Including the Triforce in Your Game

The Triforce is the most powerful object in all the Zelda games. Carrying just a vestige of the power of Hyrule’s creator-goddesses, the Triforce is often sought by fated Heroes as a means to save Hyrule from the most dangerous foes and existential threats. Sometimes it is fragmented, its awesome power split into pieces to prevent its use by those with evil in their heart. Always coveted, rarely found – the Triforce is the ultimate magical item in any Zelda game.

Naturally, that means that some players really, really want to get their hands on it. It also means that some GMs will want to use it as a MacGuffin in their campaign.

Below, we take a look at a few ways you can include the Triforce in your campaign – in whole, or in part – and let your players realize the wildest wishes of Zelda gamers for decades.

Attuning to the Triforce

Once they possess a Fragment or Aspect of the Triforce (detailed below), a Hero may attune themselves to a single Fragment or Aspect of the Triforce over the course of an Extended Rest, effectively equipping it. Attuning to a Fragment or Aspect of the Triforce can only occur during an Extended Rest, and a Hero may only be attuned to one piece of the Triforce at a time (however large that piece is).

While a Hero is attuned to a Fragment or Aspect of the Triforce, that Fragment resides within that Hero’s soul. This prevents pickpockets or mere happenstance from separating Hero and Fragment. However, sufficiently powerful magic-users might be able to pull a Fragment of the Triforce out of a person by force (see further below).

When two people attuned to Fragments or Aspects of the Triforce enter close proximity to one another (within the same room), they’ll become aware of one another’s presence, and that they each carry some portion of the Triforce. Their piece of the Triforce will appear on the back of their hand, its golden light shining through skin and clothing.

Triforce Fragments

In both the original Legend of Zelda and in Wind Waker, a piece of the Triforce has been split into fragments. On their own, each Fragment doesn’t contain the awe-inspiring power that a full piece of the Triforce can bring to bear – making them little more than plot coupons.

For players of a tabletop RPG, however, a plot coupon isn’t terribly exciting. They’ll want to utilize the Triforce’s power in some way, however limited it is by being fragmented. And fortunately, we can grant that wish.

When a piece of the Triforce is cut up, it shatters into eight Fragments, just as in the original Legend of Zelda. In Reclaim the Wild, each of those eight Triforce Fragments is tied to a specific Trait from that Aspect of the Triforce. For instance, if you find a Fragment of the Triforce of Wisdom, then the Fragment is tied to some specific Wisdom Trait – such as Arcana, Perception, or Influence. This Trait is chosen when the piece of the Triforce is fragmented; the choice is permanent, and there can be no duplicates.

While attuned to a Fragment of the Triforce, a Hero gains a single-use Knack for that Fragment’s Trait, which is refreshed when next they take an Extended Rest. However, for those Traits that are rarely rolled and often referenced (such as Combat and Willpower, and possibly Fortitude and Discipline), your GM may decide that being attuned to that Fragment instead grants a single-use +3 bonus to one use of that Trait; as before, this use is refreshed when they next take an Extended Rest.

Sourcing Fragments

While it might be tempting to say “oh, Fragments of the Triforce should be at the bottom of a dungeon,” we encourage you to not do this for every Fragment. If your Heroes are tasked with rebuilding the entire Triforce, then that results in having to dive through twenty-four dungeons – which is a lot. Even just the eight Fragments for one Aspect would result in eight dungeons, which is still more than a campaign needs!

Instead, we recommend varying up how Fragments are sourced. Certainly, put some at the bottom of dungeons – it just feels right to explore a forgotten tomb, obtain a Magical Tool, use it to defeat a Boss, and walk away with a shining golden triangle.

But you can also have them already being held by others in your world, good or bad, using that Fragment’s power however they feel best. Perhaps a would-be bandit king is using the Triforce Fragment of Intimidation to bring other criminals into his gang; or a village farmer is using the Triforce Fragment of Nature to grow crops more effectively, keeping a village fed in the midst of a famine. Your Heroes may need to solve their problems, and then convince them to part with these tiny pieces of the Goddesses’ own power.

Aspect of the Triforce

In time, your Heroes might assemble sufficient Fragments to reform a full triangle, an Aspect, of the Triforce. Split into Power, Wisdom, and Courage, each Aspect is strongly associated with figures of Hylian legend, and with the Goddesses who created the world of Hyrule.

Much like Fragments, a Hero may attune to a whole Aspect of the Triforce. When attuned to an Aspect of the Triforce, the Hero gains a single-use Knack, that they may apply to any Trait check that falls within that Aspect. Unlike with individual Fragments, they may use this Knack once per encounter or scene – allowing them to potentially use it many times per day. (If using the single-use +3 bonus for certain Traits, that use remains valid – and shares the same ‘once per encounter or scene’ cooldown with other uses of that Aspect of the Triforce.)

Remember that there are only three Aspects to the Triforce, and a party of Heroes may number more than three – as such, we do not recommend dealing in full Aspects of the Triforce with larger parties, where some Heroes might be left out from wielding the Triforce’s power.

Using the Whole Triforce

Eventually, your Heroes might assemble the whole Triforce from Aspects or Fragments – or perhaps, after a wide gauntlet of trials and challenges, they win their way to the whole Triforce, awaiting them in a mythical, divine hiding place.

When the Heroes obtain the Triforce, they gain momentary access to the power of the Goddesses, and may each make a single wish. (For the sake of fairness – and to prevent any Tolkein-esque squabbling over who gets to touch it – this should apply to all the Heroes, even if they don’t all actually touch the Triforce.)

The Triforce will then make their wishes come true. However, the Triforce, despite its omnipotence, is not omniscient – and is not a perfect, infallible wish-granting engine.

