How would you fit the Plasmoid race into a pre-existing campaign settings like Eberron and Forgotten Realms... By this I mean not as a one off individual but the whole race... I feel that Spelljammer didn't give me anything to go on in terms of their culture or anything about them really as a people...
How would you fit the Plasmoid race into a pre-existing campaign settings like Eberron and Forgotten Realms... By this I mean not as a one off individual but the whole race...
Introducing a whole new intelligent species into a world that was constructed without them is usually going to feel forced, unless you do a lot of reconstructing. (Given how kitchen-sink the FR already is, this may not apply to that specific setting.)
That said, as intelligent oozes, "they live deep underground, and have only recently made contact with the surface" seems like a workable start. Or, of course, "they live out in space, and have mad contact", but then you're also introducing spelljamming.
I feel that Spelljammer didn't give me anything to go on in terms of their culture or anything about them really as a people...
Deliberately so. Space is too big for there to be a single Plasmoid culture.
Even if they're native to only one world, which world it is will make a big difference. The Plasmoids of Eberron will not be much like the Plasmoids of the FR, and neither will be like the Plasmoids of Plasmodia, the world where they're the only intelligent species. (And that last one will have more than one culture.)
It's more work for the GM, but you get the Plasmoids that your campaign wants, rather than trying to fit in a few paragraphs of generic Plasmoid culture.
And if you want some ideas, the plasmoids in the creature book give you a little to start with.
Actually The Lost Laboratory of Kwalish, which plays with the spaceship theme, does feature an Ooze flooded city from which Plasmoids could come.
OP, In my game I introduced a plane/demiplane environment called Metastassy. It's where hydras and trolls and other regenerative monsters come from and there's a sort of symbiosis or coexistence between such creatures and oozes. Plasmoids could easily come from there, and Metastassy has a number of portals to prime material worlds. I've left it as a lost mystery of sorts that proposes Metastassy may have been a laboratory or even Abyssal layer belonging to Jubillex, or may have had some role in Jubillex becoming what it is. Anyway this protean world is where I've detemrined plasmoids come from in my game. If you want something less planar, you could simply create an island with a similar ecology.
Having the plasmoid be one of the Underdark races seems like a natural fit; and certainly there have been examples of this already (Out of the Abyss comes to mind; though that was partially due to the presence of the demon lord Juiblex).
A plasmoid race is no more strange than, say, the mushroom-looking Myconids.
If not that; it’d be easy to say that plasmoids operate with a great amount of secrecy & discretion…especially considering that the ooze-based monsters tend to attack / be attacked on sight. I’d have them live out of tunnels or sewers beneath an urban setting.
Currently, I plan on introducing a plasmoid NPC in my Waterdeep campaign: they occupy a very haunted hotel, and navigate through the pipes to get around. As the adventurers encounter the ghosts / monsters plaguing the hotel, this plasmoid provides them with helpful warnings through the walls (which the adventurers will believe is a ghost whispering to them). I’m looking forward to the story.
How would you fit the Plasmoid race into a pre-existing campaign settings like Eberron and Forgotten Realms... By this I mean not as a one off individual but the whole race...
Introducing a whole new intelligent species into a world that was constructed without them is usually going to feel forced, unless you do a lot of reconstructing. (Given how kitchen-sink the FR already is, this may not apply to that specific setting.)
Not really. No campaign setting, not even Dragonlance, is so small and well-detailed that there's no room for it to have a sapient species that's just been getting along out in the margins where others didn't care to look before.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Heliana's part 2 would go a long way regarding Oozefolk vs Plasmoids, setting discrepancy-wise, around here.
But barring that...I can see Plasmoids spawning from a barren wasteland bearing strange metaphorical fruit due to the energies from a magic-torn battle long ago, a failed attempt to make a new dragon by a crazed Tahkesis cultist wannabe, a god dying of a cosmic infection & the gods' remaining cells becoming their own entities, and so many other ways to explain it across multiple settings.
But it all depends on if the DM says it's cool.
