Operation Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clayton 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
The Great Board Game Cull
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Your board game shelf can either fuel game night or quietly smother it. We sit down to talk about the messy, satisfying work of board game culling: how we decide what stays, what gets sold, and what gets donated when our collections start feeling heavier than our actual playtime.
We start with a bright spot: Wingspan Pocket, a streamlined card version that delivers the engine-building fun in a quick 25 to 30 minutes. From there, we get into the real-world logistics of offloading games, including Facebook Marketplace, game store trade-ins, and the chaos of board game swaps. We also vent about the swap “dark arts” like inflated Kickstarter pricing, and we share a few wins that actually refreshed the collection without adding more clutter.
Then we hit the mission objective: our current cull piles. We talk kids’ games we’ve outgrown, card games we keep buying even though we are not “competitive card people,” and the awkward problem of expansions that take up space without adding much value. Along the way, we get honest about sacred cows, collector instincts, and the simple truth that physical board games are one of the last forms of media you truly own.
If you’re trying to sell board games, donate board games, or just build a board game collection that fits your life, this one will help. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us what’s on your cull pile.
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 And The Week’s Plan
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast. We are so back and so better than ever. Joining me as always is the co-captain of the ship, my good friend, Clayton Gable. Clay, how are you?
SPEAKER_02Man, I'm a good friend now. I thought we were just uh business colleagues.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I I gave you the upgrade this week. You know, you were you were flexible with the recording, and uh we went back and forth, we had to switch topics. I was not prepared for the other topic that we were our secondary topic that we were gonna do. So we had to pivot to a third, and you just rolled with the punches the whole time. And I was like, man, what a good friend! So understanding, so kind. So yeah, co-captain of the ship and my personal good friend, Clayton Gabriel.
SPEAKER_02Wow, wow, thank you, Travis. That means a lot. You're also my good friend, and I have no problem rolling with the punches because we just wing it here at Operation Game Night, and it shows. And you guys, but I think we got a good one today because it's been a while since we talked about getting rid of games.
SPEAKER_00We do, uh, yeah. We just because it's a tertiary topic does not mean that it's any less important because we are facing the dreaded coal, the offloading of board games that maybe you don't want to play anymore, maybe you never played, uh, and they're just sitting there collecting dust, and it's time to get rid of them. So we're gonna talk about that a little bit, and then of course, we will always go over the fence and talk about what we've been doing outside of board gaming. Because, Clay, I need to hear about some shows that you've been watching. I'm eager to hear.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I can't wait to tell you about them.
SPEAKER_00Yes, okay. All right, well, why don't you get us started and tell me what you played this
Wingspan Pocket And Fast Engines
SPEAKER_00week?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um, so this week I've got something special in my pocket, and it's got a bird on it. We're talking about wingspan pocket, folks. I have been playing a lot of wingspan pocket lately. Um, so wingspan pocket just came out, it's a uh oversized pocket sized version of wingspan.
SPEAKER_00Not at all pocket-sized.
SPEAKER_02Yes, if you have very large pockets and very large pants, you might be able to squeeze it in. But the the point remains it is a relatively streamlined, smaller version of the behemoth hit wingspan. And I'm pumped about this because if you're following along with Operation Game Night, you know that we're two busy dudes, we got families, we got jobs, we got other jobs, and playing games, you know, the the two to three hour game night affairs just don't happen as much as we would like anymore. So when I see a game like this, you know, it might be a gimmicky thing, but uh I'm interested because I still like playing games. So if you can give me a good game in 25 to 30 minutes and make it easier to teach, I'm I'm here for it. So essentially, um, in Wingspan Pocket, you have everything you need on a deck of cards. Um, they have eggs in there as well. So they didn't do they didn't do away with the eggs, but you don't have resources, you don't have die, you don't have all the other stuff from your normal wingspan. They have it set up like kind of the if you've played point salad, where the back of the cards are the resources that you feed the birds, and then the front of the cards are the actual birds. So your bird and resource display is stacks of these cards. You have four stacks, and they're face down. So the top of each stack is is the resources you can grab, and then there's always one bird card flipped up below each stack. So that's just kind of how the market church through. Um, the basic rules of the game are that you can take one core action, they're called nest actions on your turn, and then this is the fun part, you always get to activate all your bird powers. So if you're familiar with wing spam, you know, the big part of it, it's an engine builder game. So you get these birds, they have powers on them, and then whenever you take actions in that row, you get to activate the birds in that row. Um, but this this game, they've streamlined it, they've made it quicker. So you gotta get your engine humming fast, and basically there's just one call, one row of birds that you're playing to. Your flock is only ever six birds. As soon as somebody gets six birds, it's over. So you're taking the actions that are you can either play a bird by discarding um resource cards that it needs. So they'll need, you know, worms, wheat, and a uh an egg, maybe. Discard those, you get to play the bird, and then you activate all the birds that were there, including the new one you just played from left to right. And then you can also lay eggs on birds. So this is a little different than normal wingspan, but you have you get to lay three eggs always, and they all have to go on a different bird or your nest. So you always have a nest available that can hold three eggs. So you lay three eggs, you activate all your bird cards. Oh, and then the last thing you can do is draw two cards, and these two cards can be two resources from the face-down decks, or you can take bird cards, you can do that in any combination. I can take two bird cards, I can take two resources, but then again, you do that, and then you activate all your bird cards. So every time you take your turn, you get a chance to to hit this little engine. And I love this. I mean, I wingspan in its core form is just like engine builders, just aren't my jam. Yeah, I've played I've played wingspan, I've played Fin Span, I played Worm Span. I like them all fine. Finspan is probably my favorite, but this is now my favorite of the spans. I mean, it is just so pure and simple, and you only ever have you know five or six cards that you have to keep track of activating in one row. So it's so easy to you know get a simple little engine going that makes sense for you. You know, maybe your one bird lays an egg, the other one lets you take a rat from the display, then your next card in line lets you tuck a resource card under it. So you just got a resource, then you get to tuck it, and then you're you know, you're trying to time all this to make sure make sure your engine works right. But man, we played this, you know, four or five times in the last week, and it's just it's so quick to get out, it's so quick to get into. And you know, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't do anything crazy. Like it's just you know, you score points for your birds, have points on them, you get a point for each egg, you get a point for each tuck card, and then there's like two end of game goals that you can try and um get birds that kind of match those. So yeah, big fan of wingspan pockets so far.
SPEAKER_00Um one question about make kind of mechanics and game flow. You are paying with the back with the resources on the back of the cards, so you have cards in your hand that then you are flipping over to look at the resources to pay for birds in the card row.
SPEAKER_02So you never actually put cards in your hand. So all your cards are I think you kind of have like two rows of cards in front of you. You have your hand of cards, and then you have your flock that's above. Sure. So your hand of cards, anytime you take a resource, it stays the way it was, and you put it face down in front of you. If you take the bird card, it stays a bird card, so you're not getting confused about which side it's on. Nice. So you never even yeah, I never even look at what's on the other side of a resource card when I take it. I just put it face down. It's the resource that I wanted, and I use it and it just goes back. So nice, yeah, yeah, it's super clean. It it works so nice.
SPEAKER_00Dang. I actually just had this come in the mail and I I knew about it, and I knew that it was like all the rage, and I haven't played wingspan forever, and I knew this was shorter, more condensed. So I got it and it showed up this week. I have not played it yet. Um, I'm really looking forward to this now. I'm so excited, and I see this best at two to three, which I love. I love that. 25 minutes, 35 minutes, 1.93 wait.
