Hey guys, and welcome to episode 149 of Maple to Maple.
This is number six in our content creator community
series. So let me ask you a question.
Have you ever scrolled Instagram and seen a board game photograph
or a video reel and you were like, OK, I need to play that.
So that's the kind of magic that my guest creates.
I am so fortunate enough that I get to chat with Iris, who is
known as Crimson Board Games, on all the social media, who's
joining me all the way from the Netherlands.
If you've never seen her feed, then you would know that she
puts stunning photographs and creative reels that somehow
excites your imagination. She excites mine.
We're going to talk about how she got started, what goes into
her content, how you know what's the community like, what she
sees the community going forward and the board game scene where
she lives. Iris, thanks for joining me.
How are you I'm. Good.
Thank you so much for inviting me.
I feel honoured. That is kind of you.
I appreciate it and I'm really grateful that you take some time
to chat with me about this amazing community that we're a
part of. Very excited.
Yeah. So let me ask you the first
question. What was the first board game
you ever played as a child as? A child.
Yes. That's such a long time ago.
I think mostly I think it's called.
Sorry, is that the American version?
It's different in Dutch, yes, but I think it's the same game.
Tell me about it and I'll tell you if that's the right game.
Game. It's a completely different
game. It's so it's just dice rolling
and moving like a little Maple, I guess.
Yeah. And you just.
And you have four of the same color.
Yeah. And you try to get them all
around the board into like a place.
Yes. And everybody tries to do the
same thing and you're just, you're, you're knocking each
other off the board. Right.
So you can land your piece lands on mine and you can send mine
back to its start position, Yes. So that is in fact sorry, yes.
Wow, I'm so glad I knew that on the top of my head.
So, in the interest of diversity and linguistical coolness, what
is the name of the game in your language?
It's called men's air here you need it's very long.
Yep, long title. Yep.
And it just means like, don't get annoyed, that's what.
I don't get annoyed. It's literally you're like dude,
don't get annoyed. That's the title.
So because you're you get annoyed because people knock you
off the force. I think I would rather play a
game called Don't Get annoyed than sorry.
Sorry. Yeah, it's like you're
apologizing for knocking people off the board.
Yeah. And that's amazing.
Just don't get annoyed. Like why are you bitching?
Just like so funny, it's a. Classic.
It is a classic, right? It's a classic, yeah.
And you're absent. Continents.
Which it does, it does, and you're absolutely right that it
is so long ago. Like I guess to be fair, since
this is the 6th episode in the series, I've not told anyone
what the first game I played as a kid.
Plus it's so maybe it's maybe it's time to reveal because I'm
sitting here listening and like that is it is a long time ago.
It's really hard to figure and I think it's going to be it's
going to be 1 of two games because I don't really remember
the first one. So that I think it's Candy Land.
I played Candy Land as a kid. Everyone, everyone else did.
I think what made Candy Land stand out was your standees were
like plastic little ginger men in different colors as opposed
to just kind of like these little cardboard standees or
there was something tactile to touch.
It was either Candy Land or it was Chutes and Ladders.
Also a classic. Yeah, yeah, which we talked, I
talked with Adrian Mora in episode 146.
That was her first game. She's from Costa Rica.
Her it's called Snakes and Ladders.
I would call it snakes. That was a good episode.
I guys, y'all should go back if y'all missed it, y'all should
listen to that with this really interesting conversation about
how the games just the names change and they ever so they
just a little bit of a difference to match the culture
of the country that it was published in.
It's, I think it's what connects, it's what connects us
all right. Yeah, true.
So what about what? The very first game, the modern
board game that got you into the hobby?
Yeah, what? What game was that?
So it's also kind of I think 2:00, but I'll narrow it down to
one, OK for easy. We, we, we can get into it if we
want. I think the game that really
changed my mind about what board games could do and made me
really excited, Yeah. For the this world that I yes,
was going to explore was dead of winter.
Whoa. Yeah, 'cause.
OK it. The fact that it has characters
and kind of, I mean, it's not very story heavy at all, but it
had story elements which I had never seen before and I was just
like so excited that a game could do something like that.
I was like, what are you talking about?
This is amazing. Oh my gosh, it was so good.
I was so excited to discover that.
Interesting. That's and so that's the first
that was your first leap into the hobby.
Yeah, that's.
Why I started buying games for the first sight, yeah.
If I remember they played Dead of Winter on tabletop.
So which came first? Did you play table?
Did you play out of Winter first or did you see that episode and
then that made you play the game?
Yeah, I watched the episode and I was like, what are these
people talking about? This, this can't be real life.
And I was like, I need this. And it was like, I don't know,
it was a crazy amount of money. I don't probably like €70 or
something. Right.
See, I don't, I don't remember there was an amount of money
that I never thought a board game could be that expensive.
I was like, what are you talking about?
I mean. Little did you know little.
I know. I was like, what do you mean?
This doesn't make any sense. The world was opening to me as a
board game world. I was like, oh, OK, there's like
board games are like €200 and things.
I'm like, what do you mean? Yep, but I.
I saved up and I bought it and I was like, Oh my God, I'm so
excited. It was great.
