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. 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. 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. 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. 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.