Operation: Game Night

OGN Ep 4: Building Your Board Game Posse

Travis, Clay, & Jared Season 1 Episode 4

What happens when you combine a confidence-boosting chain, a backwards cap, and a pair of lederhosen? You get our latest episode of Operation Game Night! Jared Erickson returns from Utah retreat with tales of "Spots," a dice-rolling game that captivated everyone from groomsmen to kids. Meanwhile, Clay introduces Knarr an engine-building game he stumbled upon, which he believes could give Splendor a run for its money. .

Curious about the latest board game sensations? We've got you covered. First up, we discuss Alien: Fate of the Nostromo, perfect for those who find the Nemesis a little daunting and tough to get to the table. We then shift our gears to "Fit to Print," a frantic, time-pressured puzzle game where you construct newspapers for the woodland creatures. Originally a Kickstarter project, this game is now available in local stores and online. We dig into its mechanics and share why it's a must-have for puzzle enthusiasts and competitive players alike.

Building a strong gaming group can sometimes feel like solving a puzzle itself. We dive into the nuances of maintaining a reliable game circle, emphasizing consistency and shared responsibilities. From memorable pizza cook-off competition game nights to including partners in the fun, this episode is packed with tips and personal anecdotes. Whether you’re meeting new people at local game stores or enhancing your gatherings with creative community engagement, we provide practical advice for expanding your gaming network. Tune in, share some laughs, and get inspired to elevate your next game night!

We want to hear from our listeners! Send us a text with recommendations, weigh in on discussions, or just say hi!

Speaker 1:

I feel like a game group is different than people you play games with.

Speaker 2:

Whatever it takes, you gotta get out there and meet some new people to play games with. That's what you really care about.

Speaker 3:

so Please, for the love of everything, holy, feed the damn person.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast, where the mission objective is to play more board games. Put your battle rattle on and mount up. Let's start the show. Welcome to the Operation Game Night podcast. We are back at full strength. Better than ever, we have Mr Jared Erickson back in the studio.

Speaker 3:

Hey, how you doing, listener, how we doing today. How was your time off? I feel rejuvenated. I mean the listener cannot see me, but I got a five millimeter chain on. It's giving me a lot of strength, and I think I actually talked to Adrian about this. I think this is an inflection point in my life. I have a podcast, I have a chain, a lot of confidence exuding from me. Now before, not so much Now I'm on top of the world. So, anyways, that's probably more of an intro than you needed. Let's get going.

Speaker 2:

What type of metal are we rocking there? Is that gold chain?

Speaker 3:

adamantium unobtainium I was very interested in its origin. I think it was actually smithed by the Lord of the Rings. What is that place called the Middle Earth? I think place called the Middle Earth. I think it was forged in Middle Earth actually.

Speaker 2:

Straight from the minds of Moria himself. Clay Gable, what's?

Speaker 1:

up, I'm doing good, don't have any exciting news about jewelry, like Jared, but I'm happy to be here with you guys. No chain, zero chains, but I do have a backwards cap which is going to give me my power.

Speaker 2:

And listeners. You might notice that we sound very relaxed today. Jared's got his chain, clay's got his backwards cap. I am wearing leather pants. Yes, I'm wearing Lederhosen, because it's fest season here in Germany. Welcome to the Operation Game Night podcast. Just like that, we are back.

Speaker 3:

I need to mention, though, your jawline is looking incredible, Travis, Like he's manicured his beard.

Speaker 2:

I am fresh off of 11 days of leave, so I have let it grown out. I trimmed it down, yeah feeling good.

Speaker 3:

It's making me feel a certain way. I'm very it grown out. I trimmed it down. Yeah, feeling good. It's making me feel a certain way. I'm very excited about it.

Speaker 2:

I cannot wait for three months off where I get to really grow my beard out.

Speaker 1:

I know we're really dwelling on it here, like how we look right now for a podcast. I mean we could be a fashion podcast yeah it's a lot for me to see Travis's 5 o'clock shadow and your chain and mountain lion shirt and I think I'm going to have to minimize my screen with you guys on it if I'm going to be able to make it through this.

Speaker 2:

Yeah All right, let's jump into plays and procurements. Jared, since you are fresh off a leave and had tons of time off, let's talk about plays and procurements. What have you been playing?

Speaker 3:

Well, I was up in the beautiful mountains of huntsville, utah. I brought myself a tasty little snack with me and no, I'm not talking about my charcuterie board, I was talking about spots. Okay, I, I busted that thing out multiple times over the holiday weekend. Um, with the? Uh, the groomsmen at the pre-party we were rolling the die, yeah, so spots. There's like 100 die. It's normal die one through six and you're trying to roll your die and fill up these little cards that have specific pip values. So it's all randomized. You got cute little names like little beth, uh, these dogs are so adorable and maybe this dog has two and a three and this dog has six and a and uh one and you're trying to roll your die to fill up your dogs.

Speaker 3:

It's an easy game to pick up pretty quickly and and I even played it with my nieces and nephews One was a teenager, a couple of them were like 10 and 11. Like, easy game to play with anybody, lots of fun. So that's my play. I didn't procure anything, obviously, and I did listen to last week's podcast and I will say you hit it on the head. I am a cheap little boy over here. My mama told me she was an accountant to save your pennies, and I have been doing that. So it takes a lot for me to strike on something. So, no, I've not procured anything and no, I don't plan on procuring anything, but I do plan on playing a lot. Thank you, over to Clayton.

