Iridescence: EasterCon

Friday 3rd to Monday 6th April 2026

1. Why I Went

As we head into the summer and the juggernaut that is UK Games Expo in May, the number of conventions on offer seems to thin out. This is especially true for the Easter weekend when even nerds are expected to stay home and spend time with their families.

There is a significant convention on the continent, The Kraken in Germany(?), but I’m beginning to find travelling to Scotland expensive, let alone travelling abroad.

So I’d resigned myself to missing this weekend. However, trawling the internet I came across a science fiction convention. EasterCon happens, apparently, every Easter. This year’s event was called Iridescence. Two names, one event. Not confusing at all!

It wasn’t a gaming event, let alone a TTRPG one, but it said it had a games room, it mentioned TTRPGs, I’d had some success attending a SciFi con before, I wasn’t doing anything else that weekend, and it was in Birmingham, where I live. As I have an old man’s free travel pass, I could travel to and from the event for free each day and avoid accommodation costs.

Unfortunately I signed up a bit late. They’d done a lot of planning, with community submissions, before Christmas so I missed out on getting onto the programme.

Swapping emails with the games room co-ordination, though, I was able to get a game on the programme and was even asked to sit on a panel!

2. The Shape of the Convention

Iridescence was based in the Hilton Hotel next door to the National Exhibition Centre. So I’d travel into and out of Birmingham International Railway Station each day.

The ideal situation, of course, is to stay at the hotel where the convention is being held. However, the Hilton is not what you’d call a budget hotel.

As with most SciFi conventions, you don’t buy tickets, you buy a “membership”. You are meant to be a member of a community rather than a customer.

Various panels and events are offered across the extended weekend. These are promoted well in advance on a well-supported website and through a dedicated electronic programme at the event. This is extensive, sprawling, and a little intimidating.

I just intended to sit in the games room all day every day and see what happened.

There were some scheduled TTRPGs listed in the programme. Only three each day. Three-hour slots:

10:30 - 13:30
13:30 - 16:30
16:30 - 19:30

With one game offered in each slot.

3. Games Played and Games Run

The convention started Friday afternoon. I arrived early. After collecting my personalised, printed lanyard, I went to the games room. This was already extremely busy. At the far end of the room away from the door were board games people could borrow, and there were about half a dozen large tables (and a similar number of smaller ones) which people could play games on. Most of these were in use.

I found an empty one and set out my “Choose Your Adventure” set-up. I’d signed up for a game in the afternoon but had an hour or so before that happened, time to fit in a quick game if anyone was interested.

I’d mentioned on Discord that I was available to run short games but I didn’t get any takers at this time.

Slot 1 - Friday 16:30 - 17:30

I played in a game of “Wildsea”. It was a fun game set in an interesting setting but suffered from far too much world-building. I played a sentient spider colony alongside a metal humanoid which had separated from a sentient ship to allow it to explore the world, an immortal moth man, etc.

Still, it was a new setting and new game to me and I enjoyed it.

Slot 2 - Friday 17:30 - 18:30

There was a three-hour game of “Blades in the Dark” due to start at 17:30. I’d booked into it but didn’t get a place. I was informed by email about half an hour before the slot started.

I quickly looked at the programme and decided to attend a panel where a TTRPG was being played live.

This was amiable enough but it was a silly scenario using a silly system and played for easy laughs from the start. Having run live role-plays on stage myself before, I don’t think this approach is the best representation of our hobby, personally.

I judged this to be a good time to travel home.

Slot 3 - Saturday 10:30-13:30

This was a game based on the popular “punk” TTRPG system Mork Borg. The system was called Mork Org and was a game of gonzo office politics. Refereed by the same person who’d offered the live action TTRPG panel the night before, and who had also written the rules, this was the same sort of high-silliness game.

In my opinion, if you start “gonzo” you don’t have anywhere to go. I prefer to play it straight as Referee and let the humour emerge naturally through play.

Still, we all enjoyed playing it. I particularly enjoyed being subversive by playing my character as normal as possible. Whilst my fellow players were throwing other characters under the bus to The Boss right, left, and centre, I kept my head down, kept quiet, apologised, and promised to do better next time. This seemed to confuse people.

Slot 4 - Saturday 13:30-16:30

The next official scheduled game was a Dungeons and Dragons one. I’d booked into it but was informed by email shortly before it started that I hadn’t got in.

So I chose to attend two one-hour panels.

The first of these was about “robot overlords” and how to survive when they take over. Some quite high-level SciFi thinking and debate about A.I. motivations and morality.

The second was about surviving in a cartoon universe. This turned out to be a thinly disguised science presentation with several fun live experiments, some of which were new to me.

Slot 5 - Saturday 16:30-19:30

I’d signed up for a game of Pirate Borg. The same Referee as my morning game. However, because he wasn’t playing his own system, things didn’t turn “gonzo”. They were a bit wacky but this was a much more enjoyable game.

Slot 6 - Sunday 10:30-13:30

I’d booked into all three games on Sunday, expecting to get into the first and last as I had on Saturday. However, I received an email the day before telling me I’d been unsuccessful in getting into the 10:30 game of Mothership.