Just because you can find a way, doesn't mean the DM agrees to it and/or can see such.
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DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
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How would you fit the Plasmoid race into a pre-existing campaign settings like Eberron and Forgotten Realms... By this I mean not as a one off individual but the whole race... I feel that Spelljammer didn't give me anything to go on in terms of their culture or anything about them really as a people...
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Introducing a whole new intelligent species into a world that was constructed without them is usually going to feel forced, unless you do a lot of reconstructing. (Given how kitchen-sink the FR already is, this may not apply to that specific setting.)
That said, as intelligent oozes, "they live deep underground, and have only recently made contact with the surface" seems like a workable start. Or, of course, "they live out in space, and have mad contact", but then you're also introducing spelljamming.
Deliberately so. Space is too big for there to be a single Plasmoid culture.
Even if they're native to only one world, which world it is will make a big difference. The Plasmoids of Eberron will not be much like the Plasmoids of the FR, and neither will be like the Plasmoids of Plasmodia, the world where they're the only intelligent species. (And that last one will have more than one culture.)
It's more work for the GM, but you get the Plasmoids that your campaign wants, rather than trying to fit in a few paragraphs of generic Plasmoid culture.
And if you want some ideas, the plasmoids in the creature book give you a little to start with.
THEY CRASHLANDED IN A SPACESHIP BOOM
Actually The Lost Laboratory of Kwalish, which plays with the spaceship theme, does feature an Ooze flooded city from which Plasmoids could come.
OP, In my game I introduced a plane/demiplane environment called Metastassy. It's where hydras and trolls and other regenerative monsters come from and there's a sort of symbiosis or coexistence between such creatures and oozes. Plasmoids could easily come from there, and Metastassy has a number of portals to prime material worlds. I've left it as a lost mystery of sorts that proposes Metastassy may have been a laboratory or even Abyssal layer belonging to Jubillex, or may have had some role in Jubillex becoming what it is. Anyway this protean world is where I've detemrined plasmoids come from in my game. If you want something less planar, you could simply create an island with a similar ecology.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Having the plasmoid be one of the Underdark races seems like a natural fit; and certainly there have been examples of this already (Out of the Abyss comes to mind; though that was partially due to the presence of the demon lord Juiblex).
A plasmoid race is no more strange than, say, the mushroom-looking Myconids.
If not that; it’d be easy to say that plasmoids operate with a great amount of secrecy & discretion…especially considering that the ooze-based monsters tend to attack / be attacked on sight. I’d have them live out of tunnels or sewers beneath an urban setting.
Currently, I plan on introducing a plasmoid NPC in my Waterdeep campaign: they occupy a very haunted hotel, and navigate through the pipes to get around. As the adventurers encounter the ghosts / monsters plaguing the hotel, this plasmoid provides them with helpful warnings through the walls (which the adventurers will believe is a ghost whispering to them). I’m looking forward to the story.
Magical experiment gone wrong. Or right, maybe. Seems like that could be enough to get you started with a couple dozen of them.
PC could have been a sacrifice, worshiper, or cursed by Juiblex. If you want to keep with the Forgotten Realms setting.
My party and I incorporated them into Exandria by making them a sea-dwelling species: https://www.reddit.com/r/Exandria/comments/1cef3q1/comment/l5kepuj/?context=3
Not really. No campaign setting, not even Dragonlance, is so small and well-detailed that there's no room for it to have a sapient species that's just been getting along out in the margins where others didn't care to look before.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Heliana's part 2 would go a long way regarding Oozefolk vs Plasmoids, setting discrepancy-wise, around here.
But barring that...I can see Plasmoids spawning from a barren wasteland bearing strange metaphorical fruit due to the energies from a magic-torn battle long ago, a failed attempt to make a new dragon by a crazed Tahkesis cultist wannabe, a god dying of a cosmic infection & the gods' remaining cells becoming their own entities, and so many other ways to explain it across multiple settings.
But it all depends on if the DM says it's cool.
Just because you can find a way, doesn't mean the DM agrees to it and/or can see such.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.