Da'Vane

Chair, Formatter

First Zelda: A Link to the Past

Favourite Zelda: A Link to the Past

I first played the Legend of Zelda in the early '90's and ever since then I have been hankering to bring the story to the tabletop to play through. For me, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past had everything you could ever want in a classic adventure, yet I never really managed to get anything to gel together into a solid form.

In 2001, I finally managed to convince my folks to allow me access to the Internet, and my first port of call was to the Wizards of the Coast website. There, I discovered the Think Tanks, and found something that would change my life forever - a group of players who were talking about converting the Legend of Zelda series into a D20 game.

I quickly chimed in, wanting to be part of the group, and my first contribution was the Subrosian and Tokay - two races from Oracles that the group seemed to have missed. From there, we quickly decided to move to a Yahoo group, under the leadership of Rooks, the person who had started the thread.
There, we fed off of each other and created a lot of ideas.

However, the magic moment came when we were discussing how to put the Legend of Zelda D20 Sourcebook together. We had vague ideas, but nothing really solid. We needed a formatter, and tentatively I stepped up to the plate. After all, I thought, how hard can formatting really be? Within a few weeks, I had compiled the few things wee had, which at that time happened to be all the races, and a few ideas for classes. I posted the samples to the group - and that's when the magic happened.

When the group saw that layout, the Legend of Zelda stopped becoming a vague maybe, but became something real. Something the group could see. We quickly determined what chapters we wanted in the Sourcebook, and feeding off of each other's enthusiasm we quickly filled in a fair chunk of that Sourcebook. There was some temporary art, and I still remember the tingle of satisfaction when Dreamstryder showed the group the art he had done based on one of my PrCs.

The journey wasn't always smooth, and I deeply regret when I had to leave the Legend of Zelda D20 Team. However, I was comforted by the fact that I had shown them the way, and helped turn something from a dream into a reality. I did my best to keep the fans enthused and followed the project from the outside.
As it seemed disaster after disaster struck the Legend of Zelda D20 team, I couldn't help but wonder what was happening to the Sourcebook.
After all, the plan had been so clear, the road so sure. Time and time again I was called upon to help the group - to recover lost files and such, and I couldn't help but grow worried.

But then, on April 2004, the Legend of Zelda D20 Team released the Sourcebook. Like many others, I hastily downloaded it and poured through it. Unlike the others though, I wasn't looking for what was new, but what had been changed. I was shocked - the layout I had created was intact. It seemed that the Legend of Zelda D20 Team had followed the path I laid out for them, under the leadership of Rooks. I looked at all the artwork, noting that all of the Specialists I had designed had been done justice by DS' talented hands.

The Sourcebook wasn't perfect when it was released, but given the fact that it was put together by a team of volunteers over a period of four years with no enumeration or support, it was still a phenomenal achievement. It took a lot out of the group, and for some it took too much.
Three years had gone by, and much had changed, and some people had to move on.

After releasing the Sourcebook, the Legend of Zelda D20 Team were at a loss. They no longer had their road map, no longer a clear idea of where to go. The Sourcebook had initial flaws that needed to be fixed right away, such as significant formatting errors. It also needed a significant amount of errata. Also, Nintendo didn't stop to wait for us to release the Sourcebook, and there were already several games with impending release that the group wanted to include.

Some of these problems were easy to resolve. My commitments had cleared, so when I was asked back into the Legend of Zelda D20 Team, I readily accepted.
My first task was to clean up the formatting of the Sourcebook, which was the most immediate concern. Other problems were not so easily fixed - the Legend of Zelda D20 Team needed time to sort itself out, to discuss the future, and to recoup their energies. This would take almost a year, and there were times when I feared the Legend of Zelda D20 Team might not continue at all.

In time, we sorted out what we were going to do. We quickly realise we needed to revise the Sourcebook. There were new elements we needed to cover, and we needed to fix some errors that had crept in. But, as good as the Sourcebook was, there was always something lacking. We quickly discovered the problem - the Legend of Zelda D20 Sourcebook was outstanding as a mechanic reference, but it was really hard to run a campaign using it. This was because significant elements that made a campaign world such as Forgotten Realms so vibrant were missing. Where were the politics, the religion, the culture, or the economy?
There were hints and suggestions, but nothing concrete. The fans were asking us questions we couldn't answer because of these missing elements.
We quickly realised that we should have been giving the fans the answers, at least, our interpretation of the answers. We already had the mechanics down, and they could be easily tightened and added to.
Now we had to go the rest of the way - we had given the fans the system, now it was time to give them the Legend.

Just as we started this, Rooks announced he was leaving the group. It was a shame to say goodbye to the founder of the project, the pioneer who started the entire project back on the Wizards of the Coast Forums, and held it steady through the past four years. In Rooks, we lost not only a dedicated leader, but a talented creator who made much of the Sourcebook what it is today.
However sad Rook's departure was, it came at a time when the Legend of Zelda D20 team was about to embark upon a bold new adventure. This meant that the transfer of power was swift and painless, as I quickly stepped up to take the helm. In many ways, I feel it was better for Rooks to leave when he did, rather than try and struggle on leading the group, and I think we all know in our hearts that Rook's did the best. Hopefully, in the future, he can return as I did, for the Legend of Zelda D20 Team will always have a sport for Rooks and his talent.

For me, the Legend of Zelda has always been an inspiration. It has lead me from a simple dream of playing one of the best games in the series on the table top, to leadership of one of the greatest groups of games designers I have seen. It has led me to discover talents I never knew I had, and realise a potential I had barely noticed.

I look at the Legend of Zelda D20 Sourcebook and I can think to myself "I did that." I can look at the Legend of Zelda D20 Team and say "I made that."
I would like to think that the others in the Legend of Zelda D20 Team feel half as proud about the Legend of Zelda D20 Sourcebook as I do.
I hope that they are half as proud of the Legend of Zelda D20 Team as I am, members both past and present.

I am proud to have played my part in the creation of the Legend of Zelda D20 Sourcebook. I am proud to part of the Legend of Zelda D20 team.
But most of all, I am proud that I have the opportunity to lead the Legend of Zelda D20 team into the future, where we shall strive to make the Legend of Zelda D20 Setting the best it can be.

Return to Staff