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
We Binge So You Don't Have To!
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We swap stories from the fence about parenting phases, shrinking free time, and how we still find room for TV, books, and games. From Stranger Things to a warmer Westeros and a clever mystery book, we share what sticks when life won’t slow down.
• juggling kids’ sports with late evenings and less downtime
• coping with pre‑toddler meltdowns and shifting expectations
• micro‑bingeing Stranger Things and why characters keep us watching
• franchise fatigue and losing momentum between long seasons
• why A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms feels fresh and hopeful
• choosing stories that fit limited time and headspace
• a beach‑friendly choose‑your‑own murder mystery recommendation
• gaming anniversaries, Resident Evil nostalgia, and slow‑burn playthroughs
Jared, we miss you. If you're listening to this podcast and you've made it thus far, like and subscribe, give us some love, comment, you know, go back and listen to some old episodes for us because you know, we appreciate you for tuning in. We appreciate you for supporting this show. We do have a Discord that you can join. Check the link in the show notes and come come talk with us, come play games with us, come interact with us. Let's do all that. Let's do all that. Just do it all. Make that a checklist, print it out, hang it up next to your computer every day. Just go down that checklist. One more video to like and subscribe.
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Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast. Today we're going over the fence. Joining me over the fence is Clayton Gable. How are you doing, Clay?
SPEAKER_01:I'm doing good. It's nice over here on this side of the fence.
SPEAKER_00:It is. Sun is shining. It's warm. You got your Air Force beanie on because it's not that warm.
SPEAKER_01:No, it's not that warm.
SPEAKER_00:How's life in Clay's World? How you doing?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, Clay's World, we're we're busy as usual. You know, it's it's always just a run around here. I remember the days where, you know, maybe this is just what it's like to be an adult. Okay. There's just less and less time for you. Because you think, you know, you have kids, they're babies, and you're like, okay, this sucks. Like everything, everything's the worst. They demand so much attention. You're up all night. And they wake up wicked early. So like, forget about it. You know, just don't even stay out past eight o'clock. Um, and so you go through that phase, and then you get into the toddler phase, and that's even worse. They they literally just cause a ruckus everywhere.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then you get and you're like, well, it's gonna be better once we're out of this phase. And um it started getting good there. You know, your kids get to an age where they're respectable citizens, you know, you can trust them not to throw ketchup across the restaurant uh for no reason. But now we've made it to the, you know, the sports and activities phase where it's like, okay, get home from work at 5:30, we eat dinner, we're out the door again at 6:30, don't get home till 8:30, kids aren't in bed till nine. I'm just like, what is this life now? I used to have the kids in bed at 7:15. I'd be posted up on the couch watching Netflix, and now it's just uh it's just a runaround. Wow, but you know, such is life. You adapt. I'm just adapting to the the the course of the situation.
SPEAKER_00:Um but so rewarding to see them thrive at their activities.
SPEAKER_01:I wouldn't say it's thriving.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, yeah, participating at least.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they're participating. But that wrestling season's over now. Okay, and of course, we're on to the next one. They got flag football coming up. So all right.
SPEAKER_00:We're gonna really they do wrestling, then flag football.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, wrestling's a winter sport. Interesting. Flag football is a spring sport here, I guess.
SPEAKER_00:Hmm. That's interesting. Yeah, I've always thought it was like overlapped with football, but I guess that makes sense to separate the two.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so what what back in time? What's it like? You know, you still got a a baby, a baby-ish. I don't know, is Clone a toddler yet? Time I I move so quick.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, according to her uh daycare, she's a pre- toddler, which means she's over one but less than five. So yeah, we're dealing with the pre- toddler phase, which might as well be toddler phase, because uh this past weekend we've had at least 10 meltdowns where we are rolling around on the carpet, just losing our minds. So yeah, glad to hear that it does not get better.
SPEAKER_01:It gets different, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It gets different. That's all right. Different is better. That's okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, it at least you know, you you only have so much of a thing for as long as you can take it before it would act drive you mad, yeah. And then it switches up to something else that you have to adjust to, and then eventually it'll drive you mad. But it'll then they'll be going to college and you'll be like, Oh, where'd the time go?
