IV - Creatures

A - Type:
Creatures can be one of several basic types of things. Typically, it doesn't matter what type of creature a monster is, but it may matter for magical or scientific reasons in highly developed campaigns.
The basic types of creatures in Hyrule are:

1 - Animals:
An animal is a basically mindless creature, such as a dog or cow. They have no civilization as such, no technologies, and no abstract language.
As in the real world, animals in Hyrule can be malicious, benign, or timid. Some will attack relentlessly, while others simply wish to be left alone, and some will flee if they see any life-form other than their own.

2 - Plants:
Although generally rooted and harmless in reality, plants in Hyrule are often mobile, and just as often predatory. Some of the fiercest monsters in Hyrule are actually plants, which attack other living creatures in order to obtain nutrients which are not accessible to them because of a lack of roots, or else for magical reasons.

3 - Spirits:
"Spirit" is a broad category, which perhaps could stand further subdivision. A spirit is any living creature that does not have a physical body, per se. Even without a body, some spirits can be quite dangerous, and they comprise some of the most feared monsters in existence.
Although they do not have a physical body, they are composed of a type of quasi-physical substance called "ecto-plasm." This ghostly substance can be solid, liquid, gaseous, or ethereal, and some spirits can change state at will. By changing to an ethereal state, most spirits are able to pass through physical matter.

4 - Automata:
An automaton is not truly a life form. It is a thing animated by either natural principles (robots) or magical forces. Automata are made as guardians, so generally they are an indication that some type of important treasure or secret place is nearby; however, since some automata can last for decades, or even centuries, there is no guarantee that the place or thing they once guarded is still extant.

5 - People:
A person is an intelligent creature with a language, and generally a society of other beings like itself.

B - Terrain:

Some creatures only inhabit certain areas. The most common types of terrain in Hyrule are:

1 - Plains:
Plains are also sometimes called "fields" or, less commonly, "prairies." They are places where the ground is relatively flat for a large area, and are usually grassy and sparsely populated.

2 - Forests:
Forests are areas of dense, large foliage, primarily trees. They are generally difficult to navigate, and replete with plant and animal life. Often, forests grow dense enough to block out most sunlight.

3 - Deserts:
Deserts are dry, sandy areas with little annual rainfall. The terrain tends to be fairly even, with a few jagged rocks. Since it is very difficult to live in these arid places, there tends to be very little animal or plant life.

4 - Mountains:
High altitude climates that tend to be dry and rocky, but generally have a fair amount of plant and animal life, as well as small villages of people.

5 - Swamps:
Swamps are areas flooded by slow-moving, and often stagnant, water. They are difficult to move through, since the water is often deep, and the swamp's floor is seldom as solid as rock or clay - usually it is mud with a thick layer of slime.
Swamps always contain all kinds of life; plants from pond scum to massive trees, and animals from parasitic bugs to octoroks.

6 - Caves:
Cave dwelling creatures are often found in ruins and catacombs as well as natural caves.

7 - Water:
Some creatures are aquatic by nature, but can still trouble land-dwelling creatures. These include Zola and Bago-Bagos.

8 - Sentry:
Some creatures, particularly automata and spirits are primarily guardians of important places, and so do not have a "natural" terrain, but are only found in strongholds. Stalfos, for example.
In addition, some creatures may be peculiar to very specific areas, such as Gheenies, who only appear in graveyards.

C - Life:
A creature's Life represents the amount of damage it can survive. When a creature is damaged (as in combat), its Life goes down by the amount of damage done to it. If a creature's Life reaches zero, it dies, or at least loses consciousness.
The Life Meter occupies most of the right side of a character sheet. Most Hyrulians naturally have 4 points of Life, although some outstanding characters (like those in the line of Links) have had as many as 6. To represent this, a player places the appropriate number of Life tokens (usually 4) on the Heart Containers in the LIFE column. Each time a character is hit, the player removes the appropriate number of tokens. For example, a character with 4 points of Life who is hit by a sword which inflicts 2 points of Damage, would be left with 2 points of Life, and the player would take away 2 tokens to represent this.
A creature's Life can be augmented by various types of physical or magical armor. This armor causes a character to take less damage when hit. On a character sheet, armor is listed to the right of the character's Heart Containers. When a character gets red armor, for instance, the player uses four columns (up to the end of "ARMOR, Red"), instead of just one. A character that has armor and takes damage has the tokens removed from the armor next to his Heart Container before removing the token from the Heart Container, itself.
For example, a when character with four hearts, wearing red armor, takes 6 points of damage, you remove six hit tokens, first all the tokens in the fourth row, and then 2 tokens in the armor slots of the third row. You would not simply remove all 6 tokens from the character's armor columns. The reason that this matters is that the character is no longer in perfect health, which you need in order to preform certain operations. If a character wearing yellow armor takes 6 points of damage, the character is still in perfect health, because the heart in the last row is still full. If the character takes 8 points of damage, it is no longer in perfect health, because one of the hearts has been taken away.

