Moorcock and RPGs Part Two – STORMHACK!

We’re back in Derry and Toms and returning to Moorcock’s influence and presence in RPGs in the company of Ralph Lovegrove, host of the Fictoplasm Podcast and designer of STORMHACK!

We talk Moorcock (obviously), gaming, podcasting and other bits n bobs, as well as Ralph’s own take on the Moorcockian role-playing game… STORMHACK!

We also mention Appendix N and other recommended reading lasts from RPGs such as RuneQuest.

Breakfast in the Ruins is hosted on Podbean and available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Owltail, Podparadise, TuneIn, Overcast, Amazon Music and most other podcast clients. If we’re not on your favourite let us know and we’ll sort it.

Check out our Patreon for exclusive updates and content.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Sven Hassel’s Wheels of Terror – Part One

Old pal Robbo joins me in Derry & Toms to discuss the book from Pops that blew my mind into tiny pieces back in the early 80s, Sven Hassel’s Wheels of Terror! We look at the man himself, including the shroud of mystery around his history, the first part of the novel and it’s horrific, bleak yet darkly humorous depiction of the impact of war, and whether this was really suitable reading for an 11 or 12 year old to move onto from the Doctor Who novelisations by Target Books. We also talk Moorcock (naturally) and the impact growing up in the ruins of a war must have had on him.

We also probably add wargamers, military geeks and the people of Withernsea and Patrington to the list of people we’ve offended.

Check out our Patreon for exclusive updates and content.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Spirits Burning w/ Don Falcone

Spirits Burning with Don Falcone

We’re back with another look at Moorcockian music, this time in the company of Don Falcone, captain of the starship Spirits Burning, long time collaborative portal for progressive and space rock projects involving luminaries from across the rock field, most recently Michael Moorcock himself with their last two albums being musical adaptations of the Dancers at the End of Time trilogy.

We talk Moorcock (obviously) and Don’s influences and history as a musician and producer, as well as a few other bits n’ bobs as we go.

The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly continues with Chapter 10 and an unusual encounter (score and atmos again by @nand_soundtrax).

Check out our Patreon for exclusive updates and content.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

The Knight of the Swords Book Two

Loz returns as we head up to the Roof Garden to ruminate over Corum’s endless jawing with a slightly dubious sorceror in The Knight of the Swords Book Two.

Multiple varieties of pants are considered along with a couple of actually palatable beers. Progress I say!

Meanwhile, Gerard Arthur Connelly and co reach Grevenburg.

Check out our Patreon for exclusive updates and content.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

The Knight of the Swords Part One w/ @lozbearfield

The Knight of the Swords Part One

We’re back at Derry and Tom’s and unfortunately so are the challenging porters.

REJOICE as we finally get around to covering Corum…

SIGH as we continue to fail to avoid weird beer…

DESPAIR as our energy levels dip in the second half…

GASP at chapter two of The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly…

Breakfast in the Ruins is hosted on Podbean and available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Owltail, Podparadise, TuneIn, Overcast and most other podcast clients. If we’re not on your favourite let us know and we’ll sort it.

Check out our Patreon for exclusive updates and content.

Our banner art and logo is by Simon Perrins. Follow him on Twitter and check out his store.

Moorcock RPGs and the Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly

Moorcock RPGs and the Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly

Phil, Loz and I celebrate an all too brief interlude in lockdown life to drink weird porters and muse upon Moorcock’s treatment at the hands of tabletop role-playing games.

Phil taunts us with her syrupy beer avoidance skills, two-man canoes get far too many mentions and Loz gatekeeps Moorcock RPG play (the rotter).

Also, The Journal of Gerard Arthur Connelly debuts with chapter one. There are 5 more to come (and if I don’t get pelted with rottent tomatoes I may write more).

Bored, cold, so… YouTube Channel?

Frost is laying over the Bradford hills like a crisp, armoured shiver blanket so I thought balls to it… I’ll knock out another video version of a podcast episode (lazily put together this time on the native Windows video maker with a slideshow and audio). I’ve done this, as much as anything else, just to see how the process works. It also makes a change from uploading short videos of Lindsey in Predicaments.

So many predicaments…

On balance I probably prefer the Lindsey clips. Somehow I need to figure out a way of combining the two. Anyway, here’s the YouTube version of Episode 01…

Perhaps we’ll do a video episode at some point…

Breakfast in the Ruins Book Club

Thanks to a great sugestion from a fellow traveller (@walfseo, you know who you are), I’ll now be posting in good time to let you know what we’ll be covering next.

So, with that in mind, dust off your copy of The Jewel in the Skull and get reading.

In epsiode 02 Natasha and I will be discussing Book One of The Jewel in the Skull (pages 7 to 39) and having a few tugs of Angostura Rum and some delicious Trinidadian cuisine!

If you can get your thoughts to me by Sunday 28th October I’ll include them in the outro!

Welcome to Derry and Tom’s Roof Gardens

“When in doubt, Karl Glogauer would always return to Derry and Tom’s. He would walk down Kensington Church Street in the summer sunshine, ignoring the boutiques and coffee shops, until he reached the High Street. He would pass the first of the three Great department stores which stood side by side, stern and eternal and beautiful, blotting out the sky, and would go through the tall glass doors of the second store, Derry’s. The strongest of the citadels.”
Michael Moorcock, Breakfast in the Ruins

Thanks for joining me! Over the coming millennia I will be joined by a host of guests, travellers and mere passers-by to enjoy the gardens and ruminate on all things Moorcockian, and occasionally things bearing the distinct scent of the Million Spheres.

This is a fresh endeavour for me so please bear with me whilst I negotiate the moonbeam roads.

Follow @breakfastruins

“There was no more dangerous kind of madman than one who devoted a good brain and a courageous heart to unhealthy ambitions.”
― Michael Moorcock, The City in the Autumn Stars: Being a Continuation of the Story of the Von Bek Family and Its Association with Lucifer, Prince of Darkness, and the Cure for the World’s Pain

Professor Hira and Shaky Mo with Windsor Davies just before the nuclear accident at Rhyl – 1976