x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Operation Game Night

Travis, Clay, & Jared

Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What"s hot, what"s hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!

leisure games

All Episodes

24:17

Coping With Board Game Burnout (or, Board Game Viagra)

Operation Game Night ·

2026/04/21

Your board game shelf is packed, your wishlist is growing, and somehow you feel less excited to play than ever. We’re right there with you. Clayton and Travis sit down for an honest talk about board game burnout and why tabletop gaming can quietly turn into a second job when you’re the one scheduling game night, learning rules, setting up, and teaching every time. We dig into what’s really behind the slump: big life changes, limited energy, the “shelf of shame” guilt, and the pressure to int...

en-us

18:11

Star Wars: Super Teams - A Racing Game for All Ages

Operation Game Night ·

2026/04/16

A Star Wars board game with a clear plastic window and chibi ships should not be this interesting, and yet here we are. We grabbed Star Wars: Super Teams as an impulse buy expecting a throwaway family game, then ended up genuinely enjoying how much decision making it squeezes out of a super simple ruleset. We talk through the full flow of this card driven racing game: teams and player counts, how a shared deck means you might move an opponent’s ship on your turn, and why that makes timing th...

en-us

20:41

Crits & Tricks: A Dice-Powered Trick-Taking Game With...

Operation Game Night ·

2026/04/14

A trick-taking game where your card is the suit but your die is the number sounds like a gimmick until you feel the decisions stack up fast. We’re talking Crits And Tricks from Inside Up Games, a tabletop game that pulls Dungeons & Dragons class flavor into every hand: rogues, barbarians, wizards, paladins, druids, and bards that stay trump no matter what. I’m joined by Clayton Gable, who admits he jumped into a Board Game Arena match before fully knowing what he was doing, and that becom...

en-us

18:44

Project Hail Mary And Pokopia

Operation Game Night ·

2026/04/09

A house where “no smells” are allowed sounds like a joke until you’re living it, and that’s exactly where we start. Travis is back with Clayton Gable for a freewheeling catch-up that somehow turns deodorant choices, candle toxins, and the looming reality of teenage-boy funk into a surprisingly relatable opener. Then we jump to the real headline: Project Hail Mary. Clayton just saw the movie and can’t stop thinking about it, and we dig into why it lands like the kind of sci-fi blockbuster peo...

en-us

32:27

How to Spend Your Tax Refund...On Board Games!

Operation Game Night ·

2026/04/07

A tax refund hits different when you’ve got a board game wishlist the size of a Kallax. We set a simple (and slightly irresponsible) challenge: spend an average $3,500 refund on the stuff that actually upgrades game night, not just more boxes on the shelf. What starts as a joke turns into a surprisingly practical guide to building a board game room you’ll want to live in. Clay comes in hot with premium picks: six comfy chairs to survive long sessions, Allplay Jasper shelves that look straigh...

en-us

22:33

Have Word Party Games Reached Saturation?

Operation Game Night ·

2026/04/02

A good word game doesn’t need a complicated ruleset, it needs that moment where someone explains their clue and the whole table says, “Wait, your brain went THERE?” That’s the energy we chase here, and it’s why we’re talking about AllPlay’s Alibis, a cooperative word association party game built around linking two secret words with a single clue while everyone tries to identify the one “villain” card nobody owns. We walk through the full gameplay loop: the grid of face-up words, each player ...

en-us

19:45

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - The Board Game

Operation Game Night ·

2026/03/31

Gotham does not care that you’re Batman. The city keeps boiling over, the press keeps watching, mutants keep swarming, and the clock keeps moving while you try to hold it all together with a bruised body and a shrinking margin for error. We talk through Batman: The Dark Knight Returns The Board Game with early impressions after Book One, starting with what it is at heart: a solo board game campaign that adapts Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns into a narrative survival experience. We wa...

en-us

21:07

How One Piece On Netflix Turns Weird Into Heart

Operation Game Night ·

2026/03/26

A rubber pirate chasing the “One Piece” sounds like a premise that should collapse under its own weirdness, but we can’t stop smiling while we watch it. We talk through Netflix’s live action One Piece series from the perspective of viewers who didn’t grow up on the anime or manga, and why that outsider angle actually helps. The costumes are bold, the characters are unapologetically odd, and the show asks you to suspend disbelief early so it can hit you later with genuine heart, found-family f...

en-us

22:04

Fives, Gachapon Trick, And Rebel Princess For Fans Of...

Operation Game Night ·

2026/03/24

A great trick-taking game doesn’t need a thousand rules, it needs one twist that rewires your instincts. Clay and I sit down to debrief three modern trick-taking card games and what they teach us about design, tension, and the weird joy of trying to lose on purpose. If you love classic card games but keep chasing that “one more hand” feeling, this is a tight grab bag of ideas you can steal for your next game night. We start with Fives, a clever must-follow trick taker from Taiki Shinza...

en-us

21:38

Moon Colonization is not for the faint of heart

Operation Game Night ·

2026/03/19

A board game where everything you build comes crashing down in front of your eyes is our kind of problem. Jared jumps back on the mic to talk through Moon Colony Bloodbath, the new standalone design from Donald X. Vaccarino, and why our table couldn’t stop laughing even as robots, hunger, and “paperwork” turned the moon into a meat grinder. We also catch up on why Jared’s been away and what it meant to have support during a rough stretch. We walk through the mechanisms that make this game cl...

en-us

11:59

A Quick State Of The Podcast OTF

Operation Game Night ·

2026/03/12

One host, one hotel room, and zero room for pretending everything is perfectly on schedule. Travis checks in solo to share a quick state of Operation Game Night Podcast, give a real update on where Jared’s been, and say thank you to everyone who’s still listening, commenting, and sending messages even when life slows our posting down. If you’ve wondered why the Instagram reels went quiet or whether the crew is still intact, Travis clears it up and keep it honest. After that, he pivots into p...

en-us

36:01

Dungeon Crawler Board Game Draft!