SPEAKER_02It's just wheelhouse right here. This is we're talking operation game night wheelhouse at the moment. That's right. And if it helps, you can tell Rachel that Mary has even requested to play this unprompted. Wow. Yeah, dang, that's incredible. Yeah, it's just kind of sat on our table and it's like, oh, you know, the kids went put the kids to bed. She's like, You want to play a quick round of uh Wingspan Pocket? And did we just knock it out? And yeah, I mean, and sometimes your engine doesn't hit. Like I I invested in an engine the last time I played that, you know, it was really reliant on these rat resources being available in the resource pool, and they just weren't coming up. And you know, it it it just didn't happen, but you don't even feel that bad because it was like 20 minutes. I took a gamble, you know, going for like a super specific little engine I wanted to set up, and it it just didn't hit enough times to be worth it. But you got all the fun stuff like hunting and tucking cards, like you have your your birds that have those powers where you can just flip a card, and if it's a smaller wingspan, you get to tuck it under a bird. But you just get to like that first or second bird that you play down, like you're going to activate that ability so many times throughout the course of the game because yeah, you literally do it after every turn. Um, so I I really like this. I like it a lot.
SPEAKER_00I yeah, I can't wait. Uh more trends like this, please. Like take a game that's you know two to three hours long and can condense it down into a card version. You got this with Stonemaier, you've got Paverson doing the card version of Distilled, which I am so excited for. Um yeah, more of this, please.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I don't need the duels necessarily. Like those those were a fun, those were a fun thing, but I I am I am digging this for where from where I'm at in life. Like I still want to engage with these games. I just don't I'm just not pulling out wingspan, you know, on a Wednesday night af at 8 30 p.m. and then you know committing to being up till 10 30 when I gotta get up early the next morning. Like, but I will pull this out and I'll play it for 20 minutes and it made me feel good. It made me feel like I'm a gamer. I'm like, oh man, I'm doing it. I'm still involved in the hobby. Like I'm playing games.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Uh I can't wait until board games drive the fashion industry and larger cargo pockets come back into style so that we can fit all these pocket style games. That's what we really need. Absolutely. There's a hidden market there, uh, where the board game publishers start putting out a line of jeans that will fit their pocket games. How about that?
SPEAKER_02There we go. I think uh I think Stonemeyer's next uh newsletter is probably gonna have something to that effect.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I love it. You already had you got button shy with like the small pocket size games, pocket size games are getting larger, we need bigger pockets. Yeah, it's only it's only reasonable.
SPEAKER_02We'll make it work.
SPEAKER_00Um what do you got, man?
Reforest And Smaller Game Nights
SPEAKER_00So this one uh Wingspan Pocket showed up, and as did uh Reforest. I listened to the guys on board game hot takes talk about reforest a whole bunch. They just did their top 50 episodes for like five weeks running, uh, counting down from number 50 to one, and they talked about reforest a lot, and I got excited because it is literally just a deck of cards that you are playing and you're trying to grow a forest. Uh, the cool mechanic there is that when cards like come out of the forest, they kind of go into this um like decay pile, and that decay pile can help fuel the other trees, kind of like wood rot and stuff like that, as it you know builds up your forest. It's really cool. I haven't touched it enough to speak eloquently about it, but I really want to get more of that played. It's even like pocket-sized version of a pocket game. It's not a it's not a deck of cards, it's like thicker than a deck of cards, but it's like maybe two or three like deck of cards thick, but same size. And I really want to get back to that and play with it a little more, and then I want to talk intelligently about it soon.
SPEAKER_02Okay, well, I'm gonna hold you to it.
SPEAKER_00Get smart, Travis. That's right. I will get smart. Uh, but I do want to talk about a uh board game swap that I went
Game Swap Finds And Price Shock
SPEAKER_00to. Friendly local game store puts out a text. I had not been there in like a little over a week. I was slacking, and I did not even know that this event was going on, even though I have their calendar pulled up on my phone. Knew nothing about it. Uh, get a text in the morning at like 10 a.m. that says board game swap tonight, 5 p.m., board game sale, like sidewalk sale. It's going down. And I kind of hemmed and hot about it, and I'm like, I'm not gonna make it. I'm I was feeling bummed about it, really down. And then Rachel goes, like, you should go. Go put a box of games together and go. I was like, all right. So I go down down to my basement and I start tearing apart boxes of board games. Yes, they're still in boxes, I'm sorry. Uh and I threw together games that I knew were on my coal pile before I left. And I went to this board game swap. I got set up in the back table, and I got some thoughts about board game swaps, particularly about the people that show up to these with their Kickstarter editions of board games, which I love. Like that's a cool opportunity to get in on Kickstarters that you missed out on the first time. What I'm not cool with is the people that show up to these things and treat it like I'm going to make all of my money back and maybe then some. Um I'm all like I get it. Board games retain their value very well, especially if they're taken care of and they're in nice condition, maybe they're sleeved, whatever it is. But like people were showing up with dead reckoning, okay? Box of dead reckoning, one of the expansions right there on top. And I'm like, hell yeah, I'm in on dead reckoning. Let me see how much he wants for that. And I walked up and he's asking like $150 for it. And I'm like, I I can't justify that. Like, if I'm going to a board game swap, I'm gonna treat it like a like a yard sale or something, right? Like, I'm gonna try and maybe swap some games, maybe like refresh my collection, but I'm not gonna pay $150 out of pocket for something like that just because it was on Kickstarter once once upon a time. So I I don't know, man. What what what what's your method of like calling games right now? Let me ask that. I'm getting ahead of myself. Are we getting ahead of myself?
SPEAKER_02Uh I'm I'm reserving my thoughts until your mission objective. I want to hear more about this this swap. You're getting down the culling rabbit hole. I'm pulling you back for the good of the show.
SPEAKER_00Okay, thank you.
SPEAKER_02Everybody, let let it be known that I've reigned Travis in for the last time. All right.
SPEAKER_00The last time. That's all the stripes he had left. Yeah, um, so yeah, I showed up, but people brought their games. Um, I did refresh my collection a little bit, put a little bit of money in my pocket, which was good.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Um, and the games that I walked away with, I feel pretty good about. I feel like I this was an overall net positive swap for me. Um, refresh some games. I walked away with a couple of Kenitsia's, including a sealed edition of Medici. Uh I like a tin version, like a tin box version of Picamino. Yep. Um, I walked away with Witcher the Old World. Nice, which is like a big minis kind of troops on a map type game, which I'm excited about. I had it, I called it. Oh, well, it's it's probably the same copy, and now it's back to me.
SPEAKER_02It probably is. It I it was in the Petri's ecosystem for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um Pan Am. I walked away with a pretty nice copy of Pan Am. Um and I'm trying to think. There was one other one, anyways. Did a big uh refresh, and I'm gonna talk about those games soon because I'm a lot of them I feel like I can get played quickly, so I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about those soon. But I just like I like refreshing the collection every once in a while. It's nice.
SPEAKER_02I love the swap scene, man. Like those were my favorite days. Yeah, it it does just give you a chance to like go take stuff that you're you're done with. Like you're like, you know, I'm ready to move on from this, and people are they have their things that they're done with, and maybe it's the thing that you were like super stoked about, and yeah, you know, you get enough people there with enough different games, and everybody's just kind of milling around looking at what everybody's got, you know, you're making deals, and usually, I mean, at least in my experience, aside from the Kickstarter people, most people are willing to let things go. Just you know, they just want to feel like they got a little something, you know, they don't want to just dump it off at a yard sale, like man, I yeah, this was a game I loved. Like, maybe I get 10-15 bucks for it, you know.
SPEAKER_00I wish that they were selling games for 10-15 bucks, but um oh that another one that I got was um Star Wars the deck building game clone wars edition. Oh, that kind of expand alone version. So now my collection right now is complete for Star Wars the deck building game. I got the Mandalorian expansion, I just got the new one, like the Rebels and Alliances, got the Clone Wars, got the corset. So I'm good on Star Wars deck building game right now, which I'm excited about. I like that game.
