Rolling for Recovery: Operation Tabletop's Fight Against Veteran Isolation

Seth Ewing lost his brother to suicide in 2017. The guilt nearly broke him. What pulled him back? A Dungeons & Dragons group that refused to let him isolate. Now he's turned that experience into Operation Tabletop — a nonprofit using board games to fight veteran isolation, substance abuse, and the identity crisis that hits after military service.
In this episode, Seth shares his raw personal story, how Operation Tabletop got started with just 4 friends and 2 people at their first event, and how they've grown to serve nearly 900 participants a year — with plans to expand nationwide.

How you can help:
🎲 Attend a game night (civilians welcome!)
💵 Donate — $10 puts a veteran in a seat for the night
📦 Mail games from your shelf of shame
👕 Buy merch and spread the word
🌐 Website: https://www.operationtabletop.org
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OperationTabletop850
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/operation_tabletop/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/operation-tabletop/
📦 Mail games to: PO Box 99, Niceville, FL 32588

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Operation Tabletop

0:15

Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast, back in Better Than Ever. I'm your host, Travis Smith. Joining me as always is my co-host, Clayton Gable. Clayton, how are you? I'm doing great, Travis. Thanks for asking. Today we're joined by another special guest from another operation in the board game space. We're joined by Seth Ewing from Operation Tabletop. Seth, how are you? Oh, I'm doing great, man. Thanks a lot for reaching out and uh inviting me onto the podcast to spread the good word of uh of the other operation that's going on in the gaming space. Arguably a more important operation because you run a nonprofit that benefits veterans and their families through board gaming. I want to give you the floor and let you give your spiel

Dry Game Nights With Real Support

1:05

about Operation Tabletop because we are so excited to have you on and hear about what Operation Tabletop does for our veterans. Yeah, absolutely, man. Um, so Operation Tabletop connects veterans, active duty, and their families over tabletop games. And uh if you're new to the podcast and you might, you know, you want to know what all tabletop games are, it's board games, card games, role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. Um and so the way that we do that is we primarily do it in person because that's the way you know it's you know, those games are meant to be played. And so we will host these game nights, we'll uh have incentives and um eliminations or we would elimin eliminate barriers to participation, excuse me, uh by having like free childcare on site. And that's that's one of the really big ones that that really helps out with getting people to the table. It's because if you if you have a young one at home, you know how hard it is to get just load them up into the car, let alone you know, find time to to get get out. And uh once you get there, there's we have giveaways. You get a raffle ticket, and at the you know, three quarters of the way through the night, we pull it, and you can come up, pick whatever prize you want. And uh delicious pizza. We partner with uh task force pizza here in the niceville area. And um food is one of the big ones, man. Because you you come to a game night, right? You and you want to be able to eat well. I'm not I'm not saying that, I'm not saying anything bad about some of the other establishments out there. You know, there's some really great places out there that were good to me when I was down and I needed it for a dollar, right? Um, but we want to make sure that if someone comes to the game night, they see the food and we I want them to be surprised by it, you know. And so it and I want them to really enjoy it. And then obviously the childcare, and then we do gifts directly. Uh a good example is we had a kid show up, learned a game called Battletech for the first time, blew his mind, and the next time he showed up, we gifted him the starter kit. And so now not only does he have the way a means of playing the game, and it eliminated the cost barrier for his his mom, um, but now he has an avenue to a sub-hobby to the gaming space, which is painting the miniature itself. And so the idea, bringing all that back, the idea is to combat isolation, substance abuse, particularly alcohol, um, so all of our events are dry, and video game addiction. Um we're strictly tabletop games, we're not anti-video games or anything like that. We're we understand the uniqueness that video games bring, but we also understand the the detrimental side to it as well. And so um when you know you get a kid who may have grown up on the iPad or on or video games and TV, it's great to have them have a great way for them to get started in the hobby is is by eliminating the cost barrier for his parents, gifting the game, and then also giving him another something else other than a you know screen time, so painting the miniature itself. Um anyway, that was really long-winded way of explaining it most of the program. I'll I'll kick it back to you, man. No, that that's great. I think that's such a cool thing. I I know Jared is out there listening to this right now, and he's yelling into his phone andor computer to say, yes, feed the people. There are so many episodes that we have done where we've been talking about how to throw a successful game night, and his number one thing is feed people. People will get around the table for food and for board games, and you guys do both, and that's