Speaker 1:

Clayton, what you been playing. Just shout out, Jared. I thought you did a wonderful job describing spots there. That was beautiful. I love that game as well. It is always a hit with my family too, and the push, your luck and the freaking dog names they get you every time. It's a nice little production, little dog bones they get you every time.

Speaker 3:

It's a nice little production, little dog bones too. I forgot to mention the dog bones.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the dog bones. You can't beat spots really for a quick push-your-luck game that you can teach anybody. So for my plays, also a procure, because I have problems and my mom did not teach me to save my pennies, I spend it like it's going out of style. And so I happened to be in the neighborhood of the other local game store here, gamers Haven, and I stumbled upon Gnar, which is a game I've been hearing about as the potential Splendor killer which TBD, but anyway, gnar is put out by Pandasaurus at least the one I have and designed by who is it? Thomas DuPont, and it is an engine building game in its purest form. You know, there's no meat on the bones there, you're just trying to build a little engine and turn it into points, and I really enjoy it. So you have a, you have these Viking cards Sounds like it's right up my alley.

Speaker 3:

I know I'm very excited.

Speaker 1:

I'm excited to get you on it on BGA. But you have these Viking cards and on your turn you can either play a Viking card, and when you play a Viking card there's five different colors, and if I play a red Viking card I get to activate all the symbols on all the red Viking cards that I've played. So some of those symbols give you points.

Speaker 1:

Some of them give you these little recruit tokens Others give you these bracelets and reputation are like the main things that you're going to get from playing these cards. But as you stack up more and more of a color, playing to that color obviously becomes valuable. But, unlike in Splendor, as you build up this little engine you have to tear it apart at some point because there's a whole other engine you're building that are these lands you're trying to go to, and to go to the lands you have to discard your Vikings from your little tableau and that allows you to acquire these lands that you put above your board and they're their own engine. So, like there's three columns on these little land tiles and I guess they're cards, they're not tiles, but anyway there's three columns and at the end of any turn, if you have bracelets, you can turn in your bracelets to activate one, two or three of the columns. So as you go to more lands you keep stacking more benefits on these columns. So it's really interesting.

Speaker 1:

I don't know how well it'll hold up. There's like a strategy that I haven't seen yet that is going to be like okay, this is what I do every time, but to me it feels very fun and unique because, again, other engine building games I've played. Usually you just keep building that same engine and then hitting it, hitting it, hitting it, but this one. There's that interesting point where you have to decide whether or not you want to turn in this engine you built to start getting these other cards that will give you benefits. So that's a lot of fun. I think I've been having fun trying to explore Like I got rid of my engine, like my little Viking engine, right away, and start trying to collect those land cards. But getting bracelets isn't easy either. So anyway, it's a great little man. Mary and I played in like 20 minutes on board game arena. Definitely worth checking out if you're on there. But that is NAR.

Speaker 2:

Anyway, it's a great little man, mary and I played it in like 20 minutes. It's on Board Game Arena. Definitely worth checking out if you're on there. But that is Gnar, a fun little filler. Yeah, I picked up Gnar at last Essen and got it played a couple times and it does not occupy the same space in my brain as Splendor and it definitely has not killed Splendor in this house. But I do like the puzzle and it's it's fun to to build those, uh, those engines and get them rolling and I feel like it. Yeah, it just like occupies a different space because you don't have especially like Splendor Duel. You have like the grid of of gems that you're drawing from to build that engine. And yeah, I don't know, the cards just feel different to me than the chips, but I don't know.

Speaker 3:

I was just going to say you already have a BGA game request in your inboxes. I'm very excited. I mean, just when you said the word engine building, I didn't even need to hear anything else. And then also for the listener, it's with a K I was looking for. I didn't know if he was saying no, like an Australian, like nar. It's actually nar with a K-N-A-R-R.

Speaker 2:

What's the?

Speaker 3:

origin of that. It's very Viking.

Speaker 1:

Swedish it's a Viking boat, Jared, oh it is oh yeah, don't you remember, is that from?

Speaker 3:

odin, yeah, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you get your nars, you get your long ships, you get your whaling boats said no like. Said no like an australian well, I look forward to accepting that invite. But anyway, Travis over to you.

Speaker 2:

All right. So we took the week off of work and we have been playing so many games, all the games. We played Alien. Fate of the Nostromo. After we watched Alien Romulus, we played Fit to Print. We played Wh. Fate of the Nostromo. After we watched Alien Romulus, we played Fit to Print. We played Whale to Look. We played Jaipur. We played Llama Dice. We played Numsters by Button Shy. We played so many games. So shout out to my wife who's willing to play games with me. But fate of the nostromo, uh, published by robinsberger. Designer is scott rogers, artist steven coital.

Speaker 2:

Anyways, it's like a pared down version of nemesis, which I loved, and it's easy to get at the table. It took like 30 minutes to play. Much simpler than Nemesis you pick your crew member from the Nostromo from the original Alien movie. They each have different player character, powers and benefits. You are moving around the ship and drawing encounter cards every time, which will then move the alien and or Ash, the science officer, android, around to come and get you and steal your, scrap, your crafting items, and then you have shared goals. It's a cooperative game, so you have shared goals that you're trying to accomplish by bringing certain equipment to different rooms, by all being in the same room, by with owning a certain number of scrap, and then, once you accomplish those three shared goals, you flip a final goal that you're trying to accomplish before the alien uh, decreases the crew morale. Pretty simple, pretty easy, far less um, brutal and punishing than nemesis, but definitely easier to get to the table how long did that one take you?

