Hey, how ya doin'?
I'm pretty new to the forum, but my main discussion point is this: How does geography affect a story? Besides obvious, major things like equatorial nations are going to be hotter... mountains contain natural resources... oceans are not easy to cross... major cities tend to be on coasts and rivers, what subtle, realistic details make the geography "real" to you.

For example, something that was fascinating to me was the concept of rain shadows, this led me to realize that there is a lot to physical geography that I didn't know.

Some example questions:
How does geography affect warfare in a fantasy narrative? Political disputes? Culture?
How is setting (ancient, medieval, modern-day, so on) affected differently by similar geographic features? (I suspect the invention of flight is a major point here)
What long-term trends can totally and permanently change a biome? (where and why does one find ancient ruins abandoned?)

I'm hoping this thread might be a good source of help to those who want realistic, heavily thought-out worlds that don't fall apart under close scrutiny.

-Gears

P.S.
I have some story ideas I have been chewing on for a while now, but we can leave the specifics to another post.