SPEAKER_02You are Star Wars deck building the man.
SPEAKER_00I I freaking love that game. What I will also say is they took me away in the back corner, and next to me is a bunch of cardboard boxes on the floor. The cardboard boxes on the side said library donation, not to the local game store library. This was like to go to a regional library so that they can circulate these games and put them out in the community, just stuff that was unwanted. And the guy next to me, he goes like he walks up to the purveyor of the friendly local game store and he says, Hey, like, are you selling these games in in here? And he's like, I either haven't been able to move them or you know, people turn them in, I'm not able to turn them or whatever. So if you want something out of there, I'm not gonna sell it to you. You can just take it. And this dude reaches like reaches down in there and he pulls out a distilled expansion and just like boop pops it in his bag. It's like and it was sealed, it was like brand new sealed, and then I kind of just stood there next to it. I I'm not like digging through it, I'm not gonna like dig around in the donation pile. Like I feel like it's going to a good cause, right?
SPEAKER_01It didn't feel good, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but everybody else felt pretty good about it, and they started digging in there, and there's some good stuff in there, man. Like a a copy of Roth uh from Chip Theory. Um, and it was sealed, but the back had like damage on it. There was like a big you know cut down the back, and the guy was like, It's still in the shrink, like I'm taking this. So he took that. Uh, I turned some people on to Arkham the card, Arkham Horror, the card game. So there were some golden, some uh some good treasures in there that people were diving for, but I I resisted, I was there to coal my collection a little bit and refresh, not to come home with more games than I started with. And I feel like I achieved that.
SPEAKER_02I don't know that I've ever gone to one of those where that was the case.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I one other quick story, one other quick story. They have their sale tables outside, stuff that's still in shrink or whatever, or recently donated that they don't think that they can sell quickly, it's gonna take up space. So they've got their 30% off, they got their 40% off. At the very end, they have buy one, get one free. And I'm like, that's a great deal. There's some cool games here, and they have this huge stack of Resident Evil the board game, and I'm like, that's cool. I've always wanted to try it. Me and Vic are doing the OGN and Games EMOS collaboration right now, where we are talking about Resident Evil video games. And I'm like, let me try this out and I'll send it to Vic if it's no good. Or I might just send it to Vic, anyways, and we can talk about it. So I take the top game off the off the pile and I walk in and I'm like, hey, there's these two games. Here you go. You just run the buy one, get one free. And the girl behind the counter goes, like, this resident evil game is part of a package that it was on top of other games, yes. And I said, Well, yeah, they all said Resident Evil the Board game. And she goes, like, this is a set, and the set is three hundred dollars.
unknownOof.
SPEAKER_00And I said, I will be taking this back. So sorry, Vic. No Resident Evil the Board game for us. Maybe some other day. Dang the intentions were there, but uh yeah, I couldn't justify $300 for that experience.
SPEAKER_02Man, you got me feeling nostalgic for game swaps. The other thing about it is I do find that most people are in a selling mindset at the yeah. To swap, like I've I've always and I'm I'm in both, so they're happy to see me there because I'm buying, but nobody is selling as much as they had hoped, you know, because yeah, that's whatever all these gamers that have too many games are going there to try and get rid of their games.
SPEAKER_00Right. I did a better job this time of swapping, like actual wheel in a deal and trades. Like, here, take this game and you give me 20 bucks, and we can swap the, you know, I I made a couple of interesting trades. Um, but yeah, there were some people that were like real jerks about it. Like I that like that environment kind of gives me like anxiety because everyone's like rummaging through piles. I feel like I'm in day in flashes, right? Like people are rummaging through piles and like frantically looking for games, and I feel like I have to stand right next to my games the whole time. And I walked up to a couple of people and I'm like, Oh, like I'm interested in this one. You want to look and see what I have, and they're like, I've seen what you have, I'm not interested. Like, they're real jerks about it. I'm like, all right, man, like then how much do you want for this? Just tell me. So I I don't know, I I just get in anxiety in situations like that.
SPEAKER_02There's a dark underbelly to this board gaming world, man. I'm telling you, like, I mean, for there's there's a lot of great positive community out there, but there's some real, there's some real weenies in the in the in the board game lobby that like you know they keep me away from events like that and they keep me away from game meetups, and it's uh you know, you gotta deal with it.
SPEAKER_00And if you want to know who those people are, they're usually the people right next to the door. They set up shop right next to the door at the game swaps, or they're right in the center with like a mountain of games, and they are charging astronomical prices for them. Find those guys, they're weenies and don't trade with them. Um, yeah, but then I I did meet a lot of people that were like, Oh, I want to get this game, but you know, I don't have the game group, and I did not take our own advice, I did not put myself out there and offer up my services as game night coordinator. And Rachel goes like, Well, did you take Operation Game Night stickers? And I thought, what an opportunity missed to hand out some OG and stickers, make a connection, can write my phone number on the back of them. Game night services brought to you by Travis Smith.
SPEAKER_02You know, I that's that's some crap I would do. Um, I would show up there and tell nobody about the podcast and talk to nobody, make no friends. That's me. That's for me. We both can't be that person, Travis. I need you out there spreading the word.
SPEAKER_00I I did a fair job. I did a fair job talking with people, made friends. I was friendly, cordial. I talked to people about the games that I was getting rid of, walked them through the rule set. Like, I did a good job of that. I even helped people find gyms in the donation pile, but I never once said, like, oh, and by the way. Check out Operation Gave Night Podcast. And I what a missed opportunity. So I'm coming prepared. Are you ashamed of us? I'm not not at all ashamed. I just it was just a missed opportunity more than anything. I was I was already behind the curve on my swap. I showed up frantically, I had to take a leftover table. I was on my heels from the get-go. And next time, I'm gonna be the first one there. I'm sitting up by the door, I'm charging $150 a game because it I'm gonna put an operation game night sticker on every single game that I'm getting rid of. How about that?
SPEAKER_02It's exclusive, it's exclusive. And you'll have a laptop set up with our podcast playing in the background so people can see that this is the real deal.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, that's great. I love it. I'm wearing my OGN shirt. It's gonna be phenomenal, it's gonna be a whole thing.
SPEAKER_02All right, yeah, heck yeah.
SPEAKER_00You think I could expense one of those like uh table draperies, like the like the covers that go over that have our big logo on the front? I could probably expense that, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, oh my god, yeah, yeah. We'll pay for it with our ad revenue.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, put it on the company card. Yeah. All right, that's enough of me. Do you have any other games you want to talk about? Are you ready to jump into the coal?
SPEAKER_02Um uh no, let's let's get to the mission objective. I talked about Wingspan Pocket, I was pumped about that. Uh let's let's get on to getting rid of games.