I'll never forget it that I had it in my hands and I was like,
this is mine now. Out of winter Wow.
So have you since Have you since gotten the expansions to Detta
Winter? No, actually.
No, no. I'm.
Not an expansion person. OK.
Is that controversial in the board game community?
Probably. You know, the thing.
The thing about humans is any opinion can be controversial,
right? True.
I don't know. I don't know that.
I don't know that that's terribly controversial.
But there's someone who would be like, yeah, that's.
There's always someone. There is always someone.
There's always. Someone we're not going to
listen to those people. No, or we might right?
That's how we get better is we embrace all the opinions and all
the you know, so how about, I'm sorry, what about do you have a
favorite player color? So this is a question I get
asked cuz my name is a color Crimson board games.
That is, that is true. Well, and an iris, while a
flower, is also a color. Purple mostly in the.
Flower at least. Yep, also it's also the your eye
color which could be any color. It's true, that's true.
You know, in the grand scheme of things it means Rainbow the
name, right? So that's.
Why right. They named the iris the eye
after it. I don't know strong opinion on
that, which I find people are always a little bit offended
when that when I don't have strong opinion about player
color and I'm always like, well, I just, that doesn't matter to
me. Right, that's true.
But I do if I have a choice. They usually like colors that
aren't in the game, like white. OK, Gray, Gray like.
Muted colors. OK.
Sometimes pink. I love a pink.
Pink is good, pink is good not. Really which?
Interesting. Stupid, now I do.
OK, I enjoy all the colors. So we're gonna come back to
that. OK, great.
Just saying we're gonna come back to that.
I'm excited. I've got questions about that,
but so it's really interesting. I play Murano today, my wife and
I played and there is both Gray and white.
So the player colors are Gray, white, brown and orange.
Perfect, sounds like yeah game I need in my collection.
Well, it's an older game by Mayfair Game, so you may have a
difficulty finding it, but yeah, check it out.
Murano. Just only for player colors I
need it. I mean, that's cool.
I was chatting with Grant Lyons just I think it was episode 147
and he also is not attached to a player color.
We were talking about controversy and people get
really, they get hot about player color, right I'm.
Like what do you mean? Yep, doesn't matter.
And I have a favorite, right? I mean, everyone knows my
favorite's purple, that is, that is my player color.
But I also have, like, backups. Yeah, I have.
It's if it's not purple, it's yellow or gold.
If it's not gold, it's green. If it's not that, it's whatever
you put in front of me. So yeah, there you go.
But Grant was talking about how he, too, doesn't have a player
color preference. And he made a really interesting
point by not having a player color preference.
He's not interrupted. His gameplay is not interrupted.
Because what if you don't get? What if you have a favorite
player color and you don't get it and then you right, right,
that's. A good.
Point So you're playing a game you normally play blue and
you're that's a nod to our friend in the UK always plays
blue, right? So you play blue, but you're not
playing blue in this game and but someone else has it.
So you're planning your strategy around the blue?
Yeah. So maybe, maybe we should just.
It's all. Yeah.
Tactics that I, yeah, that aren't there, but I can pretend
that that is why. It's, it's funny and this is me
overanalyzing because that's what I do.
We, we talk about in this community, we talk about
diversity and how much we want to embrace diversity.
But when it comes to player color, we're not diverse.
We're like. I'm going yeah, so and it's
always the same four colors, right?
Although that seems to be changing.
Yeah. I think, I think to to make
board games more accessible for colorblind or other other visual
impairments. We're starting to see different
different colors so that they're not similar.
Yes. I don't know how how that works
out and but there's a lot of thought going into it.
I want to talk about, I want to, I'm going to give you a little
bit of trivia. I want to talk about your name.
So in New Orleans, LA, where I'm originally from.
Wonderful. Yes, so starting what you should
it's amazing, but make sure that you tell me so that I can go and
be your guide because that's the way to do it.
So yes, so in in New Orleans starting on January 6th is
Carnival season which culminates on fat Tuesday Mardi Gras nice.
This Saturday before Mardi Gras, there is the oldest all female
parading crew, and that's the crew of Iris.
Wow. Yes, right.
Which is which is why, yeah. So they started in 1917 and they
have paraded since 1917 with a few exceptions.
World War Two, there were no parades, 1979.
There was a police strike. There were no parades 2000.
But, but otherwise, yeah. So I was just thinking about
that as like the crew of Iris is the oldest all female parading
crew during Carnival in New Orleans.
So you make sure you have to go and then you know, that'll be
great. It's also how I knew.
It's also I knew how Iris means rainbow because great, there's
all the connections it is and it's the Greek you.
Studied it maybe? The Greek goddess, Yes, Iris.
So yeah, all the crew, all the different crews.
These are like social pleasure clubs in New Orleans.
They have a parade and then they have a usually a private,
sometimes public ball. And so they're all named after
ancient gods or goddesses, mostly Greek and Roman.
There are a few Egyptian or there's a couple that are
Mesopotamian as well. But yeah, so you see, you will
be embraced in New Orleans. I can't right to visit.
Yeah, and embrace. Embrace the diversity of color.
