Dear Members and Supporters,

We’ve reached the end of another year at Melbourne Meeples and our wonderful city’s obsession with playing board games shows no signs of slowing down!

This time last year I was reflecting on the mind-boggling amount of board-gaming taking place in Melbourne, across Melbourne Meeples events and those run by other groups big and small across the city and the state. This year one of our biggest priorities, and something I’m personally passionate about, was to break down barriers even further. 

One aspect of this is through growing collaboration across event organisers in our great city. Another is about bringing the joy of modern board games to yet more people that are still new to the hobby. Finally it’s about supporting community engagement for those that need it most, whether via R U OK 2 Play? or other community support programs, especially those combatting loneliness and isolation. 

Back in the Spring, Melbourne Meeples joined forces with three other east-side groups (Knox Boardgame Community, Board Game Bonanza and Cranbourne Meet & Play) to run a game day for R U OK 2 Play? down in Tatterson Park. This was the biggest direct collaboration we’d done to date, and 120 gamers had a fabulous day on a sunny spring day! We’re going again this year – tickets are here.

A few weeks later we had one of the absolute highlights of the last few years of gaming. At Federation Square we had the third year  of the Big Games Night Out festival, where we were again running the Melbourne Meeples Tabletop Takeover! The 2025 event upped the tabletop ante more than anyone could have predicted. 

After being stuck for an indoor location for the tabletop zone this year the organisers took a massive chance (given it’s a videogame focussed festival) and dedicated the entire Edge Theatre to tabletop games. Together with our friends at Indiginerd, the Cozy Magic Club, Meeple University and Thinker Themer, we filled the event with a packed programme of tabletop joy: giant Octocube sessions on the stage, teaching board games across the atrium, a Stranger Things themed D&D show and even Jen and myself calling the bingo! 

Part way through the night I went for a ten minute dash just to see what else was going on. The rest of the event was busy but not as packed as the Edge was, then a security guard pointed at my T-shirt and yelled “they’re the Meeples! That’s where everyone is, that’s where the main action is!” 

They were right. We were the most popular part of the whole festival. We must have had around 6000 people come through the Edge that night, and the whole way through we saw jaws drop from people who were clearly thinking “OMG, board games are actually cool! Tabletop is cool!” 

There will be a bunch of fantastic events for Melbourne International Games Week this year but unfortunately the BGNO won’t return on the same scale. Budgets are tight and savings need to come from somewhere at least for the next couple of years. However one thing we can be certain of: we converted a whole load of people to the hobby that night.

We also had a volunteer pool from a broad range of groups around the city, and for the event we created a printed and online map to help people find tabletop events around the city, whether ours or those of other groups. The map is a living thing and we will keep adding to it – you can find it here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/43nLjRi75mf7bT518

This is because what makes the board game community special is exactly that – we’re a community – and anyone committing their time to keeping our community alive is a hero to us. From MeepleCon, to OzBunnyCon and our ever growing schedule of regular gaming events and community engagement the abiding memory of 2025/26 is you – the gamers of Melbourne – and what an honour it is to know and work with you all.

We have the Melbourne Board Game Market coming up in just a couple of weeks, and it’s looking pretty awesome. Also tickets will go live next month for MeepleCon 2026: which this year is in Box Hill, so we will be collaborating with fellow Whitehorse legends the Ringwood Social Games Community and the Knox Board Game Community to make it the best MeepleCon yet! 

However now, and for the year that’s passed, I want to send a massive thank you to our committee and volunteers for their tireless dedication even when we have to work through the admin; to everyone we’ve worked with over the year, whether our fellow Melbourne gaming communities, our supporters at Asmodee, Let’s Play Games, Aftergame, Meeple Distribution, Mind Games, Wizards Arcane Tabletop Tavern, The Boss Experience Agency, content creation legends Meeple University and Thinker Themer, Karl Lange for designing Octocube so we had a game we could turn into something absolutely massive and so many other fellow designers especially in the Melbourne community.

And of course, all of you, our members and supporters. Keep gaming, and stay awesome.

Chris Ingold

President,  Melbourne Meeples