How We Actually Cull Games
SPEAKER_00Okay, we have hit this topic a couple times on this podcast, and we are revisiting because I'm now in a situation where I can get rid of games relatively easily. And I want to talk about uh the cull and what is maybe on our pile of shame that we are gonna get rid of. It's not even a pile of shame, it's a pile of liberation that we are going to offload and rid ourselves of this burden of dusty games that have haven't been played in forever and uh make some room for some new games. So Clay, let's start with what is your primary method of culling games right now, since you uh you know blocked me earlier.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Here we go. Now, in the appropriate setting, we are at the mission objective. I will um engage with this topic now. So, Travis, I I have every intention to send games to Operation Tabletop. Yes, and here's another plug for Operation Tabletop. They are a nonprofit that helped veterans through setting up game nights and doing all these awesome things. Um, and you can find them, they you can donate your games there. I want to do this. I am and I'm just a bad, bad person. I have all these games sitting there, and I'm like, I'm gonna send these, and and then it's just like costs a lot of money to ship games for one. And I have a lot of games sitting there. So before that, I I'm I don't have a lot of luck getting rid of games right now. Um I usually just post them on Facebook Marketplace for pretty cheap. And you know, maybe somebody will grab a game or two, and that helps, and then my pile just sits there, and then you know, three or four months later and some new games are added, I post another thing. Here's games I'm trying to get rid of. You know, I I only do local because I just want to ease of ease of getting rid, like going to the post office is just another thing in life. Um, so yeah, I would say that is my if I can give it away, I will, you know. So if I got a buddy or somebody that liked the game and I don't really play it anymore, I'll try and just give it away to them because hey, I want to see people play it, I want to see it circulate, I don't need it anymore. Um, so yeah, I would say now that I don't have access to a friendly local game store that you know accepts trade-ins like good old Petri's family games used to. That was that was a cheat code. I mean, you you get a not the best value, but it was you you could take them there reliably and you get store credit, and it was like wham bam over.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's a win-win. Like, yeah, I am never counting pennies when it's comes time for trading credit. Like, I it's always a box of games, it's not like yeah, I I gave you this one game and you give me 20 bucks back, and I feel slighted. It's like I left you this gigantic pile, I now have $500 of store credit. Like it's it's fair, and I I appreciate the ease of it all. You you kind of pay for the convenience for sure.
SPEAKER_02It is super convenient, and I would do it a hundred times out of a hundred for for that reason alone, and to support the store. Like at a certain point, you know, again, it's just it's nice to get something back, but really just to have that ease is priceless. Yeah, so yeah, I mean, those are the methods I primarily have used and am using. Um, so right now I have a few games posted on Facebook Marketplace, and I intend to whatever's left over from that, I'm gonna suck it up and I'm gonna go to the post office and I'm going to load up a few boxes because they're uh there I've got a lot of games and I'm gonna talk through them here once we get to it. All the games I'm getting rid of. Um, and some of them are big ones, and so that's why I'm like, man, if I could just get rid of these locally here, that'd be ideal. Um, but yeah, do you have any methods? I think we're pretty similar in our yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, uh right now I'm in a good spot. There's a strong board gaming community here, but previously I was in Germany, and those stores are not taking credit or they're not taking trade-ins. Uh, really difficult to offload in Germany unless you're selling to like other local Americans. Um, I gave away a whole bunch to friends when we were leaving, like an entire car full of games. I just gave away to friends. Like, enjoy the games. See you later.
SPEAKER_02You did this for me as well when you left.
SPEAKER_00I did that for you, Colorado. Did that for uh for Jared.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. You are one of the most generous game givers there ever was.
SPEAKER_00I try to be, I try to be, right? Uh I just won't spend $300 on a Resident Evil board game for Vic. But yeah, I I try and give away a lot of games to people that will get playtime out of them because spreading joy uh makes me happy. And Germany was tough, Alabama was tough. There was no local game stores, period. Unless I wanted to drive like two hours to Birmingham or something or to Atlanta. Um, so that was a tough, tough spot to get rid of games. Um, I think I'm I'm maybe gifted a couple um here and there, but even on Facebook Marketplace, like you don't you don't see board games on Facebook Marketplace in Montgomery, Alabama. Now you drive out to Colorado Springs, and Facebook Marketplace is loaded with board games. So um I think that might be one of my primary methods for offloading right now, um, or to just take them in first short credit. So yeah, that's where I'm at right now.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, do you want to get into the nitty-gritty of what's what's on our our code styles? Let's do it.
Kids Games Card Games And Cuts
SPEAKER_02Okay. I'm gonna start with a few that not not not very controversial. There's not much to say about, and then there's a few that I kind of have some more thoughts and feelings on. We can get to at the end. So I'm gonna bounce a few. Okay, let you say a few. Let's do it. Um so the first group of games here are just games that were kids' games that we've kind of outgrown. So sure. Um on that list we have Magic Maze Kids. Okay, Magic Mountain, which if you have young kids, is just awesome. Like it, I don't have you are you familiar with this game, Travis?
SPEAKER_00I am not. Are they in the same line?
SPEAKER_02No, they're not. It's just it's just a coincidence.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um, but Magic Mountain, you have these like little marbles that you roll down this hill, and there's like these witches and students on the hill, and you roll the marble down, and if you hit a witch, you get to move it down to the next spot. And you're trying to get all your students down to the bottom of the hill, but all you have to do is start a marble at the top of the hill and then okay, move things down. But the kids loved it, and we played it a lot um early on. But yeah, so I'm sad to see that one go, but it's just not really something we play anymore. And Magic Maze Kids, again, it's you know, we've just kind of outgrown that. My little Everdell is another one that you know. My kids are just playing games I I like more than that now. So, you know, they're they're playing quacks with me, so I'm not really reaching for my little Everdell to but it was good for what it was, like it really did. It was kind of on the harder side for a My Little game, like sure buyer beware. That one is definitely not the easiest of the kids' version of games. Have you tried My Little Scythe? Yes, I would get rid of that one too. The problem is my kids painted the minis, and and yeah, and for one, that's like kind of a nostalgic thing for me. And for two, I don't know that anybody's gonna want these. Um they didn't paint them well.
SPEAKER_00Let's just say artistic, artistic lights.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so uh my little size was great, and we played a lot of that, but um that one's staying with me for for the time being. Okay, um, yeah. So let me see if there's any other kids' ones on here. Yeah, that kind of sums up my first groupie. Oh, Stomp the Plank is another one I'm getting rid of. Um, it's a little push your luck game, these little elephants on the edge of a plank. It's fun again. Just we're kind of outgrown it.
SPEAKER_00So I remember you talking about that one. That one sounds kind of cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, it's pretty cool. Uh so yeah, if you got kids, like any of those were ones that we had a good time with growing up. Oh, and Mickey Mouse Food Fight, which isn't necessarily a kids' game, but I played that with Jared plenty and he loved it. I mean, he's got stories about Mickey Mouse Food Fight, but that's like a real-time rolling dice, trying to you know get stuff off your plate to other people. It it's uh it's a hoot. Again, it's not necessarily kids, but we don't play it anymore, so it's time to go. Okay, so yeah, that's my first barrage. What do you what are you working with?
SPEAKER_00Well, my first slew of games uh is going to be just competitive card games in general. Um I had a couple of sets of um Star Wars Unlimited, I know that's like still rising, and I have I bought a couple sets of that. I don't know who I was kidding when I bought all these. Like the it's not getting played in this house, like uh so yeah. I had a couple of boxes of uh Star Wars Unlimited that I try to get rid of. No takers. Um, and then Lorcana. I have a whole bunch of Lorcana cards that are sitting around that need to need to go. Yeah. I don't who am I kidding? I'm not I'm not a competitive card guy. I barely play card games with other people, let alone uh you know, competitively. Um and then I had a bunch of like you know, games that I think we've mentioned here before, but um just smaller card games like um that Dutch Blitz that we talked about, uh Four Kings, these like card games that are not strong enough to last, and I just don't care to play them anymore. So I donated some of them, um, so like Dutch Blitz and stuff. I donated those to the library collection and um got rid of those, they're off my coal pile. But um, yeah, I I think I'm just kind of over competitive card games. I'm keeping my magic cards though. So we need to maybe someday I'll be a magic guy, but not to maybe someday.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, here's a little tidbit about me. I almost never get rid of if the box is like a for sale size box or smaller, I don't get rid of it. Like I just keep those. They're there none of them are offensive enough. And like I mean, I probably should at some point just like donate them, but it's not worth selling them because you're not gonna get uh really anything back, and they don't take up that much space, so they get a big old pass for me most of the time. Um, I got a ton of like small box games that I never really play, but they'll probably stay with me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that's what I thought as well. And I'm like, I'm just gonna keep keep all these small box games, I'll just keep piling them on. And then I started looking at like those um the cubes that you put into like the calic shelves. So on my last setup, you saw I had uh what 10 different cubes, eight different cubes, whatever it was along the bottom, and those are just stuffed to the brim with small box games between the all bot all play small box and my button shy games and like all these little you know knickknack games that just pile up over time. And if I'm ever going to add any more all play games to my collection, some of these smaller box games have to go. So out they went and made a little bit of room for more. Dang. What else you got?
