The Domino House Rules Kit

A game-night kit for settling the set, the deal and the score before the first tile is drawn: a deal that leaves a boneyard, a lay-out grid for a missing tile, a fallback for the opening double, one scoring family per game, and a tie rule that ignores seat order

TileTally's Domino Scorekeeper scores block and draw dominoes: the hand's winner takes everyone else's pips and the highest total wins. Mexican Train and Chicken Foot are usually scored the other way, each player keeping their own pips with the lowest total winning, and All Fives scores during play. The site's set reference lists the largest equal hand with nothing left to draw, its probability calculator answers for one hand while the opening rule depends on the whole table, and its inventory tracker says how many tiles are missing but never which. The Domino House Rules Kit settles all of that on one card before anyone deals. It deals as if one more player sat down, so four players get 5 each from a double-six set with 8 in the boneyard, and shows double-nine is the smallest set that deals four or six players 7 each. It works out how often the top double is dealt (half the time at two players), scores the same hand block, All Fives and Mexican Train side by side, and shows six example hands that crown one champion under block scoring and a different one under Mexican Train scoring. Every figure is computed by code from the site's own calculators; worked hands are labeled examples, the Empty Chair deal is a rule of thumb, and the kit cites no rulebook. It is for social play and scores points only. Inside: 7 steps, a house rules card, a block and All Fives score sheet, a Mexican Train score sheet, a 91-cell set lay-out grid, a set and deal table and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet worked from the set, hand, round or count you entered.

Look inside

Two full pages from the pack, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Empty Chair Rule: the most tiles each your set can deal with a full hand left in the boneyard, for 2 to 8 players
• The Lay-Out Rule: find which tile is missing, or which is a stray, on a grid with one cell per tile
• The Fallback Rule: how often the top double is dealt at your table, and what to do when no double is
• The One Sheet Rule: the same hand scored block, All Fives and Mexican Train side by side
• The Decide-First Rule: six example hands that crown two different champions under two scoring rules
• The Tie Rule: blocked hands scored two ways, and a tie that seat order never decides
• The Hands Count Rule: the length of a Mexican Train night from one hand you time
• Working pages: a house rules card, a block and All Fives score sheet and a Mexican Train score sheet
• A 91-cell set lay-out grid for double-twelve, double-nine and double-six sets
• Bonus: a set and deal table and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet from your own numbers

The kit picks up where the free Domino Scorekeeper leaves off. The scorekeeper scores block and draw dominoes, where the hand’s winner takes everyone else’s pips; the kit adds All Fives and Mexican Train scoring, a blocked-game and tie rule, and a house rules card your table signs before the first deal. It matches the set to the table with the set counter and the set reference, works out the opener’s odds for the whole table with the draw probability calculator, and finds a missing tile where the inventory tracker only counts it. It is for social play and scores points only.