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
Special Ops: A Rookie’s Ride Through PAX Unplugged
A first-timer’s crash course at PAX Unplugged turns from chaos to clarity after a late badge pickup, an impulse buying spree, and an anchor meetup with designer Paul Solomon at the Game Head booth. We share hard-won tips on planning, scheduling, demoing smart, and making the most of crowded play spaces and overwhelming choices.
• arriving late on Friday and missing badge pickup
• early Saturday push, exploring vendors outside the expo hall
• expo hall overload, impulse spending, and budget lessons
• focused demos with Paul Solomon and Game Head highlights
• scanning the event schedule too late and missing panels
• crowded open gaming library and timing strategies
• honest haul breakdown with hits and misses
• city logistics, off-peak meals, and saving on lodging
• planning a smarter, anchored return next year
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Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast, back and better than ever and back from PAX Unplugged. Clay, you went to PAX Unplugged. Jared and I are going to sit here and listen to you talk out of your mouthhole at us about PAX Unplugged. Ready? Begin.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Uh, thanks for giving me this opportunity, Travis. It will be great to give you my thoughts on PAX Unplugged. Uh, let me just say I was wildly unprepared. Uh, everything you hear after this moment, just remember that this is all my fault. I was excited about PAX Unplugged. I live two hours away. Huge convention. Everybody talks about it. I'm like, this is a no-brainer. I'm gonna go to it. Um, Mary, she I coaxed her to it as well. I lured her in with a I was like, we'll get a nice Airbnb in the city, maybe we'll get a nice dinner or two. It's gonna be awesome. So, you know, we got the tickets. I didn't think much of it. We got the Airbnb, and then we shipped off with our three-day passes to uh Philadelphia. And again, unprepared, unready, just thought I could show up like it's the World Series of Board Gaming and have life at my fingertips. Not the case at PAX Unplugged. Got there too late on Friday, couldn't even get a badge. Um one of my three days of three-day badge was gone to waste. Uh, Saturday, wake up invigorated. I'm like, all right, you know, Friday was a wash. I'm feeling a lot of FOMO because I know what's behind the walls of that convention center. There is every hot new game I've been fantasizing about back there. Um, so I go out at 7 a.m. Boom. I go for a run to the convention center, get our badges, go back to the hotel room, give Mary her badge, get a quick shower. We're in the convention center. I did not realize there was an expo hall. Um, that didn't open till 10. So we were there prematurely. There, there was plenty of other things to do there. Uh, we dawdled around. So there's a couple vendors on the outside of like the main expo hall where all the exhibitors are. One of them was all play. So I hit that up in the meantime and spent a good fortune there. Their display at these conventions is beautiful. Oh my gosh. Yeah, they have a beautiful display. All play. They make you want to buy all the games.
SPEAKER_03:So that's that's what we get. We got to play pinata, right?
SPEAKER_00:That was yeah, that's where I picked up pinadas. I picked up Wonder Bowling from their thing. I think I don't know why it was in their group, but you know, they distribute for a lot of different companies, I think. So uh yeah, I picked that up. I picked up Waddle and something else from there. But anyway, we were killing time, waiting for this expo hall to open. People are lining up for this expo hall to open at 10. And there's a guy that's like, why are you doing like he's with a microphone? He's like, I don't know why you people are lined up. There will be no line at 10:30 after this thing opens up, so just come back later. But people were like lined up at like 9, yeah, wanting to be the first ones into this expo hall, and it was intimidating, but I resisted the urge to line up as well. And Mary and I played some wonder bowling as we waited, and then and then the convention center opened and or the expo hall opened. It was wild. There it I was just seeing things I'd never seen before. Just hall of wonders, yes, all of the wonders of the world laid behind these gates.
SPEAKER_03:Did you did you get slips in LSD or something like that?
SPEAKER_00:Or it's what it felt like. Oh my god, every publisher you can imagine was there, and there was just huge displays and demo tables, like it was a nerd's paradise. Yeah, with all I knew how to do at this convention was buy things, which is what I did. Yep, I proceeded on a mission to spend as much money as possible in the shortest amount of time possible. So I ripped through the hall, this convention hall, just swiping the credit card left and right everywhere I turned.
