Operation: Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What's hot, what's hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!
Operation: Game Night
OGN Ep 5: Gateway Games for your Gang!
Need some board game suggestions to onboard your friends and family to the gaming hobby? Want to show them just how deep the rabbit hole can go? Join Jared, Clayton, and Travis in our latest episode as they share their top 3 gateway games. This episode is so hot we may have to pop our top off for this one!
Ever scored a board game gem for just $10? Clayton reveals his incredible finds at a sidewalk sale and swap night, including Summoner Wars, Rising Sun, and Smartphone Mobile Markets. We dive deep into the complexities of board game economics and trading strategies, including the fascinating world of math trades on Board Game Geek. Plus, get ready for a nostalgic trip back to the year 2000 with a playthrough of Reiner Knizia's Lord of the Rings, a game that was ahead of its time in the cooperative genre.
Curious about which games make the best gateway into the hobby? We've got you covered! From Catan's monumental impact to the engaging mechanics of Sushi Go and Quest for El Dorado, we explore the perfect entry points for new players. We also discuss the cooperative magic of Matt Leacock's Forbidden series and the serene yet strategic gameplay of Cascadia. To wrap things up, we share some quick hits on cultural references, personal anecdotes. Tune in for a jam-packed episode full of laughter, strategy, and gaming insights!
If you're a person that's interested in games and don't know where to start, this is a great place to start.
Speaker 2:And the other guy that was playing spoke no English, except for the word fail, which he would yell at me every time I would over-roll the number.
Speaker 3:You know what that's reminding me of Beans.
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 and better than ever, still at full strength, hiding in his closet for better audio quality, jared Erickson, how you doing.
Speaker 3:Whoa, I'm feeling great. It's a little muggy in here, a little sweaty. I might pop the top by the end of this podcast.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you that, hiding underground where he is cool, calm and collected, clayton Gable, how you doing Clay.
Speaker 1:What's up? Gang Y'all looking good this week. Can't wait for Jared to pop that top.
Speaker 3:It's coming. I actually think there might be a good moment, a good reveal moment.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. Do you have a secret tattoo of all of your favorite board games on your back? That? You're going to show everyone yeah.
Speaker 3:Ritz Bitz Miracle. It could be a tattoo soon.
Speaker 2:It is in the works and I also might pop my top sometime during this podcast, because it is a thousand degrees in this office. I am Travis Smith and we are Operation Game Night.
Speaker 3:You guys don't have AC over there, huh.
Speaker 2:No AC, no AC. And we're in this weird phase where it's now 30 degrees in the morning and 80 degrees in the afternoon, so you've got to prepare for every type of weather.
Speaker 3:The Germans. They are very technologically advanced, but they just don't like their AC.
Speaker 2:They're very strange about certain things. They are weird about AC, because I've heard rumor that it's because the AC air is not natural. They're all about natural air. They also don't wear sunglasses ever, hardly ever, because sunglasses are unnatural and your eyes are supposed to be exposed to sunlight.
Speaker 1:Hey, hey, hey, that's true, that's true. I've heard that you sunburn more easily if you're wearing sunglasses, because some crap happens in your eyeballs when they're exposed to sun. That cues your skin to be protected against. Like hey, you're outside in the sun, start, you know, be ready, and when you have sunglasses on, you don't get that natural cue. I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist about things like that. I do not believe in moisturizers or chapstick won't use it.
Speaker 1:I think once you start using chapstick, you're done, it's over. You're gonna use it forever, but anyway, you know I think soft like that huh. My lips are naturally soft because they moisten themselves.
Speaker 2:I don't need a an outside moistener to come in trying to find a good segue between moist lips and plays and procurements, but I don't think that's appropriate, so let's jump into plays and procurements. Dang jared, I want to hear what you've been playing and or procuring this week.
Speaker 3:So I did attempt to procure something. This week I went to my friendly neighborhood game store. I did not introduce myself, I don't even remember what they're called. It did have a lot of Warhammer things. Adri said the neckbeards were strong, but they had a small board game section. You know, it just wasn't the same. It's not like Petri's. So I didn't procure anything and, honestly, last week we played so many games that I couldn't convince my wife to jump back on the table. But last week I don't know if we mentioned Camel Up. That was huge on Camel Up last week. I'm still riding that high, so maybe chalk that up for my play still.
Speaker 2:What were you looking to procure?
Speaker 3:I was trying to see if they had that newspaper game you were talking about.
Speaker 2:Oh, fit to Print, fit to Print.
Speaker 3:But I'm talking maybe 40 games tops that newspaper game you were talking about, oh, fit to Print, fit to Print. But I'm talking maybe 40 games tops. And then that's including tiny little board games like card what do you call them? Miniaturized games. But they did shout out to them. I need to give them a second chance, because they did also have a little. You can go there, use their library and play at their location. So, oh nice, it was just a quick at the end of date night. Let's go check it out. And we were a little rushed, it was rainy. Okay, I'll give them a second chance.
Speaker 1:Okay, you have to report back I found a lot of game stores. I think the economics behind selling board games aren't as good as selling either like magic collectible card games or like Warhammer. Those are the real cash cows for a lot of these places, and to find a place that's just over the moon with board games is less likely.
Speaker 3:What about you? Clayton, got mama in town.
Speaker 1:Town, you busted anything on the board game yet oh, I've been Busting games left and right, but for this Segment, since Travis wants to keep it Short and sweet, I'm going to rewind, go back to procurements. Last night, big sidewalk sale and swap night at Petri's. So I I hauled a bunch of games that I was ready to get rid of out there and I made some killer trades and I've got three that I'm really excited about that. I traded for summoner wars, which I had heard about but I never really looked into. And the more I look into it but I never really looked into. And the more I look into it, the more it sounds like a pretty awesome game.
Speaker 1:And I got a guy that traded with me. He got all the deluxe bits in there. He gave me a playmat, so pretty excited about that. Got Rising Sun Seamon Sister Game to Ankh, which I love, so I'm hoping I find the people to get that played with. And then also got smartphone mobile markets in a trade which I love smartphone Inc and this is like a standalone, potentially more complicated version of it. But, yeah, pretty excited about those three. Got some other games too, but those are the three that stood out and in all that I spent 10 of my own dollars, so lots of trading. It was fun, action-packed night at Petri's, as always.
Speaker 2:Did you do a?
Speaker 1:math trade again. No, I didn't get signed up in time for the math trade. Oh, you were just out there haggling. I was out there. I mean, I'm not a haggler, I am a terrible salesman. So most of my trades resulted in people being like hey, I'm interested in that game of yours. Is there anything in my stack you are interested?
