My first time at Seven Hills! The theme was Change, which seemed appropriate given how much has changed since there was last an in-person Seven Hills convention.
Game 1: The Gentle Ladies' Tea & Monstrosity Destroying & Quilting Circle Auxiliary
So obviously I signed up for this scenario, entitled 'A Fete Worse Than Death', based almost entirely on the name of the game.
We were genteel ladies in Worcestershire in 1919, trying to ensure our village fete was a successs, facing various challenges along the way. We started off with such mundane horrors as someone trying to pass off a shop bought cake as home made, and rapidly escalated until we were fending off all manner of eldritch threats armed only with parasols, brooms and teapots.
This had a bit more of a board game feel to it than most RPGs, being fairly structured with each of us taking it in turn to face a new threat. We described how we approached the threat, rolled dice to see how well we did, and continued to do so until either the threat was dealt with, we were 'fudged' by a critical failure, or lost enough gentility points from failed rolls that we fainted. In the latter two cases, another lady could step in to assist. On two occasions we all failed so much that all three of us fainted and we were subjected to the ultimate horror: being rescued by a man.
This is the kind of game that's perfect for a casual one-shot. If you like coming up with creative ways to fend off abominations while maintaining respectability, give this one a shot. The main hinderance is actually finding a copy. After much searching I've found it for sale although the preview appears to be the entire document.
Game 2: Liminal
A rare opportunity to play my favourite game. Our team was called in by P Division to investigate a bizarre death at a stamp collecting shop in Manchester. A fun set of pre-gen characters and a thoroughly weird mystery that we had a great time unravelling. The GM was someone who's previously played in my games, and it was great to be on the other side of the table.
Game 3: Kult
I've been looking forward to the first in-person outing for my new scenario, Disco Inferno. I requested one of the cells at the Garrison hotels for this one, partly because I like them as a gaming space but mostly so I would be able to deploy my soundtrack and disco lights without annoying anyone else.
When printing the character sheets I'd managed to forget to include the relations section, so decided to freeform that a bit, just letting people pick a numerical value. That worked fine, but I'll need to remember to include that section next time as it does add something. Fortunately two players picked disadvantages that lead to a strong NPC relationship, which gave me something to incorporate into the story.
I'm very happy with how this went, except for one small error at the end. I got to the end of my prepared plot in the 3 hours I anticipated, but the players were so enthusiastic and didn't want to let it go! I should have been clearer about wrapping things up there as that would have made for a tighter ending. All the same, what we actually got was still OK. And credit to the players for thoroughly embracing their characters and the spirit of disco.
Game 4: Root
A PBTA game of adorable woodland animals, based on a popular board game. I'd been looking forward to trying this out, and with two sessions on the schedule I knew I had a good chance of getting in with my GM pick.
In the end though, despite a fun setting, solid rules, an interesting scenario, good GM and enthusiastic players, this one just didn't land for me. Maybe I just don't want to be an adorable woodland animal all that much. And this is why I like convention one-shots - a chance to try something out before I buy it.
Game 5: Liminal
Given how tired I was by slot 5 at Revelation, I decided the best way to keep myself going to the end was to run the one game I can always count on invigorating me: Liminal. I ran The Haunted Hospital, one of the set of adventures I've written set in and around Northampton, and created a whole new set of pre-gen characters. I used the convention theme of Change to create a new P Division team who'd all recently had a major upheaval in their life which lead them to their current job. I also sprinkled in a few new limitations that don't appear in the core book.
I wasn't sure exactly how this would go as it was my first time running it as a one-shot (it's previously only appeared as part of my Northampton campaign) but timing and balance all worked out well. This will join my convention staples for the year.
Reflections
I was supposed to indicate when registering if I was new to Seven Hills. I wasn't sure if having attended the virtual one in 2021 counted. But now I can definitively state I am not new to Seven Hills. I really like having the convention theme to guide my thoughts when deciding what to run, and I'm looking forward to future events and seeing what inspiration strikes.
Roll on North Star!
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