Tibet rules

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Tibet rules are a family of variations of mahjong designed for teaching the game to players who are completely new to mahjong. By starting with a very simple set of rules and objective, and then gradually moving up in complexity, new players are able to jump immediately into playing and building their understanding of how mahjong works.

Teaching the basics

Tibet rules start with a game played with only a single numeric suit, the circles. Each tile has a value from 1 to 9; there are four copies of each tile, for a total of thirty-six tiles.

The objective of the game is to assemble a hand of five tiles, consisting of one pair and one set of three tiles. Pairs are two tiles with an identical number, while sets can be sequences of three consecutive tiles, or triplets of three identical tiles. Note that 1 and 9 do not connect to one another; these can only be at the end of sequences and not in their middle.

  • Example of a pair:
  • Example of a sequence:
  • Example of a triplet:

Examples of complete hands:

  • (a pair and a sequence)
  • (a pair and a triplet)
  • (note that despite having three 3s, we count two of them as a pair, using the last one as part of a sequence)

During play, you will normally only have four tiles in your hand. On your turn, you will draw a face-down tile into your hand. If that tile creates a completed hand, you say tsumo, reveal your hand, and claim the win. Otherwise, you choose one tile from your hand to discard face up. This tile can be the tile you just drew, or one that was previously in your hand. After you discard, if that tile would complete another player's hand, they can claim it to win. In that case, they should say ron, and reveal their hand to show how the discard would complete it. If nobody declares ron, then the next player takes their turn; in mahjong, turns are taken in a counter-clockwise order, moving to the right. The hand continues with each player making a draw, then a discard, and continuing until someone wins, or all tiles have been drawn. In the latter case, the hand just ends in a draw with no winner.

It's worth emphasizing one more time how you win a hand. If you win by drawing your own winning tile, you say tsumo. If you win by seeing an opponent's discard, you say ron. Pay attention to when your hand is ready to accept a winning tile; this state is called tenpai. Before you hit tenpai, you're dependent on your own draws to advance your hand; when you are in tenpai, you can now use other peoples' discards to finish things up.

Examples of tenpai hands:

Waiting for: (a single tile wait to complete the pair)
Waiting for: (a closed sequence wait)
Waiting for: (a two-sided sequence wait)
Waiting for: (a dual pair wait, completing by upgrading one into a triplet)
Waiting for: (a dual single wait: if we take 678 as a sequence, we can complete the hand by pairing the 9; if we treat 789 as a sequence, we can complete the hand by pairing the 6)
Waiting for: (a combination wait: if we treat the 666 as a triplet, we can claim 5 for a pair; if we set aside a 66 pair, we can claim 4 or 7 to finish the sequence implied by 56)

Additional Notes

  • Since we have so few tiles, we're not going to bother with the rituals of wall-building quite yet. To start each hand, just shuffle up all the tiles face-down in the center of the table, and draw straight from the pool.
  • For the time being, having all four of the same tile in hand does not hold any special significance. Quads or kan will be introduced much later, after the end of the standard Tibet rules path.
  • Only the most recent discard can be used to call on a win. You can't go back to a discard from previous turns to win!
  • If the person with the first turn (the dealer) won the hand, they get to stay as dealer for the next hand. Otherwise, the first player moves counter-clockwise, to the player on the previous dealer's right.
  • For experienced teachers: don't introduce, enforce, or worry about furiten. Focus on helping players get to any kind of tenpai. At the end of each hand, review everyone's hands. If a player is in tenpai, see if they can name what they're waiting on. If they're not in tenpai, see if they know what tiles would have helped them get there. (There is no way to be even further than iishanten with four tiles in a single suit.) If the players are struggling with seeing how to progress their hands, then play with open hands, and only allow self-drawn tsumo wins. But don't jump in too quickly -- it's important for players to explore the space for themselves and experience the decision-making challenges of mahjong first-hand.
  • Similarly, do not introduce scoring, riichi, or tile calls yet.

Increasing complexity

Once the players are comfortable with four-tile mahjong hands, increase the base hand size to seven tiles. Under these rules, the goal is to create a winning hand of eight tiles: two sets (each either a sequence or triplet) and one pair. Since we're still working with a single suit, there are some tricky tenpai patterns that can result.

Examples of tenpai hands:

Waiting for: (a single tile wait to complete the pair)
Waiting for: (a two-sided sequence wait)
Waiting for: (a dual pair wait, completing by upgrading one into a triplet)
Waiting for: (a three-way sequence wait: if we see 567 as a complete set, we wait to complete the 34 sequence off a 2 or 5. If we see the 345 as a complete set, we wait to complete the 67 sequence off a 5 or 8.)
Waiting for: (a dual single wait: if we take 678 as a sequence, we can complete the hand by pairing the 9; if we treat 789 as a sequence, we can complete the hand by pairing the 6)
Waiting for: (a triple single wait: this works a similar way to the dual single wait. If we treat 345 as a sequence, it becomes a 6789 dual single wait. If we treat 789 as a sequence, it becomes a 3456 dual single wait.)
Waiting for: (a complex combination wait: with a 777 triplet, the remaining 2345 is the dual single pattern. But with a 77 pair and 234 sequence, the remaining 57 can be completed by filling in the 6.)

