Latest / Operation Game Night / Pilot: From Monopoly to Mage Knight: Our Gaming Evolution (Plus Podcast Planning Behind the Scenes)

Transcript

Pilot: From Monopoly to Mage Knight: Our Gaming Evolution (Plus Podcast Planning Behind the Scenes) · Operation Game Night

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hey listeners, this probably won't make any sense at all.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Most of this episode probably won't make sense.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a bunch of incoherent rambling, but, as with any good journey, I figure we should start at the beginning.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Clay and Jared and I have never recorded our voices on tape, we've never podcasted, never edited any audio, but we are going to take a crack at it, and we decided to start this podcast so that we had an excuse to get together and chat about board games, something that we love very dearly and something that we bond over frequently.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: So, if nothing else, gave us a chance to sit down and chat just as friends.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: But we want to take those steps to create this podcast so that we can invite others to share in this hobby that we enjoy so much and to connect with us, to learn with us and, hopefully, to come to enjoy this podcast for what it is, which is a get together of friends to discuss board games.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Let's jump in with episode one of Operation Game Night.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Operation Game Night podcast, where the mission objective is to play more board games.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Put your battle rattle on and mount up.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Let's start the show.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Wow, what do we look like?
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Is it the three, the little?
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: three pieces, so it's not a video, it's just the audio.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: So I moved down here just for this Marvel United background.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: You guys aren't rocking headphones, yep.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: I feel like I should have headphones now that I'm observing you.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, your headphones.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I've got the recorder so I think we're okay on recorder.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: It's a cheap one, but I figure we'll start small and work our way up.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: We just got to figure out how to record.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: What do you mean recorder?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: So it is passing my computer audio through a system where it's recording onto an sd card and then I can oh, that sounds pretty convoluted.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: Man, what is this?
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Is it 2024?
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: uh it is 2024, but this, that's how.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: That's how you have to do this stuff.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: This allows me to control volume of you guys and mine and output, and it has a little sound pad on it so I can play with sounds like the little.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Where's that, this guy?
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Well, we're going to need to use that a lot.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: So yeah, We've got to figure out how to do the video.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: Can you go ahead and tune out Clayton real quick, just for the rest of the episode?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: That would be great.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Just tune him out, tune me out, just mute him Wow.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: We got that fancy little sound bar thing there.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm really stuck and we can't figure out other ways to do it there.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm really stuck and we can't figure out other ways to do it.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I can actually feed you guys in via phone, in through the recorder, and we could do this like via cell phone if all else fails.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And then when we do in-person podcasts, next time we're all together during game weekend, or when you guys come out for Essence Spiel, then we can just add that up on site In person.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Does my sound sound good?
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Because I'm a little anxious about the fact that I don't know if this microphone is the one that's.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I think it sounds great.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm coming through.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: You sound loud, you sound loud, I'm booming.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I'm moving away a little bit.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good, it's not overbearing.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: It does sound podcast quality, in my opinion.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Well, first off, we need to decide what the heck we're calling this podcast before we do anything.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: That's like the hardest thing.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: All right that feels pivotal.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: The hardest thing, all right, that feels pivotal.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: It does feel pivotal.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I mean I named the Discord chat.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Our board 720?
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Is that a throw?
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: Is that a Parks and Rec reference?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just a little.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Parks and.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Rec.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: We'll go around the world twice to play a good board game.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Our board 720.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying?
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: We'll eventually have the world to play a good board game Cardboard 720.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: We need to.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: We'll eventually have to check the name.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Kind of like the simplicity of Cardboard 720.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it doesn't require a lot of fluff to it, you know it's just.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: It is what it is.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: We are worldwide gamers.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: You know Prestige worldwide First in many, in many countries.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: You can try this.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: I'm a German man.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: I had a hard time deciding on where I was going to record this, because everything is made of concrete and rebar here and there's no way I could go upstairs and record this and still get good Wi-Fi.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: So I'm trying to brave the office which is right next to our living room, which is where the dogs are probably going to be barking here shortly.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't do that.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Jared knows it.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: How's your acclimatization to taking care of a toddler going?
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: She's a beast and a half.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: You know she is shitting where she wants to shit and it is not the toilet.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: She is very originated too.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: You know she's only two years old.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: And then you know one little thing goes wrong and it's just downhill.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: She's just a downhill skier from there.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: At least she's cute, though you know being with them is nice rather than being in korea, but you don't want to be away from them, but it also kind of sucks to be with them.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: There's a little just duality in life, it is, but I would rather be with them than away from them.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: That's a true statement.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: I never don't want to be with my kids, but I can't stand them most of the time.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: Did you get your Marvel United boxes, you nerd?