Speaker 3:in I'm like yeah well let's do it all right jared, you had some math trade.
Speaker 2:Math trade is a function that's hidden deep within Board Game Geek where you can take your wish list and your owned games.
Speaker 2:So I don't know if you've seen the list that you can create in Board Game Geek, but there's a section that you can click like want to trade and or want in trade, and so this math trade takes those lists and exports them. You can tweak them a little bit and then when you sign up for a sidewalk sale or a trade or a math trade like that, it'll show you what everybody else is willing to trade and you can basically bid on other games that people want. And then you say like I'm willing to trade this away and I'll get I want that game for it. And then behind the scenes, in this terrible like 1998 looking website, it does all. It does all this math based on value and scores, I think and it just sets up these trades for you so that you're getting the best bang for your buck. So everyone's getting the best bang for your buck, so everyone's getting the best bang for their buck and nobody's getting taken advantage of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it does this crazy stuff. It's like if you had a game that you wanted to trade and I had a game that you wanted, but I didn't want the game you wanted to trade, but Travis wanted the game you wanted to trade, it creates these multi-trades Three ways.
Speaker 3:Three ways, four ways, ways it can be six ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what that's reminding me of beans, banana yeah, you fly a little fast and loose with these trades, man but anyway, that's a bean that's a math trade. I'm glad travis explained it because it honestly confuses me, but yeah, it's got to be a better system.
Speaker 2:The the math trade is so confusing and terrible system like. I spent so much time last time. We did a math trade before I left colorado and I put in all these games. I shopped around, I bid on different games and people were commenting on my stuff and I was commenting on their stuff and then I and then I got there and I clicked submit but there's like a submit and there's like a for real submit button that I miss and so I was excluded from the math trade. So I had to just offload a whole bunch of games straight to Petri's for in-store credit because I just missed out on this big math trade because of a system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is like an archaic looking system. Okay, it is like an archaic looking system. Okay, so for plays. Real quick, I was getting out games for the swap and I saw I had the Lord of the Rings, which was published in 2000 by I don't know who, designed by Reiner Canizia. I forgot I got this game. I got it for like $5 at in the Petri's use section and I was excited about it because my mom was here, she loves Lord of the Rings and I decided to give it a whirl, watch the rules video, read the rule book and we played it and it is shocking that that was designed in 2000. This is eight years before pandemic. This is before cooperative board games were really a thing and the good Dr Reiner Knizia stepped out there, got up to the plate, took an IP people love and he made this awesome cooperative game where you're Frodo and Pippin and what's the other guy? The one that likes potatoes, sam.
Speaker 3:Samwise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, samwise, and you're trying to go through the story of Lord of the Rings to get to Mount Doom and destroy the ring. It's pretty simple to play, you know. It just involves like having symbols on cards that move you on these tracks. So as you go through the game, there's four different scenario boards you go through. They're like Shelob's, lair Helm's, deep Mordor and Moria, I think, and so every time you get to one of these scenario boards, it has these activity lines that show these symbols. So, collectively, you're trying to move these markers through these activity lines to make it to the end of that scenario. And as you go through, you're trying to collect these different life tokens. If you don't, bad things happen, and so the whole game. You're trying to balance these different life tokens. If you don't, bad things happen, and so, like the whole game, you're trying to balance. As you do these things, your little hobbits are moving closer on this track to sauron's eye and he's moving closer to you, and so you're trying to get through it all before your hobbit gets meets up and their corruption overlaps with where sauron is. It certainly is an older game, but I actually I don't know why, but I felt nostalgic for it, even though I had never played it or played games during that time period. It just felt like, you know, it felt like it was from a different era and it's like a style of game that you really don't see anymore. The theme comes not so much from the battles and mechanics, but it's got nice art.
Speaker 1:You're going through the story of Lord of the Rings and I actually found it pretty engaging. I mean, it's prone to all the same pitfalls of other cooperative games, like where quarterbacking can be an issue. Like you know, you can all talk about what cards you have. So it's like, okay, you do this, I'll do this, and we're going to get to the end, and somebody could do that if they wanted to. But, um, all in all, I was impressed and I I'm excited to play it again.
Speaker 1:We didn't, we did not win Um as a, a ring bearer, I was a little fast and loose with my, with my play, and ended up getting corrupted by the eye of sauron. So, uh, but yeah, it's cool and you know, like the, the asymmetry that comes out, it's like you'll take a pit stop in a friendly place, like is this the right word? Lothlorien Travis, you're the Lothlorien, lothlorien, so like the woods of Lothlorien. So you're like in between scenarios and you'll move your marker to Lothlorien and you'll get all these cards that are like characters from the books that you can play, and they're not complicated, they just give you more symbols or something.
Speaker 1:But anyway, lord of the rings, would you play it with classic my mom and mary? Yeah, so that was good. And then we followed it up with the next day playing the hobbit, which is a very similar vibe where you're playing through scenario boards. It was like Rhino Canizia took that Lord of the Rings design and tweaked it a little bit for the Hobbit game and this one instead playing cards. Travis, I think you and I played this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say we played a Lord of the Rings game as a break in one gaming marathon. I can't remember what it was. Yeah, it was the.
Speaker 1:Hobbit one. And yeah, instead of cards you're rolling dice trying to match symbols and get through the scenario. That one's a little more luck-driven, but it's a fun time, like you don't got to think much and the theme just comes through from like the cards. They'll be like oh my God, the Nazgul attack, better roll five fighting symbols. It's like oh cool, yeah. But anyway, having some uh flashbacks to a time that I was not a part of board gaming travis, how was your uh german board game night?
Speaker 2:yeah. So I decided to take this podcast advice and go to a german board game night. I did some research and there's a group that puts on events in the local area. I think kind of go village to village putting on game nights that are open to everyone. I know that they have like a nonprofit that raises money for, you know, board gamers that are less fortunate or troubled youth or whatever. I know that they have a good cause and I wish I could speak more eloquently about it. But I decided to go to this event and it was held at the Burger House, which is not a place to get burgers, it is like the town hall of each village and it was right next to the train station. So I walked in and there was about 10 Germans sitting around.
Speaker 2:I walked in and immediately got roped into a game of Heckmech and some of you might not know what Heckmech is because the English version is called Picomino or Picomino Reiner Knizia. It is a press your luck dice rolling game where you are trying to collect the most amount of worms on these little dominoes. So you roll eight dice each turn. You need at least one worm, which is a six, and you're trying to total up your points to one of the numbers on a domino 26 to 36, I think and each of them have a corresponding number of worms on the domino. The cool thing is, this game has a take that mechanism where if people earn worms on their dominoes and they have them sitting in front of them, you can roll that number and then steal their domino from them. And so the two guys that I played with one spoke pretty good English and he helped explain the rules to me.
