Board Game Designers Forum

DOMINO RAILS

Game Idea:
Ever wanted to play a REAL train game with your Mexican train dominos? Or maybe you wanted to give your domino-playing friends and relatives a taste of delivery rail games, hoping to entice them to play Empire Builders with you eventually.
These rules were conceived for those purposes. I haven’t play-tested it yet. Any suggestions for improvements would be appreciated!

Game Idea:
Players use the familiar domino mechanisms of drawing dominos and connecting them on the table. But as the dominos are placed, they form a track to be traveled over by their trains. Double dominos serve as the stations from which cargo is picked up and to which it is delivered, as well as providing a little extra income when other players use your stations.
Dominos in each player’s hand can then be used, not only as track to be place, but also as cargo to be picked up and delivered. Payouts for deliveries move each player closer to winning, and can also be used to add cargo cars or make their train engines faster.

Componants (4 Players):
Double-12 domino set
4 train tokens in 4 colors (can use from a Mexican Train set)
12 station markers in 4 colors (use houses from Settlers)
12 Train Engine Cards in 4 colors (Movement = 4, 6 and 8 for each player) (make yourself)
12 Train Cargo Cards in 4 colors (with a space for a “cargo” domino, so that one side shows “pick up” and the other side shows “deliver”) (make yourself)
Money chips (25x 1’s and 25x 5’s)

Set-Up:
Separate the double dominos from the others and mix face-down. Each player takes 3 in a 4-
player game, 4 in a 3-player game, 6 in a 2-player game. These are the train stations.
Place all other dominos face-down and mix. Each player draws 4.
Turn over one domino as the starting piece of track.
Each player chooses a color and takes station markers, a Train marker, Engine Card (start with 4
spaces per turn movement capability), and one Cargo Card (1 cargo space) in his/her color.
Each player takes 5 money chips. The rest becomes the bank.

Turn Options:
Build Track: play 1-4 of your dominos to the table. Each must join an existing track piece or station.

Build One Station: play one of your double dominos to the table. It must join an existing track piece and be at least 2 dominos from any other station. Place one of your station markers on it.

Place your Train (only once per game): place your train on any one of your stations to start.

Move your Train: move your train up to the number of spaces (each domino has 2 spaces) on your current Engine Card. You may stop at any stations to deliver/pick up and continue to use your full movement.

Pick up Cargo: Place a domino from your hand to your cargo card.
Your train must be at the pick-up station designated by the domino(s) and the card.
If it is not your station, you must pay the owner of the station 1 coin.

Drop off Cargo: Your train must be at the delivery station designated by the domino(s) on your cargo card(s). If it is not your station, you must pay the owner of the station 1 coin.
Take the domino(s) from your cargo card and place it to the side face-up. (if you run out of dominos, the face-up ones are reshuffled)
You receive 1 money chip for each domino square between the pick-up and delivery stations—but by the shortest distance, no matter which route you took to make the delivery (other players can build a shorter route to thwart a big payoff).

Upgrade Train or Add Cargo Car (cost=5 chips): You may, once per turn, do one of these, but only after you have delivered your first cargo. Pay the 5 chips to the bank and take the next fastest train engine or an additional cargo car to add to your train.

End of Turn:
Draw new dominos until your hand reaches 4 regular dominos again (excluding double domino stations).

End of Game:
The first player to reach 40 chips wins.

Tip: keep at least 2-4 chips at all times in order to pay for using other player’s stations.

Variant:
Start with more money. Each track piece costs 1 chip to build. Each station costs 5 chips to build.