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: No, but they're going to be here imminently.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: He's embarrassed, Jared yeah.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Because you have to go to the base post office and wait in line and you go and you scan your little ID card and then they announce out loud how many packages you have waiting for you and you're going to stick out like a sore thumb with those big Marvel boxes.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Oh my God, I'm dreading it.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: I'm dreading it, dreading it.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I've not gotten into the Marvel United Universe.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I've been playing plenty of times with you guys, but I haven't really been into it.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: The world has really opened up here with this multiverse.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: So many villains to take out.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: No, I always feel like that, like I feel like it's such a production.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: It like takes me a while to work up the courage to start and I'm like, oh, this wasn't as complicated as I thought it is well, you need to get your little setup in the corner.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Just tell Mary you need a separate room just for painting, and then you can have your desk with the fancy lights and the big magnifying glass, the little pull-out drawers with all your different colors.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Mary will love that she will.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: What is our purpose here.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: This is our vision.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: Mission statement.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: I need one of the elements of this formation oh my god, until you're in leader school, all right, yeah if it's if you.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: We want to go public.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: We want to be visual, not just audio I think what we offer in terms of our look is pretty appealing to the fan of actually dropping the audio and just doing strictly video interpretations of just video.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: See if that's our goal is to revolutionize podcasting.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: It could be just video no audio.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: I think that's a pretty steep uphill climb yes, it is, of course, but if the goal is to make sure I'm getting to talk to my best friends about some of the best things that we do, that that's a good.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: I think that's a good purpose.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Like just we're just here to talk about board games, like we're not trying to get millions of views on this thing.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Are you guys trying?
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: to become influencers.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Are you trying to become influencers?
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Be honest with me.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: I don't think.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Listen, I would not say it is.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Listen, I would not say it is Granted.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: This is naivety because we haven't done anything yet, but it is a pretty small sphere of influence in the board game world.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: So like, if you're consistent and you put out like decent stuff, like you can, people might listen to it.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: I also feel like most of the uh board game podcasts that are out there are like here is our like.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: They're like reading through a script, basically, and it seems all very structured, which I think appeals to a lot of board gamer brains.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: It's like reading through a manual board game basically the game, yes, yeah.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: And then their game descriptions or their rules descriptions are way too in-depth and religious.
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: So at the start of the game every player gets three cards and then you get two chits and you can put the chits on the cards and I really like when the chits come to.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Tell me more about the chits.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: I feel like you're the best one that knows the most about our audience, because you're the one who's watching YouTube videos in the shower, next board game ready.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: You know you you're really really like an expert in the field, and so, um, yeah, what is our audience?
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: looking for.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, it depends, I think, a lot of people that are new to the board game scene.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: They they want to hear about games.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: When I first started out I was like, tell me the best games to buy if I like Pandemic, and I would listen to a list about oh, if you like Pandemic, then you should try out this other co-op game.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: That's kind of like Pandemic in a different way, and so I would listen to those type of things to get ideas about games to play.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: But now I kind of like hearing more about, like you know, experiences and things like that and those things you gotta.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: You gotta have the what the game is like compared to, but you also you want to have the experience with what's so fun about it.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, how's it make you feel?
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: I got a lot of feelings, you know.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I got like the topics, like some of the ones we put in there, like the one I talked about today, like how'd you get started in this crap?
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Like how'd you figure out that you like playing board games?
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: Has anything hit the table for you, Jared big man?
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Well, recently it was my birthday.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Thanks for the birthday messages.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Happy birthday, I did get spots for my birthday and I also have a mouse pad and I have a little toddler, Uh oh, a Gemma attack.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: What's up, adrie?
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so for those that might be listening, when he refers to a mouse pad, he's talking about one of those game mats you know makes picking up cards easier.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: It was like a mouse pad.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: No, nobody else calls them mouse pads.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: Jared, you got a game mat.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, travis didn't even know what he was talking about you get your sausage fingers underneath there.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: It's like when you get a card on a hard table with these ham.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Trust me, I know what you're talking about.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Now I'm digging.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I tried to bring mine with me to Germany and it didn't make the trip.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: It ended up in storage or something.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: So I just bought another one, a bigger one, so I just need another game table.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: To get back then we crushed a dual game table game night.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Was that last night?
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: No, friday night we had a big group in here, had the one table downstairs, had to move the couch around, set another game table up and I was thinking I really don't love that.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: I don't have a mouse pad for that other table.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: So what did you guys play?
