Addendum

Some might protest that making convicts live inside a whale is essentially a death sentence. Those people go in the whale.

Incarceration Solutions

Prisoners often end up inside whales, but fantasy governments should consider sending them there directly. It's like exile except nobody gets mad at you for sending your worst junk.

Everyone Knows, But Nobody Wants to Be the First

Every single work of fiction should be printed in two versions: Furry and non-furry.

The Laws of Dead and Living

Who carried the grumblings of the owners to the king, and what was done about it? Taums it was, the son of Aums, and he told the king this, that the men of the kingdom had become few in number, not enough to see the harvest done, the farmers feared.
King Hadwis was not deaf but heard it all, not slow to war either but swift in it. He mustered strong men, as many as there were, to march on the underground kingdom. Who led the center? He did, proud in his armor and hard to look upon. Who led the right? It was Count Hemma, unbending and wise in war, the king's brother by oath. Who led the left? Count Kyvring led it, whose hall and whose riches were the greatest any had, but he disdained comfort when foes enjoyed life.
The host seized the caves that were the porch of that realm and dared to go farther. Count Hemma slew men that had horns and were huge, Count Kyvring overcame giants that killed three men by stamping once, and more than one hound of manly size learned the king was too strong for them. The slaughter was great on both sides, but more on the one, and the country below became the king's.
Hadwis made all submit and left them afterward in ownership of their land but under his law that never again should the underground steal away living men from their landly toil but only the dead that both countries might thrive.
Finis

Declaration of Science Fiction Principles

1. "Wormhole" is a terrible term.
2. Spaceships! Woohoo!

Examining the Tail

We all know swords are cooler than bows which are cooler than many other things, gardening for instance, but are we misguided in looking at the items alone? The fact of the matter is that blacksmiths are a thousand times cooler than fletchers. The swordsman goes to a dwarf or huge guy and gets his meteorite-derived blade, but whom does the archer patronize? A workshop filled with grumbling children overseen by a sweaty man who considers manual labor beneath him.

Easy Replacements for Big Flavor

Done: "Dishonest"
Fun: "Soothless"

Addendum

The ideal fantasy plot: A guy gets into 3-5 fights. He loses either the first or second.

Fantasy Struggles

Is the hardest part of writing fantasy pretending that dancing is cool? Or is it paring down your ideas to match the complexity of those employed by the multimillionaires of KISS? Probably the dancing. Most of us, if we're honest, will admit that The Elder sounded a little too complicated.

Game Design Question

Would people in every universe converge on a game similar to chess, or is it so boring that only our world would bother with it?