What is a game master? Simply put, a game master is someone who runs the game in which others are playing in. The game master runs the story, acts as NPCs and enemies, and helps determine the course of the game. There are a few things that game masters of Temples & Tektites will need to know in particular, since this is a fan game and there are no quest books to buy like other games. Quests in this game must be built from the ground up by a game master.

 

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Creating a Story

 

The first thing a game master will need to figure out is the story or plot of their game. The first question you as a game master must ask yourself is this: is this quest a one-off adventure, or do we want an episodic adventure. One-off adventures will last one play session, whereas campaign adventures can last much longer, and last multiple play sessions.

 

Here are some suggestions for one off stories:
-a village is attacked by monsters. the party must track them down to a hideout and save prisoners taken by them.

-an archeologist hires the party to help him travel to an ancient temple to uncover its secrets.

-a group of monsters have stolen from the Hyrulean sanctuary, you must retrieve the stolen item!

-a zora princess has gone missing, and the zora king is calling for heroes to find her

-a village has been bothered by a hulking beast and asks the party to hunt it down.

-a party is travelling and gets lost in the woods. How will they escape?

 

Hopefully these ideas help spark some of your own to create the perfect one-off adventures. Of course, you could always do a campaign as well. Here are some ideas for  longer campaign adventures:

-Play through the imprisoning war in the Defeated Timeline. Legends of the triforce have spread since Ganon was sealed by the seven sages. Since then people who have gone looking for the triforce have gone missing throughout Hyrule, and all over portals are opening and monsters are pouring through. Ganon in the dark realm has begun his attack. While the knights of Hyrule battle these beasts on the fields of Hyrule, the king has tasked a party of adventurers to find and awaken seven new sages and bring them into the final battle to seal the sacred realm and stop the monsters.

 

-Set before the rise of the kingdom of Hyrule, there is an invasion of the surface lands. Shadowy beings have been popping up everywhere attempting to take over Hyrule and the sacred realm. Everywhere there is chaos, as the king of the shadows uses the fused shadow to cast darkness over the land. Taken as prisoners, the party hears a telepathic voice calling to them… “awaken the light” it calls. Knowing this voice is calling them to help stop the invasion, the party plans their escape, and goes on a quest to seek out “the light” the voice told them about.

 

-Set 100 years after breath of the wild, the kingdom is attacked by a Yiga enchanter, who seeks a way to destroy the master sword in order to aid in the calamity’s resurrection and casts a spell on the king and turns him into stone after he refuses to give her the information. The party must find 3 items called living stones to set him free. But will they return on time to free the king? Will the enchantress attack again and get the information she needs to destroy the master sword?

 

-Monster hordes have over taken Hyrule, and the land is near destruction. Not all hope is lost however; a mysterious tribe of tiny people called the picori have appeared giving a young boy a sword and a mysterious artifact to seal away the monsters. The king has ordered this boy journey with the help of the party to various fortresses where monsters have made their homes and defeat them.

 

Hopefully your imagination is being sparked, and ideas of stories are flooding your mind. Of course, when planning a story like this, you will need to figure out where the party will travel to, and what sort of events will occur in their quest. Also remember to plan for things that might go off script, since the players might have their own ideas about what will happen. Remember however you are the game master, and while you should be open to new ideas, ultimately you are the guide to the world of Temples & Tektites.

 

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Map

 

Creating a map of the world where the characters will live in is key. It will help you plot out the adventure, and you can use it to give players options of where they wish to go and routes they want to take. Make sure to try and plan villages for the players to visit, and spots where you want confrontations to occur.