From Personal Loss To A Mission

5:15

great. So, can you take us back to where this all started? Like, what made you want to start this? How'd you get the crew together? Because you have a pretty unique, diverse crew of veterans that came together to put this nonprofit together. So, can you give us kind of the the background from the very beginning? Oh, yeah, for sure. Get ready for another long-winded explanation, answers. We love it. Um, so uh I'm gonna go kick it all the way back to when I was a child. Um, but that I'll touch on it real quick. When I was a kid, grew up board games, didn't have the internet or anything, like like most kids, you know, uh like most of us, and so really loved board games. I would create my own board games and I just loved loved it. Um and lost that, lost sight of that after I joined the service, and it didn't get um re-kind of it didn't kind of come back until a deployment. And so through a deployment, you know, like, oh man, I love it. I was playing this game called Zombies, and if you ever play, it's like a tile-based game, and you go around and you you you kill zombies super easy, and that's where I fell in love with them again. And but a little fast forward a little bit, I lost my brother to suicide um in 2017, and that really hit me hard, it would hit anybody hard. And um after that happened, well, the night should know that the night that he uh had committed suicide, I was going to call him, and I didn't because I was tired, just wanted to go to sleep, and it turned out um in like the hour an hour after I had thought about calling him, he had committed suicide, and so I lived with all this guilt and the shame of not picking up that phone and calling him, and um that'll come into play a little bit later when I talk about peer support, but um I just drowned myself to kind of like cover all that up, all those emotions and all that guilt. I drowned myself in work, and so I just focused on my duties as an airman, and that worked for a little while a little while. Um, you know, I was able to, you know, on the outside, I was able to, you know, make rank and get a prestigious position, but you know, those things are temporary. And it once that prestigious position went away and the the core kind of came off of the bottle, all of those emotions come flooding back because I had been covering up those emotions with this with this identity in that job, and now I'm like, well, now it's gone. And so a lot of veterans deal with that after they get out of the service, and so like, oh man, uh and you don't think about it until it happens to you. You're like, oh, it's real, like you know, you lose this identity, and and so I uh you know, I started drinking a lot, I uh was consuming pornography, I was drowning myself in video games as a way to kind of fill that void um to replace that loss. And I wasn't taking care of myself, but through um my friend group whom I played Dungeons and Dragons with kind of kept me rooted, uh kept me from completely isolating because I had to, you know, go play with them. I guess I could have cut cut them off, but you don't cut your friends off, right? And you're they're not gonna let you. They're gonna be like, what are you doing, man? And um, so after that, I was like, I started to get better. My spouse, um, and I I sought some help, and you know, my friends supported me, and our group started to grow, and it got so big, and anybody's been part of a Dungeons and Dragons group, you can't have a lot of people because it just the turns take too long, and so we had to start turning people away. And none of us liked doing that. We you know, we didn't want to turn anybody away from something that was so helpful to us. So we came up with this idea that okay, well, let's just create a community where we can connect people so they can create their own groups, and then that idea spun into spun out of control because I have ADHD and I can ever just let one thing be. I gotta go a hundred miles an hour with it and hyperfixate on it. And so that's how Operation Tabletop came to be. Um, and so here we are that was born in January of 2023 and going strong in 2026 now. Wow. What a what a gut-wrenching story, but I'm glad it it fostered something positive at the end. Um, what

