Leisure

Operation Game Night

by Travis, Clay, & Jared

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Latest episodes

Put Your Board Games On A Diet

October 29, 2026 · 1 hr 10 min

Heavy board games are awesome. They’re also the easiest games to love in theory and never actually play. So we try something different: we put our biggest boxes and brain-burners on a diet and draft lighter replacement games that still…
A Local Game Store Gets A Second Life

October 22, 2026 · 1 hr 28 min

We go from cooperative poker boss fights to instant-teach party games, then zoom out to the real work of keeping a friendly local game store alive. CJ joins to tell the story behind Let’s Play Games and Hobbies in Hanover, Pennsylvania…
The Benevolent Board Game Dictator Method

October 15, 2026 · 1 hr 20 min

Twenty people show up for game night, dinner ends, and everyone looks at the game shelf like it’s a bomb that might go off. We’ve lived that nightmare, so we lay out a real, tested blueprint for running a big board game night with multiple…
Barn Boy Games Turns Family Play Into A Business

October 8, 2026 · 58 min

How do you turn a goofy argument like “Is a stop sign taller than an emu?” into a party game people can learn in seconds and replay for years? We sit down with Kerry and Ryan from Barn Boy Games out of Lancaster, PA to talk about their…
An OGN Reunion Debrief!

October 1, 2026 · 48 min

A board game weekend can go one of two ways: the table clicks and everyone rides the momentum, or you bog down in rules, downtime, and “maybe next time.” We just got back from a Colorado Springs hang, and we’re sharing the exact mix that…

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We Stress-Test Game Night Scenarios (ft. Tim from Board Game Hot Takes)

September 24, 2026 · 1 hr 20 min

A Golden Geek Award winner joins us, and we do what any responsible board game podcast would do: we immediately test whether he can actually host a great game night. Tim from Board Game Hot Takes stops by for a full debrief plus a…
Betting On Betting Games

September 17, 2026 · 1 hr 23 min

We had a question stuck in our heads: can you make a board game betting episode that actually feels like a bet? So we built a weird little experiment where we “bet on betting games” by turning five racing betting games into one meta race…
The Great Board Game Cull

September 10, 2026 · 1 hr 22 min

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…
Grab Bag: Testing The 8 Kinds Of Fun Against Board Games

September 3, 2026 · 1 hr 9 min

A single game store run turns into the most relatable tabletop gaming story possible: we drive out for one small box, get hit by the shopping bug, and walk out with expensive choices we absolutely did not need. Then we put one of them on…
Our Current Top 10 Board Games

August 27, 2026 · 1 hr 17 min

We celebrate two years of Operation Game Night by ranking our current top 10 board games and owning the messy reality behind how those lists actually get made. We also debrief what hit the table this week, then zoom out on why table time…
2 Years of Operation Game Night: Our Favorite Episodes & What We're Playing Now

August 20, 2026 · 1 hr 32 min

Two years, 130+ episodes, and more games than we can count — and we're celebrating with a full roundtable. Amanda Lee (emptynestboardmama) and Mike (TheMeepleThatLoses) join us to look back at the episodes that defined Operation Game…
Peter C. Hayward & Baba Is You Board Game Design

August 13, 2026 · 1 hr 35 min

We trade stories about the small games that save a night, from bluffing chaos at a wrestling convention to real-time trading frenzies that only work with the right group. Peter C. Hayward joins us to get honest about what makes a design…

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About the show

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!