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: So you know it was a stressful event, put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure that the attendees got what they needed out of it.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: So you know the grooming of new board gamers is always a tricky situation.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: So we started off with playing Poison by Rainer Canizia, a little card game trying not to take cards.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Had a lot of fun with that one.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: And then at the other table we played Parade, which is a new one I got where it's another game where you're trying not to take cards, alice in Wonderland themed kind of convoluted how you do it, but you pick it up pretty quick and I think those both went over pretty well.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: And then for the main course, we dished out some Quest for Eldorado on one table and on the other table some Quacks of Quedlinburg, and I think we left people satisfied, yeah and so, yeah, it was quite the.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: It was a shindig, but I feel like it went smoothly nice.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I have been trying to teach some very non-gamer people some games right recently.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Um, we have a couple of people that I work with on staff that they are board game curious but don't have never really played anything besides Catan Monopoly, that type of stuff, starting them off pretty slow.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Played a lot of party games.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Played some spots they like spots that was a hit.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: Played some Dice Miner that was a hit.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: What else?
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: did we write?
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: You're speaking Jared's language over there.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Am I just categorized as a party gamer?
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Wow?
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: No Spot, those aren't party games.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, I taught them some Lost Cities, roll and Write.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: They liked that one.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: That was a hit, okay.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: And then I just let my friend check out from our, my library of games, uh, basically every two-player game that I own.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: So he took, um, oh yeah, yeah, he took marvel united, the base set.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: He took, uh, the star wars card deck building game.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: He's nice game, nice man.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: All sorts of other two-player games, but the one that we did get played recently was Beer and Bread Clay, you showed me that one.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I got that one.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty cool.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Have you played that, jared?
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Don't know what you're talking about.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: So Beer and Bread is a set collection resource management game where you play with cards.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: You have a hand at the beginning of the round and every round alternates between a bountiful year and a famine year or a dry year, and so on bountiful years you are switching hands back and forth to collect resources to brew beer and bake bread, forth to collect resources to brew beer and bake bread.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: And then when you move to the dry years, for the famine years, there's less resources available and you stick with your own hands.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: So you got to be a little more strategic about what carbs that you're playing and how you build up that engine that round.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: And then at the end of the game you score your lowest amount of points between beer and bread.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: So you have to keep them moving both at a steady pace.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: You can't just focus solely on your beers Bread's going to get.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to kind of balance the two of them.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: It's pretty interesting.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think it seems like something you would like, Jared, you know.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: It's very Euro-y.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: It is a bit Euro-y.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of what we've got going on in the old board game arena the Stilled, the Stilled yeah.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: You like that huh, I should have maybe learned a little bit more about the game before I asked that you guys play, but I'm a little lost.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: That's a fun one.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: We actually played that.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: We had another couple over two weekends ago and we played that in person.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: It's just a fun little game getting your cards.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: I like where you shuffle the deck together after you put all the ingredients in.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Then you have to pull Ingredient off the top and then green off the bottom and then what's left is what you ended up brewing or distilling.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: I mean beer on the mind.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: But and I think that's pretty cool I don't like.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: I taste are evolving and I like a little more Randomness in my games and I used to think I liked.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: I like that excitement of the draw.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: Well, you can still brute force it and try to eliminate some of that guesswork, right?
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you can add some more of the fruit sugars and you'll get what you need.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: You can mitigate that luck and that's what's cool about it.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I will say that it did.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: It did take longer than I had hoped.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: When we played it the other night between teaching and new people and then, you know, just like socially having a good time, we had some whiskey, you know we were playing distilled, so Mary got a little chatty and it wasn't just Mary, but it ended up taking like three and a half hours.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: For what is?
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: It's a lighter game, like it's not a crazy feast for Odin or anything where you're, you know, doing all this epic stuff.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: You kind of just do the same thing over and over again.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: For three and a half hours was a bit long for what it is, but Mary and I play it just two player.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: We play it in like an hour and it's a lot of fun.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: So what you're saying is this game is going to take us the next six months on board game arena well depends how quickly we get our turns.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Well, do we want to get into our feature title?
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: hey, Travis, that was a good little bit you did about beer and bread.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: You did a good little.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: That was like a real life board game episode.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: Talk right there.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: You know I've heard many podcasts and you were like.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: You laid it out just like they would in any of the classics.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: You can't just show up and say, boy, I played this game, it was okay, it was good, this game is bad.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: So, Clay, the way you just talked, it feels like you don't want that to be on the podcast.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: No, I don't mind it, I just don't think no, no no, Like you talking about him being good at talking about it, I think you should keep the banter the little like attaboys and stuff you know.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, after our outro music.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: That's when you put the little stinger at the back end inside the episode.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: That's for Patreons only.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Do we want to get into our feature topic?
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: Hold on.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: I got more to say.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: Oh, please Continue on what's on my mind?
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: The game night was good.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: Did you have any follow-up questions on Anything about that?
