Once a week six of us get together on a Friday night, go out to eat and then return to one of our homes for an evening of dominoes.

Having played Chickenfoot and Mexican Train for weeks, my wife thought it might be time to try something different, but she did not know what.

With that in mind I decided to try my hand at creating a new domino game that would give us something new to play and as a result, Six Gun Dominos was born.

As I thought it out I wrote up some rules and then played a mock game with 3 players. As I played it out, I realized it has a lot of twists and turns and the winner of the mock game turned out to be totally different than I would have thought given my knowledge of each players tiles at the start of the game.

I revised the rules a bit more and then I and my wife sat down and played three rounds of the game to iron out any kinks.

I was satisfied the game would be a huge success after seeing the results of our games, especially once more than two people get into the mix.

I then got out Sketchup and drew up a playing board to make it easier to show where the pieces are played. A quick workup was completed and cut out in less than an hour.

I decided to share this with those of you who like to play dominos. If you have questions or ideas for improvement, I would love to hear from you.

The domino set consists of 91 dominoes (double twelves). Here is a link to some similar to what I use that have the numbers instead of dots on them... http://www.qwebstores.com/q108341_CHH-Games_Double-12-Color-Number-Dominoes.htm_Sportsfan_4183

With that said, here are the rules to Six Gun Dominoes...

-------------------------Six Gun Rules of Play----------------------------

Each player takes 6 dominoes and places them in his/her tray. Any number of players from 2 to 8 may play. Note: The train station mentioned below is the area in center of the board.

The person having the highest double starts the play by drawing one domino from the bone yard and placing their double domino in front of them at the head of their train and then moving one domino from their tray to the train station face up.

If no one has a double domino to start, everyone picks one domino from the draw pile and discards one domino from their tray until someone can start the play with a double.

Play rotates clockwise around the table to each successive player.

The next player in succession now draws one domino from the bone yard and now has a choice to either play a double if he/she has one, or use any domino residing at the train station.

If the tile drawn is a double, it is played and one domino from their tray is then placed face up at their train station (The train station becomes a draw tile for the other players), so that at no time does anyone have more than 6 dominoes either between their tray or having been played (not counting the train station domino).

If the tile drawn were not a double, one domino from their tray is placed face up at their train station leaving 6 dominoes in their tray.

Play continues clockwise.

After a player has played his initial double, he has to follow it with a domino matching the number next in line.

If a player then draws another double and cannot use it to match the last domino in his train, he must discard it to his/her train station leaving it available to be picked by another player. If a domino is already in the train station, it must first be moved face down to the discard pile.

Each round of play consists of either drawing one domino from the bone yard or taking one domino from any of those shown face up in the train station. The player must then play one domino from their tray if they can, followed by discarding one tile to his/her train station.



At no time, can any player have more than 6 tiles between their tray and the playing board (train tracks). Players may not draw from the discard pile unless all tiles from the bone yard are exhausted.

The first person to complete their train of 6 dominoes wins the round and everyone tallies the points left in their trays or optionally, tallies the number of dominoes left in their tray if that is the agreed upon scoring to be used.

A time limit or a fixed number of rounds to be played can be established prior to the start of the game. The final count at the end of the rounds or expired time limit are used to score the game winner.

 

I have added some additional features to the Sketchup file (REV2). I got to thinking not everyone has the domino trays like we use, so I designed the trays to hold the six dominos that are used in play and added them to the sketchup file. Just glue the halves together to form each tray like the one shown below... The slots are cut to allow the dominos to lay in tray at an angle for easy viewing. See REV2 of the sketchup file in the first post.



Enjoy!

 

Six Gun Dominoes has been renamed Board Dominoes, has a new set of rules and a free online game version.

The open source VASSAL game engine was used to create the online game and you can download and play the game online at http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Board_Dominoes.

I had John Bernard cut out a half inch MDF board on his large CNC machine. He covered it with Oracal 651 sign vinyl.




Here is a snapshot of the online board game running in the VASSAL game engine. Up to 8 players can play online at the same time using the VASSAL game server.

 

Going to try to get a game going tomorrow night around 7 est if you want to join. Ewo says he will play. Download the new online version and try it out offline. Rules are in the help menu. Right click any piece to see its options. Will be hosting on the vassal server. Search for board dominoes, right click to join room.

 

Cool... Please install the Ventrilo voice communication client and setup server (flashsolutions.us) default port. I am connected to it. You will want to use a microphone and speakers to communicate during the game so I can go thru the rules without having to type on the keyboard.

 

Must have read your mind... I just brought a game up (GameTime) on the Vassal Server Version 5.0 of Board Dominoes.

I keep Ventrilo open most of the time... Drop in anytime to chat on the flashsolutions.us server.