Bam. And it's always in October, the
Mardi Gras. No Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras is so it's interesting how Mardi Gras
falls. It's based upon when Easter
Sunday falls. OK.
It can be as early as the 5th of February.
It can be as late as the 11th of March.
I. See.
Yes, but it starts on January 6th every year, right?
Because January 6th is known as 12th night because it's the 12th
night of Christmas where it's Christmas.
Yeah, the King's the King's day. Which is why in New Orleans we
serve king cake all throughout Carnival.
Yeah. And instead of a bean baked in
the cake, yeah, like the tradition in France and Western
Europe, they have a little plastic baby that represents
baby Jesus that they bake into the cake.
And if you go to a party and you get a king cake and you you get
a slice that has the baby in it, you are you're responsible for
buying the next king cake and hosting the next king cake
party. Yes.
Wow, you don't want the baby. You don't.
No, you do. You totally want the baby.
Yes, the host. Of course you do.
That's. Too much effort.
Look in in New Orleans, if you buy a king cake, that's all you
have to do. They will come.
People will just. That's amazing.
That's right. That's so interesting.
So like your namesake, the rainbow, we will embrace the
diversity of all colors and put aside our preference for player
color, right? That's the lesson to be learned.
So let me ask you, I promised I was going to come back to this.
I, like everyone else, probably assume that your favorite player
color was red or some shade of red because you're because of
your, your handle is Crimson board games.
So talk to me about talk to me about why you chose that as your
your username. There's got to be some story
behind it. It is a story.
It's boring though. Yeah, but I want to hear it.
It's a boring, OK, I'm going to tell it OK, so it's really long
and boring, but I'm going to try to not make it too long because
nobody is going to care. Well, you've got 5 minutes, so.
That's a lot of time. OK, OK.
So it started with me as like a 15 year old wanting to be a
writer. OK.
But I wanted to write in English, so I was thinking ahead
for my future well known author self that I couldn't use my own
Dutch last name because it's not very English, it's very Dutch,
you know, So you can't really. It wasn't international enough.
OK. So I was like, I need to think
of a pen name, you know, like a, you know what I mean?
Sure. So I was really into Doctor Who
at the time. OK.
Of the TV show, yes. And there's just one episode
where they use the word Crimson and it's like such a cool.
Word. It's a cool word.
It is. And I just thought Crimson
sounded very cool. And I was like, where is
Crimson? That's going to be my name when
I write a book. And I never did, of course.
I mean, I did, but not when I was 15.
I wrote a book. I wrote a book, as every other
aspiring author probably did, when they were 15.
Yes, we did indeed do that. And it's very bad and I don't
want to look at it. I know, I know what you're
talking. Yep.
So we don't talk about that. And then I started an Instagram
for books because I love books. I love to read, I love stories
in general. So I made an account named
Crimson Books. And then I made an account for
board games. I was like, well, I guess I'll
be Crimson board games. That's the story.
No, that's very boring story. That is not boring.
That is not boring like there like there was a journey.
There were that wasn't You took me on a journey, right?
And that was exciting. I'm so glad.
That's great. You know, I think I need to ask
more people about their how they came about their their username.
Such amazing names that I wish I thought of.
Yeah, that's. True.
Very creative. Names.
That is true that you know like this, but it's hard coming up
with a name. It is so hard.
I'm so bad at it. So when see, now you've got me
thinking about this four years ago when Gareth and I were
thinking about like, at first it was just let's do a
collaboration and we decided on this podcast and it was like,
you know, and you're trying to find the identity of the podcast
and then come up with a name for it.
Man, it's I mean, it, it is, it is very difficult.
I think we came up with like 40-5 different possibilities.
Like, what are we? Oh yeah, I, you know, because
you go down rather holes. It's like you try to be silly
and then you're like, this isn't working and then you and then
you overcorrect. And we got really, really
serious. OK, here's an interesting story
about how the podcast aim would be.
Karen and I, we were talking about how because we're both the
same age, like he's like 3 weeks older than me.
So like we're pretty much, but he's in the UK and I'm in the
US. And so we grew up and we have
similar experiences. Our first board games were
similar. We got back into gaming for the
same reasons. It's that Andrew was came
together and because we're older than a lot of other members of
this community, we originally saw ourselves as like the fun
uncle, you know, you got the fun uncle who's just he's so cool
out with. So at one point we were, we were
playing with that imagery and I guess I could tell the story.
But since Garrett's gone now, but he might let me go, I'll
tell that story. We came across the word the
adjective avuncular. Avuncular is an adjective in
English to describe. The being of an uncle, like you
never want to talk about what neither did I.
You want that's a word. It's so cool.
But trying to fit that. And so then we're like, we're
going to we're going to make that work.
And it just, it didn't, it didn't work difficult.
Of a word it. Didn't work.
Yeah, so it came nonsensical. And then we realized that we
could use numbers as well, right?
And so it's like meeple to meeple rather than TO.
It's the #2 and that's and then they can somehow do some yeah,
whatever. You don't need to hear any more
of that, but there you go. Maple to Maple, it rolls off the
tongue very nicely. It does.