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Was there any games that you played all together?
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: No, listen, I don't have Two people, two tables.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, which was hard without you guys, because in the past one of you two has been around and I could trust you two to facilitate a board game for the masses.
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: So I tried to lean on Mary and Spanky.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Neither one of them really rose to the occasion, so I ended up having to teach both tables back and forth.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: I did my best.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: You know I prefer to try and play a game with 10 players, because I've tried it.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: There's very few games in my arsenal that can support that and be fun.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: Maybe that's just my own taste, but I've found every time I've tried to like get a big group together and all play one game, it just goes off the rails yeah, outside of social production it's hard to manage 10 players all at once didn't you play?
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: play some kind of tournament style recently too, which is not two tables going at the same time.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: It's just like you rotate people in.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, last weekend we had a Castles of Burgundy tournament between the Spanglers, the Olives and the Gables, and so with the new special edition there's like a team mode and so there's like this big mat and you both work together and the only real difference is that you share your goods, you share your silver and you have a shared tile storage spot in the middle.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: So you each have two tiles they're your own, two tiles that you can share and then you can place your tiles anywhere on the board.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: So we did like a little round robin started off bright and early gables versusives Gables took that one big victory that goes over two hours.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: So then the Olives and Spanglers knocked the game out in another two hours, broke for dinner, then we came back with a Gables Spangler blood feud.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: I think people's patience for Castles of Burgundy had waned towards the end of that day, mine included.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: Like I love that game, but when you're doing it for that long it you know he started.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: I stopped cooperating with mary about what I was doing.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: You know we were working together, but I was just placing my tiles and she would ask me like, hey, what do you?
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: What should we try and fill?
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: I was like just do it, I don't, I don't care, place it somewhere, but yeah okay, you lost, so you lost your momentum a little bit lost a little bit of momentum.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: I think you know also another case where maybe a couple too many voodoo rangers were consumed.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Um, towards the later, towards the later games.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: That kind of made it start taking longer than it needed to I feel like a game like that, like especially the special edition castles of burgundy, it's a little unwieldy to like reset up every time.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: I found that even like digging into those bags for the, for the as much as I love those little clicky clacky plastic tokens, like the little, the resources, the villages, whatever it's like a little overwhelming to put all those back and then reset them up Even between rounds.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: I found like putting the little tiles out was too much.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: It's daunting, it's daunting.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I think I've gotten too used to BGA that just like does, does it in half a second and then you're on to the next round.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: That's one game where I think BGA has kind of ruined the in-person formula a little bit, because between all the scorekeeping you have to do, like every time you play Satalia you're like shoot, okay, that's a cow.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: Now I have seven cows in that pasture.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: I closed the pasture, now I've got to do another 10 points oh how many.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: And PGA just streamlines it all so nicely.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: I still love that game.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: That's great.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: Sorry for derailing our flow of consciousness.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: All good, I wanted to hear it and I didn't even have anything to say.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: Jared's the one that reminded me.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just like frothing a little bit.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: What's the next little layer?
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: We need contact.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: You're like an onion we gotta fill the hour.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: I need a lot of prodding because I'm not a good talker, which probably doesn't bode well for our podcasting journey.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: What?
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: you.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: I said what you lack in you know your words, you make up for in your visuals.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Your visuals are very astute.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: You like what?
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: you see over here.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I love what I'm seeing I'm a big fan he's trying to flex on me with all the Marvel United stuff.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah he's got a perfect background.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: He's got the hat on backwards, the root shirt.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I'm sitting here with a bunch of dogs on my shirt.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Not a good look, not a good feel.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: I feel good about it.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Look good, feel good.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tell me about how you got into board gaming.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: Take us back to growing up.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Did you play games with your family?
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: What's that like as young jared?
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: oh, as a young, uh mormon boy, yes, you gotta play the game of life, you gotta play uh monopoly.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: You know, I I would have um, really in-depth battles with my brother, just the basic games.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: You know, like I said, life Monopoly, rumacube every now and then, you know, I wasn't really passionate about it.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Pass the Pigs was another good game from my childhood.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: Yo, I love Pass the Pigs, but it was really like, yeah, when I moved to Colorado and it was like how am?
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: When I moved to Colorado and it was like how am I going to hang out with Clay more?
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Well, I better be into these board games.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: So I mean, what was the first big boy game that I really got into?
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: I still love it.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: I still have multiple games going at all hours of the day.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: It was Arnak.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Right, it's touched me to my core.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: So I mean, that's how I really got into the board game.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: And would I ever watch a youtube on how to play a game?
