Domino helps you build a story that works for your readers. Plotting a novel involves providing logic that gives the reader permission to accept what your hero does, or to follow him as he goes outside societal norms.
A domino is a block of material that has identifying marks on one side and is blank or identically patterned on the other. European-style domino sets are often made from ivory, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), or dark hardwoods such as ebony.
Rules
Regardless of the game being played, there are certain basic rules that should be followed. First, the tiles must be mixed up or shuffled so that each player draws his hand without seeing what others are holding. The player who draws the heaviest domino goes first.
Many games allow players to join adjacent dominoes by matching the pips on their exposed ends (one’s touch one’s, two’s touch two’s). The resulting chain is called a line of play. The number of points scored depends on the rules and scoring method of the particular game being played.
Sometimes a player cannot make another play and the game becomes blocked. When this occurs the game is usually over; the winning player is the person who has the most pips in their remaining dominoes at the end of the hand or game. Sometimes, if there are no more plays to be made, the winning player is awarded a target score.
Materials
Dominoes are small, flat rectangular blocks made of rigid materials such as wood or plastic. The dominoes are typically twice as long as wide and feature a face that is blank or patterned with an arrangement of spots that resemble those on dice. Each spot, called a pip, has a particular value from six to none (or blank) which distinguishes it from other dominoes in a set. A complete set of dominoes has 28 tiles.
The game is educational as it develops children’s core maths skills by encouraging them to build patterns and recognise numbers. It also helps to improve coordination, concentration and perseverance.
Dominos can be made from many materials, though the majority of modern mass produced sets are plastic or wood. High end, artisan-made, wooden dominoes are often carved from multiple types of wood and finely finished with layers of lacquer. They are considered works of art and come with hefty price tags reflecting the time, skill and material costs involved.
Variations
There are many different types of domino games. These include connection-style games, train games, and game variations with different scoring and layouts. There are also games that use dice, and there are some puzzles using domino tiles.
Dominoes with matching pips on both ends are called doubles, while those with different pips on both ends are known as singles. These types of dominoes are used for the most common games like Mexican Train and Chickenfoot.
Draw, or the Draw Game, is one of the most basic domino variants, and most characteristic domino games are elaborations on it. In this variation, each player draws seven dominoes initially. If a player cannot play, they continue to draw until they have a domino that can be played or the sleeping pile runs out.
Then, each player adds to their own personal trains by playing a domino with an open end that matches the other players’ open ends. In this way, domino chains develop into a snake-line shape.
Scoring
Domino is a game of chance, skill, and strategy that uses 28 rectangular blocks with two square ends bearing pips or dots from zero to six. Players take turns playing dominoes in a chain of linked domino pieces, scoring points by matching the value of the exposed ends of the chains.
In a straight domino chain, one score is made every time the total of the exposed ends is divisible by five or three, which can be done twice if the first piece has four at one end and three at the other. Other scoring systems may make this restriction more restrictive or nonexistent, depending on the specific rules of the game in question.
Domino games include blocking games, scoring games, and combination-taking games that mimic card games to circumvent religious restrictions against cards. The winner of a round is decided when one player reaches a predetermined number of points. A winning player subtracts the total value of his or her remaining domino tiles from the opponents’ domino tile values, and reports the result.