Dominoes is part of a family of games called tile-based board games. Dominoes is also called simply domino and it is played with tiles. Each domino is basically a square tile with a straight line splitting its side into two square edges. Each edge of the domino is either marked with an number of points or is simply blank.
There are a number of popular dominoes games in the world, including the standard domino, which is played with regular round wooden dominoes, and the double-six set, which is played using twelve wooden dominoes. In addition, there are also many different versions that involve using two different shaped tiles. One version is using regular (ie. square) dominoes while another version is using triangular tiles. No matter what version you play, dominoes provide an enjoyable game for all ages, from children to adults.
Dominoes can be purchased from most good toy stores. Most good toy stores will sell a set of domino sets which contain a single domino and a set of four others. The rules for playing dominoes can vary depending on which set you purchase and whether or not it has bony or wooden dowels. The common domino sets are played in a boneyard. A boneyard is usually a huge cardboard box with railings and often holes in it where the dominoes are dropped into.
Dominoes used in boneyard games have a maximum total number of dominoes allowed in each of their bays. The total pip count of the dominoes in each of the bays is the total number of dominoes that can remain in that particular boneyard when the game ends. The value of a domino on the dominoes list is the total number of dominoes allowed to remain in the boneyard at the end of the game. When this happens, the domino that is closest to the boneyard is declared the winner of the game.
Each boneyard in the game has a different starting value for dominoes. This value is different for every boneyard. Once the boneyard is opened, dominoes do not drop down from the boneyard but stay put on the board. After a domino lands on the board, it must be brought back up to the starting value before it becomes out of play. This is the domino effect.
If you roll a domino and it lands on the boneyard and stays there, you earn one point. For each domino that lands on the board but is rolled over by another tile, you gain one point. The maximum number of points that a player can earn is four, no matter how many dominoes are rolled. Dominoes only become worth a certain amount of points after they have been rolled, regardless of if they are landed on the board or not. Once a player has earned four points, they are out of the game.