to move through the Magical Darkness to find the Key in Room K before they can head south from Room J.

The Magical Darkness is yet another common trope, and the idea is that if you have the Lantern, which you will have to have gotten this far in the game, you have to explore rooms using low or limited vision, unless you find a Brazier to light the whole room. In the Eastern Palace, none of the rooms with Magical Darkness have Braziers to light, so the Heroes are required to grope around in the dark, with reduced speed and combat effectiveness.

In room J we also notice another trope regarding Bubbles. Some Bubbles move in set patterns, whilst others can move freely and randomly. It's also common to have multiple Bubbles in a room, increasing the number of deadly obstacles to avoid.

L: Do not place the Skeletons in this room when you reveal the contents of this room.

At the start of Morcar's turn, you may place the Skeletons in the room, as close to their marked positions as possible. The Skeletons move and fight as normal this turn.

The Door to the north cannot be opened until all the Skeletons are defeated.

This is an example of a creature ambush room, although it is not a trap room. Note that the Heroes are required to pass through this room to progress, and must defeat these Skeletons (Stalfos) to do so.

M: The Fimir in this room each roll 1 extra combat die in Defence.

The Death Mists will not move until ALL other creatures in the rooms marked M have been defeated. Once the final creature has been defeated, IMMEDIATELY move each Death Mist 4 spaces. The Death Mists may move freely between both rooms marked M, ignoring the walls between them. If a Death Mist passes through a Hero, the Hero must lose 1 Body Point. The Death mists cannot move through each Hero or space more than once per turn.

The Treasure Chest contains the Master Key.

The Door to the north of the room cannot be opened until all the creatures are defeated.

Here's the Master Key, the whole point of this loop around the dungeon before heading on to the Boss room.

It's worth noting that here's another pattern for Bubble movement - here the Death Mists (Bubbles) stay in place until AFTER the other creatures are defeated. In ALttP, the four Bubbles guarded a button that revealed the Chest with the Master Key in it. In this case, however, I have revealed the Chest, because the aim of the Heroes is to grab the Master Key (by searching for Treasure) and then flee the room.

The Death Mists move immediately after the Monsters are defeated, which is supposed to be quite the shock to the Heroes, although the players may have expected it. The purpose here is to give the Bubbles a chance to catch the Heroes unaware by acting immediately, and to allow them to disperse throughout the room before Morcar's next turn. This essentially opens the way for the Heroes to flee once they have the Master Key.

Note that it's not a requirement that the party has the Master Key to flee this room, but the portcullis in the upcoming room means that they may have to return to get it. Even if the Heroes backtrack to Room H, without the Master Key they cannot progress on to the Boss.

This means at least one hero will have to stay in the room with the Bubbles to search for Treasure for the Master Key to ultimately progress, and likely have to deal with the Bubbles. It's also worth noting that the first Hero to Search for Treasure will NOT be able to draw a Treasure Card, and therefore potentially find a Potion of Healing that they may well sorely need by now...

[Davane]

Final notes:

N: Immediately place all the Deep Pit Traps in this room when the contents are revealed. There is no chance that the Heroes will fall into these Deep Pit Traps, and the Heroes may move over them freely.

The ONLY way the Heroes can leave the room through the west doors is to search the room for Traps. When they do so, they will find a suspicious button, which if they choose to press, will open the doors to the west.

On Morcar's Turn, you may place a number of Rolling Boulder tokens on the Deep Pit Traps of your choice whilst there is a Hero in this room. Roll one Combat Die: On a Skull, you may place 1 Rolling Boulder Token; On a White Shield, you may place two Rolling Boulder tokens; On a Black Shield, you may place three Rolling Boulder tokens.

After placing any relevant Rolling Boulder tokens, you may move every Rolling Boulder token 1 space towards the deep pit on the opposite side of the room. When a Rolling Boulder token moves onto a Deep Pits, remove it from the board.

The Rolling Boulders block movement. If a Rolling Boulder lands on a Hero, the Hero takes 1 point of Body damage, which can be defended against as normal. The Rolling Boulders are magically enchanted to be able to move through each other, and multiple Rolling Boulders may occupy the same space.

This complex room is another signature room of the Eastern Palace. In this room, the Heroes must face Rolling Boulders coming at them from all directions, which can even be timed to move through or past each other. The size of the room in HQ is a bit small for this complex obstacle, but I think I achieved it successfully.

