AireCon 2022, Harrogate International Centre, King's Rd, Harrogate HG1 5LA
Friday 11th - Sunday 13th March 2022
https://airecon.uk
Again this a convention that I haven’t attended before but I had heard good things. It seems a theme of my RPG Convention Calendar this year. AireCon is mainly a board game convention it does offer a few RPGs. It is sort of like a mini-UK Games Expo but in the North. Though technically it is a local con for me as it’s just the next county over, however that county is the great county of Yorkshire. It is a long journey away but the transport links are quite good, train straight up to Leeds and then regular local train from Leeds to Harrogate.
As I had additional leave due to me that I had to use up before the end of the financial year I thought I would give it a punt and go for it. Trouble is I had to wait a while to get my leave cleared at work, Saturdays are the busiest day, so it was very late for me to submit my two games to run at the convention. I would be running them as part of the Open Gaming and sign up would be on the day. This doesn’t concern me too much as this eliminates no-shows on the day, only the players actually there can sign up.
I set off very early Saturday morning to catch my train to Harrogate, with a change at Leeds. There were no issues with any of the trains except that they did announce the platform the train from Leeds to Harrogate was departing from until a couple of minutes before the departure time. A bit scary rushing for the train with seconds to spare.
Got into Harrogate on time so I had a little wander around and got some breakfast. Harrogate’s first impression was good, the town centre is clean and presentable with shops open and operating along the high street and centre. There were full flower beds in front of the railway station and it all seemed vibrant. There were plenty of little bistros, craft ale bars, wine bars, and pubs and all were nicely appointed. Compared to other town and city centres I have visited recently (I won’t name them but they did seem run down and dilapidated with boarded up shops, derelict buildings, uncared for streets, and litter strewn about) it is a real step up. It looks so picturesque with the sandstone buildings, it feels like a very good place to visit.
The Harrogate Conference Centre was also great, it was easy to find and entry was quick once my Covid Passport was scanned in. The doors and entrance hall were open and welcoming and my first impressions of the venue were good. It was clean and fresh with wide walkways and good sized doorways with doors held open. It has been built on a few levels with stairs and escalators up to them but it also had plenty of lifts and so is very accessible. Even with people queuing it didn’t get uncomfortable nor claustrophobic and there were also spaces to step into to get out of the crowd.
The iconic sign!
It has a very modern look and has high ceilings so seems airy and open. The toilets were clean and fresh too, and the Ladies toilets (as opposite to the Gentlemen’s toilet) was marked up to be inclusive and accessible to all. That was a nice touch.
There were water drink dispensers strategically positioned around the venue and the litter bins were numerous and large enough to take the rubbish without over spilling.
The staff I spoke to, conference centre staff, security staff, AireCon staff and volunteers, were all friendly and very helpful.
The atmosphere in the venue was just great, it was nice to experience it.
I headed to the RPG Sign Up Desk and met John Dodd, the master of RPG Conventions. He is the hardest working person on the RPG Convention scene, seemingly involved with so many of the them!
I handed over my two sign up sheets and waited for the morning gaming slot to start.
Blurb image for my Tales from the Loop game.
My first game was Fria Ligan’s Tales from the Loop and my own Mystery ‘Timeslips and Sunken Ships’. However the morning for games was a little slow and I didn’t get any signups so my game didn’t run, which was a shame.
Fortunately (for me and a couple of other players) there were a number of no-shows for the Starship Simulator so I got to play in that to make up the numbers in the group.
Now the Starship Simulator uses multiple screens to deliver that starship bridge experience. A group of six take different roles; Captain, weapons officer, science officer, relay (comms and sensors), engineering, and Helm.
I allowed the others to pick their roles first and I ended up as Captain, my perfect role! ;)
From a few years ago, me as Captain Kirk!
As Captain I don’t operate any controls at all, I just make the decisions and support the rest of the crew. The other players control different aspects of the ship and get to directly change the ship but as Captain I had to coordinate them all.
