Dominoes are descended from dice, and in their simplest form, contain twenty-eight pieces
(or "bones") marked in every combination of 0-6 dots (or "pips"), two per piece. Other domino
sets contain a larger number of pieces, with a correspondingly larger number of pips per piece,
up to 18:18. Traditionally, dominoes are carved from bone or ivory, with round ebony pips inset on
one face, though today, pieces are often made from wood or plastic, with painted dots.
Like playing cards and dice, dominoes are a somewhat generic piece of gaming equipment. Many
different games can be played with dominoes, ranging from single-player solitaires to multi-player
games, played both for fun and for money.
In nearly all domino games, play begins with the dominoes spread oud face-down on a table,
and manually shuffled by simply moving them around with the fingers. Players draw a certain
number of pieces from the table to form a hand, with the remainder comprising the "boneyard".
The object is generally to be the first to get rid of all the pieces in your hand.
For more domino resources, check out the links page.
For domino games you can play on your computer, try some of the programs listed on the
Domino Software page.
Dominoes are descended from dice, and in their simplest form, contain twenty-eight pieces
(or "bones") marked in every combination of 0-6 dots (or "pips"), two per piece. Other domino
sets contain a larger number of pieces, with a correspondingly larger number of pips per piece,
up to 18:18. Traditionally, dominoes are carved from bone or ivory, with round ebony pips inset on
one face, though today, pieces are often made from wood or plastic, with painted dots.