SPEAKER_00:Now, what do I do with myself?
SPEAKER_01:Let's not wish it away. Yeah, I'll try not to wish it away.
SPEAKER_00:Well, what have you been doing for clay? What's your self-care routine? What have you been watching, reading, playing? What's been going been going on with you to help re recover from this activity?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so yeah, I'm not a big activity person. That's too much. I I need the decompression time, Travis. Um, I know I have been squeezing it in and I have a big time FOMO about TV shows. Okay. So when everybody started barking about Stranger Things, that's right.
SPEAKER_00:I forgot.
SPEAKER_01:I made it my I know I'm late to the party, but I put in some effort. I was watching that thing in like 20-minute increments on like my lunch break and just nice, you know, whenever the after dinner before we went to wrestling practice, I put it on in the basement for like 20 minutes, just like yeah, trying to get through it. And I finally finished all five seasons. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I I cannot imagine watching that last season 20 minutes at a time. That would drive me nuts.
SPEAKER_01:Now the yeah, I did take I did take the last episode in a couple chunks, but I did watch a couple of them in one shot, but I was staying up later than I should on school nights. But it was worth it, it was worth it. That was a really good series.
SPEAKER_00:Give us your big thoughts about Stranger Things. Big thoughts like game changer. Well, what do you think about Stranger Things?
SPEAKER_01:I guess I wouldn't have anything very profound to say about it. I just I very much enjoyed the characters, as I think most most people do, and just hanging out with them over the course of the five seasons, kind of seeing how they grow and change. My absolute favorite scene in the whole show, and this is what hooked me, was when uh Dustin and Susie were singing that song at the end of season three. Oh, yeah. Radio, a never-ending story, I think. Yeah, I was like, oh man, the vibes on that are so good. I I just dug it so much, and I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate the blood and the guts and the nasty, scary stuff. I do not like scary things, so it is a testament to the show that it kept me engaged despite all that. And there were some there were some moments where I was like, oh my gosh, I did not see that twist coming, you know. Yeah, you probably know what I'm thinking about. Yeah, yeah, but uh it was worth it was worth the watch. I wish Mary would have watched it with me, but she is a scaredy cat even more than me. So this was what I had to do.
SPEAKER_00:I man, I really loved watching Stranger Things when it was like when it was the zeitgeist, and everybody was all in on Stranger Things, and then they made you wait for season four and season five for so long that I just lost momentum, man. And then you get into season five and they want to build up this epic conclusion, but you're jumping right into the middle of this epic buildup, and I just I lost so much patience with that last season. And if I you know, if you binge it, then you're there's no gap there. No, no, for those that watch it when it's like in the zeitgeist, there's like three years in there between I don't know, four and four and five or uh three and five.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know how you waited.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my god, and yeah, by the time we get to like the finale, it ended, and Rachel and I were just threw up our hands like okay, yeah, we're done. We did it. So and now they have all these spin-offs and stuff coming that I'm not really looking forward to. I'm I think of just over stranger things.
SPEAKER_01:Speaking of spin-offs, Travis.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Have you been watching A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? I have. What are your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_00:So they changed a couple of things. It is a book. Okay, I don't read, but A Night of Seven Kingdoms, and they changed a couple of things, and I think that the changes they've that they've made are very minor, and I love like these self-contained stories within the Game of Thrones universe. There's a there's a a bunch of different like kind of spin-off books that all if live within Westeros. Um, but Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a great book, and I think anybody should read it, even if you have watched the Game of Thrones show, you don't need all this deep lore to really understand it because it's a self-contained thing about real people, and I think it's a great, like, stark contrast, and they did this purposefully to separate it from the Game of Thrones like main line saga, right? Yeah, and it works on two levels. One, the showrunners for the original Game of Thrones like went off the rails and people really soured on it. Well, they had to like create a little bit of distance there, and two, they make the characters like really likable, yeah. And in the main saga, nobody ends up really all that likable at the end, like you're just done with all be gone, everyone, ready to move on with your life. And uh, I think that they did a smart thing by separating those two with the music, with the atmosphere, with the characters. Like, they they drew that line really hard, and I think it was needed and appropriate for the right time. So, yeah, we're we're loving it. I'm really enjoying it.
