OTF: Jared Returns From The Crypt!

A foggy graveyard, rattling dice, and a familiar voice rising from the crypt—Jared’s back, and we’re cracking open a night of stories that blend family life, hobby joy, and the kind of plans that keep a gaming calendar buzzing. We kick off with life updates, a very sweaty “fall” in Alabama, and a detour into adaptive spooky video games that learn your habits and dial up the tension. From there, we trade kitchen war stories about a pizza stone gone rogue and the humble fixes that turn hosting fails into crowd-pleasing rituals—because great game nights are built on good vibes, not perfect pies.

Energy spikes with a trip to the academy football showdown, reunions with old friends, and the charge of meeting people who use their platforms to give back. That momentum carries into a Pennsylvania board game sprint where trick-taking marathons share the table with the riotous charm of Magical Athlete. It’s chaos, asymmetry, and laugh-out-loud moments, the kind that make “run it back” an easy call. We also unpack Vegas memories and a video craps rollercoaster that mirrors the arc of a long game session: variance, patience, and the thrill of closing strong.

The heart of the episode looks forward. We break down World Series of Board Gaming for competitive focus and Dice Tower West for non-stop open gaming and vendor buzz, offering a clear guide for choosing your next convention. With family-friendly travel in mind and a direct flight on the horizon, we sketch a plan that balances rings, reunions, and ridiculous party games. And we want your input: help Jared spend his gift certificate wisely. What single game should anchor his next round of plays—travel-friendly party chaos, a clever trick-taker, or a midweight classic that sings at four? Subscribe, drop your recommendation, and share this with a friend who needs a reason to get a game to the table tonight.

Chapters

• 0:15 Spooky Reunion Cold Open
• 0:39 Jared’s Return And Life Updates
• 2:19 Fall In Alabama And AI-Spooky Games
• 3:03 Pizza Night Fails And Parenting Wins
• 5:13 Work, Service Life, And Academy Football
• 7:40 Board Game Weekend In Pennsylvania
• 10:55 Vegas Memories And Video Craps Swing
• 14:23 Dice Tower West vs WSBG Plans
• 17:30 Gratitude For Listeners And Show Growth
• 19:09 Gift Certificate Dilemma And Party Game Picks
• 21:20 Closing And Audience Prompts

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:15

Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast. From the fog soaked graveyard. It's a forgotten game night where maples arise from their boxes and dice rattle on their own. Lock your doors, light your lantern, shuffle your decks. Because tonight on Operation Game Night, the crypt has opened. And rising from his eternal slumber is Jared Erickson. How you doing, Jared?

SPEAKER_00: 0:40

I was uh I was bogged down by five milli chains that uh held me back from the podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 0:49

Um is that the only thing that that keeps sparrows in their coffins and their papa guy is their all their gold. That's right.

SPEAKER_00: 0:58

Yep, that's me. And if if you for the listeners, if you can hear a gentle clanging, that is not the five milli, that is my little dog Juno, who is at my at my toes, uh eating away. And I I am relegated to the dining room today to try and not wake up my daughter. So good plan. Um that's the plan. Um we're going over the fence. I what's the we have? I'm excited about tonight. No, I I feel like I don't even know who you are. Uh is it has been has it was it like a it's only been like four weeks since we were in uh Vegas? How long is that? Four weeks already. Wow. Uh has flown by. Um, but what's like the what's the big nuggets? What have you been up to since since I seen you last? Well, lots of stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 1:57

Uh just been enjoying fall here in Alabama where it's still 90 degrees. Oh my uh so very sweaty fall. No no flannels and uh and corduroy for us over here in Alabama.

SPEAKER_00: 2:10

The leaves are changing though, right?

SPEAKER_01: 2:13

A little bit. The grass is dying. Does that mean it's fall?

unknown: 2:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 2:19

Um yeah, went to a pumpkin patch, uh made a appearance on Games E Moss podcast with Vic. Yes, where I talked spooky video games.

SPEAKER_00: 2:30

Yeah, AI enabled video games.

SPEAKER_01: 2:34

AI enabled.

SPEAKER_00: 2:35

Oh yes. There's like the the AI learns you your your habits and makes it even more spooky.

SPEAKER_01: 2:43

So not AI in the traditional sense, not like large language model AI. This is like a system that is designed to learn how you play. Okay, it's adaptive, adaptive program. Smart, smart computer. Yeah. Uh what else have we done? I botched a homemade pizza night, and I felt like I let you down. Botched it real hard. Did you get an uni? I did not get an uni, but uh we tried a I have a pizza stone and I tried it in the oven. And man, I it just was a mess. It's stuffed everywhere.

SPEAKER_00: 3:24

Did you try to launch it onto the hot pizza stone or what was the what was this the sticking point here?