SPEAKER_02So I too am well, I I'm keeping my Lurcana stuff in my Star Wars Rebellion because or Star Wars Unlimited card games, but I did at one point buy the Magic the Gathering Foundations beginner box with uh great hopes of learning to play magic. Yeah, and it's sat there for two years now, so it is on the it is on the call list as well. Um, yeah. Who who am I kidding? Another one that is on my list is Flying Goblin.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02I don't know if you've ever heard of this, but it's basically like a weird it it was a cool game, but you kind of like flick, I can't really remember how to play it. We played it a while ago with the kids, but you like flick goblins into areas that like of this castle and they'll get you things, but yeah, it was a fun novelty with the dexterity piece of it, but it just isn't isn't one we play, so goodbye. Um Pelican Bay was like uh one that someone got for the kids at one point. It's not necessarily a kids game, it's kind of like a tile placement game where you it kind of reminds me of like Lamb versus C a little bit. Oh yeah. But I just got better games that kind of do a similar thing. So you know, Pelican Bay Bay probably hasn't been played in three years. Yeah, it's about time for that one to move on. Um we're almost out of the uncontroversial ones for me. Um we'll go with Party Panda Pirates. Okay. So I was stoked on Party Panda Pirate Pirates because I thought it was gonna be this epic like mini-game scenario, but we did a debrief on it a while back, and it and it was not a glowing debrief. I like again, I like the idea, but it was just a little too much admin for what it needed to be in the audience it's shooting for. So again, I've left that sit around for probably a year too long and just haven't played it. So yeah, that one's also um on the coal pile.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02What else you got?
SPEAKER_00Uh, my next round is like kind of small Ur box games that just are not getting played as much as they used to. Uh, games like Jurassic Parts, um, that kind of uh the game where you kind of lay out your pickaxes along these um like hexagons that are either revealed or secret to collect dinosaur bone sets that you are exchanging for amber to get additional abilities and stuff later on. It's cool. I liked it. Um, just not getting the playtime it once did, and I've never really taken full advantage of it. Like you can play with all these additional rules for I don't know, different upgrades that you can buy and this shop and all these other stuff. And I it's just a pure set collection game that I just don't think is necessary anymore in the collection. Um, games like that, um, land versus sea, which you mentioned, like I have only ever played the basic rule set, never counting mermaids and camels or you know, these different symbols that are all over the maps. And I I like that game, I think it's cool. Do I I don't know what sort of role it fills in my collection right now, and it just is not getting the playtime it deserves, so it might be better suited in somebody else's hands. Um, the other one is Beacon Patrol. I really like this game actually.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I remember using this. I really I really like it.
SPEAKER_00I think it's by Pandasaurus. Um and it's a cool game, and it's just it's another one of these kind of medium boxes that is just sitting there and not getting playtime. So I I don't think that any of these are bad games, certainly. They're just ones that I haven't played in a while, and it's time to just refresh and get them out of there, maybe get something that can excite a little more game nights than the ones that have been sitting on the shelf for a while.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we gotta get some exciting game nights, Travis. That's right. Okay, well, for my my next two are fall into the category that I don't I don't love this and it doesn't happen often, but I'm not afraid to pull the trigger on a deal. Okay. Um, like if something's on a mega sale, I'll take a flyer on it. Um but I sometimes do that and they I wasn't that excited about the game, so I never play it. And so I generally I play, I try to play the games I get, and but yeah, like like these two. I they were on mega sale at the game store, and uh I was like, yeah, I'll get them. And then I just never felt passionately enough about to play them, so it's like, all right, goodbye. Um, and that's Living Forest Duel and Chaos Ball, which is like an old C-Mon game by Eric Lang. That I mean it's in this huge box, probably got like a hundred minis, and I got it for 25 bucks on sale. And I was like, Eric Lang, all these minis, like it's kind of a sports y game. And then I started going through the rule book. I was like, oh my god, like no, I'm just not gonna do it. Um, so that's that's I'm just giving up on it. And then Living Forest, it was like ten dollars and yeah I was I love Mary and I really like Living Forest but I started looking at the rules and I was like just play Living Forest I don't know like it it's fine it too why did I do why did I get that um so those two are uh are hitting the road yeah no no fault of their own yeah I think that kind of segues nicely into my next collection which is kind of um green games to be like photosynthesis evergreen um I've got um zoo yeah I have like the zoo tycoon game and I I think that it fills just enough overlap between that and um what's it called Arc Arcnova or like Sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00There's too much overlap there and I'm just not gonna play them all. And I Zoo Tycoon was on my pile in Alabama for a long time. Like I had a separate pile that was only only for cold games all this stuff and I I bought it because it was developed by Mark Durr and Mark Durr did wild do Wild Duo which at the time of backing I was hot on Wild Duo. Wild Duo also has not gotten uh any playtime so that's also on the pile um however the zoo tycoon game just has the they just announced a um expansion that's all dinosaurs and I'm like maybe I keep maybe I keep Zoo tycoon and and try out maybe I'll just keep buying expansions for a game that I don't really play. Yeah yeah I'm in there I'm kind of in that space right now where I just need to offload a lot of these things that I have backed or continue to back and never get playtime. So yeah my next kind of grouping is all the all the nature games a lot of the nature games that are in my collection that just don't get the love that they need.
SPEAKER_02Yeah I hear you it's tough this is um you know it's it's the cycle of life right I don't know about you but I can I can give a game a good look and just know it's time you know like there's a lot of games that I haven't played in a long time don't know when I'll play them again but I look at them and I'm still excited and I still think I want to and then there's something I just look at I'm like you know it's it's we've had our fun. Yep let's just see other people now that's all right and that's okay that's growth. That's called growth. Yeah okay I'm gonna start wading into some maybe more popular ones at this point. So coming of age okay this should be no surprise to anybody who listened to uh the June deployment report that I did a a couple months ago but coming of age I was excited about I was like man this euro has got a theme that is cool and then it was just another euro yeah and not even a good one. I'm sorry if you like that game it was just so convoluted I don't even know how you can make the decisions you're supposed to make in that game uh without taking 30 minutes on your turn to evaluate everything you could do going up and down on these 17 different tracks it was like holy cow like man they just they they catfished me with a good theme and I'm just not a Euro guy right now so coming of age was an an easy easy kill on on the list um the next one is the Pirates of the high tees okay so I did a debrief of this with Mike Meeple that loses yeah he really likes this game and there's a lot of people that really like this game I think this is a great game for people to get into board gaming it just didn't do anything new or exciting yeah to me it felt like a slightly more complicated of just like a good card game you know it's just kind of order fulfillment and just took a little longer they added some worker placement great theme great production approachable but again the the we talked to Pierce Hayward about it it's like you you can make a good game but it doesn't mean it's gonna stand out and it's gonna be for everybody um and that's kind of where I fell on that one again I no no complaints about it I just didn't didn't move me didn't move anything off the shelf that kind of occupies that same space. That's okay. Yeah um another one this might be less controversial is viticulture world that's kind of an older cooperative expansion for viticulture just played it once yeah never I mean probably two or three years ago whenever it came out and then it's just been sitting there and this is one of the things that I struggle with and I'm okay with a lot of times like I know for a fact I will never ever get rid of a single all play small box game okay because the I they I just like the way they are I don't know like I don't know how else to say it like they just look nice together I like collecting them like yeah I'll never play it again but to me I am still a like a collector type person so having that collection of those boxes I feel a similar type of way about Stonemeyer games so I do struggle to get rid of those sometimes when maybe they I should yeah but this one I was just like you know I still have viticulture I'm not like saying goodbye to the whole idea of it um so viticulture worlds on the pile. Another no no for me is Kenitsia games. Yeah I have you know 50 or 60 of them to me that's a collection thing at this point like I'm kind of making it a mission to grow that collection of Kenizia games. So yeah there's some I don't like I'm not gonna play probably but I still want to have them yeah the only one I ever got rid of was Cascadero and that was Cascadero just gets crapped on so much I'm sorry. I just couldn't bear to see it there anymore. But yeah so there's things like that um and like certain IP games that I really like you know I'm I may not love the game but if I really like the intellectual property and there's not a ton of games for it I'm I'll probably hold on to it. Yeah with the exception of the next one here which is Missborn the deck building game it's fine it's it was a good it was a good game I just yeah I like other deck builders better you know and it did some cool stuff with the elements flaring and you kind of integrating that misborn theme and I kept it around for a long time because I was like I want to be a Brandon Sanderson guy. I want to be I want to have this here for when I finally finish the Brandon Sanderson deep dive yeah um but I'm like you know what I don't need to hold on to this I don't want to play it so yeah goodbye all right I I'm gonna take a breather here and see if you got anything
Expansions Collecting And Sacred Cows
SPEAKER_02else.
