Rolling in the Ruins Saturday 6th June 2026

1. Why I Went

There is a British author called Michael Moorcock. Devotees created a podcast about his work called Breakfast in the Ruins (after one of his books).

https://breakfastintheruins.com/podcast-episodes/

The producers of that podcast decided that they’d organise a TTRPG convention using games based on those works.

The dates of the events happened to fall on weekends where I didn’t have other conventions. So I contacted the organisers.

I prefer to referee at conventions but I’ve never refereed any of the relatively obscure official TTRPGs based on Moorcock’s work. I enquired if they’d be interested in people refereeing Moorcock-based games using other systems, such as my own. The advantage would be that I could showcase some of his more obscure works.

They agreed to let me do this so I happily signed up.

2. The Shape of the Convention

The podcast is called Breakfast in the Ruins, after one of Moorcock’s works. So they decided to call the convention Rolling in the Ruins.

It takes place in Bradford. There are two days, two weeks apart. I don’t know why. This report is about the first day, the one that took place on 6th June. I also intend to go to their second day on 20th June and will write a separate report about that.

There are two game sessions each day:

10:30am to 2pm

3pm to 6:30pm

Initially the organisers considered theming each day around one of Moorcock’s over-arching themes: Law and Chaos. Ultimately they didn’t, which made my planning and preparation easier.

The convention was promoted on social media and organised through the WarHorn platform. Games were submitted by referees. They were posted on WarHorn and people signed up. Communication was good. I exchanged some direct emails with one of the organisers. When it looked like they might not have enough games to satisfy the numbers likely to attend, they kindly allowed me to referee in the morning and afternoon. Though I’d said my games were for 5 people, I said I’d take a 6th player at the event if necessary.

The venue is a function room above a bar in central Bradford. It is only a five-minute walk from the train station at Bradford Interchange and is large, airy and well lit. It was set up for games when I arrived and coffee, biscuits and home-made cake were available.

There were 4-5 games with 4-6 players each morning and afternoon so it was a fairly small convention. But this was the first time it was being held.

The event was bookended by social meet-ups and podcast recordings.

3. Games Played and Games Run

To save accommodation costs I chose to travel to and from Bradford on the day of the event. This meant setting out really early. I also bought my train tickets well in advance to save money. This turned out to be a slightly circuitous route involving a change of trains, and stations, in Manchester.

But one of the USPs of Rolling in the Ruins is that the first game starts at 10:30am. So I, even with my long journey, was at the venue well before the start of my first game.

Slot 1 - Saturday 10:30 - 14:00

The City of the Beast.

There is a famous series of books written by Edgar Rice Burroughs at the start of the 20th century. They are about the adventures of an Earthman, John Carter, on Mars. Moorcock wrote a series of similar books as an homage.

I believe he wrote the whole trilogy in a single weekend with the assistance of chemicals. But when I read them as a teenager, they captured my imagination. An accident with an experimental teleportation machine sends Michael Kane millions of miles across space and millions of years back in time to Mars. There he encounters ancient civilisations, marauding blue giants and a Princess needing rescuing.

From memory, without rereading the books, I offered to run a scenario based on the plot of the first one, The City of the Beast.

As the convention approached I did deeper research and crafted an appropriate blend of the setting in the book with my own game system. This, of course, meant that this was the first time I’d run this adventure and had players create characters in the setting. Despite those potential pitfalls the game went well.

I had five players. Only one of them had read the original book. So I needn’t have worried so much or done such deep research. One player was completely new to role-playing and the others had all played more traditional games. I think the freedoms of more modern narrative games came as a revelation to them.

They created setting-appropriate characters and really leaned into the narrative part of the rules, finding ways to introduce new plot elements to their advantage.

It was a good game. I will be offering to run it again at the next Rolling in the Ruins in two weeks' time and possibly at other events across the UK.

Slot 2 - Saturday 15:00 - 18:30

Because I was unfamiliar with the venue and the journey I’d bought my own food and drink to keep me going. The typical supermarket meal deals. I think there were convenient eating places outside the event location.

The Winter Crow.

Moorcock wrote a novel called The Ice Schooner. Its conceit is that an Ice Age has gripped the Earth. Huge ships sailing on massive skis hunt gigantic whales which have evolved to move on the frozen surface. Basically Moby Dick on ice.

Ignoring the deeper philosophical themes of the novel, you’re still left with sailors' taverns, recruitment or press-ganging, an obsessed and tyrannical Captain, a disgruntled and mutinous crew, rival ships and ice whales. I decided to add in a Kraken, a giant squid, and the scenario virtually wrote itself.

The players really threw themselves into the shipboard shenanigans, initially supporting their driven Captain but slowly being forced to turn against her. Again they grasped the narrative elements of the game, without which they would never have been able to survive the climactic battle.

The convention ended with a nice farewell speech from the organiser. Many people moved on to a social meet-up but I made my long journey home.

4. Play Reflections

This was a Michael Moorcock-based event. I had been extremely worried about having a Moorcock scholar in one of my games who knew the world better than me.

As it turned out most of them had never read the books I was basing my games on.

For most of the players this was their first experience with more narrative, non-traditional role-playing. They really embraced the freedoms it gave them. This was a delight to watch.

Both scenarios worked. Now I’ve done the work I’ll probably try wheeling them out at other conventions later in 2026. The Ice Schooner scenario worked especially well.

5. What I Took Away

For a first-time convention this was extremely well organised and was based at a good venue. I would like to see this event grow.

I really enjoy themed conventions. Necessity is the mother of invention and I would never have written these two scenarios if I hadn’t needed to for this. They both turned out well, with the whaling scenario in particular having some real depth.

I’m really looking forward to day 2 in a couple of weeks.