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
OTF: Holiday Fun with Mike & Tiff
The plan was simple: hop the fence and talk about life beyond the table. What followed was a tour of real projects, real rest, and the stories that keep us curious. Mike is in the final stretch of transforming a 1950s metal trailer into a cozy home, complete with a shipping container for laundry now and a dream board game room later. That sparks a candid moment about trimming a 375-game collection to something that fits the life we want, not the shelves we have.
Holidays feel different this year. We trade travel stress for staying put with a sick kid, lean into small rituals like lefsa at cookie parties, and give ourselves permission to skip plans. On screen, we sift through Stranger Things fatigue, embrace the joy of finishing a saga, and remember why comfort rewatches like Pitch Perfect hit so hard. The real surprise is Dispatch, a story-first superhero game voiced by Aaron Paul and loaded with Critical Role talent. It plays like an interactive series, makes fast decisions matter, and is friendly to anyone who doesn’t “do” video games.
We also tackle creativity fear in tabletop roleplaying. Not everyone wants to improv a backstory on day one, and that’s okay. With a supportive DM, a clear map, and a guided campaign, even the “uncreative” can learn to explore, ask better questions, and find character along the way. We look ahead to a Walking Dead–style TTRPG run by our friend Izzy, then pivot to two sci-fi stops: Pluribus on Apple TV, a hive mind thriller with sharp ideas about identity, and Avatar: Fire and Ash, a long, glossy continuation best watched after the first two films.
Come for the tiny home grit, stay for the media gems, and leave with practical courage to downsize, start small, and try a new story format. If you enjoyed this one, follow the show, share it with a friend, and drop us a note with your comfort rewatch or a beginner-friendly TTRPG we should try next.
As always, come interact with us online, let us know if you have any feedback, and leave us a review/comment anywhere you get your favorite podcasts!
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Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast. We're back with our friends Mike and Tiff. How are you?
SPEAKER_03:Hello.
SPEAKER_00:And Clay's here as well.
SPEAKER_02:I'm here. We can never get sick of you guys.
SPEAKER_00:We love talking to you guys, and we're happy to have you on whenever you are available. Today we're going to go over the fence and talk about things that we've been doing outside of board gaming. So, Mike, take it away. What have you been doing outside of board gaming?
SPEAKER_01:Um, honestly, uh I've just gone off of today. Uh we're building a mini home, which I showed you guys about in a 40-foot metal trailer from the 1950s. Um, and we're in the home stretch of that. Uh, a lot of it being done by my girlfriend and her brother. But uh today we were what is that uh throwing gravel and building fire pits and she was cocking things. Uh but yeah, that's been filling up our days. And yeah, that's the majority of our our our extracurriculars, plus all the holiday cookie parties and stuff that she's going to that I've bailed on. I actually bailed on the cookie party to come to this. Uh wow. What a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02:This guy's more dedicated than I am.
SPEAKER_01:I I know I was here an hour before you.
SPEAKER_02:I know. Thank God. I should have bailed on my wife's family's Christmas.
SPEAKER_00:Uh where's her priorities? Uh Mike, did you did you send her with a big 10 though?
SPEAKER_01:Like bring home all the cookies or um, well, first I try to talk her out of going. Um and then uh I was like, but hence her going. Uh, can you bring me uh have you ever heard of Lefsa? No. Yes, it's yeah, okay. Lefsa is um the easiest way is it's a potato tortilla um that you put like butter and like sugar on, or I guess you can eat it any way you want, but they're delicious. Uh, but they make it while they're doing it. It's like a Norwegian, Scandinavian kind of thing. It's delicious. Uh, I actually end up making it every time I go, uh, and I'll just sit there with these two wooden dowels and flipping them um with uh children. That's usually who I hang out with at these things is the kids.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome. Uh is the is the trailer going to be your like permanent residence?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. It's uh gonna be me, her, and Harley, Maple, and Eleanor are uh our three dogs. Uh it's about the size of a one-bedroom apartment. It's a little bit bigger than my apartment is now. Okay. Um, so yeah, but it's uh it's coming along. It's um went from being like rat infested in the middle of a lot to uh almost a completed home. So we also to we have a uh connex trailer or shipping trailer next to it that's gonna have like the washer, dryer, and stuff in it. Uh so it's not all in this one trailer. But yeah.
SPEAKER_00:What uh what about your board games? Where are they going?