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Absolutely not, until I met clayton.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: You don't even think back before colorado, when you guys were in DC and we were in Ohio.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: We came to visit that one time.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: I think we played some.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: You were already starting to get into the board game a little bit.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was dipping my toes in the water back then.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: I don't remember what game we played.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: I guarantee you Was it a zoo.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: I feel like we were on a circular table and there was a lot of little tiles which could have been a Zool.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah it was probably a Zool that was like one of the first ones that we started whipping out in front of people all the time.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: And you know, good combo, you and Mare, you know, and when you went to Korea you kept it up, you kept the love going a little bit.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was actually like a year ago in korea, around my birthday, we got arnak out and I, you know, was playing with some my fellow squaddies.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: We were just in the in the um squadron bar enjoying us a good, good battle, arnak.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: And then I slowly just kept buying games and getting them sent to me.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: And then I just have this reusable bag full of games and every time there was some reason that the bar was open, I just grabbed my bag of games, walked down the stairs it was not even a quarter of a mile to the squadron bar and to get out the games, you know, we would have just one.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: I didn't have that.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: So, clover, I wish I had that.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: So, clover, I did get dune, got dune out there.
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: Lots of Okay, but what do the troops really like?
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Dune Imperium, what?
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: doing the troops really like doing imperial?
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: What are the troops really?
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: like the troops love some beans, some bonanza bonanza to be exact.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, they loved it.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: They were all over.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: There was one time, actually a couple weeks ago I was, I was um back the States and they were still in Korea.
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: They called me and it was like 5 am and of course I'm awake because Jim is awake.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: They called me because they wanted to know a certain rules question about Bonanza.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: And there they are all drunk at the squadron bar and they're asking me Big D3, what do you do between rounds?
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: And I just had to set them straight.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: So, anyways, thanks.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: That's how I got in the board game all right.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: So what was the?
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: That's like a tough transition to go from.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: I was spoon feeding you games for a long time, trying to get you into this weird hobby, and then you kind of had to take that on, do it with these other people, was that?
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: How was that?
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: it's uh, it's definitely difficult.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Um, I have already become a bit of a game.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: I've been trying to up my game master skills.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: Like I said, I got my mouse pad.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: Um, I did have some people come over, was it two weeks ago?
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Two weeks ago, some of the guys from kunsan they're they're local doing some training did um, protect your cover, your assets and um, and I sent you the picture of freaking Camel Up.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: They lost their mind.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: But you have to facilitate the environment for healthy gameplay, happy gameplay.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: You want your friends to come back right, you want to have a good experience.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: So I am definitely getting those vibes.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Maybe send out a YouTube video if we want to get into something big.
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, make them come correct, jared, but the thing is you don't really need to have too much skill about hosting.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: It can come natural.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: But also, it's just the game.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: Just get the game out, Put it on the table.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Let the game speak for itself.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: I can see, I can see, but there is a little bit of game to chip into.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: Oh hey, you got to get your spreadsheets out.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: You got to know what time you're doing what, when those are very important.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you, you're at the high end of board gameplay?
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Yes, 100%.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: I don't think it's just a personality thing.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: Like you can handle the little more of a loosey-goosey flow of things and I'm very anal about how I think things should be going.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: And the base level of knowledge that people show up with like.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Here's these seven YouTube videos that you must watch before stepping foot through this door.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: Come right here.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: Okay, well, that's not necessarily true, but I do.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: I have had and I don't know.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: I've been doing trying to get people like board games for probably seven years now, and I've failed so many times.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: I've had so many bad experiences where I like I didn't have fun.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: That was horrible.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: How can I make sure this never happens again?
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: And so that has created a level of anxiety that drives my like, okay, I need to know how many people are playing, what game it's going to be, and that's the only way I'm stepping up to the plate anymore, because I can't sleep at night if I think I created a bad game night.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Such anxiety.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: This could, could also we could call, uh, you know, board game therapy.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: This could also be, you know, it could be the name of this, was it?
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: it was in the hat I know, I said put it in the hat, yeah clay, why don't you tell?
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: us how you got into board gaming.
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: He's um, yeah, so growing up I wasn't mormon but I did play games, um, and at my dad's house we always played my stepmom really liked like party games like oh man, what did we always play?
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: Loaded questions.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: And I loved playing loaded questions, like because you just get these crazy moments people saying things, getting to know each other, like a very social environment, and I love that.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: Then on the other side, like on my mom's side of the family, they were like big card game players, you know spades, hearts and I remember always like seeing the grown-ups sitting at the table after dinner and they would be playing cards and I'd be like sitting there looking and asking to play and they'd be like no, get out of here, little kid.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: And then eventually I crested the milestone where I was allowed to start playing these games and I looked forward to it so much.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: Like every time we would go on vacation or somewhere and I knew we were going to start like play card games or party games or whatever.