SPEAKER_01: 3:30

Well, the sticking point was the bottom of the crust getting stuck to the pan. Uh but um yeah, totally boofed it, boofed it hard. Like, um, I don't have one of like the the giant spatulas to launch the peel. I don't have a peel. So I can't make it separately and then launch it onto a hot stone. I can't place it on a hot stone with my hands. So my best bet is to like preheat that pizza stone and then like set a pan on top of it, or like so, anyways, the entire pizza stuck to the pan. Like, could I got the crust up and that was about it? Uh so it was uh it was a rough go, but um yeah, we've been just chugging through school. Gwen is walking, just decided one day she could walk. That's a big deal. Yeah, so she just stood up and started chomping around.

SPEAKER_00: 4:26

So we got a a mobile baby in the house, and that means you gotta protect more more of your house, more uh sharp items or more things that become sharp, just yes, more dangerous items.

SPEAKER_01: 4:41

She figured out how cabinets work, so yeah, everything is like gently moving up in elevation in our household.

SPEAKER_00: 4:48

So well, we'll have to schedule a Skype date for the for the little ones. Judging by how how good we are scheduling our uh our podcast dates, um, we'll see. She's probably gonna be talking by then. Um Gemma will love that. But yes.

SPEAKER_01: 5:10

What about you? Tell me, what have you been up to?

SPEAKER_00: 5:13

Uh I've been surviving work, um, you know, Operation Game Night uh affected a little bit by government shutdown, but the operations don't stop. We that's right, keep the mission going for the people. Yep. Um but some cool things. I did get to go to the Air Force Academy versus Naval Academy.

SPEAKER_01: 5:38

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:42

Um I got to see uh tons of old friends. Uh it was it was a good time. I went with Cole. We brought our kids, Gemma really loved uh seeing the football football players. Um I saw Ben Garland and got to watch the Ben Garland. The Ben Garland of Air Force Academy lore. Big boy. Uh, you know, me and Travis like big, you know, hanging out with big guys, big or big boys are big beefy boys. We're big beefy ourselves. Uh so anytime we get to be around big beefy Air Force Academy uh people, it you know, really charges the batteries up.

SPEAKER_01: 6:29

Um he's a big dude, like he's an X NFL player, and he's still gigantic. He is, but he's also very cut, very cut out.

SPEAKER_00: 6:38

Um, but he's really motivational, and you know, just being around him motivates you to be a better person.

SPEAKER_01: 6:47

So and he's a huge contributor to the Air Force Academy, like gives a lot back to the program. So thank you, Ben Garland, for doing something with your service, with your platform that you have in the NFL for advocating for service academies.

SPEAKER_00: 7:02

I I betcha he'd come on to the Operation Game Night Podcast. You heard it here. I mean, uh maybe oh Juno Doggy is trying to attack my my cords. Juno is also a big part of my over the fence because she is she's crushing it, she's uh not having as many accidents, which luckily she's so tiny that her accidents are like the size of a Tootsie roll. So um, but she's always you know keeping us on her toes. She's still learning how to go on walks and stuff. Um but the main event of my over the fence would be I got to go back up to Pennsylvania. I'm I am still um a hundred percent on seeing Clay every month since I moved to Virginia. So that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01: 8:03

That's how many times has he been down to see you?

SPEAKER_00: 8:06

Big goose egg. So I'm gonna go ahead and put him on blast. Um never came down to see me.

SPEAKER_01: 8:13

Uh highways go both ways, Glain.

SPEAKER_00: 8:16

That's right. Um, interesting. Wow. But no, he he has offered to come out, and it worked out better in both cases when he did offer to come uh down. But still, he didn't try hard enough. He could have tried harder. Come on.

SPEAKER_01: 8:37

Uh and Cole von Olin did not try hard enough to come on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 8:41

That's yeah, that really hurts. He's kind of he's kind of uh sleuthy, sneaky, you know, he doesn't want his face to be on the interwebs. I told him we could like you know kind of blur his face and give his voice like a voice emulator. Voice changer. Yeah, yeah. Just he could be like, you know, an 8-bit voice, but he wasn't into it. I I don't know. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_01: 9:08

He could wear like uh like a bala clava that like covers his face. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 9:14

