How to Play Dots

Dots is a fun game to play in the car (if you're a passenger), in study hall or on a rainy afternoon. You need nothing more than a playing partner, a sheet of paper and a pen, and you'll have fun for hours. Check out the rules of how to play below.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Two or more players
• Paper
• Ruler (optional)
• Pen or pencil

How to Play "Dots"

1. Take a blank piece of blank paper and draw evenly spaced dots (shown above) in a grid pattern. This will be your Dots board. You can make the board as large or as small as you like, but make sure there are the same number of dots across as there are up and down. In other words, the Dots board should be square-shaped. A ruler is not necessary, but if you would like to measure the space between the dots, you can use a ruler or lined paper to help you.
2. The first player draws a single line between two adjacent dots. The line can only be made vertically or horizontally and can only connect two dots together. The next player does the same, and the game continues like this.
3. The object of the game is to create complete box shapes, comprised of four lines connected between four dots. When a player has completed a square, he marks his initials neatly inside the square. Once a player has completed a box and initialled it, he gets a second turn.
4. Continue drawing lines in succession until there are no more moves left. Count the number of boxes each player has initialled.
5. The winner is the player who has the most number of initialled boxes at the end of the game.

Tips & Warnings

• The larger you make the Dots board, the longer the game will last, so customize the size of your playing board to the amount of time you have to play.