free printable
Giant Dominoes Rules Card
A one-page giant dominoes rules card: how to play, how to score, and how to set it up. Hit print, fold it, and keep it with your set. Want the full walkthrough? See the Giant Dominoes rules.
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rules card Giant Dominoes
Players2 to 4 (or partners)
Ages6+
Setup2 min
SpaceA table, patio, or flat patch of lawn
What you need
- A set of giant dominoes (a standard double-six set has 28 tiles)
- A flat surface big enough to lay out a long chain: a table, deck, or smooth lawn
- Two to four players, or two teams of partners
- A scorepad or your phone if you are playing a scoring version
- A little patience, since the blocks are heavy and slide around outdoors
Scoring
- Standard scoring: the player who plays all their tiles first wins the round and scores the total pips left in every opponent's hand
- If the game blocks (nobody can play), the player with the fewest pips left in hand wins the round and scores the difference, or the combined leftover pips, depending on your house rule
- Fives (Muggins) version: you also score whenever the two open ends of the chain add up to a multiple of five (a 5 and a blank scores 5, a 6 and a 4 scores 10)
- Doubles count both halves toward the open-end total in the fives version, so an open double-six on the end is worth 12 toward the multiple-of-five check
- First to a set target (commonly 100, 150, or 250 points) wins the match
How to play
- Shuffle and draw the boneyard. Turn all the tiles face down and mix them up. This pile is called the boneyard. Each player draws a starting hand: seven tiles for two players, five tiles for three or four players. Keep your tiles hidden from the others. The rest of the tiles stay in the boneyard.
- Decide who goes first. The player holding the highest double (the double-six if anyone has it) usually leads by laying it down. If nobody drew a double, draw extra tiles from the boneyard until someone turns one up, or just let the highest tile start. Set your house rule before the first game and stick with it.
- Match the ends. On your turn, add one tile to either open end of the chain so the touching halves show the same number. A tile that has a four can attach to any open four, and so on. Doubles are laid crosswise (perpendicular), which is mostly for looks outdoors but does mark a spot players sometimes build off of in branching variants.
- Draw when you cannot go. If you have no tile that matches either open end, draw from the boneyard until you can play, then play it. This is the draw game, which is the most common version. In the block game there is no drawing: if you cannot play, you simply pass your turn.
- Play until someone goes out or it locks. The round ends the moment one player lays their last tile and calls out, or when nobody can play and the game is blocked. A blocked game happens when both open ends are numbers nobody can match and the boneyard is empty.
- Score the round. When the round ends, every other player adds up the pips (the dots) left in their hand. In the simple version the player who went out scores the total of everyone else's leftover pips. Play more rounds until someone reaches an agreed target like 100 or 150 points.
Set it up
There is no throwing distance in dominoes, so this is really about playing space. A double-six chain can stretch a few feet once it gets going, so give yourself a table, a deck, or a smooth patch of lawn at least three to four feet across. On grass the heavy tiles can lean or tip, so a flat tabletop or paver patio keeps the chain readable and the doubles standing.