It's time to get specific -- about magic! When you're building a magical system for your fantasy world, there's a lot to consider. Where does it come from? Who can access it -- everyone, or just some percentage of the population? Does it come naturally, or does it have to be trained? All of these choices will affect how magic is perceived, valued, and used in society. In this episode, we poke at all these considerations and make some choices for the expression of magic in our co-created world. Also! If you're eligible to nominate for the 2023 Hugo Awards, then as of the time of posting, you've ..read more

When you're building a society's conceptions of gender and gender roles... where do you start? Do you want to draw from historical precedent (for good or ill), or try to create something from scratch? G.R. Macallister joins us to discuss thoughtfully incorporating ideas of gender into your world, whether or not you're making it a cornerstone of your premise. We also discuss where gender intersects with other important worldbuilding concepts: religion, government, sexuality, family structures, and more! (Transcript for Episode 95 tk) Our Guest: G.R. Macallister is the author of the Five Qu ..read more

Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanoes... unstable wormholes, hellmouths, murder hornets, sharknados... When you're writing speculative fiction, the scope of disaster can be wild! Do the local wizards cause occasional hails of turnips? Does Gondor have a tornado warning system? After a thousand-year flood, does magical FEMA show up to rebuild? Decisions about how your society plans for and reacts to disaster can imply a lot else about their infrastructure, government, religion, and other societal constructs. Then there's the question of: Is the disaster the backbone of your plot, or just o ..read more

Happy new year, listeners! In this episode, we take some questions from you! But not just any questions -- questions that probe specific worldbuilding conundrums you're facing, either in your own work or in popular media. In response to your prompts, we discuss imaginary friends, villain tropes, the deficiencies of sci-fi obstetrics, cultural shifts, and grappling with originality. Transcript for Episode 93 (tk ..read more