SPEAKER_03:Birthday money, Christmas, yeah. And that next birthday money, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That took me, you know, like I said, about an hour. And I was like, Well, this is the end of the convention for me. Like, I don't know what to do from here. Yeah, I've this this was kind of it. This was all I had known was a part of this convention, was just all these vendors selling things, and I did know for sure. I had messaged Paul Solomon on Instagram, and he said, Hey, I'm gonna be working at the game head booth from 12 to 3. So all this happened very quick. I mean, they were talking a few hours into Saturday. I spent all my money, and now I'm just waiting for Paul to get to the game head booth so I can go talk to him. Uh uh, so game head booth is buzzing. Paul is demoing games left and right, people are wild about Trinket Trove. This game, this game took off. You know, that's been that's been a big hit for Game Head. Um, I want to say it's probably in large part due to its appearance on our podcast about an hour ago.
SPEAKER_04:Undoubtedly, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But I just wanted to go up and give Paul an Operation Game Night sticker, introduce myself in person, say we love you, man, you know, do that thing, yeah, and roll out. Yeah, but Paul, you know, he is not gracious human being. He took me and Mary. I mean, this place is swarm, but he took us and he demoed almost every game head game in the next release for Mary and I taught us all the rules, six different games he taught us, um, right there at his little booth. And so I am 1v1. Yeah, me, Mary, and Paul were just playing these games uh coming out in the next game head release. So and I am so excited about what's next. I loved the first iteration, and I think the next one's gonna be even better. It's probably gonna be a six for six buy for me again. No way. Actually, I didn't sorry, Paul. I didn't buy foolish fool, but I do have five of the six from the from the first from the first set. So big game head fan. That was the highlight of the convention for me was hanging out with Paul and learning those games. He is so good at what he does, like he just described these games and set them up like an absolute professional. I was I never seen somebody so well-versed at teaching a game.
SPEAKER_02:Did you happen to listen to the uh decision space podcast where they talked about the uh the Jamie Stegmeyer's like he's like ducking and hiding from his camera? Uh where they were talking about Jamie Stegmeyer's like design day. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:I listened to all his episodes.
SPEAKER_02:That they those guys are geniuses, and I just want to sit and talk board games with all three of those guys all the time.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like they're so smart. I feel so dumb. Well, before we run into making this whole episode about Paul Solomon and Decision Space, which I easily could do.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, change the name of this podcast.
SPEAKER_00:I easily could do that because uh freaking awesome. So, anyway, we left um after we met with Paul. I took my my wares back to the Airbnb and Mary and I went in search of a mid-afternoon lunch dinner thing. Um, I don't like to eat on the normal hours because I fear that things will be busy. So we offset our meal times. We offset our meal times to ensure that we and it wasn't busy. We got sushi. There was nobody there. Um just me and her eating it, eating dinner at 2 15.
SPEAKER_03:Um treating early birds, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:This was exactly what Mary had in mind.
SPEAKER_03:Eat up because this is the last meal of the day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, this is this is how I lured her to the convention in the first place with these type of uh fine dining experiences. Oh um, yeah. So after we ate, we're like, ah, geez, all right. Um, I guess we'll go back to the convention. I don't really know what else to do there. I've seen all the booths and I've spent what should have been a reasonable budget.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, but I was like, we are here for this convention, let's go back. So we make a second run at the convention. Again, I'm I'm looking this time. Um there's a schedule and it lists all these events happening there. I mean, they're from 8 a.m. to like 10 p.m., there's probably a hundred different events that are happening at PAX Unplugged in the convention center. I mind you, I only know about this expo hall. I see that there's other things going on, but I don't understand them. I I just know that this world's happening around me, and I I can't quite get my hands around it. You're stuck in the eddy. Yeah, so I just go back to the convention center. I buy more games. More games at this point, you know, it's getting a little later in the evening. I'm like, all right, I I guess we can leave. I don't know what else to do. So we went, we tried to find a table, and we played one of the games I bought from All Play. We played Waddle, and we played that, and it was nice. And this is like 6 p.m. on Saturday, and then we went back to the Airbnb, um, got a couple course lights on the way back from a convenience store, nice, and we watched it, and we watched Bridesmaids in the Airbnb. So this is this is sad.