We played two missions, the first was a training exercise that most groups end up blowing up their own ship but we did successfully complete it intact. The second mission was longer and more involved but again we did really well. We took on a couple of enemy ships hiding in nebulas that were trying to attack the space stations under our protection and dealt with them without any quarter given.
The thrill of the set up, the screens, dimmed lights, and the computer game itself worked so well. A great experience, well worth checking out.
The Starship Simulator in action.
After that I had a good wander around the convention, checking out the exhibitor hall, coffee shop, the food courts, the open gaming space, the Games Library, a quick glance at the Bring & Buy, and the seminar spaces. It is a large convention though there is a very strong focus on board games. There is plenty of space for games and the exhibitor hall was fairly large, yet the layout meant that it was easy the get about and there were empty spaces to break out into. There were lots of attendees but it didn’t feel over full or over crowded. There seemed to be a good queue at the Games Library but it wasn’t too long and it went down quickly. There were visible spaces on the gaming tables for other games to take place and there were spaces to set out more tables should they needed to expand. There was a small queue at the Tuck Shop for confectionery, soft drinks, and AireCon merchandise but at the bar you could get served straight away during the afternoon.
I don’t know if the attendance was down from previous years before the lockdown, as I said this was my first time at AireCon. Some events are slower to return to their original numbers whilst other events are full or sold out from my professional experience.
For lunch I visited the Food Faire, several fast food trucks set up at the rear of the venue. There was a good choice from Greek kababs, to Italian pizzas, American style hotdogs, dessert crepes, and noodle fusion. I went for Yorkshire ham and mushroom pizza which certainly hit the spot.
I noticed that the Convention Centre was a lot busier in the afternoon so I would guess that as a multi-day residential convention it would have a few peaks and troughs with regards to the crowds. It would be busiest in the evenings?
Blurb image for my Aliens game.
After lunch I set up my table ready for my afternoon’s game. I picked a quiet corner table to use though there were fifteen round tables in the room I was in but it was a large space. There was too much issue with echoes or loudness in there as the walls did absorb most.
The tables were all round 6’ tables with tablecloths with six or seven chairs though I had eight around mine and it was still comfortable.
I was running my own scenario called ‘Empty Vessels Make No Noise’ using the Alien RPG by Fria Ligan.
I had a full game of seven players, though one player was a no-show but I soon got a replacement player joining us.
The table set for my Alien game.
I had laid out the character sheets around the table and the players sat at the character they wanted. We had Captain Miller who is alledgally in charge of the crew, Lieutenant Starck the executive officer who was always second guessing the captain, Pilot Smith who is over-protective of the Lewis & Clark, Engineer Justin who is keeping the ship together, Rescue Technician Cooper who is helping everyone he can, Medical Technician Peters who is keeping the crew together, and Medical Officer D.J. who is always enquiring into the secrets and mysteries.
My version of the Alien character sheet.
I started with going through the character sheet and describe the game system. I use character sheets of my own design used in conjunction with my folding agenda sheets. The character sheet is divided into two columns for simplicity and clarity. Name and career is at the top of the first column with the character’s Talent(s) section under that. The Rival and Buddy of the PCs is below that which will help with role playing their interactions with the rest of the crew (the other players).
The Signature Item is used to reduce Stress when the PC ‘thinks’ they are safe and again it adds colour to the character.
There is space below that for writing tiny items, critical injuries, list their gear, armour type and rating, and space for details of four different weapons to be listed too. There are three tick boxes for Story Points but I would issue out blue casino chips to represent them instead. All the players started off with a Story Point each at the start of the game as we are in Act I already. The players would get additional Story Points in Act II and Act III as well. They can spend a Story Point to re-roll any roll. I also have a House Rule that a Story Point can be spent on negating a rolled ‘1’ (or Facehugger) on Stress dice, stopping the PC going into Panic.
