A domino is a small rectangular wooden or plastic block with one or more faces marked by dots or numbers like those on dice. A domino is normally twice as long as it is wide and a set may contain anywhere from 28 to 100 pieces. Dominoes are used to play a variety of games, both casual and competitive.
A dominanto game usually begins with a number of tiles being shuffled and then laid out in a line or other arrangement for players to draw from. The amount of tiles drawn by each player is determined by the rules of the game being played. After drawing, the players then begin constructing domino chains in their respective corners of the table. A chain is complete when a single domino touches the end of another domino, which then falls onto it and sets off a similar cascade of additional dominoes.
Some domino games have a fixed amount of scoring that is awarded to the winner, while others award points as a result of the total number of pips on a player’s tiles. The pips on each tile represent the value of that piece in a given game and are usually colored black or white to distinguish them from one another.
When a domino is played, the pips facing up are referred to as the tails and those facing down are called the bases. A domino with no pips is sometimes called a blank.
Each domino has a unique value that is based on its total of pips and the color of those pips. Depending on the game, a domino may also have special features such as spinners or splits that allow it to be played in two ways.
In many domino games, a player must play a double before playing any other type of tile. The first double to be played is often referred to as the lead, and the player who plays it is called the setter or the downer. The term “the lead” is also sometimes used to refer to the first play of any game, regardless of whether it is a double or not.
After a player makes his play, he must either draw new hands or, depending on the game being played, buy a domino from his opponent. Buying allows the player to use a domino in the same way as his opponents, but with the added benefit that any other players cannot see his pips.
The word “domino” is also used to refer to a particular style of writing, where each scene follows the logic of the previous one in a domino effect. When this effect is applied to fiction, it can give the reader a sense of how the action in a scene will progress. This technique can be especially effective in showing the motivation and reasoning behind a character’s actions, as well as how those actions might affect other characters. For example, if your hero is about to do something immoral, you can explain his motives in the preceding scenes so that the readers feel he’s acting reasonably and with good cause.