Speaker 2:

it literally. We played it twice back to back. It took us like 20 minutes each play. Oh really super, super bad at all hey, uh, no.

Speaker 1:

Is this the one that's like at target when I go by and I see an alien game at target?

Speaker 2:

yes, okay, it's got the alien egg on the front and it says Alien Finn and Nostromo In space. No one can hear you scream. Published by Robinsburger and it is. I think I got it on sale. I think I got it either at Target or at Barnes Noble, but I got it for like $10 on sale and it is like if you can't get Nemesis to the table, this is the one to go for because it's so much faster, so much easier to set up and it's not the same. You won't get the same level of enjoyment, but it's just a simplified, pared-down version of Nemesis, basically Dang.

Speaker 1:

I'm excited, travis. I don't want to belabor our plays and procurements, but you did make some promises on instagram that you were going to talk about fit to print and I don't think that yes, I don't think that you just saying you played it was gonna like satisfy our instagram followers next.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I got the bgg page pulled up. All right, sweet. We also played Fit to Print. Designer is Peter McPherson. Artist is the legendary Ian O'Toole, published by FlatOut Games and AEG. So it's a collaboration production and this game is a super cute animal game about.

Speaker 2:

You are a reporter for an animal newspaper and you're a reporter for an animal newspaper simultaneous game. It's a tile placement game with no turn order. Simultaneous action. What you start? With a bunch of face-down tiles, you start a timer and everybody on their turn starts pulling the tiles up and looking at them, deciding if they want to keep them or not.

Speaker 2:

The tiles are different articles based on sports, economy, politics and something else. I can't remember what the other category is, but they're different colored tiles. They're either positive or negative news stories, so they'll have little smiley faces on them or frowny faces. So if you decide to put them on your paper, you put them on this little pop-up desk that you build. So you build this little 3D desk that sits next to your newspaper that you're going to build, and at first we built these desks and we thought, well, this is kind of silly, why would we build this and then move the tiles there and then put them on the paper later. But what it does is it forces you to stack these tiles up and as you stack them up you kind of forget what you have underneath. You stack them up, you kind of forget what you have underneath so you can't like look through and see how many smiley faces you have or how many frowny faces you have or how many sports articles you have. So you kind of stack them up and have to keep a knowledge of what you have on your desk.

Speaker 2:

Then, when you're ready to put them on your newspaper, it's a grid layout that you have to then lay out your pictures and news articles and advertisements. You have to move everything off your desk and then start laying them out to fit all of them in this grid. And it's really, it's actually pretty. It's an interesting puzzle because you have to balance the smiley faces and the frowny faces, the positive news stories, negative news stories. You have to put pictures and the pictures correspond to different news stories that you have to put around them. You earn points by. Then you have to put ads that will gain you an advantage in the next round. Each news story, based on the size of the news story will grant you a number of points, and so you're trying to frantically lay these out before a two, three, four or five minute timer expires, and so it.

Speaker 2:

It's an interesting puzzle. Anybody can play it. I don't know if it will stick around the long term, but it's, uh, it's, it's pretty fun. I got I think I backed it on kickstarter a long time ago and it finally showed up and it's been sitting on my shelf for a while now, but I finally got it played and I think we'll play it more. It'll probably be more interesting with more players. It was just Rachel and I playing last time. What's it called again? Fit to Print, fit to Print.

Speaker 3:

I feel like Adri would be totally into it. She's very visual. You have to kind of organize stuff.

Speaker 2:

At the end of the round. So your space that you're operating in gets bigger each round. So you do a Friday newspaper, saturday newspaper and then a Sunday newspaper, and they get bigger each time and you lose points based on the number of spaces that you have left over. So you're trying to fill the whole page with ads and articles. And it's an interesting puzzle. And I think it would be more interesting with more people reaching into the pile, because if you flip a news story over and look at what it is, you don't flip it face down if you don't want to take it, so it stays face up. So if you had four or five people reaching into this pile all at once, flipping news stories over frantically, it'd be more of a competition, it'd be a little more frantic, a little more fun.

Speaker 3:

You'd also need to make sure that you bring up the fingernails. That's just a disaster waiting to happen, with someone getting scratched as a wrestler Clay. You can probably attest to that. I'm going to look it up. Is it still just on Kickstarter, or can I get it at my local board game shop?

Speaker 2:

You should be able to find it at your friendly local game store. It originally started on Kickstarter. If you backed it on Kickstarter, I think you got an additional couple of cards that come into play with special rules between rounds, but it should be readily available now.

Speaker 1:

It's on Amazon too, if your local game store isn't carrying it. I know we try to support small business here at Operation Game Night Podcast, but you get in a pinch it's on Amazon.

Speaker 3:

Usually at your local game store. Sometimes they'll let you test drive it, right? Yeah, hopefully, I don't know, because the way you described it sounds like something Adrian would like. Again, as mentioned before, I'm kind of a cheap ass. I maybe want to touch it and feel it first. I'm a little nervous to go straight to Amazon, clayton that's fair.

Speaker 1:

I don't know what game stores you have.

Speaker 3:

We're looking at them. Last night actually we were this close to going, but a little foreshadowing. We played games last night.

Speaker 2:

If you find a game store down there that you like, let me know and put in a good word for me, because I am probably going to win. You're coming here. Yeah, that's right. I'm going to inherit that game store whenever you leave.