Because Morcar can choose where to place the Boulders, and that there's so many of them in so small a space, they only deal 1 Body Point of damage.

Another "find the button" room, at least one Hero will have to spend a turn exposed to the Boulders in the room.

And yes, if Morcar rolls a number of Black Shields, it's possible for the room to become filled with a LOT of Rolling Boulders moving in all directions, making it quite tricky to navigate a path through the room in one go.

O: When a Hero enters this Corridor, IMMEDIATELY move the Fimir in Room P one square into the corridor and attack any heroes they can reach. The Fimir may still move and attack normally during Morcar's turn from now on.

P: These Fimir in all have +1 Body Point and roll two extra combat die in defence.

These Treasure chests each contain 2 Potions of Healing.

Corridor O and Room P represent another complex obstacle. The three Eyegores (Fimir) in Room P are of the advanced kind that basically requires the Longbow and Arrows to defeat, with an extra Body Point and two extra combat dice to defence.

In ALttP, Eyegores are armoured statues that can only be attacked when awakened by moving close to them, and the advanced ones can only be defeated by the Bow. I thought that this might be a little complex for HQ, so instead they are just extremely tough.

However, at this point in the Eastern Palace, you encounter TWO advanced Eyegores before the door. When you approach, presumably with Bow ready, you can only shoot one Eyegore, but you awaken BOTH. I wanted something similar with this - in this case, moving into Corridor O causes the Eyegores (Fimir) to immediately advance and attack. A bit of a surprise if the Heroes aren't using the Longbow and Arrows, and think that they can just charge the Eyegores to defeat them.

Note that the four Potions of Healing in the chests is for healing the party before they take on the Boss of the dungeon. There's no NEED for the party to Search for Treasure in Room P after finding these, but depending upon how beat up they are, they might need to in the hopes of finding additional Potions of Healing before the boss.

Q: These rooms all count as a single 8x8 room.

The Chaos Warriors are a special "Boss" monster and attack as described below, using two different formations, which alternate until they are defeated. They each have +3 Body Points and roll two extra combat dice in defence. In addition, they defend using White Shields instead of Black Shields.

In the First Formation, the Chaos Warriors move 2 squares forwards, and attack any Hero they can reach. They will continue this formation on each of Morcar's turns until at least one Chaos Warrior reaches the wall. On the following turn, the Chaos Warriors will switch to the Second Formation.

In the Second Formation, roll 1 red die, and place each Chaos Warrior on a numbered space going clockwise from the number rolled. The Chaos Warrior will then attack any Hero they can reach. On following turns, the Chaos Warriors will each move to a numbered space clockwise before attacking, until they have returned to their original starting point. On the following turn, the Chaos Warriors will return to their starting locations as marked on the map.

If a Chaos Warrior enters a space with a Hero, the Hero will be moved to a free adjacent square before the Chaos Warrior makes an attack.

When there is only a single Chaos Warrior left, it will go Berserk. The Chaos Warrior will IMMEDIATELY move to the space of the nearest Hero, moving the Hero as required, before making a single attack against EVERY Hero it can reach. The Chaos Warrior will then repeat this during every Morcar's phase until defeated.

The Treasure Chests contain the Pendant of Courage and 1000 gold coins to be shared between the surviving Heroes.

This is the Boss, and typically the most complex monster in the dungeon. Many bosses are complex combats, and are often puzzle bosses fought in stages, rather than simply to be hacked to bits by the Hero. They may require using the Dungeon Treasure in specific ways. Mostly they are programmed to attack in set ways, and although this is a bit complex for HQ, as the key feature of LoZ, approaching this in any other style detracts from the point of converting LoZ to HQ in the first place.

The fallen Knights of Hyrule in the Eastern Palace is one of the easier Boss encounters, because it features a number of enemies moving in a set pattern, that can be pretty much hacked to death. The key to defeating them is to learn the pattern, so you can move out of their way, and either use the Bow to kill them or go toe to toe with some agility. They are, however, very tough, and facing six at once can be a daunting challenge.

The Knights have three distinct phases. They alternate between the first two, and only enter the third when only one Knight remains.

The first phase sees the Knights march forwards in formation, hopefully pushing the Heroes back. The second phase sees the Knights form a circle and then rotate as a whole. They alternate between these two phases, attacking any hero adjacent to them. Because they have set movements, they also push Heroes out of their way, usually into a position where they can then attack them.