But maybe it was maybe it was the pressure of uh being around such astute board gamers like uh like ourselves. I think we we can work on him. We've got a couple more years uh around him. Um he knows the kind of great content we put out. So that's right. But we had an awesome weekend of board gaming, which I really don't get enough board gaming in. So it's anytime I get to go up there to Pennsylvania, you know Clay is making it a point to get things to the table. Yeah. Um the the number of trick-taking games we played was off the charts. Ruin. Um the what's that one with the the bidding with the cards that was no loose ends? No loose ends. Yes, we play we actually ran it back. Maybe Rachel ran it back. I don't know. Run it back award. Run it back award there. Um and they also played the all-star that that all-star freak game. I don't remember. I should I should be prepared. You know, I'm in true Jared fashion. I don't prepare for my podcast. Um I'll have to look it up. The the one he talked about on uh a couple a couple episodes ago where you have these little characters, they look like freaking oh magical athlete. Magical athlete, yes, yeah. And they have special abilities. Everyone looks like they're on meth, and it is it's a blast. You know, you like first you think this person's totally gonna win, but then the die doesn't lie, you know. You roll the die, it doesn't lie, and freaking big bird long legs comes out of nowhere and just tromps all over everybody, everyone's getting tripped over, and before you know it, you know, you got a winner. But no, it was a it was a lot of fun going up there. The kids also just have so much fun just running around uh and eat good food, and I loved it.

SPEAKER_01: 11:27

So that sounds great.

SPEAKER_00: 11:28

You you might have to venture up there sometime to we make our own little board game ranch in Pennsylvania, you know. I like that.

SPEAKER_01: 11:37

I like that. I have been kind of reminiscing about our World Series of board gaming weekend. Oh and just like how good is it to get the crew together and get games to the table? It's just there's nothing like it, it's so good.

SPEAKER_00: 11:53

Well, well, I I just want to try and maybe make a stretch goal here for myself. Really, I think it's pretty easy for both of you, but um set apart my weekend next year to get there when it opens and stay through the ending, potentially ending, I don't know. That seems like a lot, but at least when we like that Thursday through maybe even the the Saturday, uh Sunday. But because just being there around all those games is fun, and then the competition is also that's that's great. And the best part is just being with your friends. So if we can just lock in a time where we're all in the same spot around a lot of board games. Um, I mean, a huge fan of being at the Pellagio. That is very nice. Um, the fountains, quite nice. Um that was that was a lot of fun. I don't know if I did debrief to you about the night after you left. Um, and Clay was he had to leave early. I I found myself playing a little bit of craps. Oh video craps, if you will. Okay. So I didn't I wasn't being rushed by anybody. I do like the dice in the tube. Yeah, the dice in the tube. I think you were telling me about it. I have and I I did I did play myself some video craps. It was it was uh a bit of a a bit of a a wave there. I I started with like I don't know, like 150, went down to like 80, but then I I ended the night like around like 260, I think. So I I think I I won back everything else that I lost everywhere else that I was gambling. So um that's a good weekend in Vegas. I think I did okay, and but then I also picked up uh sports betting because of you. So I don't know how that that the jury's still out on that one.

SPEAKER_01: 14:02

Um I'm glad it could be such a positive influence on my friends.

SPEAKER_00: 14:08

But no, it I I do also still reminisce about uh that weekend in Vegas. So yeah, next year we we're putting it. I mean, they they I think they've advertised the dates and everything too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:22

So I think that you would love Dice Tower West. It's it's the same vibe, right? The same vibe. Uh Dice Tower West had the vendors, so like uh much larger gaming section, like all those tables that were out of World Series of board gaming would just be filled with people gaming, like filled, yeah, and then the half the convention center, whatever, is vendors that are selling the newest board games and dice and all sorts of paraphernalia. But the vibe is I was kind of listening back to uh my episode with Vic when I was on his podcast, the games in all podcast, and I think it's a little more competitive at World Series of board gaming, like people are there focused on what they're doing, and Dice Tower West is like a pickup game, like it's just play games all weekend non-stop, and man, it's it's so much fun. I I think you would like that vibe a little better, but I know that you're also a competitor and you wanna you wanna go home with a championship ring.

SPEAKER_00: 15:32

So I know I do I do like a challenge in my life where Dice Tower West, you might be able to bring the family to, um which I know you guys did in the past. I did. So maybe you make it a two-time two-time a year thing.

SPEAKER_01: 15:51

I like that. I like that especially because next year I will be a quick flight away from Las Vegas, Colorado Springs direct to Las Vegas.

SPEAKER_00: 16:01

So that that is a plus.

SPEAKER_01: 16:04

Yes, that will be a plus and far more manageable. So yeah, yeah, we'll we'll make it happen.

SPEAKER_00: 16:11

Well, actually, let's just talk to your parents about watching all the kids, you know. Just oh yeah, put the kids at the grandparents' house. That's right. We're all at the Rio playing board games.

SPEAKER_01: 16:23

Perfect.

SPEAKER_00: 16:24

So perfect, we'll make it happen.

SPEAKER_01: 16:26

And then we can we can bring the wives. Kids stay at grandparents' house. Yep, wives go out and do Vegas things on their own, and then the boys have uh boys' night every night playing board games. Yes, like that.