SPEAKER_03:I I did hear about this during Thanksgiving, and and Mary did tell me that you did not introduce her to Paul. Um, it was just like, uh, let's go straight into gaming. And you you know, just play leads with his heart too much on the board gaming side. It's okay. Bring the wife in here, you know. How did Mary feel like overall it went this this uh this Saturday?
SPEAKER_00:She was not unhappy with it. Okay, she she far probably preferred it to when we went to Dice Tower West, which required her to play board games with me from sunup to sundown, yeah, because that was the main focus of that. Uh, she was much happier to just stand by my side and watch me shop um and spend money. Yeah, so she didn't hate it. And uh Sunday morning we had the best of intentions to go to the Reading Terminal, yeah, which is a Philly hot spot. Um, get breakfast. Turns out a lot of the stuff's closed there on Sunday morning. So we uh make our way back to the convention just for one last sniff around, really didn't do anything there. I think we just walked in, looked at the expo hall again, and then left. And that was that was packs unplugged for me. I I needed a Sherpa, I needed a plan, I I didn't know what to do. I was a little fish in a big pond, and I couldn't hack it.
SPEAKER_03:I just want to say you did an incredibly brave thing and went out there alone and unafraid and took this mission on for Operation Game Night with Mary as your co-pilot. And I mean, this is giving Travis and I like FOMO. Like, we might need to get the gang together, grab the wives. I don't know why I didn't just throw, I should have just said, hey, I'll come with you if Gemma can go stay with grandma as well. And I should have just brought Gemma up to Pennsylvania and uh made it a whole thing, um, which I think that's probably what's gonna happen to have have to happen next year. So it was incredibly brave of you to go up there, yeah. For the because this is the first time you've been, right? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So this is not this is not Dice Tower West. This is not World Series of Board Gaming. This was like that, but it had been maybe on LSD and just 10x.
SPEAKER_02:I mean let me caveat all this by saying, like, that's probably similar to most people's first convention experience. Like, I don't think anybody gets it right the first time. Yeah, and I will say I have not been to PAX Unplugged, I don't know what it's actually like, but I know looking at least from the pictures, that it's not Essin. And Essen was unbelievably busy and packed and overwhelming. There's tens of thousands of people crammed in these convention halls, like wheeling suitcases down the aisles to pack full of board games that they buy. Like it's unreal to just like I I kind of have the same FOMO. I I walked in, I'm like, what do I do now? Like, yeah, I guess I'll go buy stuff where I can, but like, yeah, I'm not getting private demos, I'm not talking to developers. Uh, I met the creator of like underwater cities and stuff, but like I'm not getting private showings of all these games. And they had this huge, huge schedule. Yeah, I'm only there for a day and a half. How long do I spend there? I feel like I've walked past all the booths, but maybe I haven't like sifted through their wares. Dude, it's so overwhelming to just step into that blind. And good on you for doing it. I think that maybe for like our fifth anniversary or something, we should load up and all go to Essen together because I think together we would have a great time.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02:I think showing up unprepared and unafraid and overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_00:Definitely afraid.
SPEAKER_02:It's so much, it's it's too much to take in all at once.
SPEAKER_00:There was a lot of freaking people there. I mean, it was in Philly in general, they had the Philly marathon there that weekend, too. Oh, so on top of the hordes of nerds there for PAX Unplugged, there was also hordes of runners there to run the marathon. Well, um, so it was a lot going on, and they they they did have an open play area and like a gaming library, but I'll tell you what, on Saturday, I and that's the day I think most people go, that open gaming area was not a seat to be found. Yeah, there most people were just out in the like the convention lobby, like sitting on the ground playing games. So it was packed. I was like, I don't know that I need to try and nudge my way in somewhere to try and play a game uh in in here. So I'm just gonna buy stuff and leave, and that's exactly what I did. Uh side note on Philadelphia, not a fan of that city, not at all.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, maybe because you like Pittsburgh.
SPEAKER_00:I do like Pittsburgh, yeah, but I mean, goodness gracious, these people talk with their horns like there's a whole it's disgusting. You're walking on the street and it's just constant horns, everybody's honking at each other. It drove me up the wall.