SPEAKER_01:Um end goal is I'm gonna buy another connex trailer, hopefully, or something, and build it into an actual board game room. Um I like that. Uh that's my end goal, per honestly. Uh, but now uh her she lives next to her family, uh, and they have a spare room that we're gonna use for storage. So all the small box stuff we'll put in the trailer with us, but the big stuff will go there. But I am gonna downsize because as we just realized before this, I have about 375 games, and I probably need to go down to like 200.
SPEAKER_00:So sacrifices must be made.
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, when Travis downsizes, he usually sends me a lot of games, so you feel like it.
SPEAKER_01:I I've I just recently actually donated about 80 games to a high school in Phoenix, Arizona, uh for a board game club. Um I keep offering TIFF games, but she just keeps telling me no. Uh so she already has games, she's got them all. I was gonna say Travis's Travis has ended up with some of the games, so I'll see what I have for you. Heck yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, send all your least favorite Kenizia games to me.
SPEAKER_01:I I just started collecting Kenitsia games.
SPEAKER_02:I know. I'm at that point with them too. I've got 50 now, and I don't even care if they're gonna it's kind of just become like a point of prize to have them. I'm just like, yeah, look at that. Yeah, same guy designed all these.
SPEAKER_01:Did you buy Ratsia yet? Because that's no, it's the uh the light box of uh Raw. Same game, but called Ratsia.
SPEAKER_02:Weird. I will look that up.
SPEAKER_00:I think 25th century they did their uh they did a Kickstarter where they're like doing a bunch of reprints and stuff and bringing new imports in, and then Razia was part of that.
SPEAKER_02:All right, too much board game talk. Oh, sorry. We are all that's fault. That's John's fault, it's my fault. We got to go into it.
SPEAKER_03:I have nothing else to talk about besides board games.
SPEAKER_00:You can do that. If you haven't been doing anything fun, what what about uh holiday plans? What you got?
SPEAKER_03:No, I have no holiday plans. I am not leaving my house.
SPEAKER_00:No, nothing fun.
SPEAKER_03:Well, like I said, I have a sick, sick child. So we'll just take it easy this year and just stay home. We don't have to travel. Um Yeah, well, I was telling them just uh my in-laws. We live around my in-laws, so my brother and sister are in different states. And I'm not traveling.
SPEAKER_00:That's okay too. It's it's nice to lay low. Any like self-care routines you're gonna fall back on.
SPEAKER_03:If I can get a nice bath in, yeah, TJ. Well, I was telling them earlier when you were not here, but I let's not keep talking about that.
SPEAKER_02:Just fill me in, alright?
SPEAKER_03:Um, welcome to Derry.
SPEAKER_02:Oh great show.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, no spoilers, but you basically go back 27 years, 27 years, and you find out where this thing came from, how it became penny wise. And it's really freaking creepy.
SPEAKER_00:That's on HBO Max, correct?
SPEAKER_03:HBO Max.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Stranger Things, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah. What is your what's your opinion on uh the newest season of uh Stranger Things?
SPEAKER_03:Have you watched it?
SPEAKER_00:Yes. I uh we're caught up, and I know that they're releasing the second half of the season on Christmas, I think on Christmas Day. What what's your opinion so far?
SPEAKER_03:Um it's it is what it is. I like the ending.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:I like the episode.
SPEAKER_00:I think it's great that all these kids are like 35 years old now and I know they're playing these high school kids.
SPEAKER_03:I know, it's weird seeing them like grown men.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, very strange, especially when they like put on high school kid clothes and they're like walking around the high school, like walking around through the halls and stuff. It just feels wrong, like they should not be there.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I'm just taking it for what it is. I just want to know what happens.
SPEAKER_00:Let's get this over with.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I see something on the internet. It was like, imagine it was just like their like D campaign.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like it's a good idea. They're just coming back to the table.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, they're just coming back to the table.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Yeah, I do like that they have infused a lot of DD into that, and it's uh Yeah. It's kind of cool. I I don't know. I I didn't didn't really have a whole lot of love for like DD previously now that we have a campaign going and I uh am playing a half orc monk, that is pretty cool. I've been really enjoying that, but uh yeah, I don't have like deep lore, like deep understanding of a lot of the DD stuff because there's so much of it now, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I was supposed to start a campaign with my husband and everyone, but just having kids, there's like no time. Yeah. But also I'm kind of like I'm not very creative. Like just like inventing your own character, like our backstory really like scares me a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, I didn't create a backstory, so I think maybe I messed up, but I just got a dwarf fighter, and I was like, yeah, he might have had some hard times in the past.
SPEAKER_03:He has no lore, nothing.
