Domino is a game played by placing domino tiles edge to edge so that their open ends match, creating a line of play. The number of tiles played is counted either with the line of play or across it, and the result of the count determines the winning player’s score. Dominoes are available in plastic, wood, and metal and come in a variety of shapes. Some are even made to form shapes like curved lines, grids that look like pictures when they fall, or 3D structures such as towers and pyramids.
Dominos can be used for a wide variety of purposes, from learning basic addition and subtraction to designing and building intricate tracks for dominoes to fall. Some people even use them to make art. These artistic dominoes can be very elaborate, including straight lines, curved lines, 3D structures such as towers and pyramids, or grids that form pictures when they fall. In the past, these dominoes have been crafted into complex scenes such as waterfalls or cities. There are even competitions where people set up a series of dominoes to create artwork that will then be knocked down by an audience of fans.
In many games, a domino is joined to a line of play by matching the pips on its open end with those on the adjacent tile(s). This is called the “count” and determines how the remaining tiles in a player’s hand contribute to the final score. The count may also decide which tile will be added to the end of a line of play, or it may determine whether a double or single is played.
Traditionally, domino sets were made from materials such as bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), ivory, or a dark hardwood such as ebony, with contrasting black or white pips inlaid or painted on the pieces. More recently, polymer plastics have replaced these natural materials for both aesthetic and cost reasons. However, the look and feel of these natural sets is still prized by some players.
A typical domino set consists of 28 tiles, a number of which are shuffled and placed face down to form the stock or boneyard before each player draws seven. This stock is then reshuffled to allow each player to draw more tiles, and the first player to draw a tile with the highest number of pips seats himself to begin the game.
Most domino games are scored by counting the pips on the losing players’ hands at the end of a hand or a game, but there are several rule variations. One common method of scoring involves counting only one end of a double; another counts both ends. It is also possible to extend a domino set by adding additional tiles with larger numbers of pips. This enables the construction of larger sets such as double-nine or even double-18, although these are rarely used in practice.