Your Rivers Are Wrong

It's tough to be a demigod! Torn between two worlds, we discuss the struggles of the halfway hero, forced to choose between the celestial responsibilities and the humble hometowns. We also talk about the big blue sea! The stories it facilitates, the mighty of a force very much beyond ourselves. Join us for another wonderful episode of Your Rivers are Wrong.

Prompt: Tell me about the sea monster living in the wrong river.

Join us as we go off the deep end and discuss the whosits and whatsits of mermaids! What adds to their mystique, and why are their stories so compelling? We also reflect on the topic of mirrors, and the variety of motifs and storylines that might originate from them. The episode quickly gets a bit unhinged, so hope you can stick around for a fun listen.

Prompt: Detail the origin story of the Mirror Man in Snow White!

From the humble farms of yore to the skyward towers of fortune, your character's gotta come from somewhere! We talk about the origins of one's foundations rooted in the societies they are born into, and how they shape their worldviews and futures.

Prompt: The villain must reluctantly defend their hometown!

Live from the Netherlands, Merle and Dante finally meet in person for a very special episode of Your Rivers are Wrong! After 3.5 years of playing D&D online, we finally get to record face-to-face in a super fun episode detailing the weight of lost memories and the not-so-unique perks of airship stories. Join us for a one-of-a-kind episode!

Prompt: Make a story about something you've just stumbled upon that nobody knows about.

Season 3 starts with some big topics! Ever wanted to play D&D with way more than 5 people? Let's talk about West Marches, a collaborative effort to structure a living world with many storytellers and even more characters. From there, we bounce to discussing groups as a collective force - what separates a man from a mob, and what power comes with numbers? All this and more in the first episode of Your Rivers are Wrong, Season 3!

To satiate your thirst for season 3, join Merle and a special guest none other than Cherry the Human for a lovely live chat about things we want to understand better: clouds (what makes them cloudy, and why is it so hard to explain what they are?) and names (why are they so important and what if you don't have one or feel like yours fits?). We close off by imagining ourselves a world without names and the amazing impracticalities that come with it.  Make sure to check out Cherry's amazing work at www.naisyuanye.com!

Season 2 is in the books! Join us as we discuss good and bad finales, what makes a great epilogue, and what it takes to end a story on your terms. Then we delve into improv, a necessary skill for anyone storyteller in the TTRPG space. What are some tricks to use when you're caught off-guard? How much should you really prep? All this and more in the season's last episode of Your Rivers Are Wrong.

What makes a great backstory? Heartbreak? Blank spaces? Tons and tons of pages? The history of a traveling hero is core to the path they come to walk - we break down how backstories are a crucial step in the beginnings of any tabletop RPG. And where's that hero headed? The big city, of course? What makes a metropolis a whole world in itself? We discuss aggressively American food, the big city mentality, and the building blocks of writing a story together. Join us for another episode of Your Rivers Are Wrong!

Prompt: Medieval hero is shunted to a modern cityscape - what do they look like after a year?

Three topics? That's more than two! We stumble our way through topics we love and grew up with. What's the appeal of a fairy's whimsy, or a magical transformation, or a celestial body that we landed on in the recent century? There's a lot to love, to be honest.

Prompt: Make a type of magic based on friendship!

It's our birthday week! To celebrate, we cover a topic near and dear to our hearts, theatre! What makes this medium of storytelling so special and unique in the modern era of TV and movies? And we talk spy movies! Which means a solid segment on cultural touchstones like Sky Kids and National Treasure, and other stuff.

Prompt: What would definitely be in a middle school production of Sky Kids?