[Gallery of Brewicide XXIII]: Conquest Gaming Convention, 03-05.4.26 (Melb, AU).
Good afternoon friends, fiends, all and sundry in between!
Welcome to another Tabletop Thursday here at ISC.
With a relative paucity of gaming-related coverage on our blessed day of nerd-dom, I’m forging ahead like the not-dwarf I am (just a Dad-ready pun purveyor, apparently) with a few articles for this afternoon/tonight.
I’m mindful it’s been a minute between us providing play-reports or coverage of tabletop-related events. Luckily, Elodie’s my RPG equivalent of a gig-sleuth, offering up some of her own photography and wordage to capture her experience of attending Conquest 2026 @ Coburg Hall, Melbourne on
Thanks for providing us the inside-scoop - especially from a game-master, player and RPG designer perspective(s) Elodie! Top marks. I’d say take a point of inspiration, but it seems you’ve done so from a community of local designers and creators!
Check out links for stakeholders discussed below at the end of the article - supporting your local scene isn’t just a slogan to be brandished by burly hardcore-band frontmen, it applies to us geeks, game-masters and artists equally as much. Also sneaking in a perennially important note: Elodie’s our resident artist and did our logo design, and has released her first RPG title, BRASS RPG, on itch.io - check out the ItWBY links end of article if this piques interest!
Anyway.
Without further ado, here’s our coverage of Conquest Gaming Convention, 2026.
Peace, Love and Opening Up The Strait With A Party of Orcs
- Brady/Elodie, ISC.
Brady’s ADHD Article-Writing-Assistant Album:
(For the stims - and helpful with game-prep too!):
Stellardrone (Lithuainia) - Light Years (Released 22nd June, 2013)
Genre: Electronica/Ambient
Label: Energostatic Records
Full-Album Stream (via Youtube):
Conquest Retrospective:
Words/Photography:
Elodie Orlando (ISC Team + Into The Weird Blue Yonder)
Event: Conquest Gaming Convention 2026
Organiser:Conquest Games, Inc.
Date: Easter Long Weekend (Fri 3rd - Sun 5th April, 2026)
Location: Coburg City Hall, Melbourne (AU)
Nat 1’s/Crit-Fails Rolled by Elodie: Hopefully none…?! Elodie, back me up here?!
Refer to end of article for author/organiser/stakeholder links.
Conquest. Melbourne’s one and only Easter Roleplaying Convention.
If I had to, how would I describe its’ 2026 offering?
Pure, wholesome fun.
The thing about a convention that’s 90% games is, of course, that I’m guaranteed to always miss 85% of it. Everybody is guaranteed to have something unique to say about it, and that’s one of the joys.
So, with that in mind, what were some of this nerd's highlights?
First off, a big shoutout to my boss for paying me to go to a convention and play games all weekend. Not only that, but the sessions I did run were all booked out... by some of the nicest, least cheeky people I’ve ever run a game for (shoutout to that one dad for dragging his two little girls to my game– Get ‘em hooked young).
I feel like I’ve been hit by a car and am experiencing some kind of comatose dying fantasy.
[Editor’s Note: Cue a rush of GMs and geeks from Melbourne rushing poor Elodie to ask exactly who this miracle-boss is? I have a bunch - hi miracle-boss! - Brady]
I shockingly managed to cram in a game other than my own this year: Tablescape, the Tabletop Escape Room, created by somebody I met in university nine years ago and had just assumed would vanish from this plane of existence when I graduated.
Along with the slightly bizarre elevator-pitch, the pared-back format and snappy story pacing truly were a breath of fresh air (there’s no way I’ll do it justice, but imagine if Mario Party sparked protracted philosophical debates).
[Editor’s Note: No circle-pit? Aww!]
Classic stall vendors were back, including RPG Review Cooperative, Juimon Illustration, Maluridae Dice and The Quest Suppliers (to name just a few of my favourite Conquest money sinks).
Juimon Illustrations (see end of article for links)
Daikyu’s Workshop
2026 marked the decision to discontinue nice hot meals like big bowls of curry and the like… Probably for the best, but among the few people who stuck it out through dinnertime, I saw a lot of dim sims and bathroom instant noodles… Does that really qualify as sustenance?
Props to Emily (Left) and Harry (Middle)! These two kindly volunteered their time to help an El(f)odie (Right) run sessions of her tabletop RPG titles Echoes of Yesterday and Fire and Stone, respectively. Legends!
[Editor: I don’t care if she’s at table #20; rarely does it bode well for players when the GM’s got that grin on their face! … I’m sure they were fine. They were fine, right?!]
One of my minions valued volunteer GMs ran a killer time-loop scenario with distinct echoes of Groundhog Day (every few hours a booming, theatrical voice would cut across the hall’s din with “You fools, did you really think I would kill off the entire party an hour into the session?!”). The serendipitous part is that so did I. I didn’t plan to have the same teen show up for my scenario three times in a row, but by the third encounter, his character had gone from a couples therapist in hell to a jaded, all-knowing time-loop survivor. From the amount of juice players gave me, I’m certainly congratulating myself on having the foresight to explicitly set this year’s scenario in my regular campaign setting.
Valued Volunteer/Not-Minion GM Harry, with the Fire and Stone swag.
Perhaps the highlight, however, was having a few incredible friends who I barely ever see (including my minions, naturally) come over to my place after the convention wrapped. We discussed game design, a myriad of rather blue topics I shan't repeat publicly, and, of course, the human condition.
For a shut-in pro gamer like myself, that truly was a rare treat.
Of Aissance (I’m detecting an elven theme here…)
The joy of GM schadenfreude, judging by the table’s reaction - onya, Harry!
Lil Ditti’s Handmade Jewellery & Gifts
Titles L-R: Ambush, Trial, Like Cat And Mouse, Reclamation, Caged, Shattered Stories
The Quest Suppliers
[Editor’s Note: OwO What’s This?! ]
LINKS:
into the weird blue yonder (Elodie Orlando):
Official Site/Artist Portfolio
The RPG Review Cooperative:
V2S Games:
The King’s Poisoner - itchio Page
Of Aissance (Instagram)
Lil Ditti’s - Handmade Jewellery & Gifts:
Daiku’s Workshop - Linktree
(Click for: Webstore, Portfolio, V-Gen Digital Art/Commissions, Facebook/Bluesky/Tiktok)
The Quest Suppliers:
inner-strength check - links:
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Peace, Love and Grindcore - Brady & The ISC Team.