SPEAKER_00So I've got kind of a weird category and it's just expansions to games that are so unnecessary. How do you how do you offload expansions? I don't know if you have a good option let me know because I have like multiple expansions to Splendor Splendor is great on its own it doesn't need expansions. Yeah uh I have kind of uh some cost fallacy between uh all the Kickstarters that I've backed with all these extra expansions that like just are so unnecessary like Lords of Vegas I have like 10 expansions to Lords of Vegas not necessary like poor game is great um heat pedal to the metal those expansions don't do it for me base game's great yeah just kind of taking up extra space um you know I do these I'm done with it by the way I I'm clean now uh but for a while I was just like I had to go all in get it all and uh I am definitely over that with the amount of expansions that I have to offload whether I want to get rid of the main game or not um what oh unconscious mind okay let's talk about unconscious mind for a second the game is beautiful the game is beautiful man the game is beautiful it's so nice the production is out of this world so so beautiful yep am I ever going to play the base game um probably not enough to warrant the amount that I paid for it um do I need 10 expansions for it through our game that's already so complicated definitely don't need that so I'm in this weird place where like maybe I want to keep the base game and get rid of the expansions like how do you offload expansions I that's a that's a mystery on eBay who knows like yeah maybe that's that's the move I don't know I'm I'm kind of at a loss so I I think that's about it for my coal collection I I have a whole bunch that are just sitting there those are the ones that I could remember off the top of my head um oh I did I'll tell you what I did get rid of I got rid of a couple of the Kickstarters um I got rid of um trolls and princesses that one was a pretty good find um got rid of um Star Wars Shatterpoint the arena kind of skirmish game who am I kidding I'm not playing you know arena skirmish games with my wife or two year old daughter so they were taking up so much room time to offload got rid of them yeah traded them out for other games so clay you got any more that you would just want to ruin I got so much more but before I rattle through those okay is there anything that you won't get rid of even if you like aren't gonna play it like do you have any um sacred cows? I'm trying to think about like the like the ones that have been on my top 10 that I have great memories playing like Western Legends I will I will probably keep that around I've invested in all the expansions and stuff I wish that they would put out a big box that can fit everything um but I probably will not get rid of Western Legends um Wonderland's war won't get it rid of that I I have been really um what's up some might say radical with like my space management with board games like I had all of those fantasy flight marvel champions arkham horror game of thrones card game I pulled all the cards out and just smashed the boxes and threw them away and people were like that's sacrilege I say you don't have to move every two years so this is how I'm dealing with it um yeah I gotta make some drastic choices so I would rather tote around some very large very heavy card boxes than tote around you know 25 different boxes of games so I'm doing my best um those will probably stick around for a long time I just need to find a more elegant solution um I don't know man I it you asked me this kind of in a vacuum and I would say like oh yeah like there's there's no games that I just wouldn't get rid of but then I would start looking through my games and be like wow but I really want to play this one someday I I really enjoyed the last time I played it and I him and ha about it and I that's how games get stuck in my collection you just kind of like rip the band-aid off and and go for it and there are probably games out there that I would not trade but I can't think of them right now.
SPEAKER_02But are there any that you view as like a collectible almost like the way I view Kenizia games like there's nothing like that there gameplay aside memories aside that you just want to have because that because of the passion of collecting I maybe you don't have that same passion as I do for collecting I I feel like I'm a collector but not a specific publisher or designer like you would be like your collection is like taking shape mine is still kind of like smattering of everything.
SPEAKER_00So I don't have like this kind of niche thing that I'm trying to get into like I'm gonna collect every game about world war two or something right like I don't have that kind of lane that I want to fulfill um if you would have asked me you know two years ago I would have said my Everdell collection in the nice big box I'm like that's never leaving it's great. But then that's no longer the definitive collection they just keep churning out Everdell games and it's driving me nuts because like that was it I felt like it was like a nice box set right like the TV show's done it's run all of its seasons here's the collector's edition you have it in the ultimate form as it is right here and then they just continued to release expansions like immediately afterwards and it drove me nuts so I I don't know man I don't I don't feel like I have that um certain vein of collecting that you do yeah well it's probably for the best I'll say that um I I'm I'm quite okay with uh being a collector of things what about buttonshy games like why would you ever get rid of a button shy like it's just nice to have all the wallets yeah yeah I do have a ton of buttonshy games like a ton of and like in what world you get rid of those like it's just I mean there are 11 cards and a little plastic sleeve like yeah you can put five of them together and have a deck of cards like yeah you can't justify getting rid of those ever unless you're selling the entire collection all at once yeah which that's also sacrilege.
SPEAKER_02Okay well I'm gonna rattle through the last ones on my list here. Let's hear it um the Godfather Corleone's empire also debriefed earlier um so you can check that out if you want to I think at the end of the day it was a C-mon game another Eric Lang I was into the Godfather at the time I picked it up I got it used and it was a fine game I think it went a little long and started kind of getting repetitive and boring towards the end so um you know just never really played it but I did like that it was kind of a gaudy production on a worker placement game really I mean so that was cool but haven't played it since so it's going um market fresh which was a Kramer and Keisling game just put out by Avalon Hill got it because it was Kramer and Keisling you know again there's some designers that you're just like you know what I'll give you give it a go and it was fine it was in much along the lines of Pirates of the high tees like no objections this game works it's good like it's fine is it better than Azul is it better than you know all these other things probably not so before I get attached to it played it a couple times see you later goodbye um dwarf romantic that's on the list you know it's obviously one the Spieldaza so who am I to say it's junk but I I thought didn't find it to be that compelling to play like it's just a sit there and place a tile like kind of game um yeah cooperative but yeah and and the digital version is too good like you can't get the digital version. Yeah but there's a lot of people in Germany that would say otherwise so don't don't let me uh tell you it's bad um another one is misfit heroes so this is a Phil Walker Harding game that it's basically just a tableau builder it's just an and I just don't like those type of games I got it because it was Phil Walker Harding yeah and I tried it I played it I was like yeah these aren't just these just aren't the games I like like if I'm gonna play a game that's like a tableau engine builder wingspan pocket that's the callback that's the one that's all I need um and then I think we're down oh Star Wars super teams that's a light little racing game it's it's fine like I I just have so many racing games that I like more and yeah it was fun the couple times we played it not much to it the big one that I struggled with and board game hot takes as of recording this episode on Monday Labor Day they put out an episode about wondrous creatures and I listened to that and I was like you don't like this game Clay but I at one point I got it and I played it several times and I was like this is cool like I like this game like I like it's kind of feels like Pokemon you know you're doing this stuff but the end of the day it's just a tableau builder and it takes too long I haven't had the upgraded metal like I went out of my way and got the metal upgrades for it. Like that's but I haven't played it in a year and a half and the thought of doing that just sounds like work and listening to them talk about it on board game hot takes I was like why would I keep that around if you listen real closely you can hear Amanda screaming down in Florida. She loves this game I know I know I know and yeah I've just really settled in on what my taste is and I'm like I'm like doggedly passionate about it now like yeah I will play those games but I'm not gonna be the one to have them I'm not gonna be the one to learn them I'm not gonna be the one to teach them. If you want to teach me and play I'll have a good time like I'll play there's no game I don't enjoy sitting down and playing yeah but to sit there for two hours and do like a solo puzzle basically it's just like the that brain burning work just doesn't do it for me. If I'm playing a long game I want it to be interactive and like we're going at each other it's gonna be like that. So yeah that's where I'm at in life and the moral story of this all is I'm gonna keep buying games because I like buying games that's part of the fun of this for me is discovering new games. And as long as we're gonna keep buying games we're gonna keep calling games too and I'm getting pretty good at you know refining my taste and being able to part with a game pretty quick after playing it um which used to not be the case.
