|
|
|
|
|
Players: 2 to 6 players
Playing Time: about an hour per game
I’ve owned this game for years, but I never even attempted to play by the rules until recently -- and now I know why.
Tri-Ominoes is, of course, a spin-off of classic dominoes -- using pieces with three sides instead of two. The game itself is relatively simple. Players take turns playing pieces, matching the numbers on the pieces in their hand to the numbers on the pieces that have already been played -- or, if they can’t play any of their pieces, they draw another piece from the “well.” A round is over when one player gets rid of all of his or her pieces. But since the game is score-based, there can often be several rounds per game.
The truly complicated aspect of this game isn’t really playing the pieces in your hand (though it can get a bit nerve-wracking when you have all of the right numbers, but none of them are in the right order). The most complicated part of this game is the score-keeping.
Each move that a player makes results in a change in that player’s score. If he or she plays a piece, the sum of the numbers on the piece are added to his or her score. If a player draws from the “well,” five points are deducted. The winner of the game is the first player to reach 400 points.
While Tri-Ominoes is a fun game (and, I’ll admit, one that I’ve played a lot of recently), you’ll have a hard time finding someone to be the score keeper more than once (unless one of your fellow players happens to have the mental capacity of, say, a rocket scientist). I’ve found that it’s easiest if each player keeps track of his or her own score. Then again, it might be even easier to give each player a calculator -- it would take the emphasis off keeping track of the score and place it back onto just playing the game.
|
|
|
|
