#clockwork empire

[dresdencodak]

I thought you might like to know that I still think about and reference your 2013 Zelda game idea, and send it to people who haven’t heard of it :) They’re always enthralled too! And so many elements from your concept exist in BOTW and TOTK now. Pretty cool stuff 👌

Thanks so much! I swear one day I'll return to that, I've got more ideas...

[radioluminous]

TACTICAL mimic trigger. i am now in rtsr range

[elfcow]

Ezra is sooooo bad at trying to get Sanguine to like him it's so funny. Here I threw you a fancy picnic in the sky. Also I kidnapped you up here. Oh I want to have a fun game with you. The game is torture labyrinth in my murder woods. I'm so charming and loveable btw

[dierlich-design]

     Link - (The clothing depicted are of his starting villager clothes) Link is a young man who grew up in New Kakariko on Sheikah Island. With his father being Hylian and mother being Sheikah, he inherits the best of both, able to use Sheikah magic and weaponry, as well as learn combat from a former Hylian knight. Although competent and skilled with the sword, Link is a lazy young man and is content with spending time with his friends and family on the island, never bothering to care what lies on the other side of the ocean, on the Hyrule mainland. He gets a rude awakening when evil befalls his peaceful island, and the mark of the triforce manifests itself within him, forcing him to leave his island to search for a way to destroy the evil and learn about the power thrust upon him.

     Impa - (The clothing depicted is her main traveling clothes, worn when you first meet her) Impa is the same age as Link, but instead of Sheikah Island, Impa was born and raised in Old Kakariko, on the mainland. Growing up in a warrior culture based around combat, she is a excellent fighter, using any manner of weapons at her disposal. Mainland Sheikah value tradition and prefer to hide in the shadows, covering their faces from birth, and bring shame on those who remove their face covers. Impa is daughter of the village chief, but this did not help her when her mask was removed by an enemy during combat. Following with their traditions, Impa was banished from her tribe to find her own way, without their help. She since hops from tavern to tavern, becoming well traveled and acquainted with the common folk throughout the kingdom. She is now a mercenery, selling her skills to the highest bidder.

     Zelda - Zelda is a bright young woman from the Royal Family. Being second in line to the throne, behind her brother, Zelda never had to worry about the responsibilities of leadership. Instead, she spends her time researching ancient ruins and the various plant and animal life around Hyrule. Often found wandering the wilds on her own, her obsession with her work has blinded her to the poor state of her kingdom and its residents. Too far detached from things to see the unusual corruption of her older brother, she is barely seen or heard from by anyone. Quirky and a bit eccentric, Zelda has no verbal filter, and will ask or say anything that comes to mind, regardless of how awkward it makes others feel. Despite this, she is still incredibly smart and knowledgeable about the things she researches. When the triforce manifests within her, she initially sees an opportunity to study, not realizing its bigger implications, and the kinds of danger it will lead her towards.

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     I’ve been working on an alternate Zelda game concept and I decided to post the character concept art for three characters. Link, Impa, and Zelda. These characters are based on a previous idea I had and posted previously. I wanted to explore the concept is changing how we look at these characters. Link has a new origin as well as look. I don't think we've ever seen a Link with black hair. Impa was fun to make, as we've never really seen a younger Impa, who has a lot to learn and maturing to do. Zelda is usually the one with the plan, and I think it would be interesting to see a more care free Zelda, since she has no leadership responsibilities. It gives her and Impa room to grow into the characters we know them as today.

I also wanted to explore how switchable companions could work in a Zelda game, similar to FF7 remake. Impa would be the one you chose for combat scenarios when you're going into a dungeon ro fighting large groups of enemies. If you were exploring the lore of Hyrule, and searching through ancient ruins, Zelda is your team mate. Each have combat abilities, but Impa leans more towards that side of things, while Zelda uses her magic for healing and defense.

The initial concept for this idea had much different characters, and was inspired by Aaron Diaz and his concept of Clockwork Empire. This is just the start of this new idea. Please take a look at my initial illustrations and idea for this game here and here

[radioluminous]

sanguine is so extremely fucked btw

[radioluminous]

why is sanguine so wet and pathetic this session

[elfcow]

bluff, stealth, thievery!

Thievery - Have you ever borrowed a mechanic from another GM?

Yes! Many. One that I haven't had the opportunity to use yet but very much want to do is CriticalFayle's idea on tiktok, of letting dying players (ie rolling death saves) still be "conscious" if they want to in that they can see and speak - I think it can be fun for players that feel like they check out when they go down in a fight!

I've also tried to start using DM inspiration, because it feels good when I got it from a DM friend in their game.

Stealth: have you ever completely surprised your players?

I think our latest session of Strahd definitely counts for this.

The party coming across a coffin on the side of the road while escorting Ireena, opening the coffin to find another Ireena, and then having to play the guessing game to figure out who's who, only to find it its been Strahd as Ireena who's been traveling with them and poor real Ireena has been struggling in the coffin all day. The party realizing that their every interaction with Ireena that day has been carefully orchestrated. I'm very proud of that one.

For one you haven't been a player for, one time my Clockwork players were running a ballroom blitz and murdering all these shitty nobles. And they did so much good prep and ran through everyone like tissue paper, including the scary Duchess that they correctly deduced to be a failed Lich. Then our blood sorc got a noble nemesis from his homeland alone in a room, wanting to kill him personally, with a dagger. Rolled a nat 1 to hit... And I let him roll full damage, because the guy just let him stab him and laughed. Turns out he was the original donor whose blood had given our blood sorc his mysterious powers. Cue big boss fight with the party split that they were definitely unprepared for.

Bluff: What's the most unlikely success your players have pulled off?

One of them is definitely after the big fight with Ezra, our Blood Sorc's donor. He was wiping the floor with them, only our barbarian and our blood sorc were still standing, due to her tankiness and him being on magical cocaine that put him under the blink spell. Our blood sorc finally cut a deal that he would willingly go with the Duke to save his friends, and Ezra grabbed his wrist to Dimension Door out. Our blood sorc gambled everything on the 50/50 roll for blink, and he rolled an 11. Blinked out of existence and Ezra teleported away empty-handed.

I should also note that while the players had failed to figure out that Ezra was a vampire blood sorc, our Blood sorc Sanguine did sneak into his room and rip up all the seams on his suit to sabotage him at the ball. So Ezra's clothes fell off at the start of the fight and he wasted a turn to glamour some illusory clothes back on.

[elfcow]

D&D went VERY good I'm very happy 😊