It does, you know, And then it lent itself really well because
he plays, he prefers blue and I prefer purple.
And so it was like, OK, we could have these two, you know,
holding hands across the ocean kind of cool, you know?
So it's just kind of exciting. So, you know, don't knock, don't
knock that story of Crimson board games.
I just think it's I think it's cool.
And thanks for taking me on that journey.
So. You're so welcome, thanks for
asking. Yeah, absolutely.
So do you have, however, this might be more difficult.
I know this might be easy. I feel like this is usually a
difficult question, but for you, you're going to be like, I'm on
it. Do you have a favorite board
game mechanic that you gravitate to?
Like you don't care what the theme is, You don't care who's
playing, but you're like, I love this.
I'm in. Yeah, well, there's I would feel
there's multiple. OK, but you can't list all of
them. You only get the pick.
There's two though. Can I do 2?
OK, you could do 2. That's fine.
There's two like main ones that are my favorite which is tile
placement. Yes, yes.
And deck building. Deck building, all right?
No one has said that yet in the community.
But tile placement I it's. So why?
Why tile placement? What do you enjoy?
I think it's a tactile aspect of it.
And the puzzle aspect, usually it's quite, it depends on the
tile placement, but usually there is a puzzle element to it,
if it's even if it's hexagons or if it's like more of the
polyomino shapes. Both of them, I love it.
And just, I don't know, it's just great.
I'm just like this like a little goblin, like at the table, like,
oh, can I put them? That's just me.
I'm just like a goblin tile placement person.
Yeah. So do you prefer tile placement
games where because they're not all equal?
Do you prefer tile placement games where the tiles physically
touch? Because there's some tile places
where they don't. I'm thinking about Nemesis is a
good example. It's sort of tile placement.
I mean, you place them at the beginning of the game and then
you flip them over as you explore, but they don't touch
each other. Yeah, no, I want them to touch.
You do OK, Yeah. And preferably in a satisfying
way because sometimes, so for example, I have a Happy Home,
which is an game, yeah, where you try to decorate your house.
And I love it. It's a great game, great title
placement game. But you have to just put them in
the room like how you would put the couch and the table.
So usually it's not touching. Right.
And it is a little bit I have to push myself to put them in the
best spot strategically for points instead of aesthetics.
And that is a challenge for me. I want.
So sure. Have you played Tenpenny Parks?
I need it in my life. I have.
Not. And I really want it.
OK, so first of all, the designer Nate Leonard is just
amazing. I got an opportunity for him to
teach my wife and I how to play it at an event that's amazing at
Gen. Con, which is really cool.
They've also got a Kickstarter right now with some expansions.
I know you're not an expansion person, but there are some
expansions coming out. I saw one that was the like
Christmas Halloween 1. There.
Yep. And I was like.
Oh well, I need that. So there are expansions that
there. Are they can tempt me, I can get
tempted. OK, so here's the thing I'm
going to warn you. Tiles don't touch.
Yes, I know they can't place them next to each.
Other no, they're supposed to be kind of like like this as
opposed to yeah. But I you know, thematically,
obviously it makes sense. It does.
Because people need to walk around.
They do. You've got to have space the.
Trees that help with that. There are the trees, Yes, yes,
absolutely. Bad.
Yes. So I should be OK, I think I can
do it. So, OK, so tile placement is 1
and I have been gracious enough to give you 2.
You said deck building. What is it about deck building
that just gets you excited? I.
Don't. I don't.
It's so hard sometimes to explain things.
I don't know. Actually, I think because I you
can go into like the TCG world, but that's which I enjoy, but
it's just too big for my brain to comprehend most of the time.
And a deck builder is just the comfort of a game in a box and
not like this world of TCG where I just get overwhelmed.
And I like the idea of everybody starting out with the same
thing. That's fair.
And I don't know, I love the combination with deck building
in a game, so obviously a very famous one is Dominion.
Neither too. Long can't say that too hard
because people are going to be mad.
That's OK. This is the.
This is the safe space, you know.
But like games where deck building like it uses deck
building to like Clank isn't very big name obviously where
it's not just a deck building, you're also exploring like this
dungeon, whichever version you're playing.
Sure. And it feels like you're using
the deck building to achieve something else, if that makes
sense. That absolutely makes sense.
I completely get that. So it sounds, it sounds to me
like you enjoy deck building as a mechanic that is paired with
other mechanics in a game as opposed to a strict deck
building game. Yeah, a la Dominion.
Yeah. I agree completely.
I find deck builders to be kind of boring.
Yeah. But I do enjoy deck building as
a mechanic with it married with others.
I think most notably I'm thinking about the Lost Ruins of
Arnak, where there there is there's deck building, but
there's also there's a placement and there's that research tree
and there's so many other things going on Arnot.
Just has everything. It really does.
How can we put every game gag in
one game almost. You know, there are, there are
some design, there are some designers who have tried.
It's multi, yeah. Cards.
Yeah, yes, I, I play tested a game at Gencon that it hasn't
been released. It's they're still in product,
They're still in a playtest format right now.