Speaker 2:I was not rolling the dice very well and these Germans were beating me pretty handily and I had no dominoes in front of me and they had these huge stacks. And the other guy that was playing spoke no English, except for the word fail, which he would yell at me every time I would over-roll the number or fail to earn more of the dominoes. You can only roll or select each number. Once I roll the die, I pull all the sixes out. I can't roll any more sixes. Next time I'll roll threes and I pull all the sixes out. I can't roll any more sixes. Next time I'll roll threes and I'll pull the threes out. And you can keep going until you have no dominoes or no dice left, and every time I would fail one of the roles, he would yell fail, which was pretty good. But then I proceeded to steal all their dominoes one by one, and I beat them at the game.
Speaker 3:Oh, to steal all their dominoes one by one, and I beat them at the game oh, wow that's not my favorite reiner game that's for america
Speaker 2:that's for america, not my favorite reiner canizia game, but it was. It was fun, press your luck. It was a good warm-up and a good way to to meet the guys that were playing. However, right next to me on the table, um, there was a game of marrakesh going on, which I was more interested in because that thing I don't know if you've ever seen it laid out on a table there was a game of Marrakesh going on which I was more interested in because that thing I don't know if you've ever seen it laid out on a table it is beautiful.
Speaker 2:It is a beautiful board and beautiful pieces, colors everywhere. They got little tokens and chits and this big dice tower that is built out of cardboard. It's a big spire in the middle of the board that you roll your dice down through. I was super interested in that uh, but I did. I was a little too late to play that one, so after we put, after we played pick omino, uh, we slid over and joined the other group after they wrapped their game of marrakesh and we played a game of uh verdant that's flat out games.
Speaker 2:Right, the plant game yes, verdant is a game by FlatOut Game and AEG. It's another joint publishing, just like Fit to Print same people that did Fit to Print Designed by Molly Johnson, robert Melvin, aaron Mesburn, kevin Russ. Artist is Beth Sobel. This is a cozy game where you are drafting cards it's got open, drafting pattern, building, set, collection and so on your turn you start with one room and one plant and each room is a colored kind of suit and on each of the sides is a symbol for how much sun that side of the room is getting. Then you draft plants or you start with a plant that needs a certain sun exposure at the top, so you match those two up. You match up the symbols and hopefully the colors, because they have different colors. And then on your turn you're drafting either a plant or a room and an item that's in between and you're trying to earn these little leafs that go on your plants that will then get them potted and score them points at the end. You're trying to build out this tableau as you go along that has matching symbols and colors and items and there's green thumbs that you can earn that get you special abilities and at the end, after you get a three by five grid built, built out. Everybody scores and whoever has the most amount of points wins. I tied further first than that one and it was, uh, it was a. It was a fun game. It's something you could teach to anybody. Super simple. On bgg it is rated at 2.07 complexity, so it's super easy. Anybody can pick it up and it's definitely a cozy game. It kind of reminds me of like calico you're trying to create patterns to earn points and and build out your tableau. It's I. I really enjoyed it. It's there's a good game for groups that have a mixed level of experience.
Speaker 2:Uh, and then we wrapped up the night with a game of. I don't know what it's called in English. Oh, it's called Seas of Strife in English. Don't quote me on that, but in German it's called Windjammern, windjammern, and it is a trick-taking game where you have numbers 0 through 74. And it's broken up like 0 through 10 is yellow suit, and the suits get smaller and smaller as you go up in number. So, like the 70s, it's like 71 to 74 is a suit. So you go around, you play a card and you're trying to match a suit that's already out there and if you play the highest number of a suit that has the most amount of cards in this, in the center. You have to take the whole pile and you're not trying to take any piles because the first one to collect 15 piles loses the game. So it's it's fun.
Speaker 2:We played quick. It was like less than 10 minutes. Um, the first round I got obliterated and I took like 10, 10 tricks and then I finally figured out a strategy that worked and I I think I got second and, uh, the lady that brought the game won. So, all in all, it was a good experience. It was cool to meet new people and they're super welcoming. Last week we recommended that people look for these events online and you got to put yourself out there, take a chance, go to these events and just meet people. I think people are more than happy to welcome new people to the table, and they actually turned me on to two other board gaming groups that are on Facebook around here, so I'll check out their pages and see other events that are going on.
Speaker 3:Did they feed you?
Speaker 2:They did not feed me. There was no snacks. There was like a couple things of water that nobody offered me, so I didn't drink anything. So that was the one downfall. It was no food or drinks. But the big procurement for the week was we went to a German flea market today and I got the game Klask K-L-A-S-K. Five euro. That is the deal of a lifetime man. Yeah, five euro.
Speaker 3:That's that little game behind you. Clay like with the little thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like Dexterity game. It's basically like air hockey, where you're trying to avoid these little magnets and you're trying to keep a little puck. Yeah, it's a puck. Yeah, you're trying to keep your puck out of your hole and get the little disc into the other player's hole.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Actually huge fan of that game. It's like air hockey.
Speaker 2:It's magnetic air hockey on a wooden table. There you go.
Speaker 3:Mason kicked the crap out of it. He's good at that game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a fun one, that's a great deal. But I mean, I guess a deal like that has broken your anti-procurement pledge to yourself.
Speaker 2:No, baby's not here yet.
Speaker 1:Oh, once the baby comes. Okay, alright, alright, I got it, so you better hurry up Time's ticking Travis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. This is not a board game, but I did get a couple of sweet retro video games. I got a pack of three, including 007 for the N64. Whoa yeah, so it was a good deal, you still got an N64?.
Speaker 1:Bro, you know I do. Travis is the nerd.
Speaker 3:all right, yeah, that's why he has to keep it under wraps.
Speaker 2:Now I have a board gaming podcast, so yes, we are.
Speaker 3:We're at the top of the hierarchy of nerddom. Yeah, we have arrived. We are at the top of the hierarchy of nerddom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have arrived. We are at the apex of nerddom. I am the king of all neckbeards.
Speaker 1:At least it's well-groomed.
Speaker 2:Well, for now, we'll see you once I go on baby leave.
