Sunday 3 March 2019

Breakfast in the Ruins - a work in progress

It's been ages since I blogged and a few years since I tried anything new hobby-wise, particularly anything t'interweb related beyond twitter and generally using it for all of the general reasons we use it (gifs, cat pics, buying things I don't need etc).

However in recent years, whilst doing lengthy commutes, I found that podcasts had moved on somewhat from the type I'd been exposed to previously, with less of the 'yuck yuck' interactions between podcast hosts that felt the need to be artificially heightened, and more of a naturalistic and joyous approach to a specific subject matter that drew me in to feel part of the conversation. Combined with this new found interest I've been needing a hobby and outlet for my creative energies, such that they are.

A few years back, for similar reasons, I started this blog to have a good rant, but also to link to the online articles I'd written for thequietus.com. I didn't really keep that up with any regularity though, so it fell by the wayside.

Anyway, it struck me a few weeks ago that a sudden upsurge in interest amongst my friends in fantasy fiction, and particularly Michael Moorcock, had generated a number of conversations that I really enjoyed participating in. We were also having particular discussions about how to best model Moorcock in a table top role playing game. One night I started typing up some thoughts regarding my approach to it and, reading it back, it was written in a conversational style and for a split second the idea of a podcast themed around Michael Moorcock's books and other associated art seemed appealing. A few sherries later I'd ordered a USB audio hub and a condenser microphone and the next day recorded a five minute podcast introduction as a proof of concept. I shared it with some like-minded friends and, following feedback, decided to give it a whirl. I then took the plunge and set up Breakfast in the Ruins on WordPress and an accompanying twitter account @breakfastruins.

Michael Moorcock as a subject seemed the natural choice, for reasons that may become apparent during the introductory episode. I look forward to chatting with you in Derry and Tom's Roof Garden.

From a podcasting perspective, thanks for the inspiration to:

Dirk the Dice and Blythy at thegrognardfiles.com

Conrad and Fox at Spacespinner2000.com

Chris and Rachel at rachelwatchesstartrek.com

2 comments:

  1. Will you ever share your Moorcock based table top rpg? I'd be super curious.

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  2. Only last night we recorded the first of our Elric episodes (coming soon) and discussed this very thing. Now I've got my head around the podcasting malarkey we will be doing an episode (or more) on the RPG angle and I've been making some notes re a stripped back game idea. I'm sure it will come out at some point. Meanwhile there is a write up on here of a game Loz GM'd a few years ago. I think he captured the spirit of a MM flavoured game very well. The write up fizzled out before it went cosmic and multiversal though and it's now too long ago for me to remember what went on, so I won't finish it. Shame really. It had all sorts of interesting shenanigans.

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