But so it's a deck of cards. It's kind of a 4X game, but it's
just a deck of cards and the cards represent the tiles that
you place. It's a, it's a space exploration
game, right. So you play you play them one
face up. And those are the years your
space exploration. But the cards are also the
resources. They're also your life in the
game. Like it was really cool because
it employed multiple mechanics but it only used one component
cards. That's very impressive.
Yes, I really, I really would love to see this game like get
made because it's so cool. Sounds very cool.
Yes. And you based on your cuz on
your Instagram you talk a lot about how you're available for
play testing, so you enjoy play. Is that something you really
enjoy? I mean, I love just trying
whatever. Right.
I mean, it does need to speak to me on some level, sure.
Obviously I need to feel like either the team, the theme of
the game or the gameplay itself or something.
But I do enjoy that, yeah. I just like working together
with other people that are excited and they're creating
something and that's just wonderful, just a wonderful
place to be. It really is.
Do you have have like a favorite game right now?
Like there's a game like this is the game that's hitting your
table with great frequency today.
Today, it's has to be Vantage. OK.
Yeah, it's the game I'm currently the most obsessed
with, I would say. Looks like a favorite game, yes.
So I'm on the fence. I'm not.
I am neither sold or not sold. Yeah.
Tell me what you love about Vantage and why I why should I
get a copy myself? Yeah, I mean, do you enjoy
playing solo? No.
OK, then don't get it.
So it's a solo game? It's not, but I would suggest I
for me the solo is excellent, right And the multiplayer is
good is fine, but nothing wrong with the multiplayer.
But but solo it shines for me OK in the solo because you're
stranded on this planet basically.
That's obviously the premise of the game and I've never in my
life played a game where I truly felt lost.
Like truly, because there's usually you know what you're
trying to achieve. Right when you're playing.
A game and you have a point, even if it's a very story driven
game or you're just going through the story.
You're going through the story with Vantage.
You're just like, well, you stranded.
Good luck, I guess. Yeah.
What are you going to do? You have nothing.
You know nothing of the planet. You don't know where to go.
You don't know what is where where you are.
Yeah. And it's just like, well figure
it out I guess that's the game. You do get a goal obviously
that's like, for example, it's find 3 animals and make them
loyal to you, or it's find 6 items of a certain type.
It gives you some sort of hand hold.
Right. To achieve.
And it's done all through cards, right?
All through. Cards as you're exploring on the
planet, right? Yeah, and it's very easy.
I mean the box is huge. The box is huge.
And heavy. Holy shit, so.
Sorry, it is. It is all the cards, but the
setup is one second because you you start with nothing.
OK, so you start with your character card and that's the
and a few tokens and that's it. And then you're just gonna and
you land on the spot on the planet and it's like, well,
that's card number 7. You're like great.
OK, card number 7. That's where I am right now.
I see ocean and I see a mountain.
What am I going to do? And it's so unique.
I've never experienced that before in my life.
And I really love just exploring.
I love exploring. Yes, it's so so in in
multiplayer, is it basically the same thing?
You're on that side of the table, I'm on this side of the
table and we're just you're playing the card in front of
you. So it's basically we're both
playing a solo game. So the multiplayer is you're all
stranded on this planet, but you all land in different spots.
Right, OK. Your own escape pod and they all
land separately from each other. So you have a little card stand,
which is very great, where you put the location card into where
you are so everybody's somewhere else.
And you can like, communicate through comms, you know, so you
can tell. Like I see a desert and there's
a crab in the desert. That's what I see.
That's like what you can tell people.
Because that's what you see. That's.
What I see OK and you can't share items or anything because
obviously but you do have the same goal.
So you all have the goal to find 3 animals together instead of
alone. OK.
If everybody has one animal and you're playing with three
people, good, right? You know, So you're working
together to achieve the goal, but you don't really play.
Together. Together you have some
interaction where so you roll a lot of dice that you place on
cards and you can place dice on other players cards to help you.
So that's kind of how the interaction goes.
OK, But it's feels more high stakes when you're on your own.
You feel like I'm about to die and I love it.
OK, I so you like, you like that tension.
That's just. Yeah, OK.
I could see that. All right, Yes.
So my wife and I, his biggest concern about Vantage was that
it was just going to be. She's sitting on one side of the
table, I'm on the other and like, I'm just doing my thing
and she's doing hers. And yes, while we're working
together, we're not. Yeah.
OK.
So. I totally feel OK that concern.
OK, that that solves that. Yeah.
So. So.
You did. Thank you.
Thank you for that. Because there are so many games.
There's so many games, so many games, and they're getting more
expensive. Yep.
Thanks, Trump. So let me ask you about the
transition. I've been asking this of
everybody on the series. You're transitioning from just
being a gamer who's posting some pictures of games to share with
people, to actually being a content creator.
Now I have noticed I came prepared that you so you started
your Instagram in 2019, which predates the pandemic, and yet
you're you're just over a year on YouTube.
YouTube was a year February of this year.
So you started in 2024. So you've been creating content
for a substantial amount of time.
You start creating reels and your reels are fantastic.
So tell me about that story of when you'd made the decision to
be more intentional about the content you were creating and
not just a gamer anymore. Yep, exactly.
