I’m at Seven Hills RPG convention in Sheffield and typing this update late from my hotel room with a cheeky cup of tea to my side. The hotel WiFi looks to be easy to access and lets my Chromebook sing and fly along with ease.
So, this is the end of day one and I’ve had tremendous fun. The Garrison Hotel is the venue, a place that has become a home from home as it serves as the location for both Seven Hills and Furnace in October. As I opened the hotel room door the memories flooded back of the many times I have been here and these pleasant rooms.
There are continual small improvements at the hotel every year. This time around the cooked breakfast seemed larger and all the options were open for selection. Good start to the day!
My first game was in Pete’s Iron Edda – World of Metal and Bone, a Powered by the Apocalypse game of Norse themed settlements facing inimical Dwarves riding constructed steel giants. A really fun game and great start to the event. My character, a noble skald with sculpted hair and a lightning powered electric lute was crushed under the foot of one afore mentioned steel behemoth. I liked the game Moves and atmosphere, much of which I think could be played in a dark fantasy setting of your own devising. I’m resolved to take a further look at the game if hobby budget allows.
Lunch was my usual sojourn to Morissons for their medium self select salad and flavoured water.
My second game was Paul Lawrence’s wonderful Savage Worlds: Lankhmar, where we investigated the strange summonings of deadly flocks of crows that killed priests from up and coming cults in the very heart of the city itself. Nice plot, heroic level characters and super gaming bling, including bespoke and unique poker chips themed to the setting. I always forget how much fun Savage Worlds is. With the cards and poker chips and sturdy and fun rules mechanics you can’t help but have fun.
After an over indulgent beer battered fish, chips and mushy peas, followed by apple crumble and custard, I ventured down into Dungeon Table 1 for my Uncharted Worlds game. I had a group of absolutely top players, an initial setup, some images and some ideas on the outcomes. It was all very ‘let’s play to find out’ with the most minimal of plotting, so just a little bit nerve wracking. This game was a heist of the rare element Uridium, on the Near Dark system. The game was very well received, full of increasingly riotous action and raucous laughter. A bit relieved, as these are highly experienced top players, which was probably a good portion of the reason that the game worked so well.
Although the bar was a considerable lure, I set off to bed with a cup of tea before midnight, so showing my age there! But it was a late one anyway as I tapped away at this blog.
Another wonderful breakfast and onto my next game as a player and one that I had particularly anticipated. Paul Baldowski’s Cypher system set in the A|State setting. Paul put together a slow burner investigative scenario that we did our best to hijack by taking forever to get out of The Three Bells pub. I thought for a fanciful while that Steve Elves’ character might be tied to a chair for the whole scenario. There was no map to stroke (Paul will understand), but otherwise top notch stuff!
Finally, I ran a game of Everway. Yes, Everway! I really love this game, not only for the three interlocking resolution mechanisms but for the positive and restorative quality to the stories as heroes seek to heal the realms that they encounter. The Winds of Whitefall proved to be a good scenario, with lots of opportunity for good roleplay from a great team of players who were still giving their all right to the end of the scenario. It was probably a good decision to keep the game tight to running length and squeeze as much creative juice out of the moments as possible. Everway still holds up for me and it was great to be able to bring the game to the table once more.
In summary, Seven Hills was another really good gaming convention, with great games and super people. The Garrison continues to be a nice venue, providing us with an ongoing home over the years. There were more games than players this year, so we found that some GMs didn’t get to run their creations and teamed up to form groups in others. Everyone had a game if they wanted one.
April 2017 has the theme of ‘Urban Legends’. So many possibilities!
Tremendous times and rock on for Furnace in October!