SPEAKER_01:Uh season finales tonight.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. I man, I tell it as a season finale.
SPEAKER_01:I know it's too short.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I don't think I don't know how much they'll keep going back to this. Well, they might find other smaller stories, but they they're not gonna give up on Westeros, they can't. It makes them a bazillion dollars. That's a cash cow they will never let die. No, no, but dunk and egg and oh my gosh, Motley crew, they're also good. The Targaryens are great, the uh Barathians are great, like all the characters shine. They give everyone a chance to shine, and it's it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, I just was you're instantly just I don't know how they did it, but you they make you just connect with Dunk so quickly that you're like, Oh, this is a guy I can get behind. This is a guy I want to see accomplish his goals. Like, it just man, they did such a good job with the casting, with everything. Yeah, it just makes you really feel invested in this character.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because uh you think about it, like, who are the first knights that you meet in Game of Thrones? You meet Ned, you meet the defector from the Night's Watch, not really a knight, but like a sworn knight. And the first knight that you really meet is Jamie, and he comes in and he's like incestual and weird, and you know, he's supposed to be this sh knight in shining armor, but he's really dirty on the inside. Yeah, and you just like right off the bat, you're like, this is like gives you a bad taste in your mouth because it goes against everything you are supposed to think and know about knights in general. Honor, yes, yeah, honor and chivalry and all this stuff, right? And then you have this one person who might not have all the glitz and grant glam of being a knight or what you perceive as a knight, but he's at least trying to live up to those, aspire to those uh values. And yeah, uh man, I I really dig it. I I love it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Me too. I I mean, I I wasn't sure. I had to convince Mary to watch. I was like, you know, I've been hearing a lot of good things about this, and she was kind of like House of Dragons had some things in it that put her off a little bit. There was some things got a little darker than a mom can take. Um, and I was like, no, I hear this Knight of Seven Kingdoms is really good, it's different. And so I was like, let's just watch the first one. And she and she was like, okay, let's watch the next one right away. Good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. I know uh House of Dragons coming back in June. I think it's June or July. So excited about that one, ready for them to get on with that one. Uh, but yeah, Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been like a nice little reprieve.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I had no idea. I was not tracking this coming out at all. Like I had no antenna up for it. My mom was just like, have you watched the night of the Seven Kingdoms show? I was like, What are you talking about? And she's like, You need to watch it. I was like, All right, I will.
SPEAKER_00:And some of some of the episodes of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms ranked higher than any House of Dragon episode. Wow. Yeah. Like the um the big reveal with egg. Oh, yeah. That episode ranked higher than any House of Dragon episode.
SPEAKER_01:That was a really good episode. Episode five, that was a little tough for me with the the blood and stuff, but um, it was still a good episode, but I just had to like watch through my fingers like this. Not very brave. I am not a heroic knight. That's okay.
