I have a problem with the rules. I started playing at university in the late 60s. I rapidly came to the conclusion that I liked the traditional game and seriously didn't like any of the western versions. Why? Because it seemed to me that the traditional game was an elegant game but that western additions and modifications buried that elegance under a plethora of complexity. Over the years I have also found that people answering the question "Have you tried Mah-Jong" have tended to answer "Yes but it is too complicated"! That is not the reaction that an elegant game should prompt. At that time, the information I had gave no clue that what I thought of as "the traditional game" was actually just one of countless traditional games which varied widely in how they were played. I realised this when I recently rescued my own set from the back of a cupboard and properly re-read the two booklets stored inside it, there were minor differences and so I went on the web to try to sort out which version was correct.
Having realised there was no such thing as "THE" traditional game, I decided to merge and edit those two versions into something that really suited me. Hence I thought I had better put it on this site so that I had an easy way of telling anyone who wanted a game with me what my ideas of the rules were, but being prepared to compromise just so we could get a game going. So, and assuming you know the components of a Mah-Jong set and have some idea about how to play,...
So does these mean some upstart is trying to invent yet another version? Absolutely not. I'm simply trying to make sense of the differing descriptions of what should be the same variation of a traditional game. My two main sources, both from the mid 1970s, are the booklet that came witn my set written by "Jackpot"(???) which I will refer to simply as "My Set", and the paperback book by R.C.Bell entitled "Discovering Mah-Jong" which I shall refer to as "RCB". So the majority of this is just a precis of all the many things they agree on. I have tried to apply the underlying concept of an elegantly simple game to the differences. I have also tried to ensure that the balance between skill and luck falls less on the side of luck when doing that. My web searches found some pages which appeared to be describing the same version as My Set and RCB, but they differed in the addition of extra doubles and limit hands. That makes it seem that those are later additions to the game made in response to the Western variations, hence I have not included them. Tell me if I'm wrong! However, those web pages did come up with odd bits of useful ideas and information which I have included. I have included just a very few ideas of my own.
Hence a gypsy's warning. These rules will not suit the big gamblers, nor the lovers of complexity, so if that describes you then thanks for reading this far, but don't waste your time by reading further, sorry.
This will require the use of terms that will become clear later. Just bear with me! The game is essentially a gambling game, but one which can equally be played just for entertinment. It is normally played by four players sitting on the sides of a table. Those sides are assigned the names East, South, West, North in the anti-clockwise direction. These names are regarded as Winds. Pretty well everything is anti-clockwise in Mah-Jong. The game is played with a set of Mah-Jong tiles. It consists of four rounds. For each round there is a Wind of The Round which is assigned in the order East, South, West, North which affects the scoring. A round consists of a series of hands (think card games). For each hand one player is regarded as East which ever seat (s)he is sitting in. Initially this will be the player sitting in the East seat. That player remains as East until defeated when the assignments rotate one position anti-clockwise. A round finishes when the original East becomes East again. If there are more rounds to play then the Wind of the Round rotates, also in the sequence East, South, West, North. Hence four rounds have been completed when each player has been East four times. That is common to all versions.
Some of the tiles are marked with symbols representing the winds and collecting a set of your own wind or the Wind of the Round significantly improves your score for a hand.
This seems to be fairly flexible across other variants but has the same basic structure, hence this part is also flexible. Just choose some convenient random source, typically a pair of dice, which everyone uses once. Compare the results using an agreed ordering and use that to assign seats. If any values are tied then those players try again until a difference is achieved. That should not change their position in the overall order so, for example, a tie for second place between two players is only settled to determine second and third places without affecting who is first and fourth. Everyone takes their seats in the anti-clockwise order East, South, West, North as in all variants of the game. Then, as for the start of every hand, the tiles are shuffled.
The tiles are spread upside down on the playing area. Across variants, the only common feature as to who shuffles seems to be that more than one player performs the shuffle. Again please yourself, whatever is agreeable, it doesn't really matter as long more than one player does it.
Neither of my main sources mentions what to do about accidently exposed tiles. It seems common sense to me that you just replace them into the shuffle and push them in somebody else's direction.
Each player should take tiles from the table to build a wall 18 tiles long (long sides of the tiles touching) and two tiles high. Yes 18 means I include the flower and season tiles, but in the minimal impact way given in RCB. However if you still prefer not use the flowers and seasons then just leave them in the box ad build walls 17 long. All the tiles must be face down, face unseen. The four walls should then be slid together so that their ends meet forming a square.
