Originally, dominoes were a masquerade mask worn by Christian priests in winter. It came into use in the 12th or 13th century in China. The game spread to France in the mid-18th century and later to England. The game is also popular in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other parts of the world.
To play the game, players draw a set of dominoes. The number of tiles drawn depends on the number of players. They are then placed on the table. The face of the dominos is decorated with spots, markings, and pips. The back of the dominos is blank.
The game of dominoes is played with two to eight players. Players take turns picking dominoes from stock. The first player determines the heaviest hand and then draws the first tile. The second player extends the line of play to the right of the first player. The third player plays a tile vertically and the fourth player plays a tile horizontally. The player whose hand has the least number of tiles in the set of dominoes is the loser. The game is played until one player has reached a specified number of points, or until the end of the round. The winner is the one who has the highest score.
In Europe, dominoes were made of ivory, bone, and other materials. Some of the earliest dominoes were made of animal bone, and then later of vegetable ivory. By the end of the 19th century, craftsmen had switched from bone material to tinplate dominoes. This made the game easier to play and to rotate in place.
The traditional Chinese domino set has 32 pieces. Each tile has an identifying number on one side. It is not possible to play a tile that does not have its own number. The number of tiles in a set can be used to determine if a tile belongs to a specific suit. In the traditional Chinese domino set, a 0-1 tile, a 0-2, a 0-3, a 0-4, and a 0-5 tile all belong to the suit of zero. The other tiles of a set are singles and doubles.
In some games, the player whose hand has the least number of dots is the loser. The loser is then penalized by drawing a tile. In other games, the winning team chooses the first domino in the hand and plays it. Depending on the game type, the winner is decided by calculating the amount of points awarded to the losing player.
The traditional Chinese domino set is divided into two classes: the military and civil sets. The military sets are longer and introduce duplicates of some throws. Civil sets do not require matching and a tile can be played with any number of pips.
To play the game, each player draws seven or nine tiles from a set of twenty-eight tiles. These tiles are then laid on the table with one of the edges facing each other. The back of the dominos can be decorated. They are divided into two squares and have identifying marks on one side.