Seven Hills

Seven Hills at the Garrison Hotel is one of the highlights of the RPG year in Sheffield. It's an excellent venue and there are always a friendly crowd of regular attendees running and playing in a diverse selection of games. The theme this year was "Punk" which the games on offer interpreted in various ways.

The first session I signed up for was Lost in the Fold, a setting for Sanction written and run by Paul Baldowski of All Rolled Up. This was an intriguing setup where we played characters who lived in a world where all material needs including food and clothing were supplied by regular deliveries through a series of pipes called The Chain. When the regular clothing deliveries stopped without warning, we set out to find out why, exploring behind the bulkheads and into the tunnels and weird rooms normally hidden from view. We managed to find the cause of the blockage but were left with more questions than answers, especially the reason for the words "No Future" daubed on a wall that we found. Definitely one to look out for.

Lunch from Morrisons, and then into Misfits on Tour run by Sue Savage. In this we were playing as the road crew for  a punk band on tour in the Alien universe. Of course, we somehow got shot down over an “abandoned” Weyland-Yutani facility in the middle of the desert and the band somehow managed to get themselves kidnapped by insurgents and then things somehow got worse. All of our original characters died, although the pilot might have survived if he'd only had the sense to keep his mouth shut as the shuttle containing the remaining band members blasted off from the launch pad. Notes from this game include "Found lots of drugs" and "Taylor Swift fires shotgun at Biodroid".

I skipped the Saturday night session, so was fresh for a game of Beat to Quarters, a Hornblower themed game run by Gaz from The Smart Party podcast. We survived a storm, captured a fat merchantman and boarded a Spanish frigate, before being tasked by the Captain with taking the surprisingly leaky prize ship back to British waters with a skeleton crew. A raid on a French port to resupply our ship saw us safely back home with all missions complete. This game has a really interesting challenge mechanic using decks of standard playing cards which fits the theme perfectly. 

I treated myself to a Sunday lunch from the Garrison restaurant which really hit the spot, and then the theme was announced for 2025 - Generations - plenty of time to come up with ideas for this one!

The final game I played was The Sprawl a classic cyberpunk PBTA game, run by Sue again. We were the usual gang of misfits escorting a corporate nepo baby from his official birthday party to a punk gig and back, without his CEO mother noticing, evading rival corporations, nosy security guards and a rioting street gang on the way. We made it with seconds to spare, and even got paid - far from guaranteed in this setting. This was a great way to round up a terrific weekend of gaming. 

Northstar next!