Welcome to Three-Player Moon!

Hey there! I’m excited to introduce you to Three-Player Moon, a super cool domino game that you can play with two of your pals! The goal of this game is simple: be the first player to reach 21 points before your opponents do. Sounds thrilling, right? Let’s dive in!

Getting Started

Before we begin, let’s get everything set up. First, we need to remove all the zero tiles, except for the double zero tile. This means we’ll have a total of 22 tiles left. Once we’ve done that, it’s time to shuffle the tiles and distribute 7 tiles to each player. Oh, and there will be one last tile remaining, which we’ll leave face down in the center of the play area. Ready to go? Let’s do this!

Understanding the Tiles

Now that we have our tiles ready, let’s talk about how they work. Each tile has two numbers on it. In this game, there are 7 different suits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Doubles are special because they have the same number on them twice, and they can only belong to one suit. When a suit is announced as trump, that means the tiles with that suit can only act as trumps and can’t be used as any other suit. Oh, and remember, the double zero tile is the only tile in its suit. Got it? Awesome!

When it comes to ranking suits, the highest ranked tile is always the double, followed by the rest of the suit. For example, the 6 suit ranks from [6,6] (high) to [6,1] (low).

Let’s Talk About Bidding

Once the hands are dealt, we’ve got to do some bidding. It starts with a random person and goes clockwise each round. Each player gets one chance to bid. When it’s your turn, you can either pass or make a bid. When making a bid, it has to be higher than any previous bids. The bid is all about how many tricks you think you can win.

A bid is a number from 4 to 7, or even 21. 21 is the highest bid possible, and if someone calls it, the bidding round is over right away. If you bid 21, that means you have to win all 7 tricks, which is worth more points than a bid of 7.

Once everyone has placed their bids or if someone bids 21, the bidding round comes to an end. The person with the highest bid wins and gets to take a tile from the center. They must then choose one tile to discard face down into the center once more.

Now, it’s time to select the trump suit. You can choose any suit from 0 to 6, including doubles or no trumps.

But if you choose doubles as the trump suit, keep in mind that they won’t be the highest-ranked tiles of their original suit anymore. Instead, they will be part of the trump suit and cannot be played following their original numeric suit.

HOW TO PLAY

When I play the game, it all starts with the bidder. From there, we go clockwise, taking turns to lead any tile we want to the trick. But here’s the catch – if you have a tile of the same suit as the one led, you have to follow suit. And if the tile led happens to be a trump, we all have to play a trump if we can. But don’t worry if you can’t, you can still play any tile you want to the trick.

Now, let’s talk about what happens when a trump is played. It’s simple – the highest trump played wins the trick. But what if no trumps were played? Well, in that case, the highest tile of the suit led takes the trick. The player who won the trick gets to collect all the tiles in a nice little stack, and they will be the one to lead the next trick.

SCORING

Once we’ve played and won all the tricks, it’s time for scoring to begin. This is where things get interesting!

If you win the bid, you’ll get points equal to your bid. Winning extra tricks won’t earn you more points.

If you don’t win the bid, you’ll lose points equal to your bid.

A bid of 21 wins the game, but if you’re unsuccessful, you’ll lose 21 points.

Other players get 1 point for each trick they win.

END OF GAME

The game ends when a player reaches 21 or more points. If there’s a tie for the highest score, play continues until one player has more points than everyone else. That player is the winner.

I’m Amber, an Austin-based writer and gaming enthusiast. I consider myself a gaming expert and also enjoy dogs, plants, and D&D.