Speaker 1:Hey, congrats to you, though, for going out and meeting people and playing games.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Yeah, it was worth it. It was pretty fun. Any Americans there I was the only American there and it was it was good because they would they would be like conversing amongst themselves in German and they all start laughing. But then they would be inclusive enough to explain to me the joke in English. So it was pretty good. We were playing wind, wind jammer and the one guy started like mumbling to himself after I dealt the cards and they all started laughing and one of the ladies that spoke pretty good english. She says he's complaining because you he thinks you shuffled the cards wrong and I was like, oh, I'm sorry. And she said no, he's jammering, which in German means like moaning, complaining which is like the game is a play on words, so it was pretty good.
Speaker 2:That is cool. Yeah, it was a cool experience.
Speaker 1:Hey, one more. I'm not going to talk much, but we talked about trick-taking and I recently had ordered Minnow Dice from eBay, which for the people familiar with Skull King, is essentially just Skull King, but with dice. I mean you cannot take this game too seriously, but we've played it two nights in a row now and it's a lot of fun. You know you have dice that might be good, so you bid on what you think you might get, but you could roll them and they could come up with a flag which means you automatically lose the trick. So it's just a fun little quick dice game version of Skull King and yeah, I'm definitely stoked to have it and that is all.
Speaker 2:That sounds awesome. Yeah, let's move on to our main topic, which is segue games how to get people into board gaming with uh simple games that you can teach anybody, uh that will hopefully turn them into lifelong gamers. So what are your thoughts on segue games? Games, guys Like what constitutes a Segway game to you?
Speaker 1:Listen. I want to get out of this. I want people that listen to this. Two types of people. One, if you're a person that's interested in games and don't know where to start, this is a great place to start with this list. Also, if you're somebody that is a gamer and wants to get people to play games with, you this is a good place to start. So, for both audiences, I think these games are going to be really beneficial. Jared, what are your?
Speaker 3:thoughts I was going to say we did discuss slightly before this episode just about. You know, there are some games ie vis-a-vis Catan that's very popular. It is almost, dare I say, one of the gateway games. Isn't that how you got involved, clayton?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:So it is a competitive interaction game, like I think I thought a lot about Catan when I selected my three for today's discussion, but I don't think any one of us is going to say Catan, but Catan is probably the easiest, most popular go-to, but there's a lot more than just Catan. That's kind of why we are talking about this episode.
Speaker 2:Is that correct? I'm really dumb. When I introduced this segment, I think I said Segway games instead of Gateway games. You?
Speaker 1:did. I thought you were doing something cute. I mean, I'm so dumb. No, it's good.
Speaker 3:I think you're hanging out with too many Germans. They might be using their vocabulary a little bit differently. And look at you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mistranslated in my brain from English to German and then back to English.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:We're talking about gateway games here, games to get people into the board gaming hobby. We're getting you hooked on drugs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think these are for people that you know are board game curious and they're putting their toes in the water and might want to see what's on the other side, and these are the games for them. If it's just your grandma, I don't know. You might not get a lot of mileage out of these. You know, stick with the party games. You know you're just ones, you're so clovers. But if somebody thinks they might be interested in seeing what's behind the curtain of modern hobby board games, these are good entry points.
Speaker 2:Nice, and I think most of these will end up being pretty low complexity, because you want people to be able to pick it up and learn it quickly. You don't want to have them drawn out by a huge rule explanation and then jump in, play the game, show them a fun mechanic with fun interactions and then get them out of there and let it kind of marinate in their brain a little bit interactions, I think.
Speaker 1:Get them out of there and let it kind of, you know, marinate in their brain a little bit and then I think that's a good way to get them. You got something else, clay. No, I was just going to say and, like Jared said, most people that are into like board games now got into it through Catan. But I do think that we have. We have better games now that are more appropriate to introduce people to. Catan just is a legend. It's a monument to modern board gaming and the people that are in the hobby now. I would say probably over 50% of them got their start at some point in Catan, but it has evolved a ton in the past 20 years. It has evolved a ton in the past, you know 20 years. So I think we have some good options for you if you're not into Catan and and rest and shout out to katan and how many gamers it has made.
Speaker 2:And rest in peace to klaus truber, the creator of katan, who died later earlier in uh 2023 oh dang, why you gotta hit me like that.
Speaker 3:I know, should we have a moment of silence?
Speaker 2:doesn't? That doesn't make for good podcasting. Oh yeah, we will remember him Through forging on through other gateway games.
Speaker 3:Yes, you mind if I go first. We're going like round robin right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, please start us off. You're at the top of my screen.
Speaker 3:So I pick three games kind of like as a ramp and I think you'll notice To the listener I'm kind of the one that's kind of out of the loop. I don't have a giant stack of board games like Clayton right behind him, or the the shame, what is it called, travis?
Speaker 2:Shelf of shame.
Speaker 3:Shelf of shame, but I have been able to taste of both Travis's shelf of shame and Clay's giant board games collections back there and these are kind of like my three that I was like this is what really ramped me up and I think would be a great option. So my first one I'm starting pretty low and Sushi Go it might be it's a family type game, maybe. It is kind of like I think Clay just mentioned about like so Clover is so basic.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like I think Clay just mentioned about like so Clover is so basic, it's the gateway.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no, no. So a little card game where you pass them, a lot of interaction that's what I thought makes a good gateway game is like interaction you have a deck in your hand and you select a card and then you have to pass that hand around the table and you're trying to collect certain sushis and grow your points that way. But like there's still some strategery to it, because you can, you know, count how many people are there. What are their strategies Like? What are they collecting right now? Do I take this one now and then hope that it comes back around because those other people aren't collecting what I'm collecting? Shout out to the publisher Game Right and designer, phil Walker Harding. And there's a Sushi Dice game too Sushi Go Dice game. I think, clay, you gifted me Sushi Go. That was actually kind of one of my first games that I've like had possession of other than Monopoly, and I actually had Pichirica back in the day from Adrie, but Sushi Go is my number one gateway game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought about that one too, Jared, that's a good one.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Clay what you got for your first gateway game game first one I'm going to talk about and this is not ramping, there's no order. These are just all games that I think people will have a good time with, have always been a hit when I introduce people to them, and that I actually enjoy playing too, which is important for me to introduce a game. So the first one is the Quacks of Quedlinburg. This was published back in 2000 and something 17, 18. It's designed by Wolfgang Worsch, published by Schmittenspiel and 17 more according to the Board Game Geek page. So it's a popular game. It's got expansions, but the base game is so much fun.