Speaker 3:

I think, after John Cena, this could be our next advertiser. What do you call those people that help us out? Sponsor, sponsor? Yeah, those guys, they could be our next sponsor. Like you see how big and sweaty I am, just think of a bigger man, less sweat, better looking, better, jawline, better 5 o'clock shadow, just I'll see what they say.

Speaker 2:

Clay, do you think that Cam would let us put a?

Speaker 3:

cute's a hard pivot let us put a cute.

Speaker 2:

Well, no, I'm not pivoting yet, but, clay, do you think that cam would let us play? Uh, put a qr code to uh our spotify page. Oh, on the front desk at petri's.

Speaker 1:

I mean I will ask him, he better? I've spent most of my disposable income at his store, so and tell him.

Speaker 2:

Tell him that we're three for three episodes mentioning petri's. Now we're four for four. Boom, petri's game store.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm still waiting for our sound effects. We could have a petri sound effects like and, of course, going to petri's petri's family games yeah, you should ask him.

Speaker 2:

Put a qr code to our apple podcast and spotify page well, next time I'm in there I'll bring it up which probably won't be long.

Speaker 2:

The last game that I want to shout out is Whale to Look, clay, you mentioned Oink Games last time. Yep sure did. This is an Oink game that I got at SN 2023. And it is a small box game, as all Oink games are. This one is a bluffing style game where you are putting boats with passengers on ocean spots where you are trying to be in the same spot as the whale or the orca. The whale will show up in spaces where the most fish are. The orca will show up in the space where the least fish are. So you have this kind of four by three grid, five by three grid. Of these different spaces Some are fish, some are water spaces. You use your turn to secretly flip over these tiles. You flip them up, you look at the number of fish that are going to appear there and you turn them face down and then you place a boat. That's your whole turn. Once you run out of chips to look at the different spaces, then you finish your turn. You review all the all the cards and then you place the whales and you score accordingly. It's pretty interesting.

Speaker 2:

A little puzzle, because you don't have the number of chips available to look at all of the cards. So you're kind of trying to read what the other person is looking at based on where they put their boats. So you have five chips to to look at us unrevealed cards to to gain info. Other person has five cards or five chips to look at cards, and then each person has a radar which will permanently reveal those cards to everybody. And then you have an anchor which is kind of doubling down on a specific boat that you put out there for extra points and then at the end of the round you reveal all the cards, you score accordingly and then you play a second round. This time you reveal a, a new objective for everybody which will change the scoring a little bit, and at the end of two rounds the game is over and you whoever has the highest points, wins. Super fast, super easy. You play it in 10 minutes and, uh, it's a cool little like bluffing style game sounds like hidden, hidden info, hidden movement.

Speaker 1:

I don't know about hidden movement, but it's yeah, I mean it sounds like a sounds like a worthy addition to my oink games collection always be collecting.

Speaker 2:

If you're gonna procure any oink game, I think this is one to to try out. I think it would be better at higher player count. It plays two to five. I think it would be really interesting to try and read more players than just two and try and sift through that data as they reveal and move their boats and trying to suss out where these whales are going to show up. It was a little difficult because you have the same size grid with only two players, so if you played with more it would be better to see where the boats congregate and it would make for some good moments when you do the big reveal and the whale isn't where anybody is or everybody scored points or people doubled down where you didn't expect. Intriguing yeah.

Speaker 2:

Whale to look by one point, it's pretty everybody scored points or people doubled down where you didn't expect so intriguing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Whale to look by one. Okay, it's pretty good, sweet. We ready to blast off on this main topic.

Speaker 2:

All right, now we're going to move on to our feature topic, which is how to find and or build a new game group. We three have recently disbanded as a game group and now we had to find our own way amongst the chaos that is gaming. So I think we each have a unique take to gaming. I think we each have a different approach to how we find new friends, so I want to hear about how each of you goes about finding new game groups.

Speaker 1:

I think it's important to note before we dive into this conversation. I feel like a game group is different than people you play games with, because I can play games with anybody you know and it just depends on the game and you know what you're willing to do. But a game group, I feel, is consistent and they share the load amongst each other, Whereas, yeah, I literally can play games with anybody at any time that expresses interest, but it might be a party game, it might be whatever. But having a game group is something that is a little more difficult to find and I just want to know which path we're going down. Probably a little bit of both as we get into the discussion, but you're talking.

Speaker 2:

You're talking specifically like a core gaming group that you always go to yeah.

Speaker 1:

So, like you guys were a pretty reliable and consistent group that I could play games with and I didn't always have to be the one that introduced the game, learned the game, taught the game, I could count on you guys to either watch videos or come and actually teach a game. So to me, that's what makes a game group versus people that I play games with it's very social the whole thing.

Speaker 3:

It's like you have to have a common interest. You have to have like some kind of friendship or respect between each other, whether you're a game group or you're just getting together to play a game. I feel like, so I like games because it brings people together and like if you're an asshole, I don't want to play games with you. So I'm not going to ask you to play games, but I maybe what clay's talking about is like you find people that you really vibe with and they like competitive or maybe not competitive games and you like just keep making plans and like that's kind of like friendship in general. To cultivate a good game group, you have to be kind of a good friend to keep touching base and make plans for the future. I think it's a good social discussion too.

