Tears of the Kingdom First Draft

It has been 3 months since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has been released. As expected, the game comes with many new ideas that build upon the base of Breath of the Wild.

Many people have asked about how I would implement TotK’s ideas into Reclaim the Wild, and this document serves as a quick and easy first draft. The contents may change as I improve upon them, and even include more complicated aspects. Some of these may even be implemented into the core book!

In addition to my contributions, I will attach links to other people’s homebrew – though I am the developer, I am never the final word on what’s used at your table. Some of the homebrew is on the Discord, so feel free to join the community.

Needless to say, spoilers abound for those who wish to experience TotK wholly by themselves. Click through at your own discretion.

Ultrahand

Ultrahand has two purposes in TotK: moving objects, and sticking them together in order to build.

The first purpose already exists in Reclaim, as Magnesis. As such, Ultrahand is quite simply a better version of Magnesis. Consequently, the below Spell and its derivative serve as upgrades on Magnesis.

New Spell: Ultrahand

6 tokens
Learn requirement: Magnesis
Cost: 8 Magic
Range: 1 target within 8 squares
Effect: This Spell works like Magnesis, except that it is not limited to metallic targets.

New Spell: Ultrahand Warrior

9 tokens
Learn requirement: Magnesis Warrior
Cost: 8 Magic (Bind)
Minor action
Effect: This Spell works like Magnesis Warrior, except that it is not limited to metallic weapons and items.

The second purpose is also already found in Reclaim, as the system found in the Rebuild the Wild expansion. While this may not be as fast and flexible as found in TotK, this system can work rather well for most purposes. Of course, there may eventually be expansions to the Rebuild material, whether as official or homebrew. However, do check out the Autobuild section below.

Recall

Recall reverses the movement of an object for a portion of time. When it comes to using Recall to access new areas, a Song feels most appropriate.

New Song: Rhapsody of Recall

Minor
When you play this song, select up to (Musical Power) objects that you can see within 10 squares and weigh no more than (Musical Power x 100) pounds each. Their movement is reversed for a time, moving up to 10 squares per round for up to a minute, until the object reaches its last position of rest. You can choose to have the object stop part way along its path instead of letting it reach its origin. During that minute, the objects are under a stasis effect that prevents them from being affected by anything else – in theory, a leaf could hold the weight of a goron using this Song. Once the minute is up, the objects return to normal – a boulder that fell from an island in the sky will fall once again, for instance.

When it comes to Recall’s combat uses, a Spell is more appropriate.

New Spell: Recall, Minor

3 Tokens
Cost: 4 Magic
Use requirement: An object within range moved since your last turn
Range: 8 Squares
Effect: The object moves back along the same path it took; if it is sufficiently deadly, the object may deal damage to those in the path. Use your To-Hit Roll versus Concentration to see if it hits. You can choose to have the object stop part way along its path instead of letting it reach its origin.
Once the object returns to its point of origin or is stopped partway, it will remain in stasis until the start of your next turn. Once the stasis ends, the object will act as normal.

Ascend

New Song: Aria of Ascension

Minor
When you play this song, you and up to (Musical Power) other people within Burst 3 will ascend directly upwards, up to 10 squares. If there is an obstruction in the way, a path will be opened to allow you to ascend through the obstruction, regardless of distance – however, you can only move through a single obstruction in this manner, even if there are squares remaining in the movement.
When you and the other people reach the top of your ascent, you have a choice: to either remain at the top (and thus fall if you have no means to Fly or Glide, or in the case of an obstruction, climb out of the floor, becoming Off-Balance), or to safely descend back to the ground.

Fuse

In TotK, Fuse combines Weapons and Items with other Weapons or objects and provides enhancements.

Put simply, this is already in Reclaim as the Enchanting crafting system. While not as varied in object use as Fuse, and certainly not as fast, this system otherwise provides plenty of improvements to weapons: you can improve their attack, accuracy, durability, add an Element, and many other ways.

As such, Fuse can instead be a way to Enchant something on the fly, especially during combat. However, it should only be taken by those who won’t bring the game to a stand-still by looking up which Enchants to take, whether they have the Materials, and actually changing the numbers involved.

New Spell: Enchanting Fuse

9 tokens
Learn requirement: Enchanting 3
Cost: 4 Magic per Enchantment rank, min 2 (Burn)
Effect: You can Enchant a single object within your reach, as if you were at a Forge, using Materials from your Pack or Overflow.

New Spell: Reinforcing Fuse

9 tokens
Learn requirement: Smithing 3
Cost: 4 Magic per Material rank, min 2 (Burn)
Effect: You can Repair a single object within your reach, as if you were at a Forge, using Materials from your Pack or Overflow. You must still otherwise follow the rules for Repairing Weapons (and Tools).