Speaker 1:I've said before that Push your Luck is one of my favorite mechanisms in games, and Quacks of Quedlinburg has that. So you have this bag and also the tactility of putting chits in bags and pulling them out. That gets me fired up in itself, but the fun of it and there's different ingredients you can put in your bag that give you special powers as you try to brew your little cauldron and get further on it than everybody else who's playing. I think, travis, you introduced me to this game and I remember just having such a blast with it the first time I went and bought it right away.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I think it's easy to get people to understand what's going on. Just give them their bag and be like, start pulling and moving your little ingredients up your cauldron and as you go you get to experience different ingredients. So it kind of ramps you up into you know these more, not complicated, but these different ingredients that have more unique abilities. And yeah, I will always suggest Quacks of Quedlinburg to anybody who's like I'm interested in trying out a board game. What should I get? And I'm like Quacks of Quedlinburg, you will have fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for your money, because all of the ingredients that you can add to your bag have alternative sides or alternative actions that you can take when you pull those out of your bag. So you can play it one way with one set of rules and then switch it up the next time and those ingredients do completely new things. So, yeah, there's a lot of value in Quacks of Quedlinburg. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So the push your luck. Part of it for the listener out there, if you haven't heard of Quack's equivalent, burke, is there's these white chips that are in your bag, and if the value on your white chips exceeds seven, your pot explodes and you don't get to. You either have to take the victory points or buy new ingredients. If your pot doesn't explode, you get to buy new ingredients and get victory points. So as you're pulling and you're like, oh my God, I've pulled a lot of white chips, there can't be many left in this bag. And then you pull that one more and it's the three white one you busted, you're like daggone it. But anyway, I love that excitement of drawing and wiggling my hand around in a bag. So that's Quacks and Quedlinburg.
Speaker 2:That's a great gateway game that leads you to Wonderland's war down the road. Oh heck, yeah. Okay, my first gateway game is uh splendor, published in 2014. Uh designer is mark andre. Publisher is space cowboys, also published by z-man games. I think I've got the z-man game one. Uh. It's rated 7.4 on bGG, weight of 1.78. It is Baby's first tableau builder.
Speaker 2:On your turn, you either draw three chips, which are gems. You reserve a card on this big grid of cards that score different points and do different things, or you buy the card with the gems that you've collected, or, as you buy the cards, you add them to your tableau. There are new bonus gems towards the end. You slowly work your way up the different layers in this grid of cards and the first to 15 points like it's 15 points, first to 15 points wins. It's's goes pretty fast. It's it's.
Speaker 2:It's a good game that if you are jumping into the first time, you still have a competitive chance against people that have played it a whole bunch of times, especially if you play in larger player counts, because those cards are not going to be the same when they get back around to your turn. You can kind of see what people are going for the. The moves that you're taking are really transparent. There's no hidden hands or anything like that, so you're just pulling the chips, building your tableau, earning bonuses, moving up in points, and this makes for really tense game scenarios down the road when people are close to winning, or you're trying to block them from winning. Down the road, when people are close to winning, or you're trying to block them from winning. And yeah, I think it's a good way to get people into tableau building and get them to think about how they're building their engine up Can't be killed.
Speaker 3:I've never played this one in person. I've only ever played on BGA. Is it even better in?
Speaker 2:person. Yeah, I mean, I think bga is a good representation of how it feels in person. I think it's a little more tense in person just because you can see people's tableau they're building up right there on the table, um, but I think it's the.
Speaker 1:You know, the mechanics are the same, the, the visuals are the same and it it feels good to build that engine as you, as you go along how are you going to talk about feeling good this whole time, talking about splendor and the difference between it on board game arena and in person, and not talk about the feel of those wonderful, wonderful poker chips? You're missing out. You're missing out. If you, I mean, that'll get people hooked in itself. You're, you're fiddling with these chips. Oh it, it's good.
Speaker 2:Even the base level game comes with these plastic poker chips or these clay-type poker chips that are really satisfying to handle. You have these little stacks of nice little poker chips with all the gems, the beautiful gems on them, and they're all color-coordinated, so it's pretty nice, it's a good production, even at the base level.
Speaker 3:We haven't even gone around one round and we've already seen Clay just likes the feel of things, the tactical feel of a chit or reaching into a bag in Quitlinburg. It's beautiful. I'm a sucker for production.
Speaker 1:It's all about game feel yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, All right, Jared what you got.
Speaker 3:Number two Well, my number two, ramping up slightly, not really Dice Miner, Atlas Games Joshua Du Bois and Nikola Ryskiski I butchered this name, but this one's a great one. I feel like this is where you introduce like a player ability, Like each person has different starting points. You have, like Engineer or the Dragon Slayer they already come with some type of benefits and then you have a mountain of die, six-sided dies that they all have different meaning, different ways to score points, Six-sided dice that they all have different meaning, different ways to score points, and you have to interact together, pulling from the peaks of this mountain that you're slowly mining down to the core to earn your points. But again, I just love randomness too. There's also a bag that you reach into Clayton, so you definitely like that. You can also get that 3D-printed mountain, just beautiful, extra little feature to your Dice Miner game.
Speaker 3:But this one is fun, Like you can teach people pretty quick and definitely a gateway game in that you can pick up the game quickly. There's a lot of interaction, definitely. And then there's like that cheers moment where if one of your die, one side of the six-sided die, is a little beer and you can cheers it to someone, you can pass it and you can really change the momentum of the game in a certain way. Maybe Adri's just out there crushing it and so you cheers. The other person with a very specific cheers die and uh, kind of hopes helps pull the momentum away from adrie. Uh, not that I don't like adrie and I don't like her winning um hashtag. You know love your wife. But you know you can. You can have good influence on the game. It's a lot of fun. So that would be like my next step up into into the board game area so listen, without, even without the 3d printed mountain, you have the cardboard mountain.
Speaker 1:I think that's still a a fun component hook that you don't see and and I think that's another thing that's important with these gateway games, like having that, that hook. Like you know, in Splendor, people might like the feel of those poker chips. I know people like the feel of those poker chips. And in Dice Miner it's cool. It's cool to see the dice stacked on this mountain and and pull them off the peak. So, in addition to being good games, they also have these hooks that will keep people interested.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I taught Dice Bender to a bunch of non-gamers just a couple weeks ago and it was a big hit, because people love the toasting each other, where they're rolling dice at each other. That's so good. Cheers, it's good interaction. Yeah, cheers and you roll the dice at them and whatever lands on, that's what they keep and that's a great mechanic, clay what's your number two?
Speaker 1:Number two, in no particular order, is a Reiner Knizia game, because I could not, in good conscience, make this list without including a game from the Good Doctor, and that is the Quest for El Dorado.