At the bottom of the column are four spaces for the four conditions in red; exhausted, freezing, starving, and dehydrated.
Right at the bottom of the column are the four consumables in green, and they are; air, power, water, and food. Only air would be used during this scenario as they would be using spacesuits for a while. There wouldn’t be any other time for the other three.
At the top of the second column are the tick three tracks for Health, Stress, and Radiation.
Health is equal to their strength so many of the characters will have a low health between 3 to 5.
Stress is earned during the game either they gain a stress point when they push your role, i.e. when they re-roll a failed roll, or they gain stress points when their PCs see something horrific or unimaginable, i.e. when they see an alien, corpses, or ripped up body parts. I also would cover stress and gaining of Stress Points as we play as well. I would issue the players green/yellow casino chips to represent Stress as it does add a certain tactile feel to the game. I had seventy green/yellow casino chips so I hoped I wouldn’t run out!
Radiation I said wouldn’t occur in this scenario, but I lied and it may come an important part of it.
The rest of the column was spent on Attributes and Skills. I colour-coded the skills with their corresponding attribute, so they were all clubbed together which made using them and reading them easier.
Strength is the first attribute and that has three skills associated with strength; Heavy Machinery, Close Combat, and Stamina. Next section is Agility with Mobility, Ranged Combat, and Piloting as the three associated skills. The next section was Wits with the skills Comtech, Observation, and Survival. The final section at the bottom of the column is Empathy with the skills of Command, Manipulation, and Medical Aid.
The game uses a dice pool of D6 dice made up of the Attribute + Skill + Stress Dice + modifier or bonus. Any ‘6’ rolled means success, and additional sixes rolled adds more stunts or bonuses. However any Stress Dice (always a different colour to the base dice) rolled that get a ‘1’ means that triggers Panic. The player rolls a single D6 and adds the number of Stress to the result consulting the Panic Table. The more Stress a player character has the chance of a higher result on the Panic Table could be rolled and the higher results on the table get worse and worse.
I described the skills including that I have never used the Survival skill in any of my games and Stamina has only been used a few times. Popular skills are Heavy Machinery (for operating ship’s systems and equipment), Comtech (for using computers, AI, and screens), and Observation (the perception skill such as investigate, spot trap, etc.) that most player characters use. Each character archetype is always strong with their Key Skills, so the Captain and Lieutenant as Officers have great Command skills, the Pilot has Piloting, the Doctor and the Medic both have strong Medical Aid skills that allows them to not only help and heal other characters but to also understand any forensic and medical conditions.
The mission briefing.
I started the game with the briefing with Admiral Hollis and his adjutant, Lyle with all the crew at Anchorpoint Station. They were to travel to the Delos System and investigate a distress signal that is proving to be a navigational hazard to all surrounding systems. The Delos system is 14 days away at jump and is a contested system between the USAC (United States Aerospace Command) and UPP (Union of Progressive Peoples). There are no colonies, no stations, no presence there at all from both sides. The system has no real resources to offer and isn’t even strategically positioned as it is too far out from the core worlds.
Their mission is to investigate to source of the signal and shut it down. Offer any aid and help if there are people in distress, lending a helping hand to our enemies if needed as we are a civilised nation. However we are to maintain our sovereignty at all times and not cause a diplomatic incident. The Lewis & Clark is expendable in this regard.
With the mission briefing over the crew wanted to check on several items before they departed. This will give me the opportunity to show how the dice rolls actually work rather than just explain.
Cooper wanted to check the rescue equipment so I made him roll on his Heavy Machinery skill (Strength 5 + Heavy Machinery 3 + 2 bonus dice for being on the Lewis & Clark = 10 dice), he succeeded with three ‘6’s so not only was all is equipment in good order he also gained additional bolt guns for fixing the hull.
Justin wanted to tune the engines so again another Heavy Machinery roll and he got four successes so was able to improve the performance of the engines and trim three days off the 14 day journey.