Autobuild

Autobuild’s benefits primarily reside in saving designs you create yourself for easier usage, in addition to the designs made available from Schematics. In this system at least, most Schematics are given by default – you have Amenities such as Wagons, as well as Weapons, Armor, Enchantments, and the like… although of course a GM is free to not let all these be known by default.

However, the building of Amenities and Buildings isn’t as granular as it is in TotK: you do not need to individually attach wheels, fans and the like to the body of a future vehicle. You simply decide what you want to build, use up the Materials, and describe the end result – mechanically, a 3-wheeled wagon isn’t much different than a 4-wheeled one.

New Spell: Autobuild Amenity

9 tokens
Learn requirement: Smithing or Mechanics 3, Ultrahand
Cost: 8 Magic per Amenity Rank, min 4 (Burn)
Range: An unoccupied area of appropriate size (see below)
1 Short Rest
Effect: You rapidly build an Amenity of your choice using Materials you have access to, as if you had access to a Forge. If the Amenity requires a Trait to build, you must fulfill the Trait requirements. If the Amenity doesn’t require a Trait, then you can only build an Amenity of up to Rank (base Mechanics or Smithing / 2, rounded down).

Schematics

On a general basis, Reclaim grants quite a wide amount of baseline crafting knowledge. Everyone, even those with a mere 1 Smithing, can create any Weapon, Armor, or Tool they want, as long as they have the means and Materials. This isn’t even limited to the core book: everyone can build an Amenity or Building from Rebuild, and the website has many expansions to Weapons and Tools that Heroes will know how to craft the moment the GM allows them to.

There is an exception, with Personalized Tools, such as the Witch’s Broom, Hookshot, and Sheikah Slate… with the cost of attaining the “schematics” through either tokens or as a Quest Reward. Following this philosophy, typically only unique things should have Schematics on par with the Personalized Tools mentioned above, or especially unique Amenities & Buildings.

Of course, this will depend on the philosophy of the GM and player buy-in: some would not mind requiring that PCs discover the means to craft exotic weapons such as whips, fans, and summoning gates, while the others would prefer not dealing with such busywork.

Schema can also be used to bend the rules – such as allowing the use of non-traditional materials with Weapons.

Purah Pad

The Purah Pad can simply be a refluffed Sheikah Slate from the website. Restrictions in Rune choices may be desired.

Zonai

The Zonai race is pivotal to the backstory of TotK, and so my knee-jerk suggestion of “use Talking Animal” is certainly far too glib. That said, I have no ideas right now! Feel free to check out the homebrew Zonai linked below, or in the Discord.

Zonaite

Given how TotK basically wiped away almost everything about the Ancient Sheikah other than what Purah’s repurposed, you can easily just replace the Ancient material with Zonaite and change nothing else.

However, if you desire to have both the Ancient Sheikah and Zonai be relevant at once, Zonaite can be considered a subtype of Gems, with the following change: Zonaite can transform into another Material of the same rank, except for Critters and Food.

Typically, Zonaite cannot be directly surveyed for, but if you successfully find Gem materials when surveying, make a Luck roll. On a 12, you find Zonaite instead.

Of course, a GM may designate certain areas as never containing Zonaite, so finding Gems in these areas will not allow that Luck roll. And other areas, such as Zonaite mines, can contain guaranteed Zonaite instead of other Gems.

Zonai Devices

Zonai Devices are quite varied, and in many ways can be represented as Tools.

Quite a few are redundant with the crafting system in place, where vehicles such as (Air, Land and Sea) Wagons and Brooms are created wholesale.

Here are a few Devices that already exist in Reclaim:

The Ballon device’s primary purpose (transporting people in the air) is already implemented into Air Wagons. The secondary purpose of lifting people and objects can be used by the Balloon miscellaneous tool, which is a consumable. Imperfect as the tool may be, this is the closest equivalent.

The Cannon is already in Reclaim as the Heavy Weapon from the Rebuild the Wild expansion.

I have a first draft of Carts that act as a miniature version of the Wagon. I’ve not been all that impressed with what I’ve come up with, so it’s stayed in draft form for over a year.

The Light is basically the Lantern and Torch.

The Cooking Vessel is simply the Portable Pot, but reusable.

The Sled can be found as a type of Surfing Tool… though Tools are more personal sized than anything related to vehicles.

Here is a version of the Spring, more intended as a stand-alone Tool than something to be added to constructions:

New Tool: Spring

(Metal)
When a creature or object touches a Spring, they are propelled (Rank + 1) squares in the direction the Spring is facing. This does not count against a creature’s Movement. When used deliberately, the Spring’s propelled squares can be added to a Jump, and the creature can change their landing position by up to 3 squares. When a creature is forced onto a Spring – such as by a Push effect – they will land Prone.