Operation Game Night ·

2026/03/10

We build two complete dungeon crawlers through a 10-round draft, weighing combat feel, map design, AI, loot, campaign arcs, and components. One becomes a two-player ant colony crawl; the other a four-player zombie lab thriller with branching paths and giant bosses. • combat systems compared and chosen • dungeon layout tradeoffs and pacing • initiative options that shape tempo • enemy AI that stays fast and clear • loot philosophy from random decks to gear slots • campaign arcs with legacy vs...

en-us

16:02

Playing Games to Strengthen Communities

Operation Game Night ·

2026/03/05

We share how a simple board game day for a good cause sparked joy, trust, and belonging, then map easy paths for giving back without making it a heavy lift. From libraries to café shelves, we outline practical ways to turn your hobby into community impact. • why showing up in their space matters • quick, social games that work across ages • easing nerves when gaming with strangers • partnering with libraries and local hubs • donation ideas for game backlogs • scaling complexity over repeat v...

en-us

42:26

Our First D&D Campaign, Part 2

Operation Game Night ·

2026/03/03

We finish our first Dungeons and Dragons campaign and unpack how four players grew from hesitant dice rollers into a confident party with distinct voices. Fantasy terms, party synergy, and a villain’s escape shaped how we think about storytelling, systems, and next steps. • choosing a dragonborn druid and finding agency through description • easing new players with passive perception and theater of the mind • comparing D&D to other TTRPGs for better genre fit • party composition benefits...

en-us

19:11

We Binge So You Don't Have To!

Operation Game Night ·

2026/02/26

We swap stories from the fence about parenting phases, shrinking free time, and how we still find room for TV, books, and games. From Stranger Things to a warmer Westeros and a clever mystery book, we share what sticks when life won’t slow down. • juggling kids’ sports with late evenings and less downtime • coping with pre‑toddler meltdowns and shifting expectations • micro‑bingeing Stranger Things and why characters keep us watching • franchise fatigue and losing momentum between long seaso...

en-us

19:52

Cozy Stickerville by Unexpected Games

Operation Game Night ·

2026/02/24

What if the most satisfying legacy campaign isn’t about winning at all, but about watching a small town come to life one sticker at a time? We dive into Cozy Stickerville from Unexpected Games and explore why this 10-session, 30-minute-per-year story-builder is winning hearts at family tables and weeknight game nights alike. With designer Corey Konieczka pivoting from space operas to small comforts, the result is a gentle, branching experience where your choices shape a shared map, not your s...

en-us

33:24

Twilight Imperium by Fantasy Flight Games (ft. Vic...

Operation Game Night ·

2026/02/12

Ten hours. Six players. One planet daring everyone to blink first. We sat down with our friend Vic Diaz from the Games EMoss podcast to unpack why Twilight Imperium turns a day-long session into a story you’ll retell for years—equal parts senate brawl, star-spanning war, and social chess. We start with the core loop that makes this galaxy tick: strategy cards that set initiative and shape your round, streamlined actions that keep turns moving, and a center gravity well—Mecatol Rex—that rewar...

en-us

15:38

3 Witches from Allplay

Operation Game Night ·

2026/02/10

A three-player card game that dares to say “only three” and actually earns it. We sat down with Three Witches from Allplay and found a lean, tense trick taker that turns familiar rules into a focused 2v1 puzzle. One player steps into the role of lead witch, laying two cards each trick—one face up to set pressure, one face down to hold power—while the two lesser witches coordinate to beat the total with carefully timed responses. The twist? Matching rank or suit lets you add values for a bigge...

en-us

23:32

Overplayed and Underplayed Board Game Themes

Operation Game Night ·

2026/02/05

Tired of yet another cozy mushroom harvest or another horde of shambling minis? We take a scalpel to today’s most overused board game themes—nature deluges, zombie burnout, Cthulhu overload, space saturation, and farm fatigue—and talk about why they once worked, why they’re stale now, and what could replace them without losing the fun. Along the way, we dig into how theme shapes mechanics, who feels welcome at the table, and which stories actually stick after the box closes. We make the case...

en-us

19:18

Hercules The 12 Labors by Envy Born Games

Operation Game Night ·

2026/02/03

The moment the Hydra spawns a second die, you realize this isn’t just another solo dice chucker. We dive into Hercules and the 12 Labors, a compact, gold-trimmed card-and-dice battler that turns Greek myth into a tight sequence of allocation puzzles, track pressure, and mood-driven twists. We unpack how the design forces smart choices: spend a die permanently to power a life-saving boon, or keep your pool healthy to meet the labor’s exacting conditions next turn. Across the journey, we chart...

en-us

128 results

Similar Podcasts

Expres Ráno

Expres FM

詭哭郎嚎

郎祖筠 & FMTaiwan製作團隊

Ron en Erik Podcast

Ron en Erik

Poor Man"s Pinball Podcast

Poor Men Ian and Drew

WeAreChange on Odysee

WeAreChange