Building A Board That Can Scale

10:15

about the rest of your team? Because you've got a whole bunch of other veterans that decided to join in on this effort. Where where did you pick them up along the way? Was it like early on 2023, or was it have they kind of come on gradually? Are these members of your previous group? Yeah. Uh so there's only one member of the pre of the so we started with just four friends. Uh four friends uh jumped on board with it because we needed a president, a treasurer, a um a secretary, and then we had a VP because you have to fill those um officer positions in order to start the organization. And they jumped on board because they saw how passionate, they were passionate about it too, but they saw how passionate I was about it, and they just wanted to help me as well. Um, and so as we grew, the the organization outgrew them because we were just a we're just a friend group, you know, we're just uh that we all of us but one had like a background in security forces, so we're just these like you know, you know, stupid cops who are like, we like playing games and we want to help people, you know. And so um we weren't professionals, you know, we weren't executives, C-suite people who had all this, you know, business acumen. And but as we kind of grew, it started to grow from this like social club into a full-fledged um professional organization. And the way that um we onboarded new people is through um guidance and mentorship of other of other professionals and through podcasts and YouTube videos and um and just consulting with people, um, making recommendations to find um professionals to kind of fill the those positions to help steer the ship. And so that's where we're at now. And we've got eight board members, you know, we have a CPA on the board, um, we've got an administrative um specialist who's got all these years of being like an executive assistant and admin uh work. Uh, we have a development um specialist on the on the board too. And yeah, it's it's great um to have that that sort of um expertise guiding the organization so that way we're making the correct uh we're being good stewards and making the correct decisions. Um and we would not be where we are today without uh without them, without the good volunteers, well the volunteer board members, from the volunteer board members all the way down to the guy who picks up the pizza. Um super important. The guy who picks up the pizza is arguably one of the most important, saves so much time. Um, super good guy, but yeah.

Growth Numbers And Base Expansion

13:10

Yeah, and let's jump ahead to where you're at today. I saw on your report from last year, you guys put on some almost 50 events and primarily in the Florida Niceville region, right? Right around Herlbert Field. Correct. Yep. So and looking to expand. Yes, yes. So last year we um yeah, last year we were doing events at and we're doing it this year too at Herlbert Field and um Eglin Air Force Base. We do them at the chapels. We are not um they were we're not a um faith-based organization, we're just tabletop games, but the chapels are great because they're great community centers and they allow us that sort of that access and placement onto the installation to execute our mission. And and the people who are the POCs for for the the chapels are excellent and very accommodating. Um and so we were doing events once a month at each of those installations, and we're doing that this year as well, but we're starting to expand. We've got by the end of the year, we'll we'll have operation tabletop um Clovis uh out and at a Canon Air Force base. Arguably those those homies out there need it more than anybody. They're two hours from anywhere. Like if you've ever been there, you know. And uh it's great too, because uh Canon and Herlbert are you know both AFSOC bases and people PCS between the two, so there's that continuity. Um and then we're expanding out uh to Pensacola, which is just an hour uh an hour away. Um but still it's it's it's great. And then by next year, we're hoping to get to Tyndall Air Force Base, which is west of where we are now in uh Panama City. But yeah, man, we're we're on track to doubling or almost doubling our our events this year, um, and our our numbers too. Like I think last year we did almost 900, we we serve as almost 900 participants. This year, or this year we're on track for like 1400, and so it's just been awesome, man. The very very first event. Go ahead, go ahead, Clay. I'm sorry. I saw you. No, no, I I just I gotta know. Well, one, if you're looking to expand into Colorado, I know somebody who's going there who likes tabletop games and has a podcast that starts with operations. So um definitely, definitely I think there's