Limitations on Triforce Wishes

First and foremost, the Triforce is not sentient – rather, its wish-granting is driven by what is held in the heart of whoever makes the wish. If the wisher is good and pure of heart, then so too will the Triforce be as it grants that wish; if the wisher is evil or duplicitous, then so too will the Triforce be. However, it is still bound to the wording of the wish, as interpreted by the wisher’s heart – so careful wording may avoid the worst of possible comeuppances.

(This is why it is generally considered a Bad Idea to simply use the Triforce to wish someone dead. While the Golden Power would certainly succeed, it might kill your chosen target in a way you do not like – with lots of collateral damage. It might fail to send their spirit to the afterlife, leaving them free to seek ghostly vengeance. Even if the wish came from a pure-hearted individual with no malice intended, it might even simply set them up to eventually die of natural causes.)

Further, the Triforce’s reality-rewriting power has its own limitations. It can change the world, alter peoples’ bodies, and even revive the dead – but it cannot rewrite history, or alter peoples’ minds. If someone wished themselves King of Hyrule, then the castle’s edifice would change to their liking, their portrait would hang in the halls, the old King would be left a pauper on the street… but everyone would remember how things were, and the Triforce would do little to guarantee the loyalty of the newfound king’s court (or army). Usurpers who use the Golden Power to grant their wish would do well to have other means of keeping what they’ve gotten.

(Some scholars theorize that this lack of temporal and mind-altering ability is somehow related to the triangular hole in the middle of the Triforce, and how the Triforce lacks representation from the mysterious Goddess of Time. Such theories are fun to discuss over tea and crumpets, but the truth might never be known – unless, of course, a scholar were to touch those shining relics themselves, and make a wish.)

Further, any one wish made by the Triforce can only affect a single world at a time, and the Triforce must be within that world (or reasonably near to it, metaphysically speaking) at the time with wish is made. For instance, wishing to “conquer everything” while standing in the Dark World might result in you gaining the allegiance of an unstoppable horde of mindlessly loyal undead soldiers, but only within the Dark World – your wish would not echo far enough to affect the Light World, the Twilight Realm, or other worlds beyond. If you wanted to then conquer the Light World in the same way, you’d need to somehow move the Triforce there – and not allow anyone else a chance to make a wish on it, of course. That said, nothing stops you from creating a whole new world with a wish, split from or copied off of whatever world you so happen to be standing in.

Finally, once someone has made a wish, they cannot make another wish upon the Triforce for a year and a day afterwards. However, that limitation only stops that individual from making a wish: anyone else who touches the Triforce can make a wish, no matter how little time has passed since the prior wish. This often leads to the current owner of the Triforce locking it away – typically in a grandly-appointed (but hard to reach and enter) temple, palace, or dungeon.

The Sacred Realm

Of special note is the Sacred Realm, unique in all the worlds that surround Hyrule. In some tales, this is what the Dark World once was – an idyllic paradise, with a permanent golden sunset in the sky. When the Goddesses left their creation behind, they departed from the center of the Sacred Realm – and there they left the Triforce, the symbol and last vestige of their power. There are only a rare few ways to enter it – such as the Temple of Time, or by using the blood of the royal family and the Sages.

The Sacred Realm, much like the Triforce it sometimes houses, is said to reflect a person’s heart. A good and pure person will see it for the paradise it truly is, while the wicked will see a dark and dreary world. If someone were to claim the Triforce while in this world, then everyone’s perception of it would change to match the holder of the Triforce’s – so if an evil person claims the Triforce within the Sacred Realm, everyone shall see it as a dark and dreadful place. This is often believed to be the origin of the Dark World.

After the Triforce

As the Triforce serves as the ultimate goal of so many Zelda games, we strongly suggest that you follow suit, and look to winding your game’s story up after the Heroes obtain the Triforce. There’s not many ways to escalate the stakes much further after that.

That said, it could be interesting to explore the consequences of whatever wishes your Heroes make upon the Triforce. Perhaps they turned out well, or poorly, or in ways wholly unintended and unpredictable. Perhaps one day, a new generation of Heroes would need to come and claim the Triforce’s power from them, to stop some new threat – or end the threat that the old Heroes and their wishes represent.

Or, perhaps your Heroes can deal with the consequences of now owning the Triforce, and how they need to protect it from others’ hands. Will they build a Castle and house it within its depths? Carve it up and scatter it, placing each Fragment at the bottom of a dungeon and installing a ferocious creature to guard it? Or will they place it back within the Sacred Land, and then sing powerful Magical Songs to seal it away? And, of course, will there be any other forces – evil, greedy, or even righteous! – who might seek to stop them, to claim the Triforce’s power before it escapes their potential grasp?

Finally, there is the question of destroying the Triforce (likely by wishing upon it to do so, as little else could damage this artifact of the world’s creation). This is the only sure-fire way to keep it out of evil hands… but it should not be undertaken lightly. As the Triforce contains a portion of the Goddesses’ power, destroying it is really destroying a part of all creation; in turn, all of creation itself might crumble away to nothingness, as seen in A Link Between Worlds. Further, it is akin to destroying a part of the Goddesses themselves – and they may not take kindly to such an affront. Perhaps it would even lure them back to the world, seeking to directly confront whoever would scorn them so.

Wrapping Up

Whatever your players do with the Triforce once they touch it, and whatever travails they’ve had in chasing, assembling, and defending it, they’ll have done what every Zelda player dreams of doing: having an adventure just like Link and Zelda, but with their own spin, brand-new twists, and the joy of adventuring with their friends. In the end, that is the promise of Reclaim the Wild; by introducing the Triforce, we – and, we hope, you – can help fulfill that promise in one more awesome way.