SPEAKER_00See that's one of the downsides and positives of buying board games is that in a ever digital future where the large companies are trying to take our rights away from all of the property that they said that we own once upon a time but now it's taking up server space for their AI model and they are dumping all of our rights and Sony's removing thousands of movies that people have bought over the years and Sony's not printing discs for video games anymore and the video game companies shut down servers every single day. When you buy a board game you own that board game and it takes up space in your house for better or for worse and nobody can take that away from you and that's uh one of the goods and one of the bads of this fantastic hobby that we talk about every single week here on Operation Game Night.
The Case For Physical Ownership
SPEAKER_02Yeah we we're always going to be talking about it and I don't know do you have anything else to say on culling before we go over the fence nope it's time to cull real hard though um I'm my list was a little lackluster here um but I can assure you that there are some games outbound because I have been telling my wife for two plus years three years now that games are outbound so I'm gonna keep offloading as much as I can and um refreshing where I where I where I can where I where I deem appropriate how about that how about that all right we have talked a lot about culling I want to know what you have been doing outside of board gaming Clayton I've been kind of saving this one up for a little bit um okay so I'm late to the party like I'm there you were early and you talked about this a long time ago many moons ago and I was like Travis being weird talking about these weird freaking books I'm so sick of it but Dungeon Crawler Carl I have rattled through in the past month the first three books and I'm on to the fourth one now I have just been loving it I wanted to hate it I didn't want to be just an another goony who was you know oh man here's another white dude who likes dungeon crawler Carl look at him how original um but it's hard to deny like it's entertaining stuff you know the princess donut Katya like I mean they get this little group going and you're rooting for them and yeah there's so many I mean it's funny the way they incorporate these things into the book and I again because I have this collector's impulse I've been listening to the audiobooks but I have simultaneously been buying the hard copy books.
Dungeon Crawler Carl Takes Over
SPEAKER_00Okay I've been considering that because I kind of want to own them and have them on the shelf. It's like it's such easy reading that it would be like pulling off a Harry Potter book and read it in like a day.
SPEAKER_02You just fly through it no big deal man oh you just spoke that into existence for me yeah and I I'm I'm I'm doing a hybrid approach where you know I will try to read a little bit like I I I'm I'm working on the fourth book now. I'll listen to it on the way to work on the way back. And then you know at night I'll read. I'm doing like 90% audiobook, but it does make me feel a little better when I read a little bit out of the actual book too.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, but I do like having them like their their graphic design and the way they look together is like they such a cool look. And I'm yeah, I'm all I'm all in, like, man, Clurp Clurp, you know, like we're we're here.
SPEAKER_00Oh man. Oh, I'm so glad that you're enjoying them. So three is kind of like a dip, largely considered a dip in the series. Like it's a little tough to get through. The iron tangle makes no sense. People are like all confused about it. No, they get really in-depth on like train systems, but then you come out on the other end of that for books four and five, and it picks up big time, and it's so good, dude. I'm I'm so excited to like talk about this with you as you progress.
SPEAKER_02I've been keeping it on the DL because I wanted to like really make sure I was I was invested. Like I got through the first one, I was like, okay, okay, that was good. Like, let's start the second one. Second one was a breeze, like that was a quick one. Boom. I was through that, and then I did have to kind of slog through the iron tangle, but I was still into it. Yeah, and now I'm like, you know, like this is gonna be a thing. I'm gonna finish it. Like this. I haven't I haven't been this into a book series, probably since Harry Potter when I was in in like the fourth grade. Like this is this is new for me, so yeah, this is fun.
SPEAKER_00Um, and speaking of another white dude being into Dungeon Crawler Carl, uh, they did like I think it was Gamescom that they had like a Dungeon Crawler Carl meetup. And if you would have like shown this to somebody 10 years ago, you just would have been like, what a bunch of freaks, like just out in you know, plain air in the middle of like a city in their underwear and like heart boxers and like yeah, wearing a trench coat with like a power glove. But like you put them all together and you're like, Man, people are so passionate about this freaking series and love all the characters, and like oh, I'm so excited that you're into this.
SPEAKER_02I'm yeah, I can't wait for you to catch up. I love to get into things, man. Like, I yeah, like if I can make something my personality, I'm gonna I'm gonna invest in it. Like it's be all I talk about. So uh buckle up for uh future over the fences, I'll be reporting
Starting Star Trek From Scratch
SPEAKER_02in. But in other news, I have been I did take my first dip into Star Trek the original series excellent and watch the first two episodes. Okay, so I actually I think I missed the first one because I watched it on freaking Pluto TV, uh, and it didn't have the episode zero, which I just found out because I I got sick of dealing with the ads on Pluto TV, yeah, and just signed up for Paramount Plus. And I was like, wait, what's this other episode? But anyway, I watched the the first one to me, which was the freaking salt monster. Yeah, I was like, man, this is wild. Yeah, um, and then there's that that boy like making people Thanos snap away in the second one. I'm into it. I don't know if I'll be able to keep Mary engaged, but I'm trying.
SPEAKER_00I'm telling you, if she sticks with it, you get to like I this is kind of an investment at this point. Um you get to like episode eight, you start rolling, like yeah, the just the the writing is so good, and I now have my father-in-law here that is a huge, huge trekkie. Really? He's he's into it. Like I I turned it on, he was not like in the room, and he walked in, and they have the first shot where like the enterprise is flying through space, and he was able to tell which episode I was watching from the first clip of the Enterprise flying through space. Wow, incredible! And like he's like talking through, like, oh, he knows all the characters and all the writing and the background and stuff, and it's like just enriching this experience. And I'm on like 15 or 16 now of season one, yeah. And oh, dude, it's so good, it's so good.
SPEAKER_01I I'm in are you a full-blown trekky now?
SPEAKER_00I I don't know about that. Like, there are some people that are crazy into it. Um, there's a reason that they made the movie Galaxy Quest to like kind of poke fun at the people that are super into this type of stuff, yeah. Um, which is also phenomenal, and we should watch Galaxy Quest at some point, but yeah, um, dude, I'm into it. Like it's old school sci-fi, and but you can see some like really cool through lines to some of the modern day stories that we see today. Wow, like there's one where like um I don't want to give it away, but there's like a theater troupe that is traveling with um the crew of the Enterprise, and maybe one of the people that's in this troop potentially killed like half of a population on an asteroid on a human colony because he wanted to save them from like famine and starvation, and like it's like Thanos, seriously. Like wow, he did what needed to be done, and like living with that consequence, and uh yeah, you'll you'll get to it. It gets so good.