What People Play At Events

16:00

an opportunity to get involved, and I think we should definitely talk about that offline. But what type of games are you usually um putting forward at these events? Is it everything or do you focus primarily on the role-playing games or is it tabletop games? Do you get to go get into like magic and things like that? Like, what's the bread and butter for you guys? Great question. And we are looking to expand a caro, and I'm definitely looking forward to talking with you guys offline about that. Awesome. Yeah. Um, so it's everything, man. I when we first started, like our very first game night, we only had two people show up, and like part of part of my heart sank because I was like, but I was also happy that even anyone showed up. I'm like, all right, well, these are two homies who showed up, and we're gonna have we're gonna have a good time anyway. So um, and then now at Herbert Field, we average like 50 people. Um up and we have sometimes upwards of 60 people um a month um there, and it's it's huge, but the and it's such a huge variety. We've got a D, we'll have a D D D group in one room, Battletech in another, Warhammer in another, um, and uh in the main room will be family games, board games, um, and uh TCGs, trading card games like Magic. But yeah, people will play Magic, Katan, just you know, family games like I've seen people bring sorry, um, and uh which is great. And um, Magic's a big one. I think most people are playing that. Uh, and there's my favorite game, I'm gonna give them a plug because they deserve it, and it's an excellent game, is 1490 Doom. And it's a small tabletop skirmish game. It's only three miniatures, and it takes like five minutes to learn the rules, and it only takes 30 minutes to play it. It's like unheard of in the you know war gaming space, and so it's great because I'll set it up. I'll set up like I've got like built this little castle, and people walk in, they'll be like, What is that? I'm like, let me tell you, and we'll play real quick. And so it gets people, it's kind of like a gateway into you know, the larger, you know, uh war games like Warhammer and stuff. But yeah, anything, man. Yeah, we we've talked many times on this podcast before about the difficulty of selecting games for the right audience at the appropriate game nights and how tough that is. Like you introduce spouses, you introduce kids, like how do you mesh those two? But it seems like you cast a pretty wide net, which is great, especially for families of veterans, like you know, parents are deployed or whatever, like those kids have to show up and have that community too. And that's so cool that you have some something for everyone, and it's all out there on the table. You got, I'm sure you have people that can sit there and teach any game and and onboard people pretty seamlessly. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, thanks a lot. And it's

Matchmaking Players And Gifting Gear

19:05

it's been a lot of work, and I and a lot of a lot of that work comes from the community themselves. It's it's just you know, it's it's the classic, like you build it and they will come. And we've just encouraged people to, you know, because we're still in the startup phase relatively, it's like, you know, we encourage people to take ownership of it and make it what they want and give us feedback and to help us kind of build the ship. And uh one of the things that we do on the registration is say, you know, is there a game that you're looking to play? And are you is there a group that you're looking to play it with? Or um, and what we do is we aggregate that data and then we email those people and say, hey, you've basically played matchmaker, and then say, you know, let them link up and through the Discord or email, and you know, start building their own game nights, either out like link up together to play Warhammer outside of the game night or come to the game night. Um, and if they come to the game night, we like to gift them something. It's like as like uh, hey, you you you you know you you made a match, so you know, here's some terrain for your Warhammer night or something like that, right? And or here's a set of dice for for for DD. But and I think that's been a super helpful at a you know as well.