 

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Towns

 

Towns are places where players can interact with many NPCs. They are also typically places where players can rest their characters. As the game master you will be acting as the NPCs. A good way to get players to interact with a town is to make a small map of the towns you will have as well. What sort of places will be in this village? Is there a black smith? Is there a potion shop? A milk bar? Does this town have a mayoral office? And who are the people living here? Are they shifty? Are they kind farmers or fishers? Are they perhaps an NPC with important information about your quest? Many events can happen in villages as well. Maybe the village is attacked. Maybe the village is having other problems (is a moon falling on it?). If you find villages are a little stale, and you are unsure of what could happen in the village, there is a simple system in place to help you as a game master to have interesting random events happen. Take 2 dice and roll them. the number you roll will cause one of these events to occur:
 

Roll a 2: A loud voice rings out in town- “Sale! We have a sale happening here!!!” An interesting travelling salesperson is in town

Roll a 3: As one of the members of the party wanders around town, they bump into an NPC… and then discover their wallet is missing.

Roll a 4: A group of thieves has kidnapped a member of your party, and are demanding a ransom

Roll a 5: A great boss monster attacks the town, and chaos ensues

Roll a 6: Somebody in town calls out “FIRE!”.

Roll a 7: A fight breaks out in a local milk bar or tavern

Roll an 8: The village is attacked by a horde of monsters

Roll a 9: The party has a chance encounter: A reoccurring enemy, a friend or a reoccurring character is run into. Perhaps there is a possibility for romance?

Roll a 10: Someone has made cuccos angry….

Roll an 11: A fierce storm has fallen over the town.

Roll a 12: An NPC is found crying in an alley, or on a street. They have been mugged, and the mugger is still around.

 

These events can be random, or you can just decide to do one of them without the dice roll. It can be more fun however when the rolls are random.

 

If a player tries to bargain or charm or trick an NPC or anything else where a dice roll may be needed, it is up to you, the game master, to determine what the player will need to beat with their dice roll. For example, if a character is trying to charm a merchant into giving them a better price for the wares, the player will roll two wisdom dice against a number you have decided on. If you think the NPC is easily convinced, make the roll needed lower, say a 3 or a 4. But if you think they are a stubborn person make it higher, say a 9 or a 10. This is what you need to do in all situations where there is no clear number or stat for the player to dice against.

 

When a player is looking to upgrade their character in town, either by visiting a black smith or a shop ect., a good rule of thumb is to not give the player a massive upgrade. The black smith or shop might give them weapons close to their own weapon’s damage rate. For example, if a character’s armor has a stat of 7, and they want an upgrade, giving them options in perhaps the 8-13 range. Of course you could always have the shop owner only have weaker items too! When shopping for potions, a good rule of thumb is this: making your own potions might have a stronger effect (especially if the player’s wisdom rolls are high). However, you can offer potions to players as a salesperson as well. Typically, if a player has bought a potion of whatever effect, roll a single die, and add 3 to the number rolled. This is how strong the effect of the potion will be.

When acting as an NPC it is very encouraged that you use voices when speaking for them. it just generally makes things more fun! Try to make the NPCs interesting. After all, in a world where Tingle is a thing, the people of Hyrule must be very interesting!

 

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Confrontations

 

As the players adventure through the world you have created they will come across various confrontations. These events will use the grid map (I will show you how to make one in a later post). Of course, when having a confrontation, it is important to have enemies for the players to fight! When choosing enemies for the players to fight against, be careful. You do not want to put an enemy that is too far out of their league that it will kill them in one blow! That is not fun for the players at all and is not as engaging for you as a game master. Look at your player’s character sheets, try to evaluate how strong they are (damage, shield, armor, action dice points, and then pick monsters and enemies accordingly.

 

Enemies in the bestiary all have their stats set the lowest possible setting for each enemy. There is a way to level them up however if you wish to use them at a stronger level. To level up your monsters simply add one dice to the monster’s courage, wisdom, and power rolls, and add 6 points to all their stats (shield armor and damage). Hearts and energy and speed (how many squares they can move per turn) however will remain the same for each enemy unit.