The player currently playing as East throws two dice. Starting with him/herself, (s)he counts around the walls anti-clockwise to the number shown on the dice. The player whose wall East stops at then takes the dice and throws them and adds that value to the value thrown by East. That player then counts clockwise(!) from the right hand end of their wall along the tops of each column of their wall (going around corners if necessary). Where that count stops, the player removes that pair of tiles placing the bottom tile on the column to the left of the breach in the wall, and the other tile on the next column but one from the breach. These tiles are called the Loose Tiles.
Players then take it in turns to take tiles from the right side of the breach starting with East and rotating anti-clockwise. Each player takes 2 columns, or 4 tiles. They do this in turn until they have collected 12 tiles. And now I have to deviate from normal procedure as that seems not the simplest way to proceed. So, each player then takes one more tile in turn. East then takes one more tile. (If you know the way this part is normally done and think about my way you will realise that both ways give players exactly the same tiles, but my way is simpler).
One last action before play starts (RCB and others) is that six columns must be counted from the breach to the left and that set of tiles slid slightly right so that they are clearly not part of the main wall. These tiles form what is called the Kong Box in other sources. These tiles are never used to start a player's turn. Hence, if no one has called Mah-Jong when the last tile has been used from the main wall the game is drawn without scoring and a new hand started. In that case the current East remains East.
If the playing style of your group includes setting the active wall to point slightly inwards to make reaching the tiles easier to reach then do that as well.
It is how a player wins a hand. To be able to do it a player must have completed 4 sets of tiles plus one matching pair, or either of two Special Hands. This is detailed below. All players then display their hands. Unless you are playing just for fun the scores for the hand are then calculated.
At this point the other 3 players hold the necessary 13 tiles but East has 14. Thus East may, if lucky call Mah-Jong, otherwise a tile must be discarded by placing it face up anywhere inside the square. All discards must be accompanied by announcing the name of the tile being discarded. If you are playing a more relaxed game where attention may be lax you should discard tiles to form a rectangle inside the square. Either way, all discarded tiles are dead (out of play) except for the discard just played. Note that face up is as per both My Set and RCB and western variants in general but is not traditional.
We shall come to more later, but there are occasions when a player can preempt the normal order of play to claim a discard. Those reasons have a priority order in case more than one player wants the same discard. The highest priority is "Calling". That means that the player needs just one more tile to go Mah-Jong so must be announced on making the discard which leaves the hand in that state. However, if that situation occurs at a player's first discard, including East's, then that hand should be announced as a "Standing" hand. That means that the player can then only draw tiles from the wall, unless claiming a discard for Mah-Jong, but it scores more should Mah-Jong be eventually made. A player holding a Calling or Standing hand is referred to as Fishing (for the one tile needed).
Once a player has discarded a tile the play normally passes to the player to their right. That player may take that discard to complete a set announcing the name of the type of set. That set is then placed face up in front of the player. Otherwise a tile is taken from the wall. If that tile is useful the player keeps it. If that makes Mah-Jong it is declared and the hand is over, otherwise a tile must be discarded.
Unless the player is trying to make a special hand, see below, then making Mah_jong consists of collecting 4 sets and a matching pair of tiles. There are 3 types of set called Chows, Pungs and Kongs (also spelt Quongs).
A Chow is a numeric sequence of 3 tiles from one of the suits of tiles, Characters, Bamboo, and Circles. You normally make Chows by drawing tiles from the wall. You can also claim the discard of the player to your left by first announcing Chow. In that case the Chow must be placed face up in front of you. Other discards to make a Chow can only be claimed if you are Fishing. Chows have no scoring value, but you may get to Mah-Jong quicker.
A Pung is a set of 3 identical tiles (there are four of each suit, wind and dragon). You make them by drawing tiles from the wall, or claiming discards from any player. To claim a discard for a Pung you must first announce Pung. Having claimed a discard you must place the Pung face up in front of you and it is referred to as an exposed Pung. If drawn from the wall you keep it in your hand and it is called a concealed Pung and it scores more.
