Dominoes can be a lot of fun, whether you play them with friends or just line them up to make interesting shapes. They also teach us something about the “domino effect”—any action that leads to another in a cascade of rhythmic motion. As writers, we can use this concept to help our readers understand the logic behind a scene in our novels.

The word domino, and its cognate dominoes, appear to have first appeared in Europe around 1750. The earlier sense of the word may have referred to a long hooded cloak worn together with a mask at a carnival or masquerade. The playing pieces of European-style dominoes were often made with black and ivory pips, reflecting this connection.

Unlike the small plastic or wood blocks of today’s dominoes, which are often used in children’s games and for teaching basic counting skills, dominoes were originally made from different kinds of natural materials, including bone, silver lip ocean pearl oyster shell (mother-of-pearl), ivory, and a dark hardwood such as ebony. These sets have a more traditional look, and are typically heavier and more expensive than polymer dominoes. They have a tactile quality that makes them appealing, and the natural materials lend a more substantial feel to the dominoes when handled.

Larger domino sets usually feature a variety of pips to distinguish the different types of tiles. Some are engraved with the number of pips in a circle, while others have numbers printed on all sides. Larger sets also tend to be designed with more readable Arabic numerals rather than the traditional dots. Some larger sets are also designed with a special dotted pattern to help players distinguish doubles from singles, which can be difficult when playing some of the more complicated domino games that include multiple layers of dominoes.

In most domino games, the first player to draw his hand begins the game. Some games have rules that require the players to alternate turns, while other games allow one person to go first every time. If a player draws more tiles for his hand than he needs, these extra dominoes are called overdraws. The player to the right of the overdrawn hand takes the excess dominoes without looking at them and returns them to the stock.

Some domino games have rules that permit players to buy any tiles left in the stock, while others only allow a certain number of tiles to be bought. Some of these rules also vary in their scoring methods, with some requiring the players to count only one end of the double, and others allowing both ends to be counted.

When Hevesh creates her intricate domino constructions, it can take several nail-biting minutes for the final piece to fall. But that’s the beauty of her creations. They have inertia, meaning that they stand right where Hevesh puts them until a tiny nudge is applied. Then the potential energy is released, and the rest of the dominoes tumble according to the laws of physics.