This is almost thirty years old and I forgot I had it ’til I was cleaning up some things.
Back in the day, I was renting a room in John’s first house. I didn’t have access to many resources and even less money. John replaced one of the toilet seats in the house. I don’t remember the conversation, but something made me determined to make the old seat useful.
At the time, Saturday was gaming day – Wiz War, Junta, Masterpiece, hearts, cribbage, euchre – and we were getting into Magic: The Gathering which had just come out. In most of the games, someone has to keep score and in large player games, we had to pass the score sheet around or someone had to call out the scores.
So how about a game counter board that everyone could see. The goal was to make it compatible with as many games as possible. With thirty count rows it could be used for cribbage. Magic starts at twenty points and Wiz War at fifteen. If I colored pairs of rows that could help with Magic life gaining decks (though not with more modern life gaining decks I’ve seen).
Just sketch out and Dremel-tool the holes and paint. Drill holes in pieces of dowel then glue in a pop rivet and you have peg counters. I thought it would be cool that everyone could have their own custom design peg.
I could have refinished or painted the seat first, but not only did I not have a good idea (or materials), I felt leaving it added a sense of wabi – the Japanese esthetic of finding beauty in imperfection. Flaws make things unique. Mind you, I didn’t know the term at that time, but I had a sense of it.
It never got much use… well… ’cause… it looks like a toilet seat and no one wanted to touch it.