SPECULATE

Speculate is an award-winning author-led actual play TTRPG show focused on worldbuilding and the craft of storytelling. Our casts are mostly or entirely authors, editors, agents, and other SFF publishing professionals.

Co-hosted by authors Gregory A. Wilson and Brandon O’Brien, the show showcases the collaborative storytelling skills of professional writers and explores the overlap between different forms of storytelling - from prose to games and beyond.

They’ve played Blades in the Dark, Girl by Moonlight, Lasers & Feelings, Slugblaster, D&D, and more.

Speculate is the winner of the 2023 Rainbow Roll Rally award for Best Visuals.

Speculate’s Court of Blades series Valloward was an Early Selection for the 2023 New Jersey Web Fest and nominated in four categories under Actual Play (Video) - Outstanding Actual Play (Video), Best Ensemble of an Actual Play, Best GM, and Best Editing. Valloward is also an Official Selection for the 2023 Minnesota Web Fest (nominated for Best Actual Play Video) and an Official Selection for the 2023 Baltimore Next Media Web Fest and the 2023 Rio WebFest.

Speculate began its life in 2011 as a literary criticism show hosted by Gregory A. Wilson and Bradley P. Beaulieu, transitioning to the current actual play format in 2018.

Michael R. Underwood was a co-host from 2015-2023, leading shows including Splendour & Shadow and the critically-acclaimed Valloward.

Your Hosts

Brandon O'Brien (he/they)

Brandon O’Brien is a writer, performance poet, teaching artist, and game designer from Trinidad and Tobago.
His work has been shortlisted for the 2014 and 2015 Small Axe Literary Competitions and the 2020 Ignyte Award for Best in Speculative Poetry, and is published in Uncanny Magazine, Fireside Magazine, Strange Horizons, and New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean.

He has also written tie-in fiction for brands such as Wizards of the Coast and Paizo, and play content for independent tabletop RPGs such as Wanderhome and The House Doesn’t Always Win.

Brandon is the former Poetry editor of the Hugo Award-winning magazine FIYAH: A Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. His debut poetry collection, Can You Sign My Tentacle?, available from Interstellar Flight Press, is the winner of the 2022 Elgin Award.

You can learn more about Brandon’s work at brandonobrien.xyz.
Gregory A. Wilson (he/him)

Gregory A. Wilson is Professor of English at St. John's University in New York, where he teaches creative writing and speculative fiction, and is the author of The Problem in the Middle: Liminal Space and the Court Masque, the second edition of which was recently published by Clemson UP, and a number of book chapters and journal articles.
Outside academia he is the author of the epic fantasy The Third Sign, the award-winning graphic novel Icarus, the dark fantasy novels Grayshade and Renegade (with Heretic forthcoming), and the D&D adventure/sourcebook Tales and Tomes from the Forbidden Library, plus a number of published short stories. He is one of the co-organizers of the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium.

Under the moniker Arvan Eleron, he runs a Twitch channel focused on story and narrative, with many sponsored TTRPG campaigns from companies like Free League, Cubicle 7, and Pegasus Spiele.
He lives with his family in Connecticut; his virtual home is gregoryawilson.com.

Featured Cast
The Strange Friends

Jeoi Gawain Lin (he/they)

They are totally made of meat.
Iori Kusano (they/them)

Iori Kusano is an Asian American writer and Extremely Ordinary Office Gremlin living in Tokyo. They are a graduate of Clarion West 2017 and their fiction has previously appeared in Apex Magazine and Baffling Magazine. Find them on Twitter @IoriKusano and Instagram as iori_stagram, or at kusanoiori.com.
Valerie Valdes (she/her)

Valerie Valdes’s debut novel Chilling Effect was shortlisted for the 2021 Arthur C. Clarke Award and was named one of Library Journal’s best SF/fantasy novels of 2019. Valerie is co-editor of Escape Pod, and her short fiction and poetry have been featured in Uncanny Magazine, Time Travel Short Stories and Nightmare Magazine. Valerie lives in Georgia with her husband, children and cats.
Brandon O'Brien (he/they)
Michael R. Underwood (they/he)

Mike was a co-host of Speculate from 2015-2023, leading shows such as Splendour & Shadow and the critically-acclaimed Valloward. They are an author and game designer, best known for their books GEEKOMANCY and the GENRENAUTS series of novellas. They were a consulting designer on and did additional writing on 2023’s Candela Obscura rpg from Darrington Press.