Speaker 1:So, if you're going to get into board games these days, you need to understand deck building, and there is no better game at introducing people to deck building than the Quest for El Dorado. It is a race game which is also a very easy concept for people to understand. It's like you're starting on this side of the map. You have to get to that side of the map. Here's how you do it, and the cards in there are simple. You know, a machete will get you through the jungle space. A little canoe paddle will get you through the water space.
Speaker 1:So on your turn, you have four cards in your hand and you are playing a machete so you can move your person to the jungle space. You're playing a ore to move to the water and then, whatever cards you have left and this is where you learn about the deck building you can spend the money that either those cards are worth or some of the cards have coins on them to buy new cards to add to your deck of cards. And then you just draw four cards again and you're just trying to buy the best cards and be the quickest to race across this map. And people love it. It's simple, it's streamlined, turns are quick, yeah, and it's very intuitive what you're doing. So I very much enjoy Quest for El Dorado and I've had a lot of success introducing people to it.
Speaker 3:How have I not played this game?
Speaker 1:I don't know Cole and Spanky go absolutely ape for quest for el dorado like really yes, they. I think spanky would tell you it's his favorite game, and cole wants to play it all the time too. So it is. It's definitely been a winner for them.
Speaker 2:And yeah, everybody I've taught it to picks it up really quick and enjoys it we, when I was over there, you mean mary played, and we played some variation of it.
Speaker 1:It was like an expansion we played the golden temples version. That's right. So in that one, instead of being a straightforward race, you have to like go to three different spots and get like a gem from each spot and then get to the bottom. It's. That was really fun, yeah.
Speaker 2:That was tense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it always ends up pretty tense and there's blocking you can do, so there's that player interaction you love. But yeah, quest for El Dorado. Reiner Canizia, bring in the heat Travis, what you got.
Speaker 2:Speaking of good player interaction, I have a cooperative game next, so this one is a good segue game because, one, it's simple to learn, two, it's got some interesting puzzle solving and mechanics. And three, it is readily available. You could go and pick this up at Target tomorrow and that is the Forbidden series designed by Matt Leacock, published by game right. These things were available at target. There's four in the series now. There's forbidden jungle or forbidden island, forbidden desert, forbidden sky, and forbidden jungle is the is the most recent one, and my personal favorite is forbidden desert, and they each have their own kind of unique mechanic to it. You talked about like the toyeticness of games and the feel. This one's got a pretty cool component where you are working together to build a airship to escape the desert together before people run out of water and die in the desert. So, cooperative game, grid movement. You've got these tiles that are laid out in this five by five grid. I think. There's hidden tiles that are flipped over face down, that look like sand, and when you dig them up as one of your actions, you flip them over and then sometimes it's a teleporter or a cave that you can transport across the map. Sometimes it's an item that you can collect that will give you certain powers, but what you're really trying to do is you're trying to turn these over and reveal parts of this airship and put the airship together to escape. So you all have to get to the site with the airship and escape before the heat level gets too high or the sand piles up too much. Each player has their own unique, variable player power. So you have the cartographer that can move another player around, you have the I don't even know what the, what the other players are called, but one is able to dig out sand more efficiently, one is able to carry extra water that you can share with your allies, and they all have different things that they can do to help solve this problem. The cool thing is is, after every player's turn, you flip one of these like threat cards or encounter cards, and in Forbidden Desert at least, it will shift the sands around. So you flip the tile and all this sand starts shifting around in the wind and it starts piling up in these areas that make it more difficult to dig out the airship parts or get to water or get to the things that you need to get to In the Forbidden Sky, one that has some cool components, because you are going around this island up in the sky that you flew to with your airship in this one.
Speaker 2:So they're each sequels to one another. In Forbidden Sky you're trying to build a circuit that then lights up a rocket ship, and it's pretty cool because it's actually battery-powered. And you're putting these spans that have magnets on the ends, or at least metal leads, and you're trying to put them on these little platforms that are small metal looking platforms and once you line them all up and it's, you can make them, can make the circuit however you want, but once you complete the circuit, the rocket ship actually lights up and like makes blast off noises Whoa, it's awesome, it's pretty cool, I like blast off noises whoa, it's awesome, it's pretty cool, I like that. Yeah, that's that. One's probably the most interesting. Like component wise, uh.
Speaker 2:And then the sequel to that one is forbidden jungle, which just came out last year, I think. Um, that one is kind of like the puzzle that you're trying to solve, or the game mechanic that you're trying to cooperate against is kind of like nemesis, where you're placing eggs, larva or big aliens on these different spaces and you're trying to get the components to build your escape vehicle and you're trying to escape or you're trying to circumnavigate these aliens that are trying to track you down in the forest. So super easy to teach. Each player has their own player board that explains exactly what they do and how you interact, and the and the turn order, and then it's like an introduction to variable player powers and cooperative play and taking like action point turns. Sobidden Desert is my number two, no particular order.
Speaker 1:Hey, shout out to co-op games too. I think they are, in general, just a good place to introduce people to games, because you're not playing against each other, so you can help people out and ask questions and be pretty open with it as you go through the game. So, yeah, I think co-ops are always a good choice if you're introducing people to a game.
Speaker 2:And I asked my wife before we recorded this episode what would you consider your gateway games? What games do you enjoy that got you into gaming? And she shouted out Splendor and the Forbidden Desert game. So she knew that this was one that got her interested in gaming in the first place.
Speaker 1:Nice, jared, go full ramp on us. What is at the top of your ramp?
Speaker 3:It's not full ramp, it's still, I think, medium complexity on Board Game Geek. But last one on my list today from Leader Games is Ahoy, from Greg Loring Albright. He designed a beautiful, beautiful game here. It's got great iconography that can help you just remember what are you actually doing. There's like different icons that help you understand what you're doing, what your goals are. So, overall, shout out to my boy, colvin Olin I might just have to pop my top off for this one because of how exciting it makes me and pirates.
Speaker 3:But you have this ship with different abilities. You go around, blast each other while you're trying to deliver cargo to different areas. You're trying to. Some factions are trying to deliver cargo and some factions are trying to overtake certain islands and put their presence on this island. I had a lot of fun playing.
Speaker 3:It's asymmetric, where the layout is never the same. As you go off the mat a new, smaller board slides up and there's dice. So there's like randomness that I love that, just like you roll some dice to figure out what actual moves you can do, how many times you can blast someone. I just love blast. This is the idea of getting on a high season. I couldn't do Dead Reckoning because that is full-blown, that's not a Segway or Gateway game. But Ahoy is a pared-down version of Dead Reckoning, which Dead Reckoning is just like right up there at the top for me, but it takes a lot of work. But I also like Ahoy because it's got like a player mat where you have your own abilities. You can kind of use your strengths to try and outmaneuver your opponents. Clay is really good at it. He always kicks my ass at it.