SPEAKER_00:You're our our knight in shining armor. Yeah. Um, well, I have a whole bunch of stuff to brief. Uh, I went to Cancun last week, laid on the beach for a couple days. Um, it was great. Ate tons of tacos, but I started reading a book called Can You Solve the Murder, which might be the worst title for a book. Uh, but it's written by Anthony Johnson, and he is the author of Myrtle, which I have seen, I have not read, um, but people have clamored about Myrtle. And can you solve the Myrtle? Can you solve the Murder? Yeah is a kind of choose your own adventure uh murder mystery. And they kind of throw you in and they they always refer to you um kind of like directly, like you are wondering this, and then you will go here and you will go there, and you have a partner that's working with you that's like your new buddy cop type scenario, and it takes place in uh this kind of wellness resort in the UK, and uh you are interviewing people and you are checking out crime scenes and you are looking at evidence and you are doing this types of stuff, kind of like a choose your own adventure that you would get at like a scholastic book fair. Like, do you go into the cave or do you chase the dragon? Or do you you know it kind of reads like that? Yeah. The whole idea is that you are collecting clues that you're recording in the back of the book, and if you have this clue already, you turn to this page, and if you don't, then you turn to this page, and like you're kind of working your way through it. Uh, I I imagine I'm probably halfway, three quarters of the way done. I have only failed once. I picked one and read the prompt that it has you turn to, and it was like so-and-so died, you're done. Like, start over from number one. The thing is, like, you're turning back and forth to these different sections that are kind of all over the book, and I forgot where I turned from to get to this spot, so I had to like go back a little ways and like kind of work my way back to it. But um, yeah, I've it's been kind of fun. It was a good beach read. If you're looking for something to read over spring break and work through on a beach, can you solve the murder by Anthony Johnson? Is uh it's a good one.
SPEAKER_01:All right. Well, I I can dig that. If I was gonna pick up a book and try to see what the words are and read them, um, that might be a good place for me to start.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, pretty good.
SPEAKER_01:Not a good reader.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, and then um, I don't know if you know this, you probably do not, but uh, there's a whole bunch of video games that are celebrating anniversaries this year. I didn't know this. Did you know that Pokemon is turning 30 this year? 30 years old. I feel like I might have heard that about Pokemon. That's like low-hanging fruit. Everybody knows Pokemon's turned 30 this year. 1996, Game Freak started Pokemon. Wow, red and blue came out.
SPEAKER_01:We were six years old, or at least I was six years old.
SPEAKER_00:Crazy. Yeah, crazy. Uh, resident Resident Evil is also turning 30 years old. Okay, and I have to give a shout out because our boy Vic at GameZ Moss Podcast is doing like a uh Resident Evil playthrough for the 30th anniversary, all leading up to Resident Evil Requiem, which is the new one that's coming out this week. Um might be out. Oh, it'll be out on the day that this publishes. So if you're listening to this, go buy Resident Evil Requiem. Um, anyways, we're doing a playthrough and I'm participating, and we're playing through all the Resident Evil games. Now, I am a dad, and I have a little uh pre-Tod that is very needy, and uh so I'm playing these games like 15 minutes at a time. Vic's Vic texted me the other day, was like, I'm done with the first one, and I am like still an hour in, like barely working through it. So hopefully he's got some patience with me because it's gonna take me forever to get through these. Um, but yeah, it's been kind of enjoyable to go back to that series. I know it's not your cup of tea. There is some blood and guts and stuff, but um yeah, no, yeah. Resident Evil. So we're working our way through it. And if you want to check that out, we're gonna be doing some periodic drops as we lead up to uh Resident Evil Requiem kind of, probably around Halloween time, honestly. Um but uh yeah, check out the Games E Moss podcast because we're gonna be posting stuff there um as we work through these games. And I think I will seed my time because my voice hurts and I'm uh barely making it through this one. But yeah, there we go. Let's go back over the fence. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_01:All right, let's head head in. Yeah, it's called a night.
SPEAKER_00:Uh Jared, we miss you. Uh, if you're listening to this podcast and you've made it thus far, like and subscribe, give us some love, comment, uh, you know, go back and listen to some old episodes for us because uh, you know, we we appreciate you for tuning in. We appreciate you for supporting this show. Uh, we do have a Discord that you can join. Check the link in the show notes and uh come come talk with us, come play games with us, come interact with us.
SPEAKER_01:Let's do all that.
SPEAKER_00:Let's do all that. Just do it all. Make that a checklist, print it out, hang it up next to your computer every day. Just go down that checklist.
SPEAKER_01:One more video to like and subscribe.
SPEAKER_00:That's right.
SPEAKER_01:Well, yeah, you get the point.
SPEAKER_00:We're going back inside the fence. I have been Travis, T has been Clayton, we have been Operation Game Night, and we are out.
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