D - Buffet:
A Buffet is a blow from a blunt instrument such as a boomerang, club, or fist. It has different effects on different creatures, but typically it stuns them for 5 turns.

E - Damage:
Damage represents the damage a creature can deal unarmed. If the character is armed, the weapon causes its usual amount of damage.

F - Damage Reaction:

G - Speed:
A creature's Speed number is the number of feet a character can move in one turn. It also affects the character's combat skill. (See VI - Combat.)

H - Attack:
Represents the skill with which a creature attacks.

I - Attack Type:
Represents whether a creature inflicts damage automatically simply by touching or being touched, or deliberately deals a blow. For example, a jellyfish attacks automatically, meaning that it hurts to touch one; whereas, a dog attacks deliberately, meaning that it has to try to hurt you in order to do so.

J - Special Ability:
A special ability is a skill that a creature inherently possesses, such as the ability to fly, shoot fireballs, or pass through walls.

K - Magic:
The Magic statistic represents how much magical power a creature has at maximum charge. On the character sheet, the Magic Meter is just to the left of the Life Meter, and is marked from 0 to 16, which is generally the maximum a player can reach. Most characters have little or no magic power, but with the right training, wizards can store up a great deal.

L - Treasure:
Some creatures only leave certain types of treasure behind. This category shows what types of treasure that creature carries. B=bombs, A=arrows, M=Magic Decanter, S=Magical Stopwatch. "Standard" treasures are hearts, rubies, and Stopwatches.

1 - Types:

a. Rubies:
Rubies are gems cut to a uniform size (about an inch long, half an inch wide, and hexagonal), which are used as currency in Hyrule and the surrounding kingdoms. There are three types, green, blue, and red. The green gems are worth one rubie, blue ones are worth five, and red ones are worth twenty.

b. Hearts:
Hearts are vital energy left behind by defeated monsters. Picking one up will heal 2 (or 4) points of damage.

c. Bombs:
Bombs are round bundles of explosives which blow up 3 seconds after they are activated, causing 4 points of Damage at Penetration 4 to anything within 3 feet of the blast, and destroying fragile walls, rocks, etc.

d. Arrows:
Arrows are wooden rods tipped with sharp heads, and designed to fly straight for a long distance when fired with a bow. They are practically useless as anything else.

e. Magic Decanters:
These are small vials of magical potion which restore 2 points of Magic power.

f. Magical Stopwatches:
Magical Stopwatches are extremely powerful magical items. It is considered activated as soon as a character touches it, at which point it instantly takes effect, and disappears. When someone activates a Stopwatch, all creatures within a 20-foot radius stop dead in their tracks, and remain frozen in time until the character leaves the affected area. During this time, no other creatures may enter the 20-foot radius, and the character who used the stopwatch is impervious to all attacks from anything outside of it.
However, the effect only lasts for as long as the character stays within that radius. Once it leaves, all the spell is broken.
If two characters manage to activate stopwatches simultaneously, within 20 feet around them, both stopwatches take effect, and neither character is frozen, but both are able to move through the entire affected area. But, as soon as either one leaves, the spell is broken.

2 - Chart:
When you defeat a monster, roll 2 dice to determine what type of treasure you received. If you roll a type of treasure which the monster in question doesn't carry (i.e., you kill a bot and roll 5, but bots don't carry bombs), re-roll the dice. If you still get an invalid roll, the creature was carrying no treasure.

2 Red Gem (20r)
3 Heart (4 Life)
4 Blue Gem (5r)
5 Bomb (roll a die for the number of bombs received)
6 Green Gem (1r)
7 Heart (2 Life)
8 nothing
9 Arrow (roll a die for the number of arrows received)
10 Magical Stopwatch
11 Magic Decanter
12 Full Decanter

M - Special Treasure:
A special treasure is a treasure that is usually essential to the completion of a quest, and which is predetermined. These can include maps, weapons, special documents, keys, armor, or other important items. Special Treasures do not affect normal treasures. For example, in a certain quest, a certain Stalfos has a Special Treasure; a map, let's say. When a character defeats the Stalfo, he rolls for treasure, as he would normally. Let's say he rolls a 4 and a 3 (7). When the Stalfos collapses, the map and the heart both appear.

The Hyrule role playing game is made by Krystofor Goldensword (a fan), for all Zelda fans who have any imagination, and care to use it.

The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening, The Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and the characters Link, Zelda, Impa, and all other persons, places, and things in Hyrule, as well as the land of Hyrule, itself, are copyright Nintendo of America, Inc. Krystofor claims no rights for the materials, and this game may not be used for profit in any way.