Speaker 1:Um yeah talking about me that's how I played.
Speaker 3:Yeah, talking about that clay right there I have never played as one of the warring, the warring factions like your uh blackfish brigade or I'm always the little smuggler going back and forth smugglers and you kick our butts because you're like, oh yeah, you play us so gently, you get us all fired up at blasting each other that you get through and deliver your cargo left and right I do like instigating a good battle between the the blue fins squadron and the brigade of whatever it is.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah it. That is a really fun one. I think last time I played was at the olives house. Actually it's been a minute. Whoa, um, we might have to. I have to bust that one out whenever I head over to Colorado, which I don't know when that's going to be, but or maybe I'll just buy it myself, who knows. I have to go track down, go talk to this game store and tell them they need to up their inventory.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, this is a pretty aggressive choice for a gateway. You know, like I feel like Really no. No, I'm not saying aggressive in a bad way, I'm saying it's just that you have to be aggressive in this game which you know some people, it can turn people off, but I do think it is a good gateway to a different genre of game than we've been describing. You know, this gets you into your roots and your you know, blood rages in these games where you're in each other's faces. No, I think it's a great choice. It's my go-to pared-down version of one of those games.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that's what.
Speaker 2:I'm saying Combat's a bold choice Combat.
Speaker 3:I love a little combat on the high seas.
Speaker 1:Clay, what's your number three? My number three is the friendliest of all. Almost zero player interaction here, just good vibes, good times, and that is cascadia, by getting a lot of shout outs, aeg, and I think this is also a a flat out deal, but yeah, it's 2021. I think this is also a flat out deal, but yeah, it's 2021. I think this won the Spiel, maybe Spiel des Jahres, so it is definitely popular. I think maybe all my games did win that award.
Speaker 1:So this might not be that original of a list, but in Cascadia you're trying to create this environment through tile placement and you have different scoring objectives. So one scoring objective is creating land masses of a certain type and you'll score points based on how big each of your land masses is. And then there's other scoring objectives for the animals. So there's different sets of cards you can play. So the bears in like the A set. You want to have two bears next to each other like a mating couple. I don't know if that's what it's called, but bears together will get you points, depending on how many different bears you have together throughout your map. So as you play, there's a little marketplace and it's like coupled drafting, which is cool. You randomly set out four tiles and four animal tokens and they're paired up. So if you want this animal token, you have to take the landscape. They're, like, paired up. So if you want this animal token, you have to take the landscape that it's paired with. So you pick one of those four and then you have to place it. So I put my terrain down and then you have to put your animal on a terrain that has that animal symbol. So you're just putting this animal token on top of your terrain and so you're just trying to meet these scoring objectives.
Speaker 1:But it feels pretty loosey, goosey, like there's things you want to do. You're like, oh man, I really want to get this salmon run, where I have this long line of salmon that is going to get me all these points. But if a salmon's not out there, like there's always something good you can be doing. Like you know, you draft, you're, you'll draft something and you'll add it to your habitat and it'll be good for you. Um, and there are ways with these little nature tokens that you could wipe the board and like get a fresh slate to draw from if there was really something you wanted. But, um, I find this game to be. Yeah, just a good feeling you're, it's nice to see your little landscape grow and you know like you're getting these little pockets of elk together and you're getting these fish together, and yeah it's a pleasant game, it's nice to look at, super easy to teach.
Speaker 1:Um good entry point for people, I think.
Speaker 2:What mechanisms do you think that Cascadia is introducing to people?
Speaker 1:Drafting and tile placement, really, and scoring objectives, I guess, just like having disparate scoring objectives.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you know, just like having disparate scoring objectives, but yeah, it's too simple it's, but it's fun. It's very popular for a reason. Yeah, and pretty low stress. Yes, super low stress, cause we got Calico first and Calico is high stress, like where Calico as you go through that game, you just feel like you're being squeezed and you're like, oh my God, it's all falling apart. And then Cascadia, as you go through, you're just like, oh, expanding things just open up. It gets more generous, I feel like as you go through it. So that's why I think it's a better choice for a gateway game nice, um.
Speaker 2:So my number three. I kind of building on the set collection and game scoring. This is a good introduction to worker placement. It is published in 2018. Everdell, designed by James Wilson, published by Starling games. It's published by a whole bunch of people.
Speaker 2:But yeah, everdell, it's cute. It's a good introduction to worker placement. You put your worker out there, you collect some resources. Later on, you use your resources to pay for cards that are in a big grid and then you take those cards and you add them to your tableau in front of you Tableau, for lack of a better word but you're adding them to your village that's in front of you and you're trying to collect sets and you're trying to create synergy between your cards and at the end of the game, there's in-game scoring bonuses based on the number of cards that you have or the different cards within a set that you have. I mentioned this on our top five games, I think, but this game is a good primer for something like Dune Imperium, which is a little more complex and it starts involving a little more combat. But yeah, everdell, and it's, it's readily available. The base set is pretty cheap and if you are interested in getting this, maybe you don't have a big game group to play with.
Speaker 2:Everdell duo is on kickstarter right now. You might be able to late pledge. Base pledge for everdell duo twenty dollars, twenty dollars for the base pledge. So I of course back that one because I love Everdell Duo $20. $20 for the base pledge. So I of course back that one because I love Everdell and it's probably easier to pull out a little Everdell Duo than the big box that I have. So yeah, everdell is a great entry-level worker placement game that can help get you excited about building engines and set collections and that type of stuff. That's my number three game.
Speaker 3:That rounded out.
Speaker 2:That rounds it out. I think we have a couple of quick honorary mentions, being Catan, of course, that we mentioned up front. Your Wingspans, which got popular over COVID Wingspan is ever popular. Your Tickets to Rides oh yeah, tickets to Rides, that one is crazy popular. And then, of course, raw. We can't have too much Rainer Knizzi on this list, but, yeah, raw is a great auction game. We didn't do any auction games. You guys got any other honorary mentions Heat Pedal to the metal.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Another one that is just booming in popularity. But I again, there's a reason. It appeals to a lot of people. Race games are very understandable to a lot of people what the objective is, and I think the hand management and heat is very fun and people enjoy that, like almost pushing your luck of how much heat to take from your engine and you know when to do it. Yeah, heat is a good one that I think is going to be a gateway game for for the future. Nice.