Side Note: If you are teaching a full table of four players, then with seven-tile hands, there will only be eight tiles left over after each player draws their starting hand (36 - 4 * 7 = 8). This lack of tiles can create a somewhat unsatisfactory game experience, so you may want to introduce the next step at the same time you move up to seven-tile hands.

Once players are comfortable with playing with seven-tile hands, the next step to take is to introduce a second numeric suit: the bamboo tiles. Like the circles, the bamboo tiles are numbered from 1 to 9, with four copies of each tile. Note that the 1 is indicated by a bird (usually a peafowl or sparrow depending on design), and the 8's bamboo are arranged in an M/W pattern.

Pairs, sequences, and triplets cannot be made by "mixing" suits -- each set or pair can only be made from a single suit. However, the hand as a whole can have sets or the pair in multiple suits. In practice, despite there being more possibilities for hands, this will be easier than the single-suited, seven-tile hand game. A second suit means that it's less likely for complex group patterns, which makes it easier to figure out which of your tiles will end up in each set or pair of the completed hand. There's an argument that can be made that you can start teaching from here, at the two-suit, seven-tile game, as it also provides a clearer distinction between a set and the pair, since the final hand will have a different number of each type of hand element.

Regardless, once players are comfortable at this level, the next step is to increase the hand size to ten tiles. A completed hand will have eleven tiles, consisting of three sets and one pair.

Approaching the full-sized game

There are multiple options for what to add in order to bring players up to full-sized mahjong. Some of the rules in this section will start to break away from the "Tibet Rules" sphere, and towards playing Riichi Mahjong.

Thirteen-tile hands and the characters suit

A full hand in Riichi mahjong consists of thirteen tiles; a complete hand has fourteen tiles, consisting of four sets and one pair. While it is technically possible to play with full-sized hands with only two numeric suits, at a table of four players, this leaves only twenty tiles to be drawn after each player has their initial hands (72 - 4 * 13 = 20).

So it is natural to introduce the characters numeric suit at the same time as the full hand size, or while players are still working on ten-tile hands.

One major hurdle with the characters suit is that it requires players to understand how to read Chinese characters. If your tile set does not have numeric indices on the tiles as a guide, it's a good idea to have some references available for players to look over to help them learn the tiles.

Dragon tiles and calling for triplets (pon)

As an alternative to introducing the characters suit to players, you can instead introduce them to the dragons first. There are three types of dragon, identified by their unique faces. Understanding the meaning of these tiles is not important, you can just treat them as symbols. Due to this fact, introducing them first can push back the need for outside reference cards and keep the flow of learning moving forward.

The main thing to note for these tiles is that they can only form triplets and pairs. You can't take one tile of each type and make a set; it's as invalid as trying to make a sequence by mixing up tiles of different numeric suits.

Side note: Since there are only twelve tiles added with the dragons, you might still want to hold off on going from ten-tile hands to the full thirteen until the characters numeric suit is introduced.

Due to dragons' inability to form sequences, it's difficult to make use of these tiles just by drawing tiles on your own. It'd be nice to be able to use other players' discards to advance your own hand, right? This makes for a great opportunity to teach players a new type of call: pon. After another player discards a tile that would complete a triplet, you may call pon. Reveal the pair matching the discard from your hand, and set them to the side. The tile you claimed should be placed with those two tiles, rotated depending on which player you called it from. (The reasons why we do this will become important in the full Riichi rules.)

from left from across from right

The called set is now locked in; you only need to complete the rest of your hand in order to win. Calling another player's tile also effectively makes it your turn, with the tile we called being the tile you 'drew'; you then need to choose a tile from your hand to discard. Note that this means that a pon call can skip over other players' turns. If you claim a triplet from the player across from you, the player to your left does not get their originally-scheduled turn, and after your discard, the next turn will be taken by the player on your right.

Note as well that pon can be called to complete any triplet, not just the dragons. Just be careful not to break apart any elements in your hand such as sequences that end up with you being further away from completing your hand! It's always optional whether or not you decide to make a call. But if you do call, make sure you do it quickly, before the next player draws their next tile. After a player has drawn their tile, it's too late to make a call.

Additionally, ron takes precedence over pon. Even if the discarded tile would complete a pair or sequence, winning is still more powerful than player just completing a triplet.