Donating Money Time And Board Games

20:30

Yeah, so let's talk about how people get involved. I don't want to get into like all the tactics of how you set everything up, but let's say people are not military and they hear this podcast and they say, that's something that I want to contribute to at least. Is this something where people that are not military can get involved in some sort of way financially? You take donations for games, like uh obviously you have partners in the local area for Niceville. I'm sure you've got that starting to set up in New Mexico. Like, how how do people onboard into giving back to this cause? Uh and how can they support you if they're here in this podcast? Uh great question. Thank you for asking it because I I love sharing like how you can help, man. Let people know. Um, the so the way that the kind of the programming works as far as like how people can get it involved, um, one uh our you know, civilian patriots supporters, you know, veteran supporters are absolutely welcome to attend game nights. Yes, we are a veteran nonprofit, um, but we part of the transition process with veterans is reintegrating into your community, and you your civilian um counterparts that are in the community, that's part of your community, and you need to meet those people and mingle with them, and we want them to come. And so we charge a modest fee for the civilians to participate, and it cover it just covers the cost of your plate. Um, so it's just ten dollars and you can eat all the food that you want. Um uh if you have base access. Now we do this game day gathering thing where it's a little bit different because it could, you know, it's that's it's a little bit more expensive, so it's like $25. Um, but it also gets you child care as well. And uh yeah, and so we want them to participate. It's just if we were to make it free, then when do we look around the room and see you know, less of our our our mission, you know what I mean? It's more um more of a different demographic. Um, and so we have to be we're beholden to you know our mission and to the people who are donating with the express intent that or understanding that the money is going to to vets. And so that's how we create a small barrier, but still allow people to come in and it gives us a modest income uh earned income revenue stream. And then um, and so as a civilian, if you wanted to help and participate to just show up, like you you'll get to show up, you get to play, and your your ten dollars um will go into the mission, and then you can also donate on top of that. So donating is always huge. Uh, nonprofits live off of donations, um, whether it be dollars or people will show up. Another great way is um if you have a like your favorite, some people will buy like a really nice game that they they enjoyed, they tried it, it's like a newer game, and they'll buy it and bring it with them and then give it to us as a giveaway. And so we'll add it to our giveaway pile um as well. And so that's that's great because then we don't have to buy and you know the giveaways that kind of saves us a lot of money, especially if it's like a $50 game, you know, that's that saves us good, you know, good chunk. Um, and then the other way is volunteering, of course, volunteering your time and uh is is always huge. And then the last way is just sharing the message, letting people know, hey, this exists, go check it out, support them. Um yeah. So what about people that might not be in the local area? Like we've done podcasts about how difficult it is to call your game collection. People in this board game sphere often have like trouble with their shelf of shame and that it sits there forever, then it might get around to it, they might not. Is there like do you accept donations via mail? Like, can people mail you games and say, hey, I'm not enjoying this game, or I've I've played it already, maybe it's not for me. I tried it once. Can they mail you that game and have you give it away? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Um, there's the one of the one of the ways that we got started with with Clovis is there is a veteran-owned game store out there called Treasure Hunt Games. Oh, cool. Great people. Um, they heard about the mission and they donated last year, they donated like $500 worth of brand new games. Nice. Um, yeah, it was awesome. And that allowed us to um really um generate some some revenue because we we sold it at a raffle for our big game day gathering that we do each year. And then uh and then obviously give some of them give some of them away and then and then add some of them to our library. We have a huge library that people can go check out. It's through um it's the the board game geek website allows you to like make your own library, and so people can go through there. It's in the link on the registration too. So if there's you can see, click which like see which ones we have, and then you can send them a note in your registration saying, Hey, can you bring this game and we'll bring it with us? Because we can't bring the entire library every time. I drive a RAV4, like it doesn't fit in there, dude. You know, you should see it, dude. I gotta send you guys a text, like a picture of the car. It's just it's stuff, man. We gotta get a van. That's that's part of the strategy. We're gonna get a big four transit van, slap the logo on the side, have everything in there one day. Oh, that sounds so sweet. Yeah, that sounds great. Yeah, it's gonna be sweet. But yeah, that's so yes, mail us games if you'd like. Um, if you're a business, um absolutely uh if you have games that have been sitting on your shelf and you're just they're just not selling, you can um donate them to us and we can write you a donation receipt, which um might be eligible. Uh you know, obviously talk to your tax advisor. Um, but because we're a 501c3, it's you know eligible for a tax deduction, so you're not you know losing out a lot of on a lot of money. Um it could be a tax write-off for them. And so that's that's another way. Nice. Yeah, if people want to mail you games, is that is that address available on your website? Should I contact you on the website? Yes, I I believe it's in the footer. Um it should be a P.O. box, but the PO it's the it's it's P.O. box 99 um Niceville, Florida 32588. And if it's not on the website, I will add it there. Um, but I believe it's in the footer with everything else. Yeah, we'll we'll we'll put it in the show notes too. Um so if you're listening to this out there and you you want to get involved, you want to donate some games, check the the show notes uh, and we will make sure that we put all of your contact information in there and where you can mail games because man, I what a cool opportunity for people to offload to a good cause. I people can go to Facebook Marketplace or whatever and get five bucks for it, or you can send it to these guys and have have it get some love, potentially end up with a new home um and and support a great cause. So that's awesome, man. I I'm itching to get involved. This is this sounds great. Yeah, I'm fired up. Yeah, nice, man. I'm glad that you guys are fired up. That's the same passion that you know that I came in with too. I was like, dude, this is gonna be great. And then you know, meeting other people like yourselves who just kind of you know keep me going as well, and then getting involved, and that's how the whole organization has just come to be where it is now. Yeah, we realized the value and had a passion for gaming, and we just got on the microphone and talked shit for hours and hours. You're actually out there doing something. So, I mean, this this is great. I I mean, it just humble beginnings and a big purpose there. It seems so daunting to me to like start a nonprofit, but you just did it, you're just like, Man, I'm gonna do it. Man, well, let me it it was it was daunting, but admittedly, I when I started it, I was like, and don't sell yourselves short. What you guys have going on here at the podcast is great, and you guys are spreading a lot of messages, you're giving people space to talk about it, like you're giving me this you know, space to talk about this, and then but admittedly when I started the organization, I was like, this is gonna be easy. There's you know, 15 years in the service, like you know, what's what's running a little nonprofit, you know, it'd be fun. Oh, dude. And then

