Homebrew Jam - The Legend of Zelda: Reclaim the Wild

14 Jan

Wild Homebrew Jam Winner: Growing Vines Dungeon

Next in our series featuring the winners of the Wild Homebrew Jam is Dethnite007’s “Growing Vines Dungeon“!

As mentioned in the previous winner’s article, we always wanted Reclaim the Wild to have some easily-accessible homebrew modules. Dethnite007’s module looks to serve that purpose by giving us a “puzzle-box” dungeon – that is, a dungeon much like one might find in a typical Zelda title.

Dethnite’s module is unique in that it reimagines a location we know from the original game, back in the time following the first Calamity. As a proper Zelda Dungeon, it offers puzzles both subtle (growing and burning vines to access new areas of the dungeon) and obvious (such as a classic sliding block puzzle). The variety of puzzles involved is solid, and should appeal to different types of problem-solving players – though of course, as this is a tabletop game, don’t be surprised if your players come up with some truly ‘out of the box’ solutions!

Speaking with Dethnite, they had this to share:

Honestly I just did this to see how hard it actually is to make a Zelda style puzzle box. I guess the process was just a lot of trial and error to make the player pathing connect properly while there still being a reason to shift the dungeon layout.

If there’s anything I learned from this, it’s that a lot of time goes into making the dungeons we play in Legend of Zelda games and having more than one Link in the dungeon really does break the whole thing, as my players have taught me. Of course, now that I’ve built a rudimentary version of one, I’m gonna have to go bigger and better for my players next time.

And they relayed this, from the adventure’s artist, StarNightGazer:

It was fun imagining a big baddie for players to go against at the end of their trial. Zelda bosses are memorable and I wanted to create one just like them and bring it to life as best as I could and keep a theme to its respective dungeon.

If you’d like to put your players’ wits to the test, remember to check out the Growing Vines dungeon here.

07 Jan

Wild Homebrew Jam Winner: Adventure: Horon Disaster

First in our feature of the Wild Homebrew Jam winners is Viyer’s “Adventure: Horon Disaster“!

From the beginning, we wanted Reclaim the Wild to have a proper adventure module. Being able to grab a quest and just run it is a huge boon for a system, and can help newcomers (both GM and player alike) better understand how to properly play and have fun.

So imagine our surprise and delight when we saw adventure modules being submitted for the Wild Homebrew Jam! Viyer’s Adventure: Horon Disaster is a breezy read, and is a suitable adventure for Heroes just beginning on their journey, featuring foes and obstacles that novice players and their novice Heroes.

Part of what makes this adventure so easy to read through is the artwork by Dormin, giving the module’s foes a lovely artistic spotlight. Between that, and the maps that Viyers created, the module has a beautiful, professional look to it.

Speaking with Viyers, they had this to say: I just wanted to try and make a starting adventure than any group could pick and play to discover the system, with a little bit of all the aspects I consider most important to the hobby. A bit of roleplay, a bit of combat and a tiny pseudo dungeon so they would get a general taste of how Reclaim the Wild function.

So if you’d like to take that taste and jump right into playing, remember to check out the module here!

15 Dec

Announcing the Winners of the Wild Homebrew Jam!

The votes have been tabulated, and the community has spoken. We have our winners!

Before we get to that, though, I want to thank the community as a whole. You treated the task of reading and voting on the homebrew submissions as a job with great responsibility, and we were all glad to see that it wasn’t simply a contest of “whichever entry is shiniest”.

I also want to thank the community members who submitted homebrew for the Wild Homebrew Jam. Speaking personally, it was a pleasure to read through them all – to see what this game has inspired you to make, and how excited you all were to participate.

There were 17 entries in total – when I was worried we might not get enough to give out all of the prizes!

To see who won, and to get links to all of the homebrew entries, check out below!

Vote in the Wild Homebrew Jam!

The submission period for the first ever Wild Homebrew Jam is now over!

Now, it’s time for everyone to vote on their favorite homebrew offerings. Visit the #jam-submissions channel, and react to submissions with the new emote to vote for them! You can vote for as many submissions as you like, but please only use one account per person to vote for submissions.

As you’re voting for submissions, we heartily encourage you to read everyone’s homebrew. If you haven’t already, give its creator some feedback! Let them know what you liked, or disliked; how things could be improved, or how you’d like to see it expanded upon. Even if you don’t upvote a homebrew creation, feedback is good to receive, and might help their next creation be better!

You have until December 10th, 12 PM GMT to cast your votes! Once everyone’s voted, we’ll reveal the winners – and the winner of our “Developer’s Choice” award – in the next blog post.

01 Nov

Join the Wild Homebrew Jam!

This year, we’re doing something fun and new to celebrate our community, to break in our newly-revamped Wiki, and to encourage the creation of all kinds of new homebrew content for Reclaim the Wild: a Wild Homebrew Jam!

For those who don’t know what a “Jam” is, it’s a celebration of creation and content created by people. The Global Game Jam, for example, is one of the biggest game design events of the year, dedicated to the creation of games in less than 3 days. While we don’t expect anyone to work quite that quickly, you only have until the end of November to submit your new homebrew content for this event.

We’re looking for homebrew of any kind! It could be new gameplay options (like new Races, Feats, Techniques, or Spells); it could be new adventures (like modules and encounters); it could be whole new systems! We’re open to almost anything, but your homebrew content must be original, safe for work, and wholly made by you within the month of November!

The developers and moderators are even offering prizes for a select few high-quality homebrew submissions! Your homebrew content can get special recognition, be featured on the website, and even earn you a Nintendo eShop gift card!

So check out the rules below, and we hope to see you in our Discord, submitting new homebrew!!