Mexican Train

Mexican Train is the game for a crowd: two to eight players. It needs its own set, a double-twelve set of 91 tiles, since each tile end goes up to 12. It runs 13 rounds, and like golf, the lowest total wins.

It doesn't play in one line. Each round, a double called the engine sits in the middle of the table, and trains run out from it like spokes: one for each player, plus one shared train, the Mexican Train.

1. 1Before anyone draws, take the round's engine out of the set and put it in the middle. In the full game it's the 12-12 in round one, then 11-11, all the way down to 0-0.
2. 2Everyone draws a hand from the face-down tiles, often 15 each with two to four players and fewer with more. The rest stay face down to draw from.
3. 3On your turn, play one tile: on your own train, on the Mexican Train, or on any train with a marker. Your own train starts with a tile matching the engine.
4. 4Can't play? Draw one tile, and play it if you can. If you still can't, pass and put a marker on your train. It comes off when you play on your own train again.
5. 5Play a double and it has to be covered before anyone plays anywhere else. You get one try to cover it; if you can't, the next players must.
6. 6The round ends when someone plays their last tile. Everyone else counts their pips, and those points count against them.