History:
June 2003, an idea of playing backgammon with dominos came to mind. There are other people who have came up with the idea of replacing the dice for domino's before I did, but my idea was different - my idea is to let each person have 2-3 dominos to choose from for their "roll" - and not only that, but their opponent can see their possible "rolls" and can plan ahead.
Some more revisions in 2004-2006 happened, but in 2007 I abandoned the idea of playing with dominos, and just concentrated on the game's unique idea with regular dice (just multiple sets of dice), in which I found more gammon players have multiple sets of dice, and many did not have dominos - so formed the Double-Choice & Triple-Choice backgammon name. (The use of dominos can still be used as a variant to the game - see below for Variants)
Game:
Name: Double-Choice Backgammon (each player has 2 sets of dice)
Name: Triple-Choice Backgammon (each player has 3 sets of dice)
Differences: Double-Choice is great for experts - allowing more blocking and planning. Triple-Choice tends to be easier, more liked by casual gammon players.
Note: All normal gammon rules, along with cube can be used. I don't talk about using the gammon cube here, but of course it can be used along with other gammon rules.
BOARD/SETUP:
Board & Rules: Tradition Backgammon board, along with all normal backgammon rules apply. Special cases are listed below.
Dice: Each person gets multiple sets of dice. (for Double-Choice, each player gets 2 sets - 4 die each) (for Triple-Choice, each player gets 3 sets - 6 die each). To make it easier, if different color of dice are available - for example, for triple-choice - if a player could have 1 pair of green, 1 pair of red, and 1 pair of white dice - it would make it easier to not confuse each roll. If different color dice are not available, make sure each pair after they are rolled are kept apart from the other pairs so they don't get mixed or confused.
Picture to the right is in example of the start of a Triple-Choice Backgammon game. Player 1 not only has 3 choices, but also can see what rolls Player 2 has to choose from.
QUICK OVERVIEW:
Basically you can see the next 2 (for Double-Choice) or 3 (for Triple-Choice) rolls your opponent has to choose from. So not only do you have 2 or 3 possible rolls to choose from to make your own move, but you can also see all the possible rolls your opponent will be able to use on their next roll - allowing extra planning and depth into the game
Rules:
Before game starts, each player rolls their sets of dice, and displays them for their opponent to see. (picture to right shows start of triple-choice game)
Player 1 starts - picks one of the possible rolls, and then makes a move just like normal - with all normal gammon rules. After a player makes their move, they re-roll ONLY the used pair of dice, and then displays the new roll so their opponent can see - and play go's to player 2.
So for example, if Player 1 used their 6-1 roll, they would make their move on the gammon board, then they would re-roll ONLY the 6-1 - leaving the 6-3 & 4-4 roll to be played later.
Special Rules & Notes:
You ARE allowed to pick a pair of dice that will make you pass. So lets say you are stuck on the bar, and can only get our with a 4. Even if one of your rolls has a 4, you are allowed to pick any of the pairs - including a pair that does not contain a 4 so you have to pass that turn.
Even if all your rolls make you pass - you still need to pick which roll to use (and re-roll).
Who goes first: Each player rolls their 3 pair (or 2 pair) of dice. The person with the HIGHEST set of dice goes first, and can use ANY of there rolls. So lets take the example from the above picture. Player 1 rolls a 6-3 (9), 4-4 (8), and 6-1 (7) - Player 2 rolls a 5-5 (10), 5-2 (7), and 1-4 (5) - so Player 2 goes first since he has the highest total in one of their set of dice (5-5).
If both players tie with their highest pair, it goes down to the 2nd highest. (and down to 3rd highest if needed.) If all 3 pairs match, then the payers should re-roll all 3 pairs and start the process over.
Variants:
Variant(s) #1: Instead of Backgammon, rules can be used on other gammon games like Nackgammon, Backgammon Race, Hypergammon, etc...
Variant #2: Single-Choice Backgammon - which as you can probable tell, is just like the double & triple version - but only 1 set of dice. So just like regular backgammon, but you see your opponents next roll before your turn.
Variant #3: Use dominos instead of dice. Also keep the blanks for something a little different. So a 0-0 domino could be used and you would move nothing on your turn.
CREDIT:
Game rules and such written by: Michael A. Coan (COAN.NET) 2003-2007
Page updated July 2007 with board example from BrainKing.com. Even though this game is NOT currently available anywhere yet, I will try to see if I can get a game site interested in it so if can be played on-line also.
Game rules are free to use as long as credit is given back to COAN.NET. (And no major money is made from the game – then in that case, I want a cut of it!)