Dominus

A Challenging Aquarius™ variation

Introduction

Aquarius is the second card game from Looney Labs. It plays much like dominoes, with the players trying to build regions of color that match the color on their "Goal" card. Since there are five colors (or "elements"), the game works best with five players.

Dominus¹ is a variation that I originally developed for use with two players. I suppose it can be played with more players, but it has not yet been tested with anything but two.

The above description of the game as "much like dominoes" inspired this variation. You'll need to be familiar with the rules, cards, and play of Aquarius for this variation. A general knowledge of Dominoes will also be helpful.

What You'll Need

• One Aquarius Deck

Preparation

1. Remove the 5 goal cards, and set them aside. They are not used in the game.
2. Remove the 15 action cards from the deck, and set them aside. They are not used in the game.
3. Shuffle the remaining deck.

How to Play

How to Begin

1. Deal five cards to each player. These cards become that player's hand.
2. Deal the top card off the deck into the middle of the table. This card is the starter card.
3. The player to the left of the dealer takes the first turn.
4. Play progresses to the left (clockwise).

On Your Turn

You must play one card from your hand, and attach it to the existing structure on the table.

• Cards must all be played in the same grid, as in regular Aquarius.
• Any edge that touches other cards must completely match the edge it is touching, as in dominoes. No "half matches", as in regular Aquarius.
• You can place a single card against multiple card edges (fill in a hole), providing all edges match.
• As in Dominoes, you are limited by the physical boundaries of the playing surface. No playing off the edge of the table.
• If you cannot legally play any of the cards in your hand, you must draw from the deck, and add those cards to your hand, until you have a card that you can play.

How to Win

The first player to run out of cards is the winner of this round. The winner scores points for the cards left in opponents' hands.

You may wish to play several rounds, and add the scores from all rounds into a cumulative total to decide the overall game.

Due to card distribution², it does seem that you can get a card in our hand which you will not be able to legally play. If this happens to all players, the player with the lowest total wins the round, however the value of that player's hand is subtracted from the player's score for that round.

Scoring

• Aces (Cards showing only one element) are worth one point each.
• Deuces (Cards showing two different elements) are worth two points each.
• Quads (Cards showing four different elements) are worth four points each.

Analysis

Since you need to make an exact match, card placement is much more difficult. During play testing, each player had to draw from the deck at least once in each round.

This is a very different game than straight Aquarius. At times this game is very frustrating. I take that as a sign that it's an OK game.

End Notes