Domino is a game played by two or more players. It is usually played on a table with the dominoes standing up on edge in front of each player. The game is won by a player who has the most tiles left at the end of a round.
Traditionally, dominoes were made of bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother of pearl), ivory, or dark hardwoods such as ebony with contrasting black or white pips inlaid or painted. More recently, domino sets have been made of other natural materials such as stone (e.g., marble, granite, or soapstone); other woods such as ash, oak, redwood, or cedar; metals (e.g., brass or pewter); ceramic clay; and other materials such as frosted glass or crystal. Such sets tend to be heavier and more expensive than those made of polymer materials.
Aside from the traditional blocking and scoring games, many other domino games have been developed. These often take the form of solitaire or trick-taking games, which were popular in some areas to circumvent religious prohibitions against playing cards.
The word domino is derived from the Latin domini, meaning “he who has the most.” In fact, some writers have even used domino as a metaphor for the process of plotting a novel. After all, a novel’s plot is essentially a chain of dominoes: What happens next? And how do you ensure that what happens next is interesting enough to keep the reader engaged?
In business, domino has also been used as a metaphor for the process of prioritizing tasks. Lee Schwab, for example, used this method when running his steel company: he ranked every task that had to be done and then focused on the first one each day until it was complete. This method allowed him to quickly gain momentum and move his company forward.
It’s important to have a good set of dominoes. Having a wide variety of shapes and colors will allow you to make some amazing designs with your dominoes. You can create curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, stacked walls, or even 3D structures such as pyramids. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
There are a number of different ways to score in domino, but the basic rule is that each player must play a tile that matches the other players’ tiles. This may require that a domino be played so that its exposed ends match a tile already on the table (i.e., a domino with three pips must be played next to a domino with three pips). Alternatively, the first doubles of each player may be used, and then any matching tiles must be added.
Once a player is out of tiles, he or she “knocks” the table and play passes to the next player. The game is won by the player who knocks before any other player has all of their tiles covered by another domino.