Yeah, so it's true. I created the Insta quite a
while ago now and I just. I have a lot of hobbies, I love
a lot of things. Well.
So I wasn't very consistent. OK.
So it's just ups and downs and also during COVID.
So it's all thanks to COVID where I really discovered the
beauty that is so low. Board gaming.
OK, I didn't really know it was a thing until the COVID times
and I really started to dive into it mostly because of Final
Girl. OK, Yep.
So Final Girl is a pivotal game in my gamer life and just the
decisions that I made, um, because it's amazing and I
wanted to start the YouTube for a while, but it's definitely
more of a thing than just Instagram.
Yeah. You know, it's, it felt also a
little bit awkward and like people are going to watch that
and that's weird. And it takes a bit more to take
the step. From start the YouTube, Yes it
does, you are very right. So it took a while and I just
first I wanted to really try to be consistent on Instagram and
just to see how long I could keep that up before really
diving into like a YouTube channel.
And my best friend, she really motivated me.
She's the best. And she was just like, you can
do it, Just try, doesn't matter, you know, doesn't matter if it
doesn't work out or you quit, who's gonna care?
Nobody. So I was like, you're right,
we're gonna do it. And it's also thanks to like
Youtubers like Carly from Board Game Buzz and Jenna from the
Board Game Garden because they do, especially Jenna because she
does a lot of solo playthroughs, which I discovered, which then
led me to be like, wow, this is so I just love watching people
play. That's where it all started with
tabletop, which is a funny thing to think back on where it's just
me watching a video of other people playing a.
Board game. Which sounds so weird sometimes,
but it's the best. I love that so much.
So that was just it's like I can do that.
I can film myself playing solo board games.
That could be fun also because it was the content I loved to
watch the most. OK, that's why I do that the
most. That's my most of my videos are
solo play through videos. So that's kind of how I started
with a very crappy setup that fell apart every second and
cameras, you know, shutting off and you're like.
Yep. But yeah, I know all about.
Yeah, yeah, the early days of the podcast were.
Man, when I look back, I can't. It's awful, but.
Yeah. No, I have.
To start somewhere, I totally get that and grow.
So you also have a lot of reels on Instagram where it's like
you're playing two roles and you're not the only one who've
done this, but where you're talking to yourself, right?
And so who was your inspiration? If there was someone who was an
inspiration, where'd you come up with those ideas?
How do you generate your eye? Your Where do you get your
inspiration from? Where?
Do I get my inspiration? Yes.
So for reals. Because reals definitely are not
my strong suit personally. Yeah.
I'm more the long form content for YouTube's more comfortable
for me than the. Short.
Form real content, I find it more difficult.
I find that it's a talent and Carly from Board Game Buzz,
she's she's incredible. She is so good with the reels.
I'm just, I can't wait what she does.
She's so funny. She makes me laugh every time
and she's just very kind. And I just that really inspired
me to try to do more reels. But man, I suck.
I suck at that. They're horrible.
They're difficult to make, man. It's difficult.
There is a yes. It's a YouTube's much easier I
find it takes more time maybe. Really tells me.
Editing is more difficult for the reels I would say.
Absolutely. More of the.
Thought process, yes. And I don't have that, so I
don't have thoughts. Yeah.
You don't have thoughts? Not such great ones where I can
think of. You've heard it here, guys.
Iris doesn't have thoughts. I just do.
I don't think I just play games. So that's great.
I love that you are an inspiration to me.
Because I don't. I'd rather just do.
Right. Yes.
Yeah, I'm all about most of the things.
Yes, exactly. Exactly.
I love it. No, that is my thing.
I, I respect that and I respect. That the Instagram reels.
It's like 90 seconds. I talk too much for 90 seconds.
I can't do it. I'm yeah, I yap.
Way too much. It's hard to be concise.
Can't do it now. Who you talking to?
I know. I know what?
I get it. I understand.
I understand that that pretty much answers My next question is
what's your favorite platform that you like to post on
YouTube? For sure you don't.
Yes. I'm not consistent on Instagram
at all. I'm a bad Instagram.
OK, yeah, I'm pretty. I mean, I do stories a lot.
You do. But the posts it's.
Yeah, great. Well, that that explains that
explains like you seem to be more successful on YouTube.
You know, so at YouTube you're you're sitting at just shy of
5000 subscribers and you've done that in a little over a year,
which is incredible and 241,000 views incredible.
Oh, that is amazing. I have so many questions.
We're going to talk offline after we're done because I got
questions about that. Whereas, you know, whereas on
Instagram you're like just shy of 2500 followers.
See, I did my research. Yes, I did my research, you
know, because I, I think you're amazing.
I think you're, you're an inspiration.
I like your content. And it's it's interesting
because most of the conversations I've had with
folks recently is they really embrace the short form, which I
have admitted in previous episodes I need to work on.
I prefer the long form. I prefer to sit here and talk to
you for an hour about things you love, people you love, games
that you enjoy. Why you enjoy them because you
have a story, which is why I invited you to be part of this
series, is you're building this community one interview at a
time, speaking. So let's talk about the
community, right? So in your mind, what is the one
thing that the community, however you want to interpret
this question, what do we do so well that you are so proud to be
a part of it? It's very simple answer as be
kind. Yeah, it's the best community,
the best people, the sweetest people.
