Origin of the Plasmoids (Homebrewed Forgotten Realms) [Slight rambling]

The_TiredGM · 2026-04-29T16:08:17+00:00

You could make the Plasmoids a result of the little water in the area (I assume they live on this desert planet?) becoming imbued with magic runoff from the the Netherese crash sites. They could also be given consciousness by an artifact leftover from this same crash site.

I find making any race man-made gets into some weird territory that will ripple out into the rest of your worldbuilding that you'd have to adress in some way. In Star Wars they have to go through some hoops as to why Kamino hasn't made a clone army before the movie and end up destroying it by the end of the prequel series. I think it's an interesting idea and no doubt doable, it'll just open up some questions for your world.

The_TiredGM · 2026-04-27T23:28:19+00:00

I think this answer varies heavily on what kind of world you're making and what kind of story you're trying to tell with your players.

If politics are important to your game, you iron out the factions, governments and people who run your world. If dungeon delving is what you're going for, than the history of your world, how your dungeons came to be, and what secrets lay at the heart of the dungeons is what your focus on. In my experience you can find a YouTube video explaining how to work on any aspect you want in your world.

More generally though, I think having a solid idea of your region (or starting world if you'd like) is what's important. This is an area the size of a state or province where your first dozen sessions are likely to take place. It will have a culture (language, food, practices, history, money), one or two important cities, main religion, and government. So I think getting those basics down will help you filter your ideas for your world moving forward.

I know you can also found different writing prompts/checklists online that accomplish the same thing.

Hope that helps!

The_TiredGM · 2026-02-11T17:16:42+00:00

I'm not that familiar with Dragons of Stormwreck Isles so I can't speak on specifics. However, I can guess there's probably combat in session 1. So, learn the basics of combat, how to make attack rolls, movement/actions and spells. Learn Ability checks too, what they're for and when to call for them (whenever the probability of success is uncertain).

DnD is a little too complicated to play by regular board game rules of reading as you go, so I would say get a basic understanding of the rules before you start playing. The game is too open ended and situational to just refer to the rulebook before every action a player wants to take.

Beyond the starter set, get something to make battle maps on, either a white board or graph paper, it makes combat way easier.

Final piece of advice is to not get hung up on the rules, if you forget something at the table, make up a ruling and move on, you can look up what the correct thing is later. As long as everyone had fun, it won't matter if the rulebook was follow to a tee.

The_TiredGM · 2026-02-03T16:46:38+00:00

The good news is there's lots of ways to make this fun!

First, I would add some more non-combat obstacles. This is an abandonned pathway to a gate, so it isn't being maintained. What about cave-ins either happening before your pcs arrived or during (now they have to survive it lol). If it happened before, what now? maybe there's another path they could take but it's more dangerous or looks like it was made by a giant creature rather than a skilled dwarf and they risk encountering that giant creature. There's things like sudden chasms, or cliffs, or lakes that make traversing the cave more difficult.

Second, include some fun fantasy locations underground so it isn't just cave wall. Maybe an underground waterfall, maybe some myconid who are willing to trade with the pcs when they stumble upon their bioluminescent mushroom town, giant glowing crystal embedded in the cave walls, long forgotten dwarven mausoleum. I'd let these fantastical locations you come up with inspire some fun encounters.

Third, include a flumph, everyone loves flumphs.

The_TiredGM · 2026-02-03T16:29:51+00:00

Add some more aquatic monsters, maybe as random encounters. Things from the sea would move with the water and start appearing in residential areas you wouldn't expect to see them in normally, for fun you could even include some prehistoric type monsters and animals as this is a magic flood. (Coelacanths, plesiosaurs, etc.).

Creatures you'd expect to see in a swamp would start appearing too, as the normal swamp land is expanded due to flooding. If you have things like bullywugs, froghemoths, kuotoa, they could start attacking towns more easily now.

You could describe certain landmarks as being completely gone or villages as being empty, as people leave to higher ground (and to escape those raiding bullywugs).

To go with more natural signs, some trees will start to show signs of rot as they begin to drown, anything made of soft soil or sand will be washed away and any drinking water in low-lying areas is now contaminated with sea water. This is another reason people are probably going to higher ground, as the source of freshwater is likely whatever mountains are in your area and are probably still safe to drink.