When there's only a single Knight remaining, he goes into his third, Berserk phase. In this phase he actively chases nearby heroes, pouncing on them and pushing them aside, before attacking them and any other Heroes in reach. In ALttP, this final phase of the Knights of Hyrule would actually see the knight leap high above the room, before attempting to come down and land on the Hero, but I figured this might be a better and more dramatic approach to this concept.

It worth noting that the Knights of Hyrule are tough, even tougher than advanced Eyegores. Not only do they have +3 Body Points and roll two extra combat dice for defence, but they use White Shields instead of Black Shields, increasing their chances to defend from 1 in 6 per combat die to 1 in 3 per combat die.

All in all, this SHOULD be a climactic encounter for the dungeon, and go some way to presenting the feel of the Legend of Zelda gameplay without losing too much of that HQ feel.

I know it's long, but any feedback would be appreciated.

[cornixt]

This is very impressive, you've put a lot of work into it. Have you played it through yet? It seems like it would take a good 3-4 times longer to play.

[Davane]

Not had a chance to play it yet. More a proof of concept at this point.

I would hope that it takes about 2 to 3 times longer to play. It's fairly complex, but most of the tropes can be used in other scenarios, and as players get used to it, the faster they will be. I think, in general, if I were to carry this on as a campaign, the average quest/dungeon would be about 2 to 3 times longer than normal, to account for the scope of the dungeons in ALttP.

Note that I use a VTT, so these quests are designed with that in mind. I'm not limited to physical components.

The puzzle bosses alone should be extremely tanky, as most of them are resistant to simply hacking them to bits...

[Davane]

Here's the outline I am working with for Hyrule Castle. It's where the storyline begins, and represents an area that the Heroes are likely to explore several times throughout the game.

A: The Heroes start on the fours spaces marked by an X. A fallen Scout lies against the wall here. Anyone searching here will find a Shortsword and a Shield on the Man-at-Arms.

B: Anybody searching this room will find a Lantern and 25 gold coins in the chest.

C: These areas are the Castle Gardens. All of these rooms count as open areas.

D: These doors are the main gate into Hyrule Castle. They are locked and cannot be opened.

E: This room is the main foyer of Hyrule Castle.

F: The doors at the top of these stairs leads to the Throne Room. The Heroes have no reason to head this way until after they have rescued Princess Zelda.

G: These are the castle battlements. A Hero may leap off the battlements into the Castle Gardens. If they choose to do so, roll 1 combat die, and if the result is a Shield, they land awkwardly and their movement ends. If the result is a Black Shield, they also take a body point of damage from the fall.

H: These doors lead down into the dungeons of Castle Hyrule, where Princess Zelda is being held prisoner.

The Wandering Monster for this Quest is an Orc.

The aim of this first quest is for the Heroes to get to the doors marked H. This leads to Quest 2 - Hyrule Castle Dungeons. Once the Heroes have rescued Princess Zelda, they can return and head to the doors marked F. Morcar could have them move through this quest again, or could simply skip to Quest 3 - Escape to Sanctuary.

These three quests make up the least complex dungeon in ALttP, and therefore the most suitable for a straight HQ game. They can be bundled together as the Rescue of Princess Zelda.

The only things to note for this quest are the large open areas (C and E) which basically ignore the walls here, and the rules for jumping off of ledges (G). Ledge jumping is a common feature in ALttP, but HQ doesn't have much of a 3d nature. As such, I am only including it where it is either Thematic or neccessary. Morcar may have some fun here, as in these cases, walls are ledges and therefore affect movement, but not necessarily line of sight.

Also, I have not included Agahnim's Tower, which is also located through Hyrule Castle. It's a tower above the main entrance to Hyrule Castle, but I have opted to ignore it for now, as it's protected behind a magical barrier. As such, it can be assumed that this barrier includes an illusory element which will be covered in a later quest.

[Davane]

Here's what I have come up with for the Castle Dungeons. Note that I have included an optional ending, so that the party may be required to replay the previous quest as well, and lead Princess Zelda to the Throne Room.

Portcullises cannot be opened without the master key.

A: This door leads to Castle Hyrule (Doors H).

B: This Treasure Chest contains a Dungeon Map. You may place all the doors on the board, but do not reveal the room contents of any room until the Heroes explore through the door.