Speaker 2:

I think we each have different approaches to it. Clay, you've mentioned previously on the podcast that you have let your nerd flag fly, and you are. You have wholly embraced the uh board game culture and your status as a board game influencer. And jared you said that you're a. You're a, you're an engineer. That is very social and that's kind of a unique take on it too, because you are a nerd and you work amongst nerds for the most part and there's always some sort of underlying nerddom. Every engineer nerds out about something, whether it's engineering stuff or otherwise, whereas I not that I'm like too cool for board games or anything. But I'm definitely not as upfront about my board gaming hobby as most people, and eventually people will find out that I'm a board gamer or that I have a gigantic collection of board games, and people are sometimes surprised or not about my hobby that is board gaming. So I I'm just curious about how you guys approach finding new game groups. You have any tactics or tips for listeners? Clay, do you want to start?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, sure, for me gaming is all about the people, right? Like Jared said, if you have the right group of people, you can play any game and it's going to be fun because you enjoy spending time with the people. And vice versa, if you have the wrong group of people, you can play your favorite game and it can be a horrible experience because you know either someone's too competitive or they're, you know, not having a good time and it's bringing the mood down. But yeah, I mean gaming. Board gaming is such a fragile thing because it does require other people mostly, unless you're like a solo only board gamer. But for most of us it requires having those other people that you can count on to like make the experience happen.

Speaker 1:

You know, and for me I do talk a lot about board games to everybody and, as a result, you know, you find out very quickly if people are interested, because they'll be like oh, yeah, I like games too.

Speaker 1:

And you know the next thing, you know it's like oh, come on over, I got, I got a bunch.

Speaker 1:

We can have a little game night and I've met so many people that we play games with on probably a quarterly basis that are just like a couple that enjoys playing games and come over, we play some games together and have a good time. But again, I would call those people I play games with not necessarily a game group, because I don't have that consistency or they're never the ones that are going to bring a game to me and be like oh, I bought this new game, I learned the rules, let me teach it to you. Since you guys left, I have a group, kind of like that that I met through work again, just talking to people and they actually, I mean they buy games and they'll teach me games when I go over there and we get together, you know, probably once a quarter and it's a good time. But yeah, most of my finding people to play games with is a result of, yes, jared uh, I just wanted to ask what if?

Speaker 3:

what if there's uh for our listener, maybe they're like I don't want to bring someone into my house. Have you ever played a game in like a neutral location or at work, or or do you? Are you consistently like you need to make sure that your house is ready, your apartment, your whatever, to bring someone in to play the game?

Speaker 1:

I mean, you know me, I'm a homebody, so if I'm playing games I prefer to be at my house. If it's someone I don't know from work or friends, I will probably try and meet at a local game store Like Petri's has a they have an open gaming area where you can meet somebody and go play. So I have not done that.

Speaker 3:

I will say so. One thing if you're bringing a new person over to play a game, please, for the love of everything, holy, feed the damn person. So me and Adrian this was a couple of couple years ago, I don't even remember this person's name met him at church. Hey, come over play pandemic. I loved it, had a lot of fun. Well, they had dinner. Oh well, I'll get there. They like, come over at at uh, 5, 30, 5, 30, just come on over, we'll play games. We'll play games. We'll have some food. They said have some food. They had pretzels, little pretzels from a bag. They did not feed us. I had fun playing games and then I got hangry and left. I don't know if that's our tip number one, just a little food, or just set the expectations. Like, yeah, you should grab a little Caesars before you get here. You know what I'm saying? The pizza portal hashtag, sponsor number seven. But I'm just saying food could be the right little catalyst to get a good game group going.

Speaker 2:

I think the three of us had a pretty good balance when we were all gaming at Clay's house was like somebody went out and grabbed a uh, papa John's taken bake, or uh, papa, papa Murphy's, papa Murphy's, papa Murphy's taken bake, or they, you know, or clay prep something, or we did, you know, pizza making competition. That was pretty fun. That was a good time. We had like two games going on at once. We had the board game and then we had the pizza making competition. That everybody was pretty invested in. That was a highlight?

Speaker 3:

Probably one of my gaming highlights was pizza competition.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, like, give them multiple things to gather around, both the board game that they can get excited about, and whatever meal or potluck or whatever it is. Give them multiple reasons to show up. I like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and Travis. So what, what, what? What have you been doing with finding people to play games with?

Speaker 2:

Yeah so. So, like I said, I am not quite as open about my board game hobby. I don't actively broadcast it. I probably should. I seem to have stumbled into multiple game groups over the years.

Speaker 3:

Travis, maybe this QR code that you're talking about for Petri's, maybe you should wear a QR code for this podcast, and then people will be like whoa, you like board games? Boom, there's your in.

Speaker 2:

I was thinking if I were to go to Essen this year and wear a shirt with a QR code to our podcast you know how many listens we? Would score in one fell swoop. It'd be a lot. It'd probably be more than we would expect.

Speaker 3:

I will pay for that shirt, let's do it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we should each get one. I don't know if I'm going to Essen.

Speaker 3:

What is this Essen Essen.

Speaker 2:

Spiel it's the biggest board game convention in the world. Besides, maybe Gen Con Clay you're going. No, it's in germany and it's like soon yeah, and travis the first week of october and travis is supposed to have a wee baby oh yeah, can we pay someone else to wear the t-shirt?

Speaker 3:

we should, if there's any listener out there who is going to essen and wants a free t-shirt.

Speaker 2:

We should, if there's any listener out there who is going to Essen and wants a free t-shirt tell us, if you comment or if you write to us in the link in the show notes and tell us that you are going to Essen, we will find you a t-shirt with our QR code on it and we will send it to you for you to wear at Essenspiel. So so please reach out, because we need your help.

Speaker 1:

Speaking of how dare you test, test fan mail like that. I got an email from Buzzsprout and it said you have fan mail. I was like oh my god, we have fan mail and I go into it and it's like test, test.