SPEAKER_02:He's got no lore yet. It's to be discovered. So I think you can do it. I'm not creative either, Tip. Um, when we get in these dialogues, I'm like, we're playing with Meg, you know, Meg the Peg Mom.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Giving Pig. Whatever. She uh she's in there and she's played DD before, and she's like, you know, she starts like improving these conversations with our DM. And I'm like the expert. Yeah, I'm like, oh, okay. Um just talking as myself and asking the DM like formal questions, like, am I allowed to ask if we could scale the wall?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. I like the very first scenario, we came across like two dead horses in a trail, and he's like, Oh, and then he just like that, he leaves it at that, and we just kind of sit there and stare at each other. Uh like what what happens next? Yeah. So uh I think it's all about like having a creative DM that can help guide you through that type of stuff and and come up with unique scenarios, and plus like the story alone, especially if you're running a set campaign and not one that is created by the DM, it like offers enough freedom to like navigate those spaces and like encounter characters. Like we were in a village in this last kind of episode of our campaign, and we he put pulls up a map, and we're like, okay, let's go over here, like let's go over there, let's see what's going on with these guys. And you know, it's like just enough to explore the space a little bit and for our uncreative minds, like get into it a little bit. So yeah, I we're we're getting the hang of it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think so. I I I'm looking forward to root RPG at some point.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Yeah, we should find a uh somebody online that can run it for us. That'd be great. Somebody with some some experience.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Um, I do want to say, I know you guys know Izzy, the soloist venture.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, me, Izzy, and our friend Scott, the board gaming board gaming bud. We're gonna have um TTRPG. It's like the walking dead. She's setting that all up for us for next month, and I'm really excited. She's gonna like help us through the creative process and everything. She's like the greatest at those kinds of games, so I'm kind of excited to get like just get my first one done.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, she is so creative. I did not know that you know each other until you came on the podcast and she commented and I was like, whoa, my worlds are merging, and I I don't like know her personally, have haven't really interacted with her all that much.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, she's great.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and so everyone knows Kiff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So okay, so I was I was I was behind on the podcast. I was catching up in my car picking up the kids from school, and I listened to that one. That's the one I was on. So I like jumped on and said, Oh, they mentioned you, but my kid, my five-year-old gets in the car, and she's like, Can you put on the nightmare before Christmas? Because what the heck even is this? Like, that was her words.
SPEAKER_00:Dang. Well, we try and reach a wide age range here, but uh, you know, it's not for everyone. OG and OG and after dark is for a very select audience.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, true.
unknown:True.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. Nice. Well, that's that's cool. I hope uh your campaign goes well. You'll have to follow up with us and let us know. Maybe see if you can get Izzy on the on the show. I'd love to chat with her.
SPEAKER_03:You know what? I messaged I messaged her. I was like, I'm sure they would love to have you on. We sure would. Be a little nervous, but uh yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, you were nervous too, and now look at you. You're three episodes deep.
SPEAKER_00:You're a pro. You're a pro now. Uh Clay, what you got over the fence?
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Um, really gonna follow up Mike building a home for himself by talking about uh I watched Pitch Perfect again, and I forgot how much I love that movie. Okay. Pitch Perfect is a great cinema. I watched one and two back to back. I was locked in. This was a multi-night affair for me and Mary, and I was just blown away. I was like, I can a cappella all day long, and then we even watched The Bumper in Berlin spin off on Peacock. Not probably the greatest, but okay. I think there was some nostalgia in the in the original Pitch Perfect. If you watch those and then you know how the songs back in the era, it's just that's a great freaking movie. So don't forget about Pitch Perfect. That's my that's my plug for over the fence.
SPEAKER_01:That is a real good movie. Were you doing that why building something? I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:I'm confused what I just no, I'm just saying you're doing such productive things with your life. Oh, and I'm re-watching uh arguably it's not a great movie, but it is a good movie. It was entertaining. The the banter between the two people that commentate on the a cappella sinops are just hilarious. Oh, yeah. Who's that lady? Yeah, that Amy. She's amazing. Yeah, she's great. Oh my gosh. I I just had to bring that up because I don't know what made me want to watch it. I think it was we were watching like older movies that we liked like in high school. We watched like The Hangover and Bridesmaids. I was like, oh, and then like Pitch Perfect was like on that. I remember thinking pitch perfect perfect was the bomb.
SPEAKER_03:How old are you? These were high school movies?
SPEAKER_02:I think so. I was 33.
SPEAKER_01:It was born in the 60s.
