Your Rivers Are Wrong

Warning: This episode contain spoilers for a movie from 1987. If you would rather not hear about us rant about our newly found love of Inigo Montoya, please listen to a different episode. :P Join us as we discuss in our sleep-deprived delirium what it means to be invested in a character, how to consciously move a character forward, and why sometimes the side character is more lovable than the main...

Today we learn how to utilize all five senses to tell a fully immersive story, and highlight what makes media like Arcane so satisfying from an artistic perspective. Roles are swapped today as we keep trying out new things for the new year!  Prompt: Describe a monster that cannot be perceived by the five senses.

We're back! You're back! Welcome back to season 4 of Your Rivers Are Wrong. With a new format and some holiday cheer, we kick off the new season talking about introductions! They're messy, awkward, and never done quite right, and that's what we love about them. Thankfully, in the worldbuilding and storytelling realm, practice makes perfect. Join us for a fun episode, and thanks for being here! Pro...

Sometimes the most important details are the ones unspoken. In our final episode for 2022, we break down the absence of information, and emotions evoked from the mystery of the unknown. We follow it up with a discussion on how shared histories can add incredible depth to two characters well before they ever interact. An introspective episode to top of an incredible year. Celebrate with us, and enj...

The penultimate episode of Season 3 sends us on some strongly worded rants about our love-hate opinions on love dynamics and writing fiction. Watch as we fill in the blanks on our own origin stories! Prompt: Write a love triangle where Character A is also Character C!

Hey, that looks familiar...it's another episode of Your Rivers Are Wrong! We talk time loops - why constraining your setting to a time rather than a place leads to some intense introspection. We follow it up with witches! The cauldron-twirling trope of a villain that has gotten more love in recent years. Hope you enjoy! Prompt: Describe a protagonist that uses a time loop to escape a witch's den.

Spooky season continues! We start off this episode talking about montage sequences, from the triumphant trainings of Rocky to the twists and turns of the intro to Up. What makes them both practical and engaging? Werewolves make their debut as a late Halloween topic, and we break down to nuances of duality. Join us on this episode of Your Rivers Are Wrong! Prompt: Describe a montage sequence detail...

Merle and Dante tackle prompts, all submitted by you! Enjoy the chaos that unfolds as we improv entire worlds from your suggestions.

It's spoooooky season! We break down our favorite terrifying topics, from the laundry list of essential vampire characteristics, to the terror of something almost human, but not quite. Join us on this haunting holiday on another episode of Your Rivers are Wrong! Prompt: Build a city or settlement with humans being the minority population.

An unlikely pairing of topics! In our longest episode in a while, we first discuss the odd perks of a barren landscape - how emptiness allows for introspective storytelling, impossible heists, and intense arguments. We branch off into a breakdown of the young adult novel sphere - the impact of an international audience, and the importance of its influence on a maturing generation. All this and mor...

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 li...

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 Mirro...

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...

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...

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...

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 ment...

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?

A fan request brings us to talk about the wonders of plants! From the clay-potted primroses to the massive vines of Mother Nature, what role does plant-life play in books and cinema? And we'd be remiss to not talk about its modern counterpart, the zombies! Another massive, overwhelming force in story and recent media - why do people enjoy zombie movies, and what gives them their thrill and depth?...

As promised last episode, what's dragon talk without dungeon talk? We break down what makes a dungeon a premiere setting for your storytelling needs, as well as the varying successes of the third installment of books and movies.

Behold, brave warrior! A grand adventure awaits, a treasure at its summit! Steel yourselves, gird your loins, brace for impact, for harsh and frightening is the road ahead! What makes a great quest? What makes them exciting, engaging? Find out on this episode, where we break down the parts of a story worth telling, as we rant like eight-year olds about dragons, and how stones might be mightier tha...

Look, up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a flying island? No, it's another episode of Your Rivers Are Wrong! We talk about the classic superhero story, the complex puzzle that is the MCU, and what makes for a hero to root for. Right after, we discuss their animal sidekicks! The plucky, charming, and ever-so-merchandisable companions of every Disney princess and dystopian magical girl series. Why a...

What's a king to a god, and a god to a storyteller? Amidst the chaos of a lost wallet and overpriced plants, we explore the role the deities play in our settings, and how to balance the connection between the creators and their people. Right after, we talk timeskips! The value of skipping ahead, and the plotlines gained from not knowing all the details. Prompt: Create a god!