Speaker 2:

That was me, I'm sorry it was and I go into it and it's like test, test. I was like, yeah, that was me, I'm sorry. Well, I was like it was really weird because I clicked on the link and then it just like sent me to my text app and then I was like okay, so I, I don't know, it was a little confusing, but you just literally text it in and it'll show up in our fan mail.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, back to your, your, your gaming people, how you?

Speaker 2:

how you do people. I'm not quite as open with my uh board game hobby as both of these other guys. Uh, I tend to keep my board game hobby close to the chest until I'm ready to reveal that I am a secret closet nerd. And typically what I do is I find out what they're nerdy about and then try and weave board games into it gradually because I'm an engineer like Jared, and lead the way. Everybody, everybody is a nerd about something, whether it's sports or whether it's Battlestar Galactica, star Wars, whatever it is, somebody's a nerd about something. And then you start to slowly merge your board game hobby with theirs. If they're Battlestar Galactica like oh hey, have you ever played the Battlestar Galactica board game? Hey, have you ever played the Star Wars board game? Oh hey, you're a NASCAR fan. Have you ever played Heat star wars board game? Oh, hey, you're a nascar fan. Have you ever played heat pedals for the metal? Oh, you like the tour de france. Have you ever played condon or what's that one?

Speaker 1:

flamme rouge flamme rouge.

Speaker 2:

Have you ever played flamme rouge? Are you?

Speaker 3:

are you a bird lover?

Speaker 2:

there's wingspan wingspan, you are your bird watcher. You like wingspan, do you like?

Speaker 3:

do you like killing people on the high seas?

Speaker 2:

there's a hoy, you know, yeah somebody's inert about something and there's a board game that corresponds with it, and I typically try and find my end that way. Usually people are uh a little hesitant at first at least the people that I find, except for Clay and then you start to kind of build them up slowly but surely. Uh, so I have a game group out here now that, um, I found out that one of them has played some pretty heavy games in the past and he likes, uh, historical war games. So I started asking, like, have you ever played undaunted because I have undaunted North Africa? Well, hey, have you ever played General Orders, world War II? Hey, have you ever played this, that and the other? So we've kind of been building up slowly but surely.

Speaker 2:

He's a big Axis and Allies guy and so I have not played an Axis and Allies game with him, but I can tell that he's raring to go, raring to go. I lent him a whole bunch of my two-player games, because it's typically him and his wife that play together. And uh, I know that he's a big star wars fan, so I lent him my star wars deck building game. Really enjoyed that. One made some recommendations anyways. Yeah, so I I try and find uh, other things that people are interested in, that I try and merge that interest with board games and that's a that's a good way to get your foot in the door. So, jared, tell me, how do you find a new game group? What do you look?

Speaker 3:

for I don't know, because I was actually thinking about it. I'm like I am blessed to have a profession where, like, I do move around a lot, but I do know a lot of people. So, like, wherever I go, I feel like I already know a few people. But then I thought about my time in korea. I I didn't know any of these guys when I showed up to korea and I just had to get out of my comfort zone, which is that's pretty easy. Actually, I'm pretty comfortable being uncomfortable because I I let my freak flag fly. Uh. So I'm like, hey, do you guys like want to play some games? They're like, oh, we already play Catan. So there was stuff already kind of set up. Like, oh yeah, we already play here and just show up here. So once I tapped in, then I started bringing over some of my games that I really liked.

Speaker 3:

You do have to put in a little effort. Like, hey, it was my birthday. What was this? Yeah, last year, year, I'm like, let's go to the bar and I, I had our neck, I had our neck delivered. I'm like, hey, does anyone want to play our neck with me? Two or three people said yeah, send them the youtube video and then we walked through it and like, yeah, we had a blast, had other games going for other people to play. So it's definitely it does take work and you do have to ask.

Speaker 3:

And then I also think about my own group that I'm with here in Alabama. I already have built-in friends, like Randy went to college with him. So, yeah, yesterday I had him and all my other friends playing board games here. But there's like other parts of work, these guys, I know that they will play games, but it's going to take effort. It's going to be like, hey, adrian, I would like to have these people over to play some games. Yeah, it doesn't just happen. But yeah, yesterday I had my famous buttermilk pancakes, buttermilk syrup. I busted those things out and I said in my text message to the group chat I want to feed you and I want to play board games. And guess what? We played board games and I fed them.

Speaker 3:

We had such a great time that we broke and came back and I got out the uni, we made pizzas and we played more board games. I don't know how it happened. It just free flowed like that. I was not planning on making pizzas last night Someone just mentioned it. I jumped on the chance. We played all sorts of games, just one. We played Camel Up. People love it, everyone's a. We played Camel Up. People love it. Everyone's a big fan of Camel Up. Codenames is another great entry-level game. Everyone can read games and have that fun interaction. It's tough but it's worth it.

Speaker 2:

That's what I will say, I think it takes putting yourself out there at some point. Right, you have to take a bit of a leap and say, either come over to my house if you know them well enough to invite them over, or to introduce yourself at your friendly local game store, or whatever it takes putting yourself out there and representing the hobby that you care about so much, and just it's just saying like, hey, I'm a gamer and even if you are not a gamer, there's games that I can use to you know, segue you into a gaming or introduce you to the gaming hobby. Clay, I think you've introduced more people than most jump in here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So there's a classic philosophical debate about whether to make board gamers your friends or to make your friends board gamers. And I definitely fall in the camp of trying to make my friends into board gamers. I have tried to go to one time. I'm not going to say I put myself out there time, but for the listener out there that might not have the social network that I have here that I can try to tap into for my gaming endeavors you know there's meetups in most big cities like Colorado Springs Board Game Club. I'm on their discord. I see that they have games every Saturday. I've yet to be ambitious enough to go out there because I am naturally introverted and I prefer to socialize with people that I already know versus trying to meet new people. So but it's out there.