SPEAKER_02:When did they come out? Like 2009?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, something like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Old man at heart. Yeah. We're not gonna get into age here. That's okay. Yeah, uh, I have a couple of things. I meant I forget forgot to mention last time that we did over the fence, but I wanted to shout out the uh board gaming cafe in Grand Rapids that we stepped into when we went up there for uh Thanksgiving, and it's called House Rules. And man, I wish more cities had board gaming cafes like this. It is so cool. They have like a full bar and a kitchen, and you like rent out a table, and they have tons of games that you can check out and play. You can bring your own. They sell some of the new hottest games there. It's like a game shop slash bar slash cafe all rolled into one. And man, I think uh more bars and or cafes should do stuff like that because it is awesome. So that's called House Rules. If you're ever in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area, go check them out because they have an awesome vibe. Uh, then I have been playing Dispatch, which is a video game, not a board game. Um and I talked about it a little bit last time, but this there's this is like a crossover hit because Jamie Stegmeier posted on his Instagram that he has been playing Dispatch. Not for everyone. It's kind of like a superhero comic book style show, uh, in kind of in the vein of like Invincible, if you like that show. Um, but basically, what it is is you are a superhero that is kind of like an Iron Man type character that is voiced by Aaron Paul um from Breaking Bad. And it has a bunch of like streamers and uh professional voice actors, like they put some serious juice behind this game, and it's kind of done, it's done in conjunction with Critical Role. And they have a bunch of those people that came on and did the voices, and the voice acting is phenomenal. Basically, you're like this Iron Man character that you know your suit breaks and you don't have another one. And so you get recruited to be a dispatcher in like an emergency services where people pay insurance money and then get access to superheroes to come solve solve their problems. And so as you look at this map of the city, these little like you know, warning signs will pop up and you click on it and it'll say, There's a cat stuck in the tree, and you have to pick a like a super villain that is that are being reformed. You you're in charge of like the Z team, which is essentially like a suicide squad, and you're dispatching them to these crises to help out locals and uh with their issues. And each villain that you're kind of managing on your team has like strength and defense and intelligence and charisma and speed, I think is the last one. And they kind of level up over time, and it's kind of like a tough puzzle because you'll send them out and it'll give you kind of a vague description of what they're responding to. And it'll say, cat stuck in a tree. Oh, there's like a mob that's robbing a store, there's uh some ruffians at a soccer game that are causing a bunch of havoc. And so you're trying to like pick based on the description what attributes you think best fit. You dispatch them, and when the situation resolves, you kind of have this mesh of these different skills that kind of span out to create this area that overlaps with the requirements that the crisis is calling for. And this little thing bounces around, and as long as it lands within your covered area, then you succeed. And man, the story is great. Um, the characters are all really lovable, and you start off with like a real suicide squad where they are like nobody wants to be there, they're all kind of like angsty and you know, super villains that are down on their luck that don't really want to be there, and you're like really feel like you're forming a team. Um, it does it does have some adult content, which you can turn off. Um, there is some loving and some uh body parts exposed. So it's not you don't have to play with that stuff. You can turn it off if you want to. Uh, but there's a little bit of romance in there, and uh the teams kind of build, and people get you have to make some tough choices. You got to cut somebody from your team like within the first two episodes, and depending on who you choose to cut, like has ramifications. It's only eight episodes long, and it's like it feels like you're playing a like invincible series type game. It it's it's really cool. I am really enjoying that one, and it's gotten some serious uh traction this year.