C: The Ledge can be seen from the room marked D. A Hero may leap off the Ledge from C into the Room marked D. If they choose to do so, roll 1 combat die, and if the result is a Shield, they land awkwardly and their movement ends. If the result is a Black Shield, they also take a body point of damage from the fall.

E: The areas marked E are one big bottomless pit. If a Hero or Monster is standing next to the pit, they must roll at least one Shield (black or White) when defending, or be pushed back a space into the pit. Monsters falling into the pit are killed automatically. Heroes automatically manage to catch themselves from falling to their doom, but still lose 1 Body Point from the fall. Heroes must spend their next movement climbing back up onto the CLOSEST unoccupied space where they fell.

F: All the doors from this room are locked shut, but open automatically when the Orc is killed.

G: The treasure chest contains a Boomerang.

Boomerang: This is a ranged throwing weapon that deals 1 Combat Die of damage. Instead of causing damage on Skulls, the Boomerang automatically stuns the Monster if at least one Shield is rolled (White or Black), and causes 1 Body Point of damage for every Black Shield rolled, which can be defended against normally.

H: This doorway leads down some stairs to doorway I.

I: This doorway leads up some stairs to doorway H.

J: These trapdoors lead to each other via some steps down. There's no risk in using these trapdoors.

K: This treasure chest contains two Potions of Healing that can restore 4 Body Points to a Hero.

L: This Chaos Warrior is the Master Jailor. He is armed with a Ball and Chain, which allows him to attack everyone in the room he is in. The Master Jailor will chase the Heroes through the open doors, but stop before the corridor leading to room K.

M: Anybody searching this room will find a Lantern and 25 gold coins in the chest.

Princess Zelda is held in this room. Use the Elf model, or the Chaos Sorcerer model if the Elf is in play. Princess Zelda has the same abilities as an Elf, but only has 4 BP and no spells. She is unequipped.

To rescue Princess Zelda, the player opening the Portcullis must lead her back through to the doors marked A to complete the quest. If you played the previous Quest in Hyrule Castle, you may require the party to lead Princess Zelda to the doors marked F in that quest instead to complete this quest.

Once the Portcullis is opened and Princess Zelda accompanies the party, all Orcs in this quest (and the previous quest if using the optional ending) return and must be defeated again. Monsters will ONLY target Princess Zelda with their attacks if they cannot reach a Hero to attack.

Wandering Monster: Orc.

The key mechanic of note here, besides respawning monsters once Princess Zelda is released as the alarm is set off, is the bottomless pits in the rooms marked E. These bottomless pits are deadly for Monsters, but if Link falls in, he loses some health and respawns nearby.

As such, I needed a way to push characters into the pit whilst fighting, as Link can knock Enemies into the pit, but they can also knock Link into the pit as well. Not to mention the possibility of simply walking into the pit. I thought that I could tie the chances to the Defence roll of the target.

The pits don't really mean much here - the Orcs don't have enough body points to withstand being hit and not killed anyway, but it's a bit of flavour that can add to the description of the death of the Orcs. In later dungeons, pit mechanics become just as important as ledge jumping mechanics, and there are even some creatures that can ONLY be defeated by pushing them into a pit. So it's probably best to get some practice with fighting by bottomless pits early on.

The bottomless pits don't kill Heroes - but they do lose 1 Body Point, and must use their next movement climbing up to the closest unoccupied square. This will generally be a space next to the pit, so it's entirely possible that they will fall in again.

Note that there is a ledge that can be used to lead Princess Zelda to safety without going back through the rooms marked E. Of course, the party may not realise this and have to face all the enemies in these rooms again. However, it's because of this ledge that I have provided the optional ending of leading Princess Zelda to the doors to the Throne Room in the previous quest, increasing the challenge because the Orcs in that quest respawn too. It's entirely possible that the Heroes forget about the doors leading to the throne room, and drag Princess Zelda around Hyrule Castle beating up Orcs. The stretch from the Dungeons to the Throne Room simply isn't enough to warrant including in a quest of it's own, so this is probably the best point to include it.

[Davane]

I am thinking the 1 x 2 board layout works best for most Zelda dungeons, and it's quite easy to break more complex dungeons down into separate quests if I can't squeeze them into the 1 x2 format.

I also notice that I am using a LOT of open areas, so it might be nice to create some unique room tiles for these rooms. This might be a good way to incorporate ledges, so you can see what's a wall and what's a ledge.

Tile creation is a little out of my depth, but if people like this quest, then maybe some people here could help out with creating tiles for unique rooms?