Speaker 1:

And when I was into Lorkana shout out to top five games episode, I was so motivated to play with Lorcana that I went to a league night once and played with some strangers and it was fun. It was actually kind of relieving to just be around people that were as into something as you are. You know, it's like you're not trying to like bolster the mood by being the guy that's like super excited about the game because everybody there was excited about the game. So you know, if I run into a situation where right now I'm fortunate and have plenty of friends and coworkers and people that I can play games with when I want to, if you know schedules allow but if I end up somewhere where I don't have that, I think I would be comfortable trying to go to to go to a board game meetup like that and try and meet people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a good point and in addition to supporting your friendly local game store, I think that they put on a lot of events, or they at least know about the events that go on locally. So feel free to stop in, shop around and then ask them like hey, do you know of any clubs, events, facebook pages that we can find uh people to game with? I think that's a that's a good resource I got one last thing to say.

Speaker 1:

I I don't want to wrap up the conversation if you guys are done, but this was my last thing from my notepad and that my preferred and the most ideal game group that you can have, I believe, is your partner, significant other, somebody you live with. I have sort of soiled that relationship with my wife and I feel like a lot of people end up doing that because if you're the one that's really into games and your spouse is kind enough to play games with you and you take it too far you're constantly trying to play new games it can turn them off, and that's kind of what happened in my house. It has to be like my birthday if I ask her to learn a new game anymore.

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh, please.

Speaker 2:

There was a time.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, just to say that's a very fragile relationship to have. If you have a significant other or partner that you can play games with. Like, be cognizant that if they're not as into games as you are, it is very easy to overwhelm them or, you know, turn them off by trying to constantly push games in every evening, which is something I would never be so bold as to do.

Speaker 1:

But anyway, yeah, like that there was a, there was a time that is my preferred gaming group, like my wife is my best friend, so playing games with her, and it's convenient. She lives here like there's no coordination. So if you can, if you can have a partner, significant other that you can game with, like, treasure it and don't blow it, because I've blown it I.

Speaker 3:

I don't think you've blown it I yeah, I, she plays plenty of games.

Speaker 1:

She does, she does, but it it. It really is like she used to do more. You know she would play the hour-plus long games a couple times a week.

Speaker 3:

Well, next week on this podcast, we're going to talk about how to repair your relationship with your significant other.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 2:

One of our proposed topics is how to get your spouse to game with you.

Speaker 1:

Whoa Well, I can tell you how to get them not to oh gosh.

Speaker 2:

Sorryvis I'll cut you off. That's it for no I. I was listening back to our our top five games and I was really touched by clay's top five because at least three-fifths of them are based around his time that he has spent with his kids or his wife playing. Clay's a sensitive guy. He's a softie at heart I'm not a sensitive guy.

Speaker 1:

I really don't even think I like games. I genuinely just like the people. I play them with Quality time is his love language. Without that, I probably wouldn't play games at all. So there's no surprise that those memories and those good experiences with people I love are going to make a game more special to me.

Speaker 2:

Jared, you got any final thoughts?

Speaker 3:

Parting shots is. Gaming is like I said it's tough but it's worth it, and I wouldn't have this wonderful time with you two if it wasn't for a little board gaming glue. I mean, I could still do. You know, we could still do three-way calls if you guys want, and not talk about board games, which we usually do. A little bit of banter beforehand and after. I appreciate that time as well. It's about the people. What a great way to end it, clayton. Good job, true that? What about you, travis? Any parting shots here?

Speaker 2:

No, I think it's different for everybody. I think everybody has their own comfort levels when it comes to meeting new people putting themselves out there. But I think in some capacity you either need to be willing to walk into your friendly local game store and ask for help or advice or resources, or attend a gaming convention or a workshop or whatever it is. You have to put yourself out there. So, whatever it takes, you gotta, you gotta get out there and meet some new people to play games with. If that's what you really care about, then you might make lifelong friends out of it, which is always a plus.

Speaker 3:

I am willing to share my buttermilk pancake recipe if people need it Really. It's the syrup that people go crazy about.

Speaker 2:

That's for the Patreon. People have got to pay for that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And feet pics. Right, yeah, I'll send those Photography.

Speaker 2:

Subscribe to our Patreon for the maple syrup recipe and foot pics. Daggone.

Speaker 3:

I'm the worst guys. You guys need to kick me out of this thing.

Speaker 2:

No, we need you. You're the wild card of the group. I like it. We're going to do some quick hits. I got you, clayton, give me your quick hits.

Speaker 1:

Boom, boom. I'm going to knock them out quick because we've been gabbing for an hour now. One thing super stoked NFL Steelers first game today. I'm about to be hype. I don't know if russell wilson's playing or not, but steelers are getting off to a hot start this year. Two new quarterbacks. It's gonna be wild. Forget the 49ers, their old news, their, their day, their days are done. Last year opening game, the Steelers played the 49ers and just got throttled. But anyway, yeah, I see, I see your 49ers crap up there. I, I get it. They've had a good run lately, but it Steelers are going to be back on top and that's going to be something I'm thinking about every Sunday for the next bunch of months. But and the other thing was Mary and I busted out.

