Domino is a popular game where players set up tiles in a line and then, by gently tipping the first one ever so slightly, cause the rest to fall in a beautiful cascade of rhythmic motion. The Domino Effect is a metaphor for any actions that cascade in the same way. Writers can use this to their advantage when building their stories, especially when creating tension. Whether you’re a plotter who works from a detailed outline or a “pantser” who just writes by the seat of your pants, considering the domino effect can help you create an engaging story.
A domino is a rectangular tile with an arrangement of dots, called pips, on one side and a blank or identically patterned surface on the other. Like the spots on a die, these pips indicate which suit the tile belongs to. Each domino has two suits, one of numbers and the other of blanks (also called 0s). Dominoes were developed in the 12th or 13th century in China. The Chinese were perhaps the earliest creators of a game that could be used to develop mathematical skills as well as to provide an alternative to gambling, which was prohibited by religious law.
In the modern world, dominoes are typically made from plastic, although other materials have been used, including stone (such as marble, granite, and soapstone); woods (including ebony, walnut, and oak); and metals (especially brass). The most common domino sets commercially available contain either double six or double nine tiles. Larger sets exist, however, and are often used for games involving multiple players or to create long domino chains.
Dominoes are used for a variety of games, and the most popular types are blocking and scoring games. In these games, each player places a domino edge to edge against another, and the adjacent faces of the dominoes must be identical or form some specified total.
The highest domino in a player’s hand is known as the opening or leading domino, and it is played first. The other players then play dominoes whose ends match the open end of the domino being played. The players continue playing until no more dominoes are played, and then the score is determined.
In addition to blocking and scoring games, dominoes are also used for layout games. In layout games, each player plays a domino edge to edge against another in such a way that the adjacent sides of the dominoes are either identical or form some specified total.
A famous example of a layout game is the 15-color spiral created by Lily Hevesh in 2017 using 12,000 dominoes. The beauty of this structure is that it’s almost impossible to predict what color the next domino will be, even though Hevesh used a specific formula to determine the colors she chose. The reason for this is that dominoes have inertia, and they resist movement unless a force is applied to them. When the first domino is tipped, it unleashes the potential energy stored in all of the other dominoes.