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: That was like the highlight of the trip for me, like sitting down around the table and playing games after dinner.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: So I always liked it and didn't really know there was much else besides party games and card games until I was working night shift and somebody busted out Settlers of Catan you know, we're passing the time, we take turns trading sheep and I was like, what is this Like?
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: This is a, the games are like this.
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: And they're like oh yeah, there's tons of them out there.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: And so, of course, I bought Catan and then I started playing Catan.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: And then, you know, started going down the rabbit hole of YouTube and top 100 videos and just started buying everything because it was so exciting to see what games were out there and what type of experiences they gave you.
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: And it started out with just like me and Mary playing Azul at the table.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: And then I'd be like, hey, I saw a YouTube video that Sythe is really good.
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: And the next thing, you know, I'm pulling out scythe in front of mary and she's like what in the hell are you doing?
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: I didn't know any better.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: I was just like someone said this is a good game and I didn't really comprehend, like there's different audiences for different games.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: But and then, you know, just starting to get once.
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: I moved to colorado, got a little game group together, started with mike and hannah, you know, just starting to get.
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: Once I moved to Colorado, got a little game group together so I was Mike and Hannah and I love just going to the game store and trying to think like all right, what's going to be a great game that they're going to like, and I would just keep going and keep trying new things.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: And then, as I found out, travis was a gamer and Jared came.
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: I was like I bet he would like playing games and just expanded.
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: And Jared came.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: I was like I bet he would like playing games and it just expanded.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: And every new person gave me a new chance to try out games with him and see what I like.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: And I'm kind of in a steady state now where I feel like I'm kind of peaked.
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: I don't know where to go from here.
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: Honestly, that's why we're talking into a microphone about board games, because I mean, I've exhausted all of the resources of pouring my passion into this hobby.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: It's the only natural next permutation.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you kind of have a bit of a like.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: it's a thing that you do in your life.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: You get really into something, and I think this is the next thing you're going to get really into is podcasting.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Creating the podcast.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: You've had different ebbs and flows throughout your life, but this could be the next obsession for Clayton.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: When are we hopping on?
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: I guarantee it's going to be a thing.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: I don't know, we'll see.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: I've never much been a good public speaker.
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: I love podcasts.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: I bet you.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: After a couple of rounds of this, it just becomes a little more natural.
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about?
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: This is as natural as it gets.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: I feel like we're really going to grow into this.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: I could be naked right now.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: I'm so comfortable.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: I really got to grow into this.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: I could be naked right now.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: I'm so comfortable.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: I get that from you and it's making me feel very comfortable as well.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: I'm a very weak person.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: I like to be in comfort, so if I'm not in comfort, I'm not doing it.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying oh whatever.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: And Claire, I don't think you've peaked, I think you've just hit your next inflection point.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Wow, whoa, you're just changing.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: You're not.
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: You haven't peaked, you're just changing people are going to comment on this podcast and be like.
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: I really like those two guys, but that one with the shirt and the backward hat, he's kind of awkward.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: I am awkward.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: What people we are talking into the void.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Right now, there's no people.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: This is going to be huge.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: Hey, travis, what's your life?
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: Like Board games.
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: Where'd they come in so?
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: growing up we had the typical Mattelbro board games.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: We played monopoly and sorry, and all that stuff.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Um, and then I took a pretty significant break.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: I think I've always been more of a video gamer than a board gamer per se.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Uh, grew up rocking my nintendo 64, my game boys and all that stuff.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Uh, maybe around 2010 I was traveling a lot with track and um.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: During the season, people were really into this little game called settlers of katan, and so people got into katan.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: You can't get away from it I know it's the great equalizer, but yeah, if we're going based on games that we had played our entire lives, let's say we ranked our top five games based on the number of games that we have played.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Um, number one with a bullet is probably yahtzee, because my parents play nothing but yahtzee.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: I have tried so hard over the past couple years to get them into very simple games and they don't want anything to do with it if it's not yahtzee, like any.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Like I've tried to incorporate dice rolling.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Like I tried to get them to play um can't stop, and they're like does not jive with them because it's not yahtzee, they do not understand it, don't get it, don't want it.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Like back to yahtzee, they're just so comfortable about king of tokyo.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Uh, nope, nope, even though it's basically yeah, it's just yahtzee it's basically yahtzee.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, uh.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: So I grew up playing yahtzee and some beach games like Pass the Pigs and Boggle and stuff like that.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Come on, beach games, beach games.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Well, I grew up in California I don't remember that category on Beachy Juice.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: Beach games.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, pass the Pigs, boggle.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: You know stuff that can be packed.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: It fits in the beach bag.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, the old beach bag you guys stipulated with I grew up Mormon or I did not grow up Mormon.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: For me, it's beach games or not beach games.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, we played a lot of beach games, stuff that's easily packable and light, stuff that you can basically play without thinking too hard.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: And then, yeah, 2010, got into Settlers of Catan while traveling on track trips and stuff.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: And then I showed up at first base and one of the guys I'm working with mechanical engineer type he's like, hey, have you ever heard of this game, settlers of Catan, iana?
