Breakfast in the Ruins

After thinking about it for six years, we finally did it. We hosted a couple of days of Moorcock-flavoured gaming here in the heart of Bradford.

And it is done.

Stick a fork in it.

But Phil and I had lots of thoughts about it that we wanted to record and share. Thoughts that would have been locked in a vault, probably, had this all gone down like a shit balloon... Fortunately, though, it went down a treat!

So, join us as we mull it all over and talk about RPGs and other stuff for a while.

We'll be back in a few days with Part Two - Breakfast(s) with the Rollers

Miles is back for Part Two of The Ice Schooner, in which we find that our hero Konrad Arflane is still a dick, and we beat around several bushes, including the novelisation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Richard Widmark and flamethrowers, and comparative experiences of angiograms…

JOIN US!!!!

(and listen to the Casual Trek Podcast)

It's Threads Day!

So what better excuse to have Dr Malcom Craig back in Derry & Toms to talk about NUCLEAR WAR, and particularly General Sir John Hackett’s The Third World War: August 1985 (1978) and its sequel The Third World War: The Untold Story (1982).

As we're both gamers, and Malcolm has an academic interest in it too, we also get into it with GDW's Twilight 2000 RPG, arguably the ultimate expression of the speculative World War Three RPG genre. A game that transformed our Cold War fears into the participatory storytelling of the RPG format, and allowed players to wander the ruins of post-nuclear Europe while tracking ammunition, diesel fuel, rads, rations, and the collapse of NATO command structures in all the meticulous detail a teenage nerd could delight in.

You can pre-order Cold City and Hot War 2e in print, or get the PDFs instantly, here, and read Malcolm's paper on Twilight 2000 by clicking below:

When You Say, “Thermonuclear War,” I Think You Mean “the Call to Adventure”! The Twilight: 2000 Tabletop Role-Playing Game and the Postapocalyptic World’s Imaginary Spaces

SYNCHRONIUS NEWS!

We're less than four weeks out from our first Moorcockian gaming weekend, Rolling in the Ruins 2026, and suddenly Elric RPGs are like buses!

What great fortune then, that I had this RPG-related chat lined up with Marcus Bone, the guy behind https://stormbringerrpg.com/ and many other things, like:

https://www.darkconspiracytherpg.com/

https://demonground.org/archives/299-2/

and

https://unboundbook.org/

So much to talk about. Join us!

Dave returns to Derry & Toms to conclude our coverage of the 1973 Karl Edward Wagner anthology Death Angel's Shadow, featuring his anti-hero Kane.

Some great stuff in here, but some rough stuff too, with references to sexual assault, so please beware that we will discuss it in both the original context, as we see it, and that of a modern reader.

Two stories round out our journey with this Kane book, Cold Light and Mirage.

Check out Dave's latest trip with SÖNUS, the single Sisyphus Stomp - the video is on YouTube - and you can pre-order new album The Planes of Torment (release date May 22nd).