North Star 2026

I’m still not entirely sure why SF based RPGs seem to be a minority interest at most UK games conventions, but thankfully North Star is here once again to fill the intergalactic void! This year saw 44 games on offer with systems ranging from the venerable Traveller to Alien, and pleasingly both Space:1999 and Space:1899!

Slot 1

I was running Things from the Flood for this slot, which is the teen angst sequel to the more kid friendly Tales from the Loop. I’ve wanted to set a game in Sheffield for a while, so this was the perfect excuse that allowed me to use real life locations that were just outside the Garrison Hotel where we were playing as well as the iconic (and little known) Sheffield Megatron, a cavernous storm drain hidden below Sheffield Station. I based the pre-gen characters on a set of young adults from The Archers on BBC radio 4 which provided some nicely intertwined back stories and an appropriate level of teen angst.

The players all leaned into their characters as they ventured into the hazardous flood zone around Meadowhall, facing toxic spores, dangerous terrain and robot guard sharks, to solve the mystery of why robots in Sheffield suddenly seemed to be malfunctioning. I also made use of a mock up of the Sheffield Star newspaper to give the players a set of plot hooks to follow - this had worked quite nicely in my Tales of the Old West game previously.

Cheers to the players - Amelia Francis, Guy Milner, John Ossoway, Döerte Böhler and Udo Kaiser!

Slot 2

For this one, John Ossoway was GMing and served us up a classic Alien scenario based on William Gibson’s abandoned script for Alien 3. We were playing a crew of UPP operatives returning to Rodina station to find that everything had gone dark. The story followed the expected cinematic beats, starting quietly and ending with a nerve jangling confrontation and some shocking betrayals. Some lovely use of Lego minifigs for props in this as well. 

Slot 4 

Down in the cargo hold for this improvised Traveller game, where I was playing the captain of a high class cruise ship The Darthanon Queen, dealing with needy passengers, malfunctioning toilets, bolshy engineers, bomb scares and a cargo of supposedly fossilised giant arachnids. Congrats to Jane Polwin for directing the improvised chaos and especially for the giant crocheted spider that made a guest appearance - yikes! Amelia also surprised us all when her character let out the loudest scream I have ever heard and had a standup row with one of the NPCs. 

Lunch

The Garrison hotel usually do a nice Sunday lunch, but this year they seemed to struggle with bringing the food out on time, even though everything had been pre-ordered and paid for in advance. The meal itself was very tasty, but I was starving by the time it arrived. Some people were still waiting for puddings by the time the raffle was due to start, so Dom improvised a live linkup to broadcast the draw!

Slot 5

Another change of pace for the final game, with Neil Gow adapting the vampire hunting RPG Night’s Black Agents into a Babylon 5 setting with a suitable level of intrigue as our agents investigated a missing data crystal that held a deadly secret about the outcome of the Earth-Minbari war and hints of … things … lurking in the shadows. It’s been a while since I watched the show but this makes me want to start from the beginning again!

Another great weekend of gaming and a chance to catch up with friends old and new. The usual thanks go to Graham, Dom and Shachar for seamless organisation.

Roots

Completing the square
Mathematical sleight of hand
To reveal the roots

Kollaps by Einstürzende Neubauten

There are some albums and artists that have a reputation of being challenging - Lou Read’s Metal Machine Music, Frankie Teardrop by Suicide, and most things by The Fall. Einstürzende Neubauten certainly belong on that list and deserve to be heard at least once.

It’s classed as industrial music, but when you get past the drills and hammering metal there is a lot here to appreciate. There are drum rhythms that would fit right into a Steve Reich symphony, electronic screams, sonic gloomscapes that fill your head with noise and even a cheeky cover of Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus.

This is not an easy listen, but it is an exhilarating one.

Chainsaw-tastic!

South Wind

The Sirocco howls
Bearing a bloody rainfall
From the deep desert

Brothers by The Black Keys

A guitar and drums duo playing old school bluesy-rock, who turn out not to actually be siblings despite calling their album Brothers - where do they get their crazy ideas from, eh? Comparisons with another duo aside, it turns out that these two have actually been friends since childhood and this album saw them working out some emotional fallout caused by drummer Patrick Carney having just been through a painful divorce. They managed to sort themselves out and work out their problems through their music.

As might be expected, they have a distinctive sound with echoes of early 70s (and earlier) blues rock focussing mainly on guitar and drums, with some keyboards thrown in for a bit of variety. They had previously worked with producer Dangermouse (of Grey album fame) and he returns here on one track, adding to the retro sound. It’s not revolutionary, but I enjoyed it enough to give it a perfectly respectable 3 stars.

Porch

Standing in the porch
Sheltering from the rainfall 
Searching for the key

Selling England By the Pound by Genesis

It might not be immediately obvious, but this was a transitional album for Genesis. The classic lineup of Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hackett and Rutherford was in a good place, coming off a successful album and associated live tour, and the recording process sounds like it was happy and relaxed. They had a reputation as one of the most inventive prog bands of the 70s with all of the frills and flourishes and fantasy that entails.

However, this album is much more concerned with the real world - Dancing Out With The Moonlit Knight talks about Wimpy Bars and Greenshield stamps, and The Battle of Epping Forest is not about warring elves and goblins, but is actually about violent London street gangs. The rest of the songs touch on the tension between a nostalgic vision of the England of the past and the reality of strikes and social changes in the 70s, as well as punning references to classic supermarkets like Tesco, Co-Op, Finefare and Safeways.

Musically, this has all of the proggy goodness that you might want, but going back to it, it’s the quieter moments that shine for me, especially when that funny little bald drummer chap steps up to the mic for a simple and heartfelt love song in More Fool Me.

In hindsight this pointed the way to what would follow the epic supernova flameout of their next album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway when Peter Gabriel would spin off into his own orbit and the remaining band members would coalesce into a new incarnation and head into the brave new 80s.

Prog-tastic!