I've met so many lovely people. I can't even comprehend the
people I know. I could cry right now thinking
about the people that I've met along the way.
That means so much to me that I got friends that I haven't even
seen in real life. Right.
I've been lucky enough to have met in real life maybe once, but
they, I, they're just as great friends than some people that
I've known in real life for a long time.
And it's just, I don't know, I don't get it.
Because there's a lot of hate online.
A lot. You see it all the time.
Yes, absolutely. The board game community, it's
it. I mean, sometimes a little bit,
but not really for me. Not really.
Which I yeah, I'm so grateful for that.
Everybody's, you know, like 99.9% of the people are lovely.
Yeah, yeah, the. Creators as well.
The designers. The publishers.
Right. It's overwhelming.
Yeah, the kindness. Yeah, well, I mean, there you
go. And sometimes it.
Sometimes the simplest answer's the best.
It is. Yeah.
So what about the flip side of
that? I've been asking everyone this
as well. What do we do wrong?
What do you see that you like? We need to do better because of
this. It's.
A difficult question. It is.
Because I'm a very positive person, sure.
So it's hard for me to. I'm a I'm a firm believer I'm
I'm a firm believer that we are we're all imperfect, right?
And I really hope that my listeners viewers walking with
me on this journey through all these content creators.
When I ask this question, I'm not looking to be negative, but
you know, I firmly believe that we have all sinned and fall
short of the grace of God and we make each better.
And to embrace the diversity, it means we have to take the good
with the bad. And if this community is gonna
grow and just become better, then we have to acknowledge what
do we do wrong so that we can make reconciliation and, you
know, turn away from those things.
I ask everyone if there's something you think that, you
know, maybe, you know, you've seen something because you have
a different perspective, right? So you're looking in, you're in
this unique position to say, hey, let's maybe do less of this
or that or, you know, or maybe or maybe not, you know, and that
that that's OK too. Yeah, I don't.
I don't know. I think there's always going to
be things that we can improve upon, for sure.
I think diversifying, which we've talked about a lot, I
think there's definitely room for growth there.
Just in all aspects. I feel like there's definitely a
rise of women in the board game community.
Absolutely. I think it's been really great
to see and I think that was lacking for a long time.
But that's really, I feel like I see a huge amount of women
online as well. Maybe that's because I'm a woman
as well. I'm in the bubble of the female
content creators online, but which I I'm very grateful for.
But yeah, diversifying for sure on all aspects of humanity
because we're all different and we are all just allowed to exist
in who we. Are correct.
And I find that very important. And the human rights aspect of
that for me is very important. So I think we could definitely
diversify there still in the board community, especially with
race as well. I mean, I feel like the majority
is white, which I mean, obviously nothing wrong with
that, but we can definitely, I think there's, you know, yeah.
So I think that's the thing we can really still improve upon.
OK, well, thank. Thank you for that.
Thank you. I certainly agree.
I just don't know that I found a solution to that.
Yeah, me neither. Yeah.
It's not really easy, yeah. Yeah.
It's, it's a challenge, yeah. But I think it's one that we can
over. I think so too, and I do think a
huge part of the board game community.
I mean, we're all just nerds, right?
You know. Yeah.
We're all geeks, and the great thing about that is that it is
already quite a queer community and a neurodivergent community.
Yes, that's why I love everybody so much, because nobody's truly
boring. Right.
And that's. Why it's so great?
So you need to remember that because earlier when we were
talking, you're like, my story's boring and now we're right.
So let me ask you, you've got someone comes to you and is like
Iris. I'm really thinking about being
a content creator, right? Yes.
What advice do you have to someone who's new to the
community and is thinking about doing what we do?
Yeah, well, just go for it. Literally just start somewhere.
I know some people say you really need to think and plan
and have like an idea, you know, like what, what, what's your
content going to be that's different from everybody else's?
Everybody else. You better be great.
But that's that's such an American mindset I don't like.
It OK, that's interesting. No better.
Than everybody else, yeah, no, I just go just start and have
conversations with people about games because that's what makes
being a content creator. It's so stupid to say, but
that's what makes it so fun is the the, the, the people that I
talk to online. That's the beauty of it all,
just chatting about games and meeting new people.
And that's really what brought me.
What I needed that I didn't have in my life that I wanted more of
is more people to talk to about board games.
That's what I was looking for and that I found it, which is
amazing. We're here.
Yes, there's so many of you and I love you all.
It's great. So I have to my last question
I'm really curious is tell me about the talk about the local
community in the Netherlands, Right.
Yeah. Do you have like a local group
that you game with on a regular basis?
I mean, cuz the Netherlands is small.
So I imagine, I imagine that it's easy for you to get
together for like a day or something, you know, cuz I mean,
yeah. True.
So yeah, because definitely, I mean, to us Dutch people, 40
minutes away is far because like they live far away.
That's 40 minutes. That's like down the street for
us. Which is so hilarious.