SPEAKER_02:Everybody as somebody who lived in New Jersey and like right on the border of Philadelphia for two and a half years, I learned to love Philadelphia, but yeah, it's if you're just stepping in from little old York straight into Philadelphia, like it's a lot to handle, it's a lot for anybody. So yeah, I it's it sounds like we had very similar experiences for our first big conventions. I walked around and I bought way too many games. In fact, people even commented, like, I'm walking around with these huge bags full of games, and somebody walked up and was like, You're gonna walk around with those all day. And I'm like, Oh, now I'm shamed into my purchases, but um, yeah, sounds like we have similar experiences. I'm glad you went.
SPEAKER_00:Uh should I talk? Should I talk about my purchases real quick? I just give the give the people just kind of what I got, my my haul.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um okay. So I got from the All Play booth, Waddle, Pinadas, Wonder Bowling. I got a few of their mega tiny box games, Soda Jerk, Vivo, and Llama Llama. Nice. Then at the oink booth, I got Pedigate or something. Yeah, pedigate, pedigate, and wriggle roulette.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I also got Emberheart from Mindclash, yeah, Celestia, Tag Team, Ra and Wright. Nice.
SPEAKER_03:Ron Wright.
SPEAKER_00:Ron Wright. And then Wild Tiled West. And just to support my guy Paul, I picked up the Trinket Trove playmat at games.
SPEAKER_04:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:So pretty, pretty thrilled about that. I think some impulse buys maybe, because played I somebody had the nerve to say I heard a reviewer sometime at one point in time say about Mlim that if you like Mlem, it's just a worse version of Celestia. So I was like, whoa, if Mlem is a worse version of Celestia, I need to get that game. And I saw it there, and I was like, oh heck yeah, this is gonna be awesome. Mlem was my second favorite game of all time last year. So this game has got to be good. I hated it. I was like, I was like, it's like this is not better than Mlem. I like Mlem so much more.
SPEAKER_03:Did they have any cats?
SPEAKER_00:No cats. Wow, not a cat in sight. Wow, not a cat in sight. So uh gonna get rid of that one. And then Mary and I played Wild Tide West, and it's a nice production, but I don't know that we'll play it anymore. I heard good things about that one. Yeah, I think it's cool, like it's doing a lot of cool stuff. But Mary's the one that likes those uh you know, polyamino games, and yeah, if that's not one she's gonna want to keep playing, which it does not seem like, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Maybe I can take that one off your hands.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, yeah, I'll bet I do have something else I need to ship you, so perfect. That might that meet might be heading your way. So, anyway, that's my packs unplugged debrief. Um, I took a knife to a gunfight and I came out with 15 board games.
SPEAKER_03:Hey hey, I think the the 26th PAX Unplugged is the 10th PAX Unplugged. Oh, uh so that's kind of a big ding ding ding. Uh yeah, it's going on the 4th through the 6th of December, 2026.
SPEAKER_00:Right. That's manageable.
SPEAKER_03:That's hey here.
SPEAKER_00:Here's my thing. If I'm going again, I'll go every year. But next year, I would not stay in Philly. I don't even want to tell you what I paid to stay downtown Philly for two nights. I I would take that money and go driving to Philly that two hours for one day, take all the Airbnb money and buy more board games. Buy more board games, and then just leave one day trip.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Also, I mean, we can hit this hard with the uh Operation Game Night podcast, and uh maybe we can come at it live from PAX Unplugged next year. Uh we could also, you know, go to the largest buffet in America, uh, which is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I think. I've been eyeing I'm in Maple. I I think I've I got it on my uh on my Google. I've been telling Adri for months now I've been wanting to go up there. I I'm even tempting just going up and getting a hotel. Uh let's see. Just to eat the buffet. Just to eat at the buffet. It's by an Amish area. No, that's the railroad museum. Okay. This makes for good. Shady Maple Schmorgish board.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, shady maple. Okay. I think uh my sister was there today, maybe.
SPEAKER_02:Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, I'm not I'm not kidding you.
SPEAKER_02:If we start making plans now, we might be ready for PAX Unplugged next year.
SPEAKER_00:So only if we're all on the right group chat.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we're up.
SPEAKER_03:The pace plan, we're off we're on the alternate pace plan. We're good.
SPEAKER_02:All right, let's get our text straight. Let's make our plans, and we'll see you at PAX Unplugged next year. For Operation Game Night, I have been Travis. He's been Clay, he has been Jared. This has been a PAX Unplugged debrief, and we are out.
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