That Game Place

There I was, sitting at a table running demos of some new games and playing a few old favorites. . . and then it happened. Someone saw the little plastic tree at the end of my table and asked what it was. Remembering my own fascination with the little tree a couple of months earlier at a retailers' convention, I said, "It's Toc Toc Woodman!" Then I started a quick description of how it is played. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, that's why I brought Toc Toc Woodman along to the convention. . . to show it off and let people see how weird (yet cool) it is.

What really surprised me was that the first person called a friend over to look at it and eventually almost everyone at the convention was gathered around my little table to see what all the laughter was about.

No, what really surprised me was when someone said, "Let's write Tournament Rules for the tree."

No, that's not it either. What really surprised me was that everyone agreed and they brought out a napkin (since all important documents always seem to start out written on a napkin or the back of an envelope) and started writing.

Maybe it's the fact that there were 9 people playing at one time and another 15 or so watching.

Maybe because everyone seemed to be having so much fun that a few other games didn't run because everyone was watching the "Toc Toc Woodman Tournament".

Or Maybe it's just that I under-estimated just how much entertainment value there was in a cardboard box that contains a little plastic tree and a miniature plastic axe.

Either way, the group from Gamers of Winter had a lot of fun and named Ed the first Champion of Toc Toc Woodman and gave him the title of "Grand Toc Toc Champion." As for everyone else, they're all Lumberjacks, and they're OK!