Weapons

Many racial weapon styles are better defined in TotK compared to BotW… but quite a few are already in Reclaim as is. Some aspects are better off split from being a weapon style to an enchantment.

For instance, Rito style adds wind blasts to weapon attacks; which perfectly matches the Windy enchantment.

In another instance, the Goron style is useful for harvesting Materials. The Reclaim system doesn’t consider non-combat aspects in creating weapons and weapon styles, so here is the “harvest Materials with your weapon” benefit in enchantment form:

New weapon enchantment: Harvester

Requires: Any Gem
Benefit: Your weapon loses 1 less Durability (min 0) when used to harvest Materials. In addition, you gain an (Enchantment’s Rank) bonus to the Harvesting roll.

Armor Enchantments

Most of the Armor enchantments found in TotK are found in Reclaim as-is, especially as many are from BotW.

In fact, Reclaim even kinda-sorta predicted three of the new armor types:

The Sure-Footed enchant provides a benefit to attempting to climb in the Rain, similar to the Froggy Armor Set, and even a little more.

The Windborne enchant provides Gliding and Flying, which makes it similar to the Glide Armor set.

The Glowing enchant provides the same benefit as the Miner’s Armor Set: light emanating from your armor, reducing the need to carry a Torch with you.

There is one new enchantment that wasn’t predicted by Reclaim: Rupee Padding.

New armor enchantment: Rupee Padding

Uses: Diamond
Effect: Whenever you take damage, you can negate up to (Rank x 4, min 2) damage by paying 30 rupees per damage negated.

Bomb Flowers

New Hazard: Bomb Flowers

This plant grows bombs. When pulled, the bomb will be automatically lit. Bombs that are harmlessly put out are ruined and no longer work. After a bomb is harvested, the bomb flower will grow another bomb after 2 rounds.
Some Bomb Flowers hold seeds within them, see below.

New Material: Bomb Flower Seeds

Bomb Flower Seeds are the seeds of a special plant that grows bomb-like fruits. They are usually found underground and other dark places. They may be Surveyed to determine a Rank and Harvested like a Food ingredient when a plant bearing these seeds is found.
5 Bomb Flower Seeds of the same Rank can be used in place of either Cloth or Monster Parts to craft Bombs.
Using Bomb Flower Seeds as part of a Dish or Elixir reduces its total Dish Points to 1. That is, unless one can develop a means to properly Cook them…

Gloom Sickness

Gloom Sickness can be easily emulated through the Injury Master Mode. Injuries can be made more dangerous by having each Injury to an aspect reduce the maximum number of Points of the relevant resource (Health for Power, Magic for Wisdom, Stamina for Courage). When an Injury is healed, treat the missing Points as if they were Burned.

Gloom is Malice that inflicts Injuries when it damages you. The Mire-Proof enchantment at rank 5 will make you immune to Injuries caused by Gloom.

Specific locations, such as the Underground of TotK, can be made more dangerous by activating the Injury Master Mode only in those locations.

In campaigns where the Injury Master Mode is active everywhere, the monsters in such locations can be made more dangerous by having mere damage inflict an Injury, in addition to the other circumstances.

Geoglyph Quest Spoilers

The following homebrew material contains implied spoilers for the Geoglyph quest: access it here. Note that this material is more intended for Game Masters than Players.

Homebrew

Here is a list of homebrew, along with a quick overview of what they’re about. However, given the nature of tabletop creation, some of these works might be simple first (or second) drafts.

In addition, you can check our Discord’s Tears of the Kingdom Post in Spoiler-Stuff to see other homebrew that hasn’t been posted here.

Frigid Scholar

Jarnumber9

The Zonai Construction Guide has the beginnings of a modular zonai device-related construction system.

JustAnotherJames3

Fuse as an enchanting subsystem
Bokorok homebrew monster

King Arthur

The Zonaite Weapon Style is found on the Discord, here.

Wraithslayer101

The Zonai Compendium contains the Zonai race with crafting style and racial feats, as well as Ultrahand and Ascend as spells.

Viyers’s Homebrew Jam Articles

While these articles were written before TotK, they can be useful for building certain types of vehicles.

Rail the Wild, for adding locomotives to the system;
Reclaim the Wind, for adding airships to the system.

TechnoTea

Zonai RtW, for the Zonai race with crafting style and racial feats, as well as a few other spells.

Hopefully this article, and the homebrew shared by others, help you all run a Tears of the Kingdom inspired game.

Do you have your own homebrew material to share? Feel free to do so in the comments below, or on our Discord or subReddit.

Edit: 27 October 2023 – Added in TechnoTea’s entry.