SPEAKER_00: 16:41

Going to get uh sushi pizza, if you like.

SPEAKER_01: 16:45

Oh yeah, well the truffle sushi pizza.

SPEAKER_00: 16:48

Have we debriefed that fully yet?

SPEAKER_01: 16:49

I don't know if you mentioned it very briefly. Uh okay. What what was that place called? No Nomakai?

SPEAKER_00: 16:56

Nomakai, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 16:57

We Nomakai.

SPEAKER_00: 17:00

We had a good night. Before we took old Clayton over to uh to his birthday um magic show, we had some just insane. Yeah, we did debrief it now that I'm thinking about it. Um at the World Series of Board Gaming, right? I think just very briefly, but yeah, I still I'm getting flashbacks and man.

SPEAKER_01: 17:26

We'll make it happen. We'll make it happen. Maybe we can get uh a couple more friends of the show out there next year. Yeah, for sure. I I think you're friends of the show. Thinking of friends of the show. Yes, we ripped down 81 downloads in one day the other day for our podcast. If you are listening to this podcast, thank you for listening and thank you for supporting the show. Thank you for sharing the show. Thank you for commenting and interacting with us because we love that stuff. Oh yeah, we love it. It's so it's so like satisfying. I had this like swell of pride the other day and I was like, man, we're we're doing it, we've been going a year plus strong, and no signs of slowing.

SPEAKER_00: 18:12

Yeah, it's a hobby that uh consumes our lives in multiple ways, but we love it. We love our family and our friends here at the Operation Came night. Um, I think we've gotten like good feedback too. Um who knows? We probably change up what we do every month or so. Who knows what the heck this thing's gonna look like. Uh I I feel like I'm the wrecking ball here. I come in here with big brain ideas and then I don't show up for two months. So um you can blame all uh the woes of OGN on me and all the successes to our fearless leader, Travis, here. So well done, Travis.

SPEAKER_01: 18:59

Well, well done, you Jared. I you are sticking with the show, and you have been with us the whole time, and you are always OGN. What's OGN? Always OGN. And I appreciate you for agreeing to do this podcast in the first place and sticking with us for a year plus. And it's just been so much fun just to get with you guys and just to talk, even if we're going over the fence and talking about sushi pizza and all of our shenanigans that we get into.

SPEAKER_00: 19:32

But yeah, next time, maybe I'll get maybe maybe I'll dip my toes into a debrief. I don't know. Maybe I get myself a freaking board game these days. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 19:42

You should. Are there are there good board game shops around you? I know you've you thought that there's a couple near you.

SPEAKER_00: 19:49

Clay gave me a gift certificate to a board game shop, and it has been sitting on my desk since we've got birthday money in August.

SPEAKER_01: 20:00

It's sitting there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 20:01

And I'm looking at my calendar right in front of me, and November is right around the corner. So it is burning. It's there's a forest fire happening, yeah, and I need I need to go buy something.

SPEAKER_01: 20:14

But maybe go pick up magical athlete and play it with your family and friends. And when you get together with the holidays, that's a that's a good travel game, too. It's like not super chunky.

SPEAKER_00: 20:25

No, and except for the big baby.

SPEAKER_01: 20:28

I don't know. Have you played big baby? Oh, big baby's big. Oh I own the game and it's burning a hole on my shelf right now because I am itching to play it.

SPEAKER_00: 20:38

So Gemma came up and grabbed Big Baby and just ran away with Big Baby. Um, he was not competing at the time, luckily, but she was very interested in Big Baby.

SPEAKER_01: 20:50

So who is it? He's he's double wide, he's a double wide baby.

SPEAKER_00: 20:54

He is massive, you can't get around him.

SPEAKER_01: 20:56

I don't know if you looked at the rule book, but on Big Baby's description, it says he is 30. Or she is 30 or something. Like I had to like double triple read it. I'm like, no, no, no, he's not.

SPEAKER_00: 21:16

It's fabulous.

SPEAKER_01: 21:19

Oh man. It's good to see you, Jared. Yeah, it's good to catch up with you.

SPEAKER_00: 21:24

Thanks for going over the fence with me. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 21:28

We did it. We did it. We got you on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 21:32

A sign of life. I I do exist. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 21:36

Well, give some Jared give Jared some love in the comments. Thanks. Tell him how much you missed him. Tell him what you want him to debrief next. Tell him what he should spend his birthday money on.

SPEAKER_00: 21:47

Oh, that is actually that's actually really good.

SPEAKER_01: 21:49

I want to see some comments on the YouTube. Comments on the Instagram. Write us a message and tell us what Jared should send spend his gift certificate on so that he can get some games played. Thank you. I needed that. Awesome. All right. This has been Operation Game Night. I have been Travis. He has been Jared. He's back from the dead. And we're out.