 

When engaged in a confrontation, the players will take turns doing what they can to defeat the enemies. Perhaps they try to build traps using special items. Perhaps they sit and watch first to see what the enemy is doing. Perhaps they wait till night fall when the enemy is sleeping and do a sneak attack. The possibilities are endless. This is all done on the player’s turn. When they are done their turns, it is the game master’s turn. The game master will then determine what the enemy does. How do they react? Does the enemy run in and just start attacking? Or do they try to be clever and hide and do stealth attacks themselves? How they act will be determined by you! After you have made your moves for all the enemy characters on the grid, your turn will be over. The players will begin their turn again.

 

When having a confrontation, it is good to find a way to keep track of certain things. For example, if a character or enemy has suffered from an ice effect, you might want to find a way as a game master to keep track of which characters have the effect and for how long (especially for effects that are turn based like ice or wind). If you are playing on a grid that can be dry erased, make small markings near the character effected and over the course of turns, erase the markings showing the effect is wearing off. You as a game master will also have to keep an account of how much health each enemy has and how much energy they have as well.

 

You will also need to figure out a terrain for the confrontation. Is there water nearby, are there hills that ca be climbed? How high are they? Is there maybe lava?

 

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Dungeons

 

Dungeons act as one large confrontation separated into various rooms. Of course, no dungeons are designed with this game yet. You as the game master must design them yourself. This can be a little bit complex, but it can also be quite fun!

 

First, when designing a dungeon, you will need a lay out, or a map. This is rather simple to do. Draw out a floor plan for the dungeon. Try to include lots of unique rooms and environments as well. maybe a stream of water flows through the middle of the dungeon. Maybe the dungeon has a second floor. Maybe it has trees growing in it.

 

Once you have a floor plan, consider the special items your player’s characters already have. Also consider what sort of special items you might have in the dungeon itself, waiting to be discovered. These will be important when you decide what sort of puzzles to include in the game. For example, if one of the players has a hook shot, there should be rooms with chasms that need a hook shot to get across. If a player has a lantern there should be rooms where a lantern is needed to see. If a player has power bracelets, there should be heavy statues and rocks around for them to move around. Don’t forget to have switches, torches, and various other Zeldaesque style puzzles as well. If you are needing inspiration, take a break from designing, and go play some Zelda! The games are full of interesting ideas for puzzles that you could incorporate into your dungeon design.

 

A good strategy for puzzles is to make them multi roomed. For example, say for a puzzle I have a floor switch in a room needed to open a door, but it won’t stick. Perhaps exploring elsewhere in the dungeon will reveal a statue I need to move onto the switch in another room! Or perhaps to get further, the player needs to find and light all the torches in a specific part of a dungeon. Another thing you can do to make puzzles more interesting is not giving all the details of the puzzle to the player. This will require you choosing a number within the range of the wisdom rolls of the players. Have them try to figure out the puzzle and when nothing works, get them to do a wisdom roll against a number you have decided upon. If the wisdom roll is successful. You can reveal more information about the puzzle. For example, a room might have a large dusty block in it that you need to move. When the player tries and fails to move it, they might ask for a perception check. If their wisdom roll is successful you can tell them “hey, that block is made of metal!”, which would help them to know to use the magnet gloves on it. Or perhaps a room seems like a dead end. If a player does a perception check, they might notice a tiny hole that a shrinking cap might help them fit through.

 

It may be a good idea, as the game master, to keep a separate sheet of dungeons with the puzzles listed on them that players won’t see. Players will discover more of the dungeon via playing on the grid.

 

When players travel through dungeons they may encounter strange vessels made of clay: in other words, a pot, or a vase. Or they could find barrels or boxes, depending on what you want to do. They may choose to break these items to find treasure inside. To determine what is inside a pot, roll one die:
 

Roll a 1: Player gets 5 arrows

Roll a 2: Player gets 2 bombs

Roll a 3: Player finds 5 rupees

Roll a 4: Player encounters bees, loose one heart.

Roll a 5: Player encounters fairy, gain one heart

Roll a 6: Player finds an energy potion, gain 2 energy points.

 

Also keep in mind enemies can be found in dungeons. The rules for confrontations apply here as well!

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Below is an example of what a dungeon might look like.