SPEAKER_01:So so I don't play any video games. Is this something easy to jump into? Because I've seen him talk about it and now you and I would like to try a video game at some point.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so this is not I the game portion of it is really thin. Um, a lot of people relate it, relate it to like the old telltale games where you are experiencing the story and then it forces you to make decisions. And so like you play as the Aaron Paul character, uh, and he like it'll give you three choices, and you literally pick one of those three and you kind of watch it resolve. The game part of it is where you're dispatching and stuff, and then there's a couple of like hacking segments where you can go in and like hack the system into cameras or turn the power back on, or whatever it is. So the game portion of it is really thin, but it the the story is worth experiencing. It's it's really cool and like. It's not like you sit there and you think about the decisions that you're gonna make, they require you to make snap decisions. There's like a little timer that goes across the bottom, and some of those decisions that you have to make are really impactful and you have to make them quickly. And so, some of if you like really have decision paralysis, um, sometimes that can be a little overwhelming, but the story is worth experiencing. Um, the one time I thought I had the game paused, and like my wife came in and she's talking to me, and I missed like a whole bunch of the dispatch scenarios that were popping up all over the city, and it literally had like little to no ramifications. I missed that on some experience or whatever, but like if you have not played games before, it this is one that is super approachable and uh they're trying to catch a wide audience. So uh I think they're already contemplating season two. I don't know if they've officially like signed everybody on, but man, I it is worth it. It's it's really cool. I I would recommend it. The next thing I want to talk about is Pluribus, which is a show on Apple TV done by Vince Gillian, the guy that did Breaking Bad. Um, and that show is great. I am really loving that one. It has uh Rhea. Oh man, her first name's Rhea, and I cannot remember her last name, but she was one of the main characters on uh Better Call Saul. Great actress. She's she's really fun to watch. Um, but basically, it's like we intercepted this alien transmission and decoded it and found out that it's like a DNA sequence, and so they start experimenting this DNA sequence by injecting it into rats, and then the experiment goes poorly, and all of a sudden everyone is like infected with this uh virus, and it's kind of like a hive mind. Oh, why am I oh I did that? I was just uh it's like a hive mind scenario where uh Rea, uh the actress, ends up as like the only person that she knows of that is like separated from the hive mind, and so everyone in the world is like on a solo brain and they can all communicate with one another and get info from one another, and like it's a really cool premise. Um, I have my theories on what it's actually about, um, but I don't want to like spoil too much. So if you have Apple TV, I would highly recommend checking out Pluribus because it is really cool. Um and then the very last thing that I want to talk about is I saw the new Avatar movie, Fire and Ash. And I saw it, we went in the middle of the day, and it was great. Uncrowded theater, and um, I enjoyed it, I think it was good. I don't know how much I care about the actual like avatar storyline anymore. And this one kind of mimics a very similar arc to the second avatar movie, which was uh the water one way of water, the way of water, and um this one is introduces a new tribe of uh Navi characters, and they are like fire worshippers, and um yeah, I I I think it's good. The I don't know if this is like a somebody that's more technical and uh understands like movie streaming slash filmography type stuff would be able to uh explain this better. But there were instances where like they have heavily animated scenes where it almost felt like frame rate lag where I was like kind of getting sick in the theater. You're watching it on this like gigantic screen, and it just felt like they were running like just below 60 frames per second, and it's not super yes, it was kind of stuttery and like kind of threw me for a loop a little bit. Um, but yeah, I I thought it was a good entry into the avatar. Uh I don't know. Uh what do you even call that? Filmography. And uh yeah, I recommend it.
SPEAKER_02:You don't have to watch the first two.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I would yes, you do have to watch the first two. Because especially the way of water, um, I think it's worth watching the other two before seeing this one.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and all the characters carry over and and the ramifications of way of water all carry over, and that's kind of the main crux of uh where the characters are at in this new entry. So um, yeah, I I would recommend it. I think it's cool.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, so you were saying it's a good entry into the line that already exists, not like it's a good entry point for somebody to jump into Avatar.
SPEAKER_00:Correct. Yeah, I I would not go and see this as a standalone. Um, you would be very lost as to why there's like some humans and some Navi, and one of them is like a Navi but was once human, and you'd be very confused. But if you like the Avatar series, I would recommend that one because it's I think I thought it was pretty good.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's cool.
SPEAKER_00:I'm still on the first one.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I've only seen the first one.
SPEAKER_00:They are long movies. That is a it's a commitment. Like the second one is three plus hours. Uh this most recent one is like three and a half hours. So they're not short movies. Um, but I think I think it's a good storyline. I think they're getting further away from like the standard. Um, what do they relate the first one to? It was like uh oh, Fern Gully, if you've ever seen that one.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, Pocahontas. Great movie.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's it's all kind of the same thing, except there's like some sci-fi elements to it. So um, yeah, I would I would recommend Avatar. Go go watch the new one.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I recommend Zootopia too. I just saw that yesterday and it was great. Yeah, it wasn't giving you Agent Avenue vibes, not quite, didn't get me going like Agent Avenue, but it was good.
SPEAKER_00:No more man for you. Nice, yeah. I have not seen that one.
SPEAKER_02:No, it's good. Uh, and also, Tip, um, I would like to stand corrected. I was not in high school during Pitch Perfect, I was in college, all right, and I was doing what every college boy does and watching a cappella movies. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's just part of the rolling voice singing. Yeah. Awesome. Did we do it?
SPEAKER_02:I think we did it.
SPEAKER_00:All right, we're going back inside the fence. I have been Travis, he has been Clay, he has been Mike from Bearwin Plays Board Games, and she has been Tiff from TIFFs.boards.games. I'm gonna get that right one of these days. Tiffs.board.games. And we are out of the way.
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