NockerGeek's Journal

As I work on fleshing out my Ivalice D&D 4E game, I've been writing up some small descriptions of the major powers in the Galtean region. Here's a sample:

( Dalmasca )

I've finally found my inspiration for a 4th Edition D&D campaign. It actually came to me in an interesting way - utter disillusionment with the game. I was unhappy with how bards were handled in Player's Handbook 2, but after discussing my misgivings with the_z, she likened them to Orators from Final Fantasy Tactics, and said that the entire 4e combat system sounded like a strategy RPG. This got my mind running right past my mental block and onward to somewhere completely different than where it had started.

I'm imagining a game in the Ivalice of Final Fantasy 12... or a re-imagining of it. Geographically, the world is the same, and the regional powers are mostly unchanged. Archadia's not quite as large - Dalmasca, Nabradia and Landis are still independent nations. However, Nabudis is still an undead-infested ruin; not because of a recent war, but because of an incident in the somewhat-distant past. The Yensan Sandseas are still jagd, as is the Ridorana Cataract - the remnants of ancient civilizations destroyed by a long-forgotten cataclysm. The jagds interfere with airship travel, but that mostly just cuts off Rozarria from having an easy, direct path to Rabanastre; trade caravans still skirt the Sandseas by land and bring goods back and forth.

As for races, a number of the more traditional D&D races are absent, most notably elves (and, by extension, eladrin and drow). So far, I'm thinking of using:
- humans (naturally)
- bangaa (using dragonborn rules)
- viera (using razorclaw shifter rules)
- gnomes (to fill in for moogles; I'm just not a big moogle fan, and gnomes fit the same niche)
- dwarves (there are a number of massive underground structures in Ivalice, and honestly, I just like dwarves too much to leave them out)
- tieflings (mostly hailing from Rozarria, especially near the Sandseas; possibly remnants of the civilization lost eons ago)
- seeqs (using orc rules from the Monster Manual)

Also, rather than the D&D pantheon, or going with the rather monotheistic religion of Ivalice, I'm going to borrow the Golarian gods from the Pathfinder campaign setting and remap them to 4e gods (for the purposes of items and divinity feats). So far, it's pretty much a 1:1 mapping, so it's been pretty painless. One happy coincidence - the Golarian god of magic is Nethys. The magic stones in FF12's Ivalice? Nethecite. I'm sure I can work that in somehow.

Anyway, that's as far as I've gotten, but I'm happily inspired. I may not be the most original person in the world, but I love taking other peoples' creations and reworking/reimaging them in interesting ways. Consider it a 4e/Pathfinder/Final Fantasy mash-up. :)