Speaker 1:

I don't like video games that much anymore. But it takes two. Have you heard of it, travis? Yeah, that game we had played a while ago and got pretty far in it. And the other day Mary's like, oh, I'm going to play it takes two again. And it just reminded me how great that game is. That game is so cool, such a fun co-op to play with somebody. So many neat puzzles. Yeah, it's so engaging. I highly recommend it Takes Two for a fun board game to play with somebody.

Speaker 2:

I have a video game recommendation for you, Mary. Have you ever played Snipperclips?

Speaker 1:

No.

Speaker 2:

Go on the Switch and download Snipperclips. It is a two-player co-op puzzle-solving game where you both start as these little weird U-shaped looking things and you can pivot into the other character and clip them out, and so you snip parts of their body out to solve puzzles. It is really good. It's actually they have some awesome puzzles, snipper clips. It's great. I'll check that out.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, those are my quick hits, steelers and Takes Two.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, russell Wilson. He panned out well for the Broncos, so I wish you the best of luck. That's fake news, man Fake news. Anyways, Jared, quick hits. What have you been doing besides board gaming?

Speaker 3:

Besides board gaming, started a diet. I'm trying to do no sugar, no added sugar. I'm still eating berries. Actually, we need a nutritionist to come on here. I still am doing honey and maple syrup and, probably just like my daughter, I drink this maple syrup straight out of the jug. So, yeah, I have been the biggest I've ever been, even in college when I was trying to lift weights and get massive for my weight class. Yeah, I saw a number on the scale that I've never seen before, so it's time to start trimming it down, you know.

Speaker 1:

So no sugar. I'm here to support you, thanks, but I do like you in all your forms.

Speaker 3:

Anyways, Travis, what about you? Any good quick hits.

Speaker 2:

My quick hits are one it is fest season in Germany, hence the lederhosen that I'm wearing to this podcast. September marks the start of fest season, so today we attended the world's largest wine festival, which is in Bad Durkheim Tons of tents where you can sample all sorts of wines, lots of games and fest food. And then it leads right into october fest season, which is at the end of september, and every little town has their own little fest uh. The other day we went to a, a local village, and they had the their 600th, 600th uh anniversary the founding of the town. 600 years, like crazy.

Speaker 3:

The.

Speaker 2:

American mind cannot comprehend that style of time. And then my second quick hit is the Netflix show Chaos K-A-O-S featuring Jeff Goldblum playing Zeus. It is a really interesting show. Rachel and I watched the whole first season. Hopefully they renew it for a second season, pending Netflix shenanigans, which they tend to do recently. But it's about the Greek pantheon in modern day times. Jeff Goldblum plays Zeus and he is paranoid that his family or his seat of power is falling apart because of a prophecy that he got, and he makes a great Zeus. The rest of the supporting cast is very good. It's got Hades, it's got Medusa, it's got all sorts of Greek pantheon characters, but Jeff Goldblum is the star of the show. He is walking around his gigantic mansion and his in sweatsuits and it's just like you could replace the storyline with like a I don't know a business or something, something like uh, what's?

Speaker 2:

the session uh yes, succession it's kind of like Succession, but with Greek gods, and Jeff Goldblum is just this right flavor of chaotic and paranoid and weird, walking around in his tracksuits and cursing the humans and the other gods that are conspiring against him. It is great, and I hope they renew it for a second season because we really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I saw that on Netflix and I was very interested in it, so it's good to hear I would recommend it.

Speaker 2:

I would recommend it, if nothing else, then for Jeff Goldblum's Zeus, because he makes a good Zeus, I might be interested in this.

Speaker 3:

I started listening to Mythos like a long time ago. Oh, yeah, who's that guy that talks on it? Stephen Fry. Listening to mythos like a long time ago? Yeah, um, who's? Who's that guy that talks on it? It's, um, stephen Fry. Stephen Fry, yeah, yeah, I, there's a ton of stuff that I was like, oh, I didn't realize that.

Speaker 2:

Like, yeah, so fluid, like the fluid story, and yeah, I'd say, I'd say if you're going to watch Chaos, you need to have at least a cursory knowledge of Greek gods and the Greek pantheon A lot of horndogs. That's what I'll say. We were constantly Googling characters and relationships and stuff as we watched the show, but it was. I mean, you don't need a super in-depth knowledge to get into it.

Speaker 3:

Zeus loves his nymphs. I will say that.

Speaker 1:

Nice knowledge to get into it.

Speaker 2:

Zeus loves his nymphs. I will say that. So if you are listening to this podcast and you are enjoying, please leave us a like or a comment on Spotify, apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts, and make the recommendation for your friends to listen, because we need listeners like you to help boost our numbers. So please let us know what you think, let us know, if you like it, what we can change, what we can make better, and we hope to interact with you on the internet.

Speaker 3:

Be on the lookout for those foot peaks with maple syrup on them.

Speaker 1:

Oh God, man, I'm going to throw up.

Speaker 2:

We have members of this podcast in three different time zones so that we can bring you 24-hour coverage on our Instagram and or Spotify and Apple Podcast sites. Board games don't stop, and neither do we. This has been Operation Game Night. I am Travis Smith, he has been Clay Gable. I'm out. He has been Jared Erickson. Thank you, thank you, appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

And we're out. We're out. The Operation Game Night podcast was created, produced and edited by me, travis Smith, and co-hosted by my good friends Clay Gable and Jared Erickson. Thank you for listening and hope to see you again next week.