SPEAKER_02I love like I along with my goals right now are to be my identity to be uh Dungeon Crawler Carl and Star Trek. Like I want to be a Treky. I yeah, like I love I love like these passionate subgroups and yeah, getting into it. Like when if people can be that into something, there's something there, and I want to know what that something is, and I'm gonna freaking invest and I'm gonna get there because yeah, man, there's so much good storytelling and media out there that I I would have turned it off uh quicker than a demon's whisper before. Yeah, when uh like if I had watched that first episode, you know, uh 10 years ago, yeah. I've been like, this is old and stupid, and I'm like, but wait, the story's not old and stupid, like there's real people and real people problems, and we need to like man, you can still tell a good story in the 1960s. What was I thinking?
SPEAKER_00And there's like incredible, you can see like these legs that it gets where it is influencing other mediums down the road, like comic books and and movies and screenplays and all this stuff. Like, um, I will say so. Have you watched episode zero with Captain Pike yet? No, okay, watch it tonight. Okay, you have to watch it because episode like I don't know, 11-12 maybe is called The Menagerie part one and two. It's a two-parter episode, and it does something really cool with the episode zero, like brings it into canon in a really cool way that I think that you'll enjoy. Okay, yeah, I'm I'm into it. Okay, I I'm so excited to keep talking these two properties with you because I'm okay. I'm in that's all I've been doing on my free time is uh watching Star Trek.
SPEAKER_02I love fandom. Heck yeah, let's be fans.
SPEAKER_00Do you have anything else? Uh no, I just want everyone in the comments to tell us what they are fans of and what else we should be addicted to because yeah, we uh we're sheep and we need a new uh thing to sink our teeth into.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we're we are ripe for the pickings for that's right, uh getting swept up in something. I got something else, Travis.
SPEAKER_00Okay, real quick.
Yard Games Croquet And Competition
SPEAKER_02So just before I came here on this podcast, I was at a Labor Day little picnic hosted by my aunt, and she had croquet out. I've never played croquet. I was, you know, whoa, what is this? Um I've seen it, they got wickets, you know, there's the balls and the mallets. Um I was curious and I played, and it's a really fun game. Yeah. I how do you feel about yard games? Do you think that they are are close enough to board games to scratch that same itch?
SPEAKER_00I feel like they meet like a same dexterity type game. Like you kind of get the same sort of tickle in your brain when you like throw a cornhole bag straight through the hole, or you like the ladder ball and it like wraps around, it's so satisfying. I I think that some people get a little crazy with their yard games, like you go to any outdoor section of like Target or Dick's or any of these other outdoor sporting good places, and there's like extreme yard games, like your sp like your spike balls or like your squad volleyballs, and like people get really into it. I think can jam is probably like the upper limit of uh uh competitive yard games. If you are needing to like shove somebody out of the way or like break a full sweat, it's probably not a lawn game, it's probably like an actual sport.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. No, that's probably true. What's your yard game of choice? What's what's your go-to?
SPEAKER_00I have a nice set of um cornhole boards that somebody built me as a going away gift from one of my units, and it's sick. They're so nice. It's got bottle openers on the side, it's got a little box built in underneath for storing the bags, it's got LED lights that go around the outside and inside the holes so you can play it in the dark. Um painted with our unit patch and stuff. Excellent. I really like Cornhole. Um, I don't get super into it. I'm not gonna be like challenging people at a barbecue, but if somebody wants to play, I will certainly play that. Um, I also really do enjoy can jam. That's a great game. Um, feels so good when you throw that stupid frisbee and it goes straight through the hole. Like, um, but I have I grew up playing um croquet. We had a croquet set and we'd set it up in the yard, like go outside and play, and we'd set up the little wickets and hit the ball around. So that's super fun. I do like that. Yeah. Another one that's underrated is bocce ball.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I was thinking about that. We used to play that growing up, and playing croquet today made me feel like, dude, I've been sleeping. I everybody's just so into like freaking cornhole like these days. Yeah, that's like the always yard game, but I really like bocce ball, and I really was thinking bocce ball croquet. I'm like, man, we need to kind of revitalize the bocce ball croquet scene at some of these things because it's fun.
SPEAKER_00What a flex to like show up at a barbecue and everyone's like playing cornhole or like throwing washers in a bucket or whatever, and you show up with like a full-blown croquet set, and you set it up, and you're like, anybody wanna, you know, I that's a power move. I need to get like a nice ass croquet set.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, dude. Yes, hardcore. And then I do have to confess um an embarrassing detail of this croquet game that I I won. I I beat everybody. It was a six-player game. First time I played it, I won.
SPEAKER_00Um, that's a that's a humble brag.
SPEAKER_02No, because it's about to get ugly though. But early on in the game, I I hit a wicket, bounced off, didn't go through. Okay. And I smashed the mallet and snapped it in half in a in a rage in a rage slam. My aunt's croquet set. Um, so that was embarrassing. She was kind enough to share her mallet with me for the rest of the game. But that just, you know, board games, I am not competitive at all. But if it involves any amount of athleticism, I am extremely competitive. Yeah. And I get so mad. And like tennis was the same way. I was a racket thrower, it's not a good look. I would throw my headgear when I lose in wrestling. Like, I am a poor sport when it comes to athletics. Thank God. Nobody would play with me in board games if I was like that. Um, but yeah, slammed the mallet, snapped it right in half. I yeah, I just had to uh put that out there. So if you also are a poor sport, you can feel you can feel seen.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, it's kind of like when you threw your headgear after I tapped you when we were uh wait, did that happen? Oh yeah, it happened. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You tap me all the time.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, at least once. At least once.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I wasn't wearing the headgear, so you certainly slammed your hands on the mat and you cried a little bit. It's all right. Yeah, it happens. That's okay. Everybody's got that one thing that they're hypersensitive about, and yours is yard games. Athletic competition. How about that?
SPEAKER_02Yes, athletic competition. That's why I can't do it. I can't do it for fun. Like, I it's why, like, you know, you go to jujitsu gyms and stuff like that. Like, I just can't I can't not care about it. Yeah, like it, I would I would I just want to be good and I'm not okay with not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I feel that. Like as prior athletes, I think that's just like burned into our DNA. Like, we have to be competitive when it comes to athletic anything.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, it's not a good look though. I gotta rein it in. I thought I was past all that, but I a part of me came out on that in that croquet game that I thought I thought was behind me, but yeah, some demons never go away.
SPEAKER_00Why do you think people hold drinks when they play cornhole so that you're not throwing punches? You got bags in one hand, drink in the other. It's really hard to throw punches. Yeah, true. Maybe that's why.
SPEAKER_02True. Next time I'll have a beer in my hand and do one-handed croqueting it. Love it. There we go.
SPEAKER_00Did we do it?
SPEAKER_02I think we did it.
SPEAKER_00I think we did it. This is a good episode. Yeah, I really enjoyed talking with you today. Yeah, I enjoy talking with you every day, but today was especially fun.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's probably better because you called me a good friend at the beginning and that kind of loosened me up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I just gotta fluff you up a little bit before we start start the podcast.
SPEAKER_01Yep, yep, that's how you get the best out of me.
SPEAKER_00That's
Comments Ratings And Farewell
SPEAKER_00right, that's right. All right, well, go ahead and uh if you're listening to this, go into the comments and and call Clay a good friend and just make his day. Tell him some nice things about himself, tell him he's not a jerk for breaking the croquet stick, and that he is a special boy and that he is your best friend. And let us know what is on your coal pile. And while you're at it, go ahead and like and subscribe. Leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcast. This has been the Operation Game Night Podcast talking about board game culling. I have been your host, Travis Smith. He has been my co-host, Clayton Gable, and we are out.
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