I’d checked the panels. I couldn’t find any that interested me, so I arrived early, grabbed a key table in the middle of the games room, and set up my Choose Your Adventure gear.

I held my ground, asking passers-by if they were interested, and eventually a couple of young men, teenagers, agreed to join for a game. They took my advice to play steampunk.

After we’d started I corralled an older man to join us and we had a table of three playing my popular missing dinosaur scenario. This was massive fun, as it always is.

Slot 7 - Sunday 13:30-16:30

The next official scheduled game was a Dungeons and Dragons one. I’d booked into it and was informed by email shortly before it started that I HAD got in.

This was good old-fashioned “A Minotaur has kidnapped some children, rescue them” fare and was exactly as much fun as you’d expect. It took place in a different room because the Referee had found the games room too noisy the previous day.

Slot 8 - Sunday 16:30-19:30

I’d signed up for a game called The Elephant and Macaw Banner, which I’d never heard of.

It turns out this was a Brazilian game based on a Brazilian novel by a Brazilian author. It was based around the Portuguese incursions into the New World and was very heavy in history and lore. Interesting but hard going.

Unsurprisingly, it overran. When we gently pressured the Referee to hurry up to finish it, she began to cut corners and it became a much more exciting and enjoyable game with a fun climax.

Slot 9 - Monday 10:30-13:30

This was my one official scheduled game. I’d recommended my dinosaur one, but it turned out very few Referees had submitted SciFi games at this SciFi convention so the organiser chose to offer my Star Trek Academy one instead.

Though this went well, as it always does, I had an “interesting” experience. One of the players clearly informed me that she was completely new to role-playing and it was her first game. When she felt that I hadn’t explained everything clearly or been welcoming enough and became confused, she took me to task about it publicly, in front of the whole table.

And she had a case.

Naturally, I apologised, adjusted, and we had a good game.

At the end I overheard her thanking another player for his help during the game, telling him how she’d found the whole convention unwelcoming and confusing to new attendees but that she’d enjoyed my game.

I think I’d just caught her at the end of a frustrating weekend. But, even if I found it a bit uncomfortable at the time, she’d actually given me some superb feedback. Players in the UK are so polite. They always thank you for the game and tell you it was good. It was refreshing to have someone tell me exactly what they thought, even if it wasn’t particularly flattering at the time.

As an aside I was given three “Groats” for running this game. These are printed cards valid at trade stalls and similar at EasterCon and some other SciFi conventions for £2 apiece. I immediately spent them on a pint of lager shandy at the bar, which I knew cost exactly £6.

Slot 10 - Monday 13:30-14:30

My convention finished as a member of a panel reflecting on the history of Games Workshop at 50 years old. I have my issues with that company, going back to the 1980s, but I tried to be even-handed in my comments. Other panel members were a bit more blunt.

Games Workshop haven’t made many friends over the years it seems!

4. Play Reflections

I went to this event because I had a gap in my calendar. I didn’t expect to play many TTRPGs or get much “passing trade” for ad hoc games I offered.

As it turned out, of the four days of the event, one day I was fully occupied refereeing a game and appearing on a panel, even though I’d signed on late and missed all the planning stages. Of the other three days I was only unable to book into one game each day. And on one day I was able to Referee a “pick-up” game of my own.

Seven game sessions and appearing on a panel is pretty good for one weekend, not counting the three panels where I was an audience member.

Most of the games were new to me and, to be honest, were not games I would have chosen were there a wider choice. But I learnt a lot and generally enjoyed myself. I would call this a successful weekend.

5. Cost, Time, and Value

How I calculate this

This section looks at what the convention cost me, as a participant, and what that worked out as per hour of actual gaming. It is intended as an illustrative case study rather than a universal guide.

I do not include routine food costs, as I would incur these whether or not I attended.

I do report on the cost of a pint of lager as this is an important metric for some of my readers.

My travel costs reflect my own circumstances, travelling from Birmingham and making use of available rail discounts, so readers should treat the numbers as indicative rather than directly transferable.

Headline figures

Convention cost (membership): £50
Travel cost: £0 - free travel pass
Accommodation cost: £0 - travelling from home
Total convention-specific cost: £50
Total hours of gaming (played and run): 19
Approximate cost per hour of gaming: £2.63

Cost of a pint of lager: £8

6. What I Took Away

If you’re looking for table-top role-playing games, science fiction conventions like EasterCon aren’t meant for you. Though these events offer games rooms and say they offer TTRPGs, these are more of a bonus extra for the convention attendees if they fancy a break between all of the other things on offer.

By booking into every available game, being prepared to run my own games, and having enough experience to be invited onto a panel, I was able to get a full and satisfying weekend. The fact that I could travel to and from the event for free without having to pay for accommodation was a bonus. I’ll be back, unless a TTRPG event appears over the Easter break. This seems unlikely.

You’ll have to judge for yourself if it is suitable for you.

I’ll try to remember to keep an eye out for when planning consultations start taking place for next year and participate in those. I can’t help feeling I want to show them how an actual play demonstration of TTRPGs SHOULD be done!