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: I said, yeah, I've played it.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: And uh, that was not impressive to him at all.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: And he goes, okay, like play some settlers of katana, like you ever heard of hero scape.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: And I was like, yes, a little bit.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: And he's like, yeah, I got this huge set at home and so he invites me over and I walk into.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: He's got this whole sun room that.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: He's got this big table laid out and, uh, he had like built a map.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Have you guys ever played hero scape?
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: No, is a tactical skirmish game where you're moving little heroes around that all have individual abilities and attacks and movement and stuff like that and you are just trying to eliminate the other team and every hero is different.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: You build your own maps with these little hex tiles.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: There's elevation and line of sight and all this other stuff.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: It's basically like a miniature skirmish game, but with like plastic.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Is it like Warhammer?
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like Warhammer, but with like plastic toys.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: They're like more toyetic.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: So you move these little characters around and you fight each other.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Pretty fun, um, and then what else did he show me?
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Oh, we played a lot of, uh, small world in those days.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, love me some small world.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: Um, played some super Dungeon Explorer.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Have you ever played that?
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: No, super Dungeon Explorer man, that was pretty generic man.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: It's called Super Dungeon Explorer and one player controls the heroes and the other one controls the villains and the villains are trying to stop the hero from getting in and stealing treasure and stuff like that.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: I haven't played it in a long time, but it's kind of an interesting asymmetric game.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: I can see Clay Googling this game right now.
• 43:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this mic is kind of getting in the way of my keyboard though.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: One of the first games that I actually invested in was Mage Knight.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: I distinctly remember, uh, mage knight.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: I distinctly remember inviting people over to play mage knight, and that was before.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: That was before the days of, like, youtube, university to learn games.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: And, uh, we sat there for probably two and a half hours just trying to decipher the rule book, oh yeah, and, needless to say, we did not get it played that evening.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: But, um, yeah, it took me a long time to finally like that was like my, my mount, everest game and it sat on in my closet for years before I finally decided to pull it out and conquer it.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: And on deployments, we played lots of party games played, uh, boss monster got introduced to boss monster.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: Played some munchkin.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Played a game called space team.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: That's basically like a leadership development game, but it's actually pretty fun.
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: Um, oh yeah, you shout and yes, a bunch of crazy stuff.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so everybody's yeah, like a malfunction deck that's face down in front of them, yeah, yeah, hand of equipment cards.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: And then you're flipping these malfunctions and or anomalies in front of you and it just causes mayhem because everyone's trying to solve this puzzle, to put the spaceship back together at the same time.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: And if I need a card, like, let's say, it's got a picture of this piece that I need and it doesn't have the name of the piece that I need, I'm shouting across the table like I need this piece that looks like a snail and it doesn't have the name of the piece that I need.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: I'm shouting across the table like I need this piece that looks like a snail and it's pink and purple.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: I think you have it and people are all shouting over the top of each other.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: But like, let's say, clay has it across the table from me.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: He can't hand me the card directly.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: He's got to pass it to the next person, to the next person, to the next person, to me, and then all while that's going on, you might flip an anomaly that causes you to do weird things like trade hands with another player, or you can't talk until somebody says your name a couple times, or one is like you're sucked into the vacuum of space and you just like have to start drifting away from the table until somebody like grabs you and pulls you back.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Um, there's one called Floor is Lava and you have to play the rest of the game without touching the floor, stuff like that.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: So we played a lot of party games.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: Have we played that one at your place?
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you've played it.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: Mary really likes it.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: It's a good game.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: It seems like a leadership, team-building type thing, but it's actually pretty fun, especially as you get big groups together.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: So it was pretty welcome.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: When I showed up to Colorado and I was teaching with Clay, he's like oh, we played some board games this weekend.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: I was like what board games do you play?
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: He's like probably nothing that you heard of.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: I don't even remember what it was it was Dune Imperium I think oh yeah.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: And he said, oh, it's Dune Imperium.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: And I was like you've never heard of it.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: He's like, oh, yes, I have.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: And he's like, do you know board games?
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: I said yep.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: And he's like, did we just become best friends?
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the rest is history.
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: And yeah, the rest is history.
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: It's always a little song and dance.
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: When you meet somebody that says they play board games, you're just like okay, like are you really about that life?
