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Oren is a grumpy old man whose physical age hasn’t quite caught up with him, at least that’s what the kids who won’t get off his lawn keep saying. He’s been into roleplaying games since he was knee-high to a d10, and into prose writing for nearly as long. He loves stories and games that push the envelope of storytelling, like the Discworld series and the RPG Primetime Adventures. He’s also a huge Star Trek fan, though his rants on the mistakes of Voyager and Enterprise might make you think otherwise.
We all have our favorite characters who we hate to see go, but sometimes killing a character is actually bad for the story. That’s what we’re talking about today, and we promise it’s not just an excuse to complain about deaths that made us sad. … read more »
Novelty is one of the four critical elements that make stories popular, and in speculative fiction, settings are a great place to harvest a novelty crop. I’ve got nothing against castles, forests, and space battleships, but mixing things up creates opportunities for new kinds of … read more »
Camella the rat familiar perched upon the highest shelf of Witch’s cottage and stared down at the spy. Warlocks and wizards sent spies into the cottage to steal Witch’s powerful charms. But this wasn’t like any spy Camella had ever seen, not like the mechanical gnomes and flame sprites that warlocks and wizards preferred. Read more »
I was listening to old podcasts of Mythcreants and caught “The author is dead.” I’ve heard that a lot before, but what about when you love a work from a living problematic author or value their writing advice? You can’t really pretend the author is … read more »
A long time ago, on a podcast far far away, the Mythcreant hosts debated the merits of multiple points of view. Battle lines were drawn, harsh words were exchanged, and it was clear that the two sides would never see eye to eye. But it’s … read more »
The fantasy genre is stuffed with sieges, even in series other than Lord of the Rings! From the Battle of Winterfell to whatever Prince Caspian was doing at Aslan’s How, fantasy storytellers are always eager to show us battles of catapults and scaling ladders. But sieges are complicated, … read more »
We’ve only got two hosts today, but which of them is the hero and which is the sidekick? While we’re figuring that out, we might as well talk about sidekicks and their role in the story. What is a sidekick? How do they work? And … read more »
Netflix’s new hit fantasy show The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance has a lot going for it. The superb use of puppets and strong visual themes really help it stand out from other fantasy franchises. Most of the characters are sharp and distinct, and the … read more »
Most of the time, tropes are neither inherently good nor bad. They’re tools that can be used well or poorly. But that’s not always the case. Some tropes are just bad, and that’s what we’re talking about today – specifically, the tropes we dislike the … read more »
Parents are a real bugbear for any author writing an underage protagonist, and it’s not difficult to see why. Not only are parents generally more capable than their children, but they also have a vested interest in not allowing said children to undertake dangerous tasks, … read more »