A Kong is a set of 4 tiles. You can only make a Kong if you already have a Pung of the same value. If you have an exposed Pung you can only convert it to a Kong by drawing tiles from the wall. If you have a concealed Pung you can also claim a discard from any player by declaring Kong (or Mah-Jong!) and the Kong must then be exposed. For tiles drawn from the wall you don't have to add them immediately to a Pung as you may also want to try for a Chow using the drawn tile. When you decide that you want the Kong, which is usually straight away, you have to, at your turn to play, declare Kong and either add the tile to an exposed Pung or, for a Concealed Kong, you still expose the Kong on the table but this time you mark it as concealed by having one or two tiles placed face down. It doesn't really matter how you do this so pick whatever your group prefers from one end tile face down, two end tiles face down or two middle tiles face down.
Be warned though, a concealed Kong scores more than exposed Kong, but if you haven't declared a concealed Kong before another player calls Mah-Jong it only scores as a concealed Pung.
When declaring a Kong you are using up one of the tiles needed to make the other sets, hence you need an extra tile. You do this by taking a Loose Tile, see below.
When a player is Fishing and the tile (s)he needs is added by another player to an exposed Pung to make an exposed Kong, then the Fishing player may claim that tile from the Kong. That is called Robbing (or Snatching) the Kong.
Unlike Western variants, there are only two Special Hands, not to be confused with hands which are just Limit hands (see below) as some other variants do, though they are both also Limit hands. They are called Special Hands as they do not conform to the 4 sets and a pair pattern. Both hands appear under many similar names in other versions, I shall use the names in RCB.
The Thirteen Unique Wonders consists of a 1 and a 9 from each suit, one of each Wind, one of each Dragon plus one pairing tile.
The Calling Nine hand consists of a Pung of 1s, a Pung of 9s, a sequence of 2 to 8 and one more 2 to 8 to make a pair all of the same suit.
When you need to take a Loose Tile, you take the one furthest from the breach. If that one has already been taken than you take the one next to the breach and use the rest of that column samee to form new Loose Tiles in the usual manner.
These are not used to complete your hand but do have a scoring value. When you draw one from the wall you must immediately place it face up in front of you and take a Loose Tile instead. If that tile is also a Flower or Season then you also expose it immediately and take another Loose Tile and so on until you get a normal tile. As per RCB these only score a few points, no doubling is involved.
This determines who gets a claimed tile if more than one player is trying to claim the discard. The highest rank wins the tile.
In the event of two or more players being on the same level of precedence then the player nearest the discarder going anti-clockwise from the discarder takes precedence.
As I'm going to use rules that are less common, I'm going to have to explain why to save you having the inevitable "Why is he doing this?" question unanswered.
What is the Limit? Well given the opportunities for doubling, some hands could score an unmanageably large value, so to keep things to a sensible level most variants impose some sort of Limit. On top of that, some hands and occurrences are rewarded with a Limit win regardless of what the player's hand would actually score. Not many are given in my books nor the web pages I have found that seem to refer to this variant. Needless to say there is little agreement. So I've plumped for a solution that that is in keeping with the idea of an elegant game.
Then there is the problem of what to set the limit to. For this style of variant I have seen everything from 500 to 2000 points. Given that most sets include a set of tally sticks I've assumed that if you are wanting tradition, it's why you are playing in this style, then you will also be using the tally sticks. This also presents a problem as every set seems to use different designs! One thing that seems fairly common though is that just 4 designs of sticks are provided and those are provided in the same quantities. There usually 4 of a complex pattern, then 8, 36 and 40 of simpler patterns. There is of course no agreement on the values these represent.
One problem is caused by the scoring system which starts with a value of 2 and works up from there. That implies that there needs to be one stick type which represents 2. But then, in order to avoid continually having to ask the other players "Can you give me change for one of these?", the values of the remaining sticks must not be spread too far apart. The result of that is that the players start with s small number of points. In turn, that means that even with a low limit, there exists the danger that the game may not last anywhere near 4 rounds due to losing one player to bankruptsy.
One web site made the following rule change which helps to solve this problem, to whit, all scores should be rounded up to the nearest 10 when settling up. I know that is not how mathemiticians do rounding, but it is what the web site specified. It also makes more sense of the markings on the tally sticks. In my set the type of stick which provides the largest number of sticks is marked with two parallel liines of 4 dots. Therefore it would normally have to be the 2 point stick. But I have come across a web site that explains that the 8 dot pattern is actually supposed to represent the value 10 but is represented by 8 dots as 8 has special significance to the Chinese. This also fits conveniently with the idea of rounding the scores up to the nearest 10.
All of that still leaves me with making the Limit 500 points to help ensure a game of 4 rounds. It allows the other sticks to have values which relate better to the designs they carry which, in my set, are 1 red dot, 5 red dots and one more complicated design. That leads to...
