North Star 7 - After Action Report

North Star 7 gaming

First of all, I can't believe that this is the seventh North Star convention that we've run. It's remained surprisingly popular (the most well attended of the four Garricons that I'm involved in organising) and has a slightly different crowd to the others.

North Star is all about Science Fiction roleplaying games; it was born from a discussion by Graham and I about running at Travcon North. That never got off the ground (despite the first two years of Travcon being held at Hebden Bridge) but we decided that there was some mileage in having a convention that was more focused on SF RPGs. It was also the first con we took virtual during the pandemic lockdown.

The format is the usual Garricon. We only use the top level so we have seven tables with five slots across the weekend so a maximum of 35 games offered, with between four and seven player seats on each table. Free tea and coffee throughout. GMs typically offered one or two games, but I ended up running three because we had a drop out late on. I think that we could probably fill the lower level too and add another fifteen games (three tables) if we pushed hard but it's a nice size when we've a slightly smaller organising team.

The organisation of the con pretty much runs on rails - Google Forms for Registration, Google Sheets for game management, Graham for Garrison liaison. The Garrison is a little challenging at the moment as the events organiser we've dealt with long term has left and we're building a new relationship. That said, I ended up much later than I liked doing the game allocations because work went crazy (I was involved in a two day 550 person conference the week before). It's also weird how doing game allocation has become a spectator sport. I got some messages from people as I was doing the pseudo-random assignment of people into games. Why pseudo-random? Well, that's because some people don't want to play with other people, and also because I may tweak allocation to ensure that that we get enough viable games. This could mean that you end up with a slightly lower preference but it does mean that everyone gets a game. I had to do that with two players in one slot this year, so it's not that common.

The comms piece can be challenging. Shachar has started helping us on this, but despite doing comms on four channels (email, Facebook, Discord and the Tavern) we still had people come back and say we haven't updated them. One good thing that's happened is the introduction of the Garricon FAQ which is a document we've created for guidance about all the cons we run at the Garrison Hotel, and open to suggestions.

I closed out the game allocation by the middle of the week before, which needed some cat herding to get final choices. We had a few last minute drop outs, but managed around that. The badges got done, now with the QR code innovation from Revelation that gives a link to the timetable and game allocations.

Somehow, I managed to find time to gather a bring and buy set of boxes as Patriot Games weren't there. Overall, that was pretty successful. I took two and half boxes, and came back with around half a box. It helps in the current game purge I'm going through.

I drove over on the morning of the con, arriving before 9am. The room was pretty much set up; Graham had stayed the night before but was opting out in the Saturday evening (which on reflection meant I was the responsible person on site). Once again, he tried to dodge me videoing the conference opening speech but I got most of it. We've tried to make it more friendly for new people. We do have a large group of regulars but also get a number of new people every time, and it's easy to forget how intimidating going to a con can be for the first time.

Alien, Slot 1

Slot 1 saw me playing Sue Savage's excellent Alien scenario, Misfits on Tour. Naturally, we all died horribly. I was playing a disgruntled ex-Colonial Marine who was doing tour security for a punk band signed by Weyland-Yutani. The players were a great bunch and things slowly degenerated. I ended up with 10 stress dice at the end, and it was amusing watching the panic cascades around the table as we rolled 'facehuggers' and fell apart at the end. Great group of players with a special call out to Craig for his ex-Navy Pilot and Debbie for the Doc.

Lunch via Morrisons.

The Fall of House Prosh

Slot 2 saw me doing the game I'd offered as a fill-in, The Fall of House Prosh. This is very much 'Dune with the serial numbers filed off' mixed with Twilight Imperium. It's a political drama story game where all the players are collaborating to tell the tale of tragedy as House Prosh takes the throne only to see it slip from their fingers. We started slowly and it took us a while to get tuned in. Each player had two named characters from the three factions (House Prosh, House Kotar or the Servants), and we had the bizarre experience of Keary playing the leaders from both Houses. It ended with a suitably messy result, with a sting that the heir to House Prosh ended up adopted into House Kotar as a retainer. I enjoyed the game, which had slightly less brutal character-vs-character engagements than I expected.

