Gaple
Block dominoes in which a stuck player does not merely pass but loses a tile for good — and its pips are counted against them anyway.
Gaple is block dominoes with one hard addition. A player with no move does not pass: they discard a tile face down, and it leaves the game for good.
Its pips are still counted against them at the end. Being stuck here costs points, not tempo.
So the game runs down rather than round
In ordinary dominoes a stuck player waits for the ends to change and catches up later. Here there is nothing to wait with: every pass costs a tile, often the very one being saved.
So in Gaple people play out early and willingly, and holding a heavy tile to the end is a reliable way to finish with a six in hand.
Set of dominoes
Under these rules: Twenty-eight tiles. Four players take six or seven each, five players take five.
Twenty-eight rectangular tiles carrying every combination of halves from double blank to double six.
A set is named after its highest double: the ordinary one is a double-six. Every combination occurs exactly once, and that is what makes the game countable — knowing what has been played, you can work out what is left in other people's hands. Larger sets exist — double-nine with fifty-five tiles and double-twelve with ninety-one — and they are there for a bigger company.
The rules of Gaple
The deal
Four players take six tiles each and four are left face down in the middle. Five players take five each, leaving three face down.
Four-handed play with seven tiles each, leaving nothing in the middle, is also played.
The lead
Where tiles are left in the middle, one is turned face up to start the layout. The first player is drawn for; thereafter the winner of the previous hand opens.
Where everything is dealt, the first hand is opened by the holder of the blank double, who must lead it. Thereafter the winner opens and must lead a double; holding none, the right passes on.
Play
Tiles are laid out in a : one tile per turn to either end, matching numbers.
The dead tile
A player holding no matching tile discards one face down. It leaves play but still counts against them at the end.
End of a hand
A hand ends when somebody plays out, or when nobody has a move left.
Scoring
Each player totals the pips on their remaining tiles, dead ones included.
The lowest total wins.
Ties
On equal totals the winner is whoever holds the single lowest tile. If those are equal too, whoever's lowest tile has the lower end.
Worth knowing
The game is also played without dead tiles, in which case a stuck player simply passes. The value of the blank double varies too — twenty-five points in some places, if the player holds no other tile with a blank half. Four-handed play with seven tiles each, leaving nothing in the middle, is also found.
Glossary of terms
- Dead tile
- A tile discarded face down by a player with no move. It never returns to play, and its pips are counted against them.
- Single line
- A Gaple layout does not branch: tiles are added to the two ends of one chain.