Hence each player has 3000 points available at the start of the game.
| Type | Exposed | Concealed |
|---|---|---|
|
Chow |
0 | 0 |
|
Pung 2 to 8 |
2 | 4 |
|
Pung 1 or 9 |
4 | 8 |
|
Pung Wind or Dragon |
4 | 8 |
|
Kong 2 to 8 |
8 | 16 |
|
Kong 1 or 9 |
16 | 32 |
|
Kong Wind or Dragon |
16 | 32 |
|
Pair Own Wind |
2 | |
|
Pair Wind of Round |
2 | |
|
Pair Dragons |
2 | |
|
Flower or Season |
4 |
| Type |
|---|
|
Pung/Kong of Dragons |
|
Pung/Kong of Own Wind |
|
Pung/Kong of Wind of Round |
| Type | Value |
|---|---|
|
Mah-Jong |
20 |
| Winning tile from wall | 2 |
|
Only possible tile |
2 |
|
No Chows |
10 |
|
No score |
10 |
|
Last tile of wall |
10 |
|
From Loose Tile |
10 |
|
Standing Hand |
100 |
| Type | Number |
|---|---|
|
Robbing a Kong |
1 |
| One suit + Winds or Dragons | 1 |
| 1s & 9s +Winds or Dragons | 1 |
|
One Suit |
3 |
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
|
Thirteen Unique Wonders |
Special Hand |
|
Calling Nine Hand |
Special Hand |
|
Heaven's Blessing |
East's Original Hand |
|
Earth's Blessing |
East's First Discard |
|
Three Great Scholars |
East's Original Hand |
|
All Winds and Dragons |
Pungs/Kongs + Pair of Winds or Dragons |
|
Heads and Tails |
All 1s and 9s |
|
Concealed Treasure |
Pungs/Kongs + Pair of 1 suit, all concealed |
When all hands have been scored they are rounded up to the nearest 10 points. Any hand which evaluates to more than the Limit (500 points) is capped at the Limit. Then the points are settled up (i.e. paid) between the players using the tally sticks. In all cases, including Limit Hands, the player who is currently East pays and receives double what others would pay.
Firstly, the player who went Mah-Jong is paid. (S)he is paid the full value of his/her hand by each of the other players. Then the other players settle up between each other in pairs by taking the difference between their scores and the player with the lower score paying that difference to the other player.
Occasionally a player may make a mistake which could adversely affect the game outcome. In this case a penalty will be incurred. However, mistakes made during setting up the wall or taking pieces etc. are simply resolved by reshuffling and rebuilding. If a penalty is incurred where the player has to pay for the other players there is no payment made between the other 3 players.
Where a penalty makes a players hand dead that means that the player must play the hand out by drawing tiles and discarding until someone else calls Mah-Jong or the hand ends in no result. In the former case the hand is evaluated as no points, but receives no bonus for being no scoring.
The penalties listed are as per both My Set and RCB. An old book on thr British version covered the case of a player having an incorrect number of tiles so I added that as it seems useful. From the same book I have not added mis-identification of a discard leading to an erroneous claim as both players concerned are supposed to be paying proper attention. If that leads to a spurious Mah-Jong claim, that is ignored but the tile announced has become identified as the tile needed for Mah-Jong, hence subsequently discarding the announced tile qualifies for the known tile penalty.
| Type | Penalty |
|---|---|
|
Player has too few tiles |
This cannot be corrected but the player must play on until someone else calls Mah-Jong or the hand ends in no result. Also, the player may not make a set if that would leave the hand with no tile to discard. |
|
Player has too many tiles |
The hand is dead. |
|
Mis-identifying when exposing a set |
If the player corrects the mistake before the next player discards there is no penalty. Otherwise the hand is dead which means that the player must play the hand out by drawing tiles and discarding until someone else calls Mah-Jong or the hand ends in no result. In the former case the hand is evaluated as no points, but receives no bonus for being no scoring. |
|
Mis-calling Mah-Jong and completely exposing the hand |
If the hand was not completely exposed, and no other player has started to expose dtheir hand, then the call may be cancelled and the pieces picked up again. Otherwise the player must pay double the limit to the other players. |
| When a second player is Fishing and has sufficent sets exposed towards a Doubling or Limit hand that it can be identified that (s)he is waiting for a specific tile and a player discards that tile. | The discarding player must not only pay their own losses but those of the other players as well. |