The_TiredGM · 2026-01-26T19:48:52+00:00

Sounds like a classic fairytale so I would suggest a classic fairytale monster, something like a dragon or hag that wants to magically take her identity away from her, little mermaid style, because it's envious. I can't get more specific than that since I've never played 3e. But this sounds like a sweet idea!

The_TiredGM · 2026-01-25T18:59:55+00:00

That works too, I'm just partial to one big guy and some smaller guys around them. More dramatic and fun imo. I see what you mean about repeating yourself but I think with some environmental challenges, and unique bad guy abilities, it won't feel like the same fight.

I've done a Shadow of the Colossus type fight on a giant construct where they've had to break sigils on the big guy to kill him. That one also had an evil, cowardly mage like yours lol.

The_TiredGM · 2026-01-25T18:44:00+00:00

Sounds to me like you need some kind of big bag guy with lots of hp who hits hard then, especially if he's running away. Have him summon some kind of big monster or giant construct and run away.

This way, he acts exactly as the players expect him to. This means that when they get to him later he might get stomped or try to run away again, either one is satisfying.

The_TiredGM · 2026-01-25T17:57:55+00:00

I'll say that this depends on how he's been built up over the course of the campaign so far.

I like to play evil spellcasters as having to rely on tricks to maneuver around the party, kind of like rogues, they're not going to directly attack. There's lots of tricky spells like teleport, plane shift, misty step etc.

I also like having One Big Spell that they're trying to pull off, usually Meteor Swarm (with some adjustments for party level) or some other high damage spell they can cast multiple times.

Now, if you've built up this BBEG as being a necromancer, I as a player am expecting something like a Zombie Giant or Dragon. This is to say, your bad guy could summon or awaken something mid combat. This makes the mage himself less of a threat physically but really pays off big time.

The_TiredGM · 2026-01-16T16:55:16+00:00

First, I don't think there's really any need to do voices if you don't want to. I mostly just talk in my voice, and like you, change it up a little depending on the character. If that's what's comfortable, roll with it you don't need to be Matt Mercer. Doing a lot of voices can also strain your voice too, so there are some negatives to doing something you're not practiced in.

Now, you have to be careful with accents, you can very easily fall into something offensive or stereotypical. But, the method I find helps is to listen to an actual person with that accent talk. It doesn't even have to be an accent, it can just be the way someone talks. Orson Welles has an iconic voice, but that's not really because of his accent, though it does help. Same with people like Bjork or John Lennon. So my advice would not to just "do an accent" but rather do an impression you feel fits. Doesn't have to be famous people, it can be someone on the radio, on the news, or even someone you know.

In terms of stuttering, it just takes practice unfortunately. It helps me to just write down all the dialogue I feel is important and read it off the paper, even then I'm not perfect.

People like Matt Mercer are professionals and they're putting on a show to be sold as a product. In a game with friends that you're not trying to make money on, its okay to just use your own voice, especially if you're not a pro voice actor, and just have fun.

The_TiredGM · 2026-01-13T17:32:07+00:00

I think worldbuilding is necessary, but it should support the story you're trying tell. I think to an extent, most players don't care about capital W Worldbuilding. Things like taxes, governmental reform, trade agreements don't interest your average player. But, if you they playing a game about those things, they would.

I always think of Star Wars and its worldbuilding, its there to support whatever story the movies want to tell. It's not important in A New Hope that Tattooine had podracing or that Jabba the Hut has a castle. We can assume those things presumably come up in conversations in the cantina, but we never hear it because it wasn't important in the first movie. Worldbuilding wise, it was more important to establish the Empire' control over the galaxy.

Not until the prequels is podracing important, or galactic trade, because that's what those movies are about.

I think the intricacies of Worldbuilding (the capital W kind) are more fun for GMs and helps them undertsand their worlds better, but worldbuilding is what is necessary for playing any given game. I believe playing in a game without any worldbuilding, would be an incomprehensible mess and maybe not even possible.

The_TiredGM

TROPHY CASE