Odin Sphere setting... assistance appreciated

[NeoVid]

Well, I've had the idea of using the world of Odin Sphere for my 4e campaign for a while now, but I haven't really worked on it. It seems like it would be easy to modify the world to fit the game where needed, and I love the idea of running the PCs through a lot of the game's plot.

About all I have are ideas for the various nations and regions, so I'll start with that and see where it goes from there... The action of the game takes place on one continent, so I'm going with that, with a few modifications.

To the south:
Ringford rainforest, home of the elves, eladrin and such, as well as a large number of tribal humans and orcs. Dwarves are also common, after they made a large-scale exodus from the country of Ragnaval. The area is strongly connected to the Feywild, which is obvious after any time spent there. Not an especially cohesive nation, but being large and highly populated leaves it one of the major powers, particularly after what happened to its neighbor to the west...

Valentin, formerly the strongest human kingdom, had most of its capital reduced to a crater in an unexplained disaster a few years ago. The loss of its rulers and core beaurocracy reduced the rest of the country to chaos, ending up with the remaining cities barely stabilizing as a collection of weak city-states. No survivors or even bodies were found in the capital wreckage, and the entire royal family is MIA. To make things even worse, Ragnaval, the most warlike nation in the world, saw this as an opportunity...

At the southeast corner of the continent lies Volkenon, a region full of volcanoes and constantly hit with storms and earthquakes. Not surprisingly, strongly connected to the Elemental Chaos. Home of many creatures that like the environment, such as genasi and azers. The azer king, Onyx, has solid control of the region, and is an ambitious but not warlike ruler. Volkenon has no restrictions on other races... but who else would want to live there?

Much of the center of the continent is taken up by Endelphia, a place which is essentially a huge infection of Shadowfell energy leaking into the material world. Endelphia spread and intensified for decades, until Odette, and exarch of the Raven Queen, began personally supervising the area. It remains an unlivable sinkhole of death, crawling with undead, ways into the Shadowfell, and rumors of valuable treasures that can only be found there...

That's all for now. I'll post about Ragnaval, Titania and the noncivilized regions like Elrit forest and the Winterhorn Mountains later.

[NeoVid]

No posts... huh. And here I was worried that someone else had already done this.

Anyway, part 2.

To the northwest lies Ragnaval, a mostly human nation with a large number of dwarves, which happens to be the most warlike civilization in the world. The ruins of the Valentinian capital have been under attack by the Ragnans since the country fell, opposed by the disorganized but powerful military of Ringford. The Ragnans have a very martial and military culture, prizing combat prowess above most other virtues. Many of their elite warriors are essentially superhuman, with king Odin himself likely being the most powerful individual in the world. One of the empire's greatest strengths is that they have a way to enter and leave the depths of Endelphia, giving them access to one of the rarest magical artifacts in the world: Cypher crystals. More on these later.

The final major kingdom is Titania to the far east. Ancient, but small and insular, Titania rarely has much to do with the rest of the world, outside of strong commerce. It's a nation known for having many skilled magic users, including the world-renowned Three Wise Men, thought of as the world's greatest arcanists. 10 years ago, a swath of the kingdom was ravaged by a creature that the former king and his brother had to sacrifice themselves to defeat.

Now, one thing I need help with: How Cyphers should work. A good way to represent what they do in-game is that they absorb lifeforce from anything killed with a weapon that has a Cypher crystal attached. They're supposed to store up this power and get stronger the more they're used, but I'm not sure how to represent that. Possibly with the enhancement bonuses of the weapon going up on its own over time?

Also, one thing that really has me wanting to run this is the thought of running my players through the major battles of the game. Unfortunately, most are clearly Epic level, so I've been thinking of those and not encounters for the early game. But they're fun to consider:

The Beast of Darkova
Level 21 Solo Brute
Gargantuan Aberrant Magical Beast

The Cauldron
Level 23 Solo Artillery
Gargantuan Immortal Animate

King Galon
Level 25 Solo Soldier
Gargantuan Shadow Magical Beast, Undead

The Incarnation of Fire
Level 27 Solo Skirmisher
Huge Primordial (I forget if they have their own category)

King Valentin
Level 29 Elite Controller (leader)
Medium Shadow Humanoid, Undead

Leventhan
Level 32 Solo Brute
Gargantuan Immortal Dragon

[strawberryman]

Will Odette have an aura that effectively stops everything within it?

It'd be called "PS2 limitation breach". Or "lag field".

Seriously, though, the thought had come to my mind before, too. Mostly the Cypher bit. I'm not really much into 4e, though, so I'm not a good authority on that.

[NeoVid]

Will Odette have an aura that effectively stops everything within it?

It'd be called "PS2 limitation breach". Or "lag field".

...If they ever fight her, she's got to have a Slow aura, and I'll see if any of my players get it.

Though I don't really think that she'd work out as a direct threat to the PCs. A PC can become an exarch at level 30, and if they're that powerful, it would put her too high level to face when it would work for story purposes.

Seriously, though, the thought had come to my mind before, too. Mostly the Cypher bit. I'm not really much into 4e, though, so I'm not a good authority on that.

I'm not an expert on 4e myself, but any reasonable suggestions could be made to work out.

Plus, the better the Cyphers are, the harder it'll be for the players to part with them after the Cauldron fight sucks the life out of the countryside.

"Either sacrifice your signature weapons, or let everything for miles around die. By the way, I'm not an evil GM."