Dinner at KFC with Keary and John O. Great catch up followed by frantic re-read of the STA crib sheet to load the game back into my head (in the hope I didn't get it confused with Achtung! Cthulhu).

The crews of both the USS Yorkshire and the USS Lexington at the end of the game.

Slot 3 was the sequel Star Trek Adventures scenario, Echoes II, which Dr Mitch and I only finished writing on Thursday night! This included timey-wimey stuff, TNG and TOS cross-overs, Romulans, Tholians, alternative timelines, lots of explosions and walkie-talkies, combined with cross table shenanigans. It was great to see quite a few players returning from the year before. I came out of this on a high, and enjoyed it greatly, and the players seemed to have a blast.

Had a drink at the bar with Dr Mitch and Matt. There may be a sequel to Echoes II, but we'll let it brew for a while and see how we feel closer to the event. 

Lovely Garrison breakfast.

Coriolis - The Great Dark (and I got to use my Constellation dice!)

Slot 4 saw me playing Coriolis - The Great Dark run by Paul Baldowski. This was from the rough-around-the-edges Quickstart. We had a lot of fun; I just hope that the game does more than just the delving into alien ruins. This was Paul's birthday game so I hope that we delivered a fun time for him. I know he loved Keary's GM coaching. The scenario had double crossing, alien-blight and massive artefacts and a very satisfying gun fight. Enjoyable.

Morrisons for lunch. I'm nothing but predictable, eh?

Across a Thousand Dead Worlds - players finalising characters

Slot 5 had me running Across a Thousand Dead Worlds. This is an OSR flavoured game which draws heavily on Fred Pohl's Gateway novels for inspiration. The characters get to join a crew who board an alien (Àrsaidh) vessel on an asteroid. They activate ship, which then takes them to an unknown location which they explore and hope to find scientific data and things that will make their fortune. The catch is that the destination could be lethal, and that journeys can take any length of time, typically from one to seven weeks each way. The Karum corporation provides 6 weeks of air and food by default (the average needs) but if you don't have enough then you can die enroute or on the way back, or have to make some unpalatable choices. 

The crew standees for the table

What the game does very strongly is pick up the emotional dynamics of being packed into a small space with a group of misfits heading to an unknown destination. I'd used the demo crew which was provided to Kickstarter backers as a starter. We tailored the characters at the table; the players finalised skills, selected nervous tics and mannerisms, and purchased equipment. Fortunately, they bought enough air for to cover 7 weeks each way, because as things worked out that was what they needed! They actually had a party on week 6 of the voyage because 'we'd all be dead now if we hadn't bought enough air'!

Getting on the ship generates stress and that stress can make your character less stable; drugs, alochol, sex, meditation are all ways to manage this. You can also lash out, but that's dangerous in a small space as it can escalate to violence. There's a procedural route for playing through each week starting with a random check if you reach your destination, and also having an encounter triggered. These can be social or technical. Along the way we had a leak develop in the ship, a fight between two characters when one tried to reduce stress by lashing out, another character trying to meditate unsuccessfully for four weeks. The game got that feeling of stress and paranoia and frustration right.

When they emerged, they landed on a habitable planet. They were on world for less than two hours but walked away with findings that could make them for life. They discovered a tribal native race, nearly got sacrificed to a lizard when their attempt to communicate failed, and found a source of liquid form àrsaidh metal. I loved the improvisation - one of the characters filled his hazardous environment suit with the metal and got it on the ship. Perhaps my favourite image was when Paul's character, who was the official team leader, was standing starkers about to be sacrificed when the other players shot the lizard and then the leader of the tribe at long range through a window. He raised his hands and got the natives to bow down. They then ran for it, escaping ahead of an angry tribe. Of course, they've set up a situation where any future visitors will have a very hostile reception.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. It emulated the feel of the books excellently and let the players have some great opportunities for interaction. The players seemed to enjoy it a lot as well.

Then it was all over - I cleared the tables, removed the backing paper from the windows (used to take the edge off the sun, and loaded the car to head back. Overall a great weekend from my perspective.

We'll be doing it again next year (10th/11th May 2025 northstarcon.org.uk ) but hopefully I'll have the game allocation done earlier!

18 May 2024