Dominoes are small, thumb-sized rectangular blocks, each bearing from one to six pips or dots. They are arranged in line and angular patterns to form a game board for various games played by a number of players. A domino set consists of 28 such pieces. A player makes a play by placing a domino edge to edge with another domino, either matching the pips or forming a specified total value.

Lily Hevesh first discovered her love of dominoes at age 9, when her grandparents gave her a traditional 28-piece set. She started creating incredible domino art projects and posting videos on YouTube, where she now has more than 2 million subscribers. She has also built large-scale domino sets for movies, television shows and events, including a recent album launch by pop singer Katy Perry.

There are many variations on the rules of domino, which are generally based on the total number of pips or spots on each piece. In some games, all of the pips on a particular tile are counted as part of the total value, while in others only the sum of two adjacent pips is considered. The term pips or spots may also be used to describe a domino’s rank or weight, with heavier or higher-ranked tiles having more (or more valuable) pips.

The word domino is also often used to refer to a set of rules or playing strategies for a given game, although some games do not require any specific rules other than that the players must make their plays in turn. In addition to rules of play, dominoes are typically stacked in some fashion so that the opening end faces up. This arrangement is known as the line of play.

During the Domino’s crisis, it was clear that a key to survival was maintaining open lines of communication. The company was able to quickly turn things around by listening to employees and customers and implementing changes. For example, Domino’s CEO Brendan Doyle encouraged open discussions of workplace concerns and responded directly to employee complaints. This line of communication extended to Domino’s customers as well.

When a player draws more tiles for his hand than he is entitled to, it is called an overdraw. If it is discovered before the player plays his tile, the excess tiles must be discarded without being looked at, and the deck should be reshuffled before any other players draw hands.

If a player cannot make a play and there are no other players able to continue the game, he can “chip out” by laying his last domino. Then the game ends, and the winners are the players whose combined total of pips on all remaining tiles is highest. Some games use other methods for scoring, such as counting the total number of pips on all tiles left in the losers’ hands at the end of a hand or the game, or by adding up the number of pips on a double that is not a spinner.