Merch Links Mailing Games And Closing

29:20

once you get going, you're like, oh no, I got I'm in I'm in trouble. Uh I better I better learn real quick. And so it was a lot of trial by fire, but it's good now, man. It's cool. And what a cool way to leverage your passions after military service, too. I feel like so many veterans get out and they say, like, what are my skills good for now? Like, I was security forces. I guess I can go do law enforcement on the outside, or they can do a drastic pivot and say, like, what am I passionate about? And how can I use that to give back? And I think that's awesome that you've done that. I also forgot to mention that you guys sell swag on your website. Yeah, and that never roll alone uh t-shirt. I want one of those so bad. I'm gonna I'm gonna buy one after after get done recording and once we get settled in our new place because that's also a way that people can give back to you is buy your merch, spread the spread the good word, and let people know that this organization is out there and that you guys are doing something worthwhile. That's that's awesome. You can just donate too. Yeah, or just donate. Click the link. Yeah, just donate, guys. This is important. Yeah, yeah. You know, you got and you got you know, 10 bucks burning a hole in your pocket. Come on, man. That's you know, every single it only costs ten dollars. That's ten dollars to put somebody in the seat, you know, after it's all said and done, like for a game night. Um, because like it costs like $200 for the food, $200 for the child care, and you know, we might have we might have like 40 uh people show up at like the Eglin game night, um, or sometimes on you know an off night at the the Homework game night. And that's you know ten dollars right there. And then that someone can come eat pizza, play games, and have their their children care for and go home with a with a prize, you know. Yeah, that's awesome, man. I I want to give you one last chance before we before we sign off. Can you tell people where they can find you uh and where they can find Operation Tabletop online so they could get involved? I will be sure to post all the links in our show notes, but uh one last spiel for Operation Tabletop. Uh go ahead and tell them where they can find you. Yeah, absolutely. So operationTabletop.org is the hub for everything. You can find out how to get involved, you can donate there, you can um check out our annual reports to see how we've been doing. There's newsletters, there's blogs, there's resources for you know, there there's you know, and obviously the the event calendar is there, so all of our events for the year are posted on there. And um so you can go there. We also have Facebook and Instagram, um Operation Tabletop. Just go uh search us up. We're there, and then we also have an Operation Tabletop LinkedIn uh for the for the professional homies. Nice, awesome. Yeah, I'll be sure to post all those links in the show notes if you want to get involved. I know that I'm gonna definitely go buy one of those t-shirts, if not donate and send you guys some games. My wife has been on me to get rid of a bunch of these games, expect some big boxes in the future because uh they need some good homes where they're gonna get played because they're sure as hell not getting played in my house. So maybe if you had childcare and uh that's equal to play with Travis. That's right. Well, uh Seth, thank you so much for coming on and talking Operation Tabletop. We are really honored to have you and have you come on and talk about such an awesome cause that we believe in as you know, military men ourselves. Uh, so thank you so much for Operation Game Night. I have been Travis, he has been Clay, and he has been the one and only Seth Ewing from Operation Tabletop. Thank you so much for joining us, and uh, we'll catch you again next week. Thanks for having me.