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I remember vividly when you came to the athletic department and you had, like your little welcome email.
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: I was like hi, I'm travis, and or you know, they put out introducing you to the rest of the department and it was like here's travis, he likes to do this, that and the other thing.
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: And I saw board games.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: I was like I don't know, maybe I'll, maybe I'll see what this guy's about yeah, uh, it's kind of daunting putting something like that that goes to hundreds of people that you don't know, um, but like a real nerd, yes, and people probably still judge me for that welcome email six years ago.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: But here we are.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: I'm loud and proud about it now.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll do an episode on how to reveal to people that you're a nerd.
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: It is in the hopper.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: It's in the hopper.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: People just look at me and they assume I'm super cool.
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: You think those origin stories were good.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: I think it was good.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: They're fair enough.
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: Well, we'll get used to it.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: It could inspire the next generation of gamers.
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: I.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: Think we did great.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Do we want to do one more, one more rapid-fire, like what else you've been doing besides board gaming?
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: Jared, what else have you been doing besides board gaming?
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: I've been doing a lot of reading and writing of military theory.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: It really gets me happy.
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: Oh, someone wants to hear that.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: Was these things supposed to be happy?
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: Or Whatever you want?
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: I have been Okay.
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: No, here's a good thing.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: I have been riding the bike a little bit more.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: We got a trailer.
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: I think we can count it from you, clay.
• 48:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the little tow behind Jimmy loves it.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she'll jump in there.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: I probably just need to go do that right now, actually, after I make my move on Distilled, maybe go on a now actually after I make my move on the distilled.
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: Maybe going to buy your turn, it is my turn tag on man clay, right?
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: what are you meant to?
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: Coding, working through, working through that boot camp, trying to figure out life on the other side?
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: But we just do.
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: We just finished watching Battlestar Galactica Nice For the second time.
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: I was on there a second time through and it was even better than the first.
• 48:46
  Speaker 3: That is such a good show.
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: I could start a whole other podcast about Battlestar Galactica Do you have a timeline.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: Do you have a hard date now?
• 48:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, next May, getting out, Start Skillbridge in November.
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: I yeah, next may.
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, now, start skill bridge in november.
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: I don't think we're doing a good job if we were trying to um mask our military affiliation.
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: No, but you're rapid fired travis what you've been doing.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Uh, rachel and I watched the latest season of the bear, season three.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys have seen the Bear, but it is the most stressful show in the whole world.
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: I didn't like season three as much as the other two seasons.
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: Maybe it was the birth episode.
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: I'm sure Rachel loved that.
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: Oh my God, that was stressing me out so bad.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a whole episode where Sugar goes and she goes into labor and she has no one else to call because they're all in the middle of dinner service at the new restaurant where they lock up their phones.
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: So she's stuck in traffic frantically calling everybody and then she decides to call her mom, who is like a raging alcoholic and has lots of history and beef with, has lots of history and beef with and, uh, she spends this super stressful episode that's like a whole hour long of her giving birth stuck with her alcoholic mom who is like just pestering her and trying to be helpful but like they keep pushing each other away and it's.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the whole season is really stressful, but it's a great show.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Phenomenally acted some of the best uh monologues in that show out of most tv out there.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: Um, season one jeremy allen white's therapy uh monologue is phenomenal.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: It's so good master class in giving a monologue straight to the camera.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Who's Jeremy Allen White?
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: He plays Carmi on the Bear.
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's that guy's name.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: That's that guy's name.
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: Yes, he's a good actor.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: He does this monologue where he looks right into the camera, gets like tears in his eyes and everything about his brother's suicide and it's phenomenal great show stresses me out every time.
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: Can't stop watching until next time, I'm Clay do we have to end it or just kind of like end, just kind of?
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: like the Operation Game Night podcast was created, produced and edited by me, travis Smith, and co-hosted by my good friends Clay Gable and Jared Erickson.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening and hope to see you again next week.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: I will record an outro for this first one, but I think we should at least come up with a good way to close it.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: I'm Jared and I'm Travis.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Wait, travis, you're supposed to go left.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: I'm Jared and I'm Travis and wait.
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: Travis, you're supposed to go last.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: I did go last.
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: I said it a while ago.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: You said it a while ago, and then we got to oh, you're gonna come take that snip, we're gonna have to are you?
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: are you comfortable with all this editing we're gonna have to do?
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: I mean I'll figure it out.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: It's only an hour and ten minutes not too bad.
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: You should.
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: With all this editing we're going to have to do, I mean, I'll figure it out.
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: It's only an hour and ten minutes, not too bad.
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: You should let most of it ride, you know.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: We had some good talking points in there.
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: Plus, I'm just going to stop recording All right.