Dominoes are small wooden blocks with a unique arrangement of spots that resemble those on dice. The domino has a ridge on one side and is blank or marked with identifying marks on the other.
In writing, a good domino is a scene that advances a plot point in a compelling way. Whether you write by outline or fly by the seat of your pants, thinking like a domino can help you create interesting scenes that move your story forward.
Rules
Most domino games have a set of rules that players must agree on before they begin play. These rules may vary from one game to the next, depending on the set used and the location of the game.
The order of play is determined by the rules of the game being played. Usually, the player who holds the highest double begins play. If no player has a higher double, the winner of the last game plays first.
In some games, the number of points a player earns is based on the total count of the open ends of tiles in their hand at the end of a turn or the game. One common rule is to count only those pips that are a multiple of three or five, while other games have no such restriction.
In some games, the players must also consider whether or not the tile they are playing is a spinner. A spinner is a double that can be played on all four sides, thus branching the line of play.
Materials
There are a lot of different materials from which domino sets can be made. There are cheap, mass-produced ones, and there are more expensive ones that are works of art.
Early dominoes were made of animal bone carved by prisoners-of-war; later, craftsmen substituted so-called “vegetable ivory” from the tagua nut. This nut is from six types of palm trees and is closely related to mammal ivory in structure, color and grain.
Other natural materials are used in some of the more upscale, high-end domino sets. These can include stone (e.g., marble or soapstone) and other woods; inlaid mother-of-pearl or ivory; and ebony with black or white pips.
Most of the dominoes you’ll find in regular stores are either urea or acrylic plastic. The former is the cheapest and most common; the latter was invented by Leo Bakeland and was produced until the 1950s. Some of the more expensive domino sets are made of stone or even glass.
Variations
There are many variations of domino games. For example, some of them depend on the number of open ends on a domino (the amount of dots in the two matching sides). The scoring for these games is usually calculated by counting all the open ends left in each player’s hand at the end of a round or the game.
Depending on the rules, players may take only a certain number of tiles for their hands. For example, a 2-player blocking game may require a double-six set with a maximum of seven dominoes per player at the beginning. Other games allow more dominoes for a player’s starting hand, such as All Fives and Mexican Train.
Some domino games also involve the use of spinners, or doubles that can be played on any side. Depending on the rules, these dominoes are counted differently, for instance, only one side of the spinner is considered an end for scoring purposes.
Scoring
Dominos are a family of games, and the rules vary between them. Some of the variants are scored differently, and some require more players or more dominoes than others. However, the basic game concept remains the same for all of them.
Domino scoring is done by adding up the pips on all exposed ends of each tile (one’s touch one’s, two’s touch two’s and so on). This sum is then multiplied by the number of tiles in your hand and added to your total score.
Some players subtract the total value of their remaining outstanding tiles from their score at the end of a hand, rounded up to the nearest five. This can be an advantage, but it also depends on the player being able to count the outstanding dominoes. Our analysis of NGS data reveals that DOMINO has relevant predictive power to identify genes associated with autosomal dominant Mendelian conditions, independently of their mutational events.