Dominoes are rectangular blocks with a line down the middle to separate their ends into two squares, each with a number of spots or “pips.” The most common set contains 28 tiles, but larger sets with up to 91 dominoes are available.
Each player draws the number of tiles allowed for his hand according to the rules of the game. He then makes a play, matching the pips on his tile to those of previous tiles played.
Origin
Domino is an old game whose origins are obscure. The name may have come from a Latin word, dominus, meaning “lord” or “master”. It could also have been inspired by domino, a long black cape worn over a priest’s surplice. The domino tile set, however, is of Chinese inheritance.
Domino’s powers allow her to influence the laws of probability to shift odds in her favor; she is a weapons expert, a superb athlete and martial artist, and an accomplished linguist. She has the ability to disrupt technology.
After Tolliver ravaged X-Force’s Adirondack base, Copycat impersonated Domino to rejoin Cable’s team as its field leader. However, Cable rescued the real Domino and welcomed her into X-Force. Domino later helped halt the mutant emotion-manipulating Psycho-Man’s Third Species human organ harvesting scheme.
Rules
The rules of domino vary from game to game. Most are blocking games where the objective is to empty one’s own hand and block opponents’ hands. Other games involve a scoring mechanism. One such method is counting the total number of pips in losers’ hands at the end of the hand or game.
The player with the highest double starts. Then each player takes turns placing a domino in the line joining it to other dominoes on either side. Doubles must be joined on both ends unless they are spinners.
After the tiles are shuffled each player draws a domino from the stock. The player who draws the heaviest tile makes the first play. In the case of a tie, new dominoes are drawn until one is found.
Materials
Over the centuries domino pieces have been made from a variety of materials. Some are carved from stone, others are molded or drilled and painted. Some sets are crafted from wood and ivory. Others are made of metals such as brass and pewter. Many of these sets are very expensive.
Traditionally European-style dominoes were made from bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl) or ivory with a dark hardwood such as ebony and contrasting black or white pips inlaid or painted. Some of these sets also had a pin (known as a spinner) that held the white ivory face to the dark ebony back of the tile.
Domino’s has several vendors that supply different ingredients, such as dairy farms for cheese and bakers for dough. It also gets the majority of its ingredients from a central commissary in Nagpur, India.
Variations
There are many variants to domino, some of which involve more than two players. Some of these are positional, while others require that the pips on an exposed end match. Examples of these include muggins and matador.
In this game, each player draws seven dominoes from a boneyard and takes turns laying them on the table until they have completed a line of play. The winner scores points based on the total number of exposed ends (including the initial domino and any other end that isn’t a spinner) on the line of play.
Each standard non-double Domino has one bigger end than the other, known as the Difference. The player who wins a round counts the total remaining Difference in their opponent’s hand, and adds it to their own score.
Scoring
Dominoes are usually small, but they can knock down things about one-and-a-half times their size. This sort of chain reaction is what makes domino so exciting.
The most popular domino games fall into two categories: blocking games and scoring games. Blocking games involve players attempting to empty their opponent’s hand by placing tiles and blocking the opponents’ plays. In scoring games, a player accrues points during game play for certain configurations or moves and by emptying their own hand.
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