Seven Hills RPG Convention

Seven Hills is an annual tabletop roleplaying games convention. Born in Sheffield UK in 2014 as one of the annual Garrison Conventions, it offers games inspired by a different theme each year.

• The theme for 2025 is Generations.

To participate, you’ll need to register for the convention in advance. Individual game bookings are also processed ahead of the convention weekend.

• Game allocation is based on player preferences.
• We’ll randomise placement where a game is oversubscribed.
• Newcomers and game hosts get a priority allocation round ahead of other players.

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The Community

At Seven Hills we welcome new games masters and players, and especially embrace fresh, independently produced games.

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The Venue

The Garrison Hotel is a former army gaol where you can play in atmospheric locations like the cells of miscreants and scallywags, or the garrison’s armoury. You will need to arrange accommodation separately.

You will need to register in advance to participate in Seven Hills virtual or face-to-face conventions.

For face-to-face events, convention tickets are available for the whole weekend, or either Saturday or Sunday only.

• The fee covers your participation in games – there is no additional charge per gaming session.
• There is also no charge for joining in the pre-convention social on the preceding Friday evening.

You will need to make separate accommodation and food arrangements. The fee is non-refundable. Once you’ve registered, you’ll be added to the list of convention attendees.

The next Seven Hills in Sheffield is 5-6 April 2025.

Timeline

• September April 2024: Theme suggestions welcome. ✅ Generations
• October: Registration opens. Get tickets from here.
• November: Game submissions open. Add game details here.
• December: Dice roll practice
• January 2025: Game submissions close
• Februrary: Game bookings
• March: Game allocation
• 5-6 April: The Con

Join the Seven Hills Discord or the mailing list to get updates about when registration opens, and the game submissions and bookings windows start or are about to close.

The theme for 2025 is Generations.

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If you’re thinking of running a game, consider the theme as a creative constraint to inspire your offer.

You could apply it to the scenario, the setting, or the game system.  Or any combination.

You could hint subtly at the theme context, or immerse your game in it.

Previous themes have included Historical, Steel, Elements, Urban Legends, Far Frontiers, Horizons, Change and Punk.

Game submissions for Seven Hills 2025, which is inspired by the theme Generations will open later in 2024.

If you’ve not run a convention game before, we welcome and encourage you to have a go when the time comes.

For each game you run (up to a maximum of 2), you get an extra advance pre-booking for picking games to play in

Game Slots

Seven Hills hosts up to 50 games in 5 gaming slots and 10 tables across the convention weekend.

• Slot 1: Saturday, 10am to 1pm
• Slot 2: Saturday, 2:30pm to 6pm
• Slot 3: Saturday, 7:30pm to 11:30pm
• Slot 4: Sunday, 10am to 1pm
• Slot 5: Sunday, 2:30pm to 6pm

Each game is classic one-shot format – running in a single slot at one table.

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Game Bookings

Game Allocations

We’ll prioritise allocations for 1 or 2 games for new attendees and GMs.

• If you’re a new attendee and run a game at Seven Hills, you’ll get 2 priority allocations.
• If you run 2 games, you’ll get 2 priority allocations.

Games will be allocated in order:

• Priority 1: Newcomers to Seven Hills (1 game).
• Priority 2: Game Hosts (1 per game run, max 2).
• All remaining player and host bookings.

We’ll randomise allocations if a game is over-subscribed beyond

• 50% when processing priority allocations
• 100% when processing remaining bookings

Games that are under-subscribed or have dropouts may be picked up via the convention Discord server before the con, or directly at the event, as long as the GM is willing to take new players.

Seven Hills has a friendly community and is a great place to break into games mastering at conventions.

We’re especially keen to support those who have less experience to have a go, running a game they’re comfortable with, and to have fun while doing so.

Many of our attendees are veteran GMs of the tabletop convention circuit, and have offered to mentor new GMs in the past.

Game hosts get access to a dedicated #gm-lounge channel in the Seven Hills Discord server to get help with their games and share experience and advice.

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In the meantime, here’s some useful advice for convention GMs:

• Guy Milner’s Running at Conventions: Beating the Nerves is one of many convention survival and related articles on his blog dedicated to one-shot games (including How to run X as a one-shot).
• The Smart Party podcast has a couple of episodes on running games at conventions, or convention wisdom, as well as advice for new GMs (with a bonus Five Tips for GMs article from their archives).
• Some practical advice from Darran Sims.
• Pinnacle’s Tips apply to all games, not just their Fast! Furious! Fun! line
• Readers’ advice from Roleplaying Tips Supplemental notes
• Greg Stolze’s essay, How to Run Roleplaying Games (file download).