Speaker 2:That rounds out a gateway game for the future Nice. That rounds out our gateway game discussion. Let's move on to some quick hits. Jared, what have you been doing besides board gaming?
Speaker 3:Well, really getting into nuclear theory in school. Anyways, I did watch half of Oppenheimer last night and also this awesome movie, dr Strangelove. I've never heard of it. I think maybe it's like in the back of my mind.
Speaker 3:People have said it, but I've never watched it myself and it was like just so eerie and interesting and I loved it just like at the end where they're like the nuke had blown up and well, I'd spoiler, spoiler, but like the world is gonna end in the matter of minutes, but they're still talking about like how much they hate the communists and they're like trying to well, if we get down into our mind shafts, like they're going to try and get down to their mind shafts, we need to strike their mind shafts and like the there's still espionage happening, even in the last seconds of the world's existence and I'm just like it's just a beautiful, uh yeah, satire. I think I don't know what the what the genre is, but it's all black and white too, which is kind of cool. Yeah, it's just a beautiful satire. I don't know what the genre is, but it's all black and white too, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a parody of our military industrial complex and how we make decisions at the highest level and the nonsense that goes into how we make those decisions. And yeah, it's a pretty nihilistic look at nuclear warfare.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it just helped me realize that we're just on pins and needles every day. Every day is a blessing I did want to shout out. Well, maybe it's not a shout out, but maybe my quick hit would be to remember that it's September, suicide Awareness Month. A lot of people in our profession veterans dying, more often than not of their own hands than by anyone else. So a little somber moment for me, but I think about that in September, well, throughout the year too. But, um, so if you need anything, especially you two, please reach out to me. But also just a reminder of um that the struggles and the toughness of of everyday life, um, just take a second and think about yourself, take care of yourself and reach out to a friend if you need it.
Speaker 2:Anyways, that's my quick hits. Check it on your friends. Yes, please do Check on your friends and tell them that you love them. I love you, Travis. I love you too, Jared. I love you guys, oh never mind.
Speaker 1:I love Jared, not you, travis, get out of here.
Speaker 2:It's all love.
Speaker 1:It's all love.
Speaker 2:Clay, you got your love when Jared was out and we talked about how much we care about each other and caring for your game group. It's beautiful, so emotional Clay. What's your?
Speaker 1:quick hit. So my quick hit is an ode to Travis's expert quick hitting in the past four episodes expert quick hitting in the past four episodes. So my mom is out here and I guess this goes to prove that most of our listens are from our parents. But my mom was just. My mom was just talking randomly about she's like oh yeah, I heard somewhere about this show on called the contestant that I really want to watch and I was like you heard that from my podcast and Travis and so, yes, you are winning hearts and minds here and she didn't even realize it. But you've won my hearts and minds because I watched the Contestant and that was awesome. I also bought Snipperclips. Well, mary bought Snipperclips because you were right. Yeah, she freaking loved it. She's been Snipperclipping it up. I am holding her back, but yeah, I've been enjoying watching her play that and also taking your recommendations from this uh podcast to my, to my own life.
Speaker 2:So that's great. That's what I got. I'm glad you're enjoying those recommendations.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep. My mom was like I really liked this Travis guy. He's like you know, he talked about Lord of the Rings. She's like geeked out over Lord of the Rings too and and uh, she reads all the House of Dragons stuff. When you were going on about that, she was into it.
Speaker 2:Should we have your mom on as our first guest?
Speaker 1:You're a man for the people. I'll call her in.
Speaker 3:Is she there? No, she's not there. Don't get me going like that.
Speaker 1:Anyway, good work, travis. You're really influencing my household. Excellent. Don't get me going like that, but anyway, good work, travis.
Speaker 2:You're really influencing my household, excellent. I don't know how much traction this quick hit will get in your household, but a quick hit this week is jujitsu. I've been really bad about getting in the gym lately, but I got a note from our old coach Smitty, who was out here. His very first question was how are you doing? What's the BGG or BJJ situation out here? So I told him about the jujitsu club here and we went a couple of nights and, man, I am really out of jujitsu shape.
Speaker 2:And for the listeners that don't know, us Clay and Jared were both wrestlers and have been doing combative sports their whole lives. I am not a combatives person. I did wrestling in the fourth grade and I cried because it was really hard and it sucked, but I was just using it as a segue into sports. So I've been doing jujitsu for two years and it is a definitely a perishable skill, because I took a couple months off and I got my butt whooped and there was a wrestler that was coaching. He's a black belt in jujitsu, seems like a pretty stout wrestler and he put me through the ropes. It was pretty gnarly. It just seems to be that all the wrestlers just picked me out of a lineup and they're like I'm going to mess with that guy today because we went to live rounds and he pointed at me from across the gym and was like I'm so glad to have big guys here again. I don't have to hold back any. He definitely did not. He smoked me.
Speaker 3:Doesn't Dave Durnell call that dragon slaying? They just see a big guy and they just want to hurt you because they're like oh yeah, they just hate bully. I don't know if they have a bully complex Like oh, I was little and picked on, so F those guys anyway.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I wanted to mount my head on the wall, that's for sure. But if you're looking for a good workout that is both, uh, cardio and strength, and you want some, want to build some resilience, want to build some toughness, want to be humbled, uh go to, yeah and be humbled, definitely. If you need some humility, uh, go to your local jiu-jitsu gym and sign up for a trial. And it's not all. It's not all bad, you. You get some good out of it.
Speaker 3:But, man, it is a tough sport and maybe you can find some more people to play splender with.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm saying huh a little bj slender yeah, less, less jujitsu, more splender, that's right, uh.
Speaker 2:So yeah, clay, I'm looking forward to hearing about your mom's uh jujitsu trial I I mean, she'll probably be out there, yeah she would all right, uh, and I do have to say, um, if you've made it this far and you are liking operation game night, please give us a like, give us a comment, uh, share the podcast, because we're getting a little bigger. I think we're in 10 different countries now and, uh, we won't stop until we are in every country across the planet. So please, uh like, follow, subscribe. Uh, leave us a note, use the link in the show notes to send us a text so it goes straight to our fan mail. We appreciate all the feedback and, uh, we look forward to hearing from you.
Speaker 2:This has been operation game night. Thank you for listening to episode five. We did it Five episodes. I have been Travis Smith, he has been Jared Erickson. Thanks, fam, love you. And he has been Clay Gable. Bye, everybody, bye, we're out. Bye. 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. Bye.