Dominoes

Twenty-eight tiles, every pair of numbers from double blank to double six. Seven each, the rest face down in the boneyard, and whoever holds the highest double lays it first. After that you match a number showing at either end of the line, and the first player with nothing left in front of them wins the hand.

Both common rule sets are here as one toggle. In the draw game, the usual one, a player who cannot go takes tiles from the boneyard until they can, and passes only when it is empty. In the block game there is no boneyard at all: you pass, and a hand can end with both players stuck. That one sentence changes the whole feel of it, so it is worth trying each.

Scoring is by the pips left in the loser's hand, and a match runs to a hundred rather than being decided by one deal, which is what makes an unlucky hand survivable. Mexican Train is not here yet. It needs a larger set and a train marker for each player, which is more furniture than a phone screen has room for.