HemmingwaY

 A totally new game which is currently undergoing acceptance tests by the SDRG (Sub Domino Research Group) of the PNC.

It is vitally important that any comments on this game make reference to the version number (shown below).

Version 1.0a (13 November 1996)

How to play

To Start The Game

The games is officially deemed to have started when somebody calls out "Somebody get the odd men out!".

Each player takes a number of doms from the stockyard (max 13 doms per player up to 6 players. For more than 6 players divide the doms equally between players and the stockyard).

The player with the Signed First Edition (double one) lays it on the table and play commences clockwise from there. If the SFE is in the stockyard, then the Penguin Classics Edition (double two), or the Wordsworth Classics Edition (double three) etc. etc. down to the Readers Digest Condensed Edition (Double twelve) is used to start.

Legal Play

A player, on his turn, has two choices of move : .

A dom may be laid on any end provided that the joint it makes totals 13 pips. Thus if the 2:5 is laid against the 11:3, the joint totals 13 and the dom is legal. The doms in the pack that themselves total 13 pips (11:2, 9:4, 8:5 etc.) and the double blank are known as Hemingways . These may be laid on any end at any time, but they are usually laid sideways (i.e. across the line of play). This creates two ends that may be played off, creating a "Y" shaped bifurcation - e.g. if the 11:2 is played across the line of play and the dom at the other end of the pattern is the 6:4 with the 6 facing outwards, legal doms may be played off the 6, the 11, or the 2. So:

 11 6:4|9:8|........|6:3|-- 2

The following moves would be acceptable:

4 -- 2 __ 11 6:4|9:8|........|6:3|-- 2

or

11 6:4|9:8|........|6:3|-- 2 __ 11 -- 9

or

11 12:7|6:4|9:8|........|6:3|-- 2 

It will be realised that a blank ended dom kills an end. The end may only be resuscitated by a Hemingway. If a player cannot play a legal dom then a dom is drawn from the stockyard. Watch out for the Whorlow Gambit - persistent attempts to play doms that do not make a joint of 13, even though they look as if they ought to. Look out also for Corens - things that look like Hemingways and fool you into playing them but aren't!

NOTE: Pictures will be soon added to make the explanation much clearer.

Doubles

In Hemingway, doubles greater than the double 6 cannot be played across the line of play - they have to be played in line as a conventional dom (which happen to have identical ends). Pynchons (doubles lower than 7) can either be played in line or across the line, as long as the pips total of the join is 13. However, if a double is played across the line (i.e. as a conventional double) following players may play off the ends of the double (like a Hemingway, creating a bifurcation) or off the side (as one would in conventional doms) - the first player to play off the dom determines which way the double will be used.

The End of The Game

The chapter ends when either one player goes out by playing all his doms, or when no player can play a legal dom. At the end of the chapter each player is awarded points totalling the number of pips on the doms left in their hand. A Volume may be a set number of chapters, or when the losing player (the one with the most points) passes a set total, or when chucking out time arrives, or when one player storms off in a huff (Mike?), or at any other time. The player with the lowest points total wins.

History

HemingwaY was invented in the lounge bar of the The Adam and Eve public house in Cheltenham on the 28th October 1996.
It is based, vaguely, on Matador - which is why we retained the Spanish/Bull fighting theme of the title.

Version 1.0
This is the same as version 1.0a but lacked any terms, phrases, or gambits. This lasted for 1 Chapter.

Version 1.0a
Pynchons,Corens and the Wharlow Gambit were added in this version which was the second Chapter to be played.