I talked to so many friends about this.
Like, Reggie is a great friend of mine that I met through the
community and he lives in near Portland.
Yes. And it's so fun to talk to him
about stuff like this because I'm like, so I have two amazing
friends that I play the most with and they live 40 minutes
away. They used to live in my town.
So that was great because that that was the easiest, right?
But now they live 40 minutes away, which is so far, so it's
very annoying. Far.
But we do get together, like when we get together for board
games, we play a whole day, Yeah.
So we get together around like noon, and then we just play
until we eat together and then we play until the evening.
So yeah. What about the?
Really great. What about the Netherlands as a
whole in terms of like how popular is the modern hobby in
the Netherlands? Are there a lot of are there a
lot of either board game cafes or board game store?
Yeah, it's sad. Sad community actually.
OK. For me to say that now there's
great people out there obviously, but it's definitely
lacking, especially the board game cafes.
I've actually thought about starting my own, but that's OK.
That's crazy. I can't be, I can't do it.
That's. You can.
No. You can being.
Like a business owner is you can pressure.
It's. I'm not saying it's easy, but
I'm saying you can do it. Yeah, probably, maybe someday,
who knows, But that's definitely something that I wish I had in
my town. And I've been to England a lot.
I love England and they have great Boardman cafes.
It's amazing. It's so good.
And I'm just like, why don't we have this?
So sad. But the stores are fine.
They're they're OK, I guess. Tell me how you really feel.
They're, they're, you know, there's good ones and there's
mediocre ones. OK, sure.
And the good ones are on the lower end.
So sad. But it's fine, I can deal with
it. I go to convention so I can buy
everything I want. And we do have one city,
Utrecht. Utrecht, yeah.
Which is the best city for board games?
Yeah. Which is interesting because you
would think it'd be Amsterdam, but it's really, really not.
OK, really. Not Amsterdam is like one good
store and it's quite new so before that it was awful but is
good They have like 5 board game stores in the same St. wow it's
like it's whoa everything I want and they have great selections
yeah but and. How far away?
How far away you? About an hour.
An hour it's. Very far.
It's more than 40 minutes. So OK, so I am a 5 minute walk
from my local game store. That's great.
That is great. That is amazing.
I'm jealous. Yeah, well, we're lucky.
It just kind of, you know. Yeah.
Especially in America. Yeah, because.
There it could be like. A long.
Way away. Yeah, we have we have three-game
stores in Springfield. Otherwise you're driving, yes.
Otherwise you're driving an hour and a half to the South to Saint
Louis, where's Miniature Market is famous and they've they've
got 2 location or you've got to go up to Chicago where there's
there's some really great stores and cafe.
So that's the thing that's a that's a it's three hour drive,
4 hour train ride. That's.
Wild. Which is easy.
Oh, it's easy. That's easy.
SO3. Hours.
Ago OK, so here's the great thing.
Reggie will be on this show in a few weeks because he's gonna be
part of this. So Reggie and I are gonna, we're
all, we're gonna have a good laugh at how Iris thinks 40
minutes is too far. Yes, please laugh at me because.
It's oh, we're gonna interesting.
Oh, we're totally gonna. Yeah.
It just means you're going to have to listen to that episode,
too. Yeah, you should listen to them
all. That the so spiel at Essen?
Yes in in like a week and 1/2. Which is probably, what, 3-2
hours? Three hours from you. 1 1/2.
Two 1 1/2. OK, well.
Very. Close.
I don't know how far Essen is from the German border, so it's
obviously not that far. Close to the the Dutch border.
Border and will you? Are you going to Spieler?
I am. Going There you go.
For all the days, but it was always like so far away, God,
but it's actually so close. I can't wait for you to come
visit the States. I really can't.
You're gonna year to come. And by the way, you're gonna
stay with us because we've got room for you and we're gonna
we're gonna take you. So like there will be so many
day trips where we will, we will have to drive an hour or more
just to go somewhere. And you're going to be like that
was not long at all. You will be amazed at how much
you can get done. And still we do it.
Yep, it's amazing. You know, just.
Drive there and back. That's the problem is we have to
drive. It also means that we can't all
get to. So like all of our friends in
the UK, they do these one day little conventions where they
all get together and have, you know, they just just bring games
and play. We can't do that because our
country's just too big, you know, that's, so we, we've got
to wait for Geek Way or Origins or Gen.
Con or Packs Unplugged or whatever.
So it's, it's a challenge. That's absolutely.
That thing, yeah. So yeah, Yep.
So remind everyone where they can find you and tell people
where they can reach out to you. And yeah.
My name on all the socials is Crimson Board Games.
Please come and say hi to me, I'd love to chat.
You're welcome to join all the. Yeah, there you go guys.
Please be sure to like and subscribe to the YouTube channel
and and give me comments. I I really want to know what you
think about this series and your thoughts for the next year,
right? I'm starting to think about what
kind of topics and guests I'm going to have in 2026, and I
can't do it without you. So thank you, Iris, once again
for joining. It's been a real delight.
I really enjoy chatting with you and you being a part of this
series. Yeah, as always guys, be kind to
each other and let's play more games.