D.J. wanted to check the crew out and get them ready for cryogenic sleep so he did a Medical Aid check (Empathy 5 + Medical Aid 3 + Doctor’s Medkit 2 + Lewis & Clark 2 = 12 dice) and got three successes. That meant he had full bio reads on all the crew and the crew wouldn’t have any ill effects coming out of cryo on the other side of the jump.
Lieutenant Starck was tasked with plotting the course as she was a navigator, Starck’s player rolled Comtech but failed to roll any ‘6’s. The player didn’t want to push the roll (that did affect the player for a while as they struggled to get any successes on their other rolls for a while) although I explained pushing roll means they will roll all the dice again but gain a point of Stress as well as gaining a Stress dice.
Pilot Smith prepared the ship to launch, having to plot his own course due to Lieutenant Starck’s failure. He successfully rolled with two ’6’s so was also able to trim off another day off the trip.
With that they all went into cryo and awoke with the sounds of multiple alarms coming from the bridge, it sounds like an attack. Captain Miller ordered everyone to sort it out immediately and the crew pile into the bridge even before getting dressed. Lieutenant Starck didn’t want to check the data due to the failure earlier so Justin checked the screens. It was some sort of cyber attack; the comms, the passive and active sensors, and the computer where being hit with loud multiple signals coming from one source 1,000 clicks forward. Justin uses his Heavy Machinery to protect the ship and shield it from the signal and manages to get a success. The CRT screens stop scrolling and the crew can see what is the source of the signal.
The rest of the game went well with the whole crew exploring the titular Empty Vessel and getting more and more stressed as they encountered the carnage on the vessel. Some groups of players in my previous games try and keep some of the crew on the Lewis & Clark but this group decided to ignore the sensible thing and all explore!
The players did get into the mystery and tried to work it out what had occurred. The crew, who had split up to cover more ground, managed to get back together at the end.
When it came to revealing their Act II agendas, I showed them how to open their folding agenda sheets (a paper Jacob’s Ladder) to read the hidden agendas inside. The players were impressed.
The player characters, though based on characters from the film ‘Event Horizon’, are well suited to exploring and working in different parts of the Empty Vessel. Captain Miller and Pilot Smith are on the bridge, D.J. and Peters are looking after the cryogenic pods, and Engineer Justin and Rescue Technician Cooper are at engineering guarded (supervised?) by Lieutenant Starck. They all bring their strengths to bare in the best areas and yet the tension is high due to the separation and the rising Stress Points. They are all trying to do the right thing but are getting further into trouble.
The table full of players.
They all managed to get away from the Alien threat with Lieutenant Starck being particularly heroic (via a bad Panic roll) and she took out a creature with duel wielding a bolt gun and her pistol.
They all got back to the Lewis & Clark by the skin of their teeth. With that they were on their way leaving a trail of destruction behind.
Safely away they retired to their cryogenic pods and just as they were about to drift to deep sleep they saw something scuttle across the glass of the pods as the nightmare continues…
It was a great game with excellent players and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. The only issue was the player of Lieutenant Starck failing their first roll at the start, didn’t push the roll and then didn’t do any more skill rolls for the rest of the first act. Fortunately they did engage with the scenario and the mystery of the Empty Vessel throughout the afternoon, they even took on an Alien and won!
With that I packed up my stuff, it takes a while with all my handouts, maps, casino chips, dice, and sheets.
Saying my goodbyes I headed off to the train station and my way home.
There were no travel issues except for the train was overcrowded between Leeds and Sheffield, I was crammed in the bike racks until the train emptied.
I enjoyed my first visit to AireCon and will no doubt return again next year a little bit more organised.
Hopefully my next convention will be DevaCon 2022 in April.
Next year’s details:
AireCon 2023, Harrogate International Centre, King's Rd, Harrogate HG1 5LA
Friday 10th - Sunday 12th March 2023
https://airecon.uk