Calling for sequences (chii)

Inevitably, a player will ask, "if we can call pon to complete a triplet, can we call to complete a sequence?" The answer is yes, using the chii call. Since sequences are easier to build than triplets, however, chii can only be called on a discard made by the person to your left.

from left

The procedure after making a chii call is just like with pon. Set aside all three tiles, turning the called tile on the left. Then, discard a tile and turns continue counter-clockwise. In the example above, we've called the 3 discarded by the person on our left to complete a sequence with the 24 that we had in our hand. It's important (for the full Riichi ruleset) that the tile we called be oriented towards the player we called it from, even if the set-aside set looks "out of order".

It is possible for a tile to be claimed by someone wanting to call pon at the same time as chii (e.g. a 333 triplet of bamboo in the example). If two players want the same tile, the pon caller gets priority and their call goes through. Similarly, a player calling ron gets their win over a player calling chii. (In other words, ron > pon > chii.) For that reason, if you want to call chii, it's a good idea to wait a second or two before making your call, just in case someone else wants to make a pon or ron call. If you've given enough time for someone else to call, you should be free to claim your tile without needing to take things back.

Simplified scoring system

If your players are feeling competitive, they might ask for a way to keep score. While there's a lot of different ways of setting up a scoring system (and indeed, scoring is one of the main ways in which different variations of mahjong distinguish themselves), a simplified version of the Riichi scoring table will be introduced here:

Total Han 0 han 1 han 2 han 3 han 4-5 han 6+ han
Dealer win, tsumo 2 from all 5 from all 10 from all 20 from all 40 from all 60 from all
Dealer win, ron 5 from discarder 15 from discarder 30 from discarder 60 from discarder 120 from discarder 180 from discarder
Non-dealer win, tsumo 2 dealer / 1 non-dealer 5 dealer / 3 non-dealer 10 dealer / 5 dealer 20 dealer / 10 non-dealer 40 dealer / 20 non-dealer 60 dealer / 30 non-dealer
Non-dealer win, ron 3 from discarder 10 from discarder 20 from discarder 40 from discarder 80 from discarder 120 from discarder

To unpack the table, on a self-drawn tsumo, each player pays the winner; on a ron, only the discarder pays, and they pay for everyone's contribution. The dealer is individually responsible for twice the amount against each other player, so they ultimately get 1.5x the score of non-dealers on a win. (Note that this isn't exact due to rounding at small han values.)

The overall value of a hand is determined by its han tally. Hands earn han based on the scoring patterns, or yaku, that they satisfy; scoring patterns reward hands or sets that are consistent or exceptional, and more difficult patterns are worth more han. To score a hand, add up the total han from all of the patterns satisfied by the hand, then look up its point value from the corresponding column and row.

At the ten-tile hand game with two numeric suits and dragons, start with the following patterns:

  • Concealed Hand (menzen): [1 han] Hand has no chii or pon calls before winning (but can win on ron as well as tsumo).
  • All Simples (tanyao): [1 han] Hand has no 1s, 9s, or dragon honors. Or, in other words, the hand only contains numeric tiles between 2 and 8, inclusive.
  • Dragon Triplet (yakuhai): [1 han each] Hand contains a dragon triplet. Stacks for multiple dragon triplets.
  • All Triplets (toitoihou): [2 han] The hand's sets are only triplets (plus the standard pair).
  • Full Flush (chinitsu): [2 han] The hand's tiles are only from a single suit.

After introducing the characters numeric suit and moving up to the full thirteen-tile hand size, we can add one more pattern:

  • Half Flush (honitsu): [2 han] The hand's tiles are from a single numeric suit, plus any number of dragon (honor) tiles (including as its pair).
    • Full Flush becomes worth [5 han] to reflect its increased difficulty with a third numeric suit.

Additional Notes

  • At this learning stage, there is no requirement to have a yaku in order to win a hand. However, note that while a hand's value doubles for each han from 1-han to 4-han, the 0-han value is only about 1/3 the 1-han hand value. This should encourage you to try and aim for having at least 1 han in your hand if you can see an opportunity for it; the full Riichi ruleset also enforces a 1-han minimum so it can be good to be prepared for that additional restriction in the future!
  • If two players want to call ron on the same tile at the same time, priority goes to the person whose turn would come soonest after the discarding player. (Experienced players will recognize this as the head bump rule.)
  • Teachers with Riichi Mahjong experience will note that the "Concealed Hand" pattern also allows for menzen ron wins, and doesn't distinguish them from menzen tsumo. We also haven't introduced the riichi call yet. Feel free to substitute this pattern with Riichi instead, if you think that it will cause more friction for your players to unlearn menzen ron without riichi. While the concept of furiten is important with riichi, you can hold off on introducing it until it becomes relevant, since it is an advanced rule to understand.
  • A single round consists of a set of hands where each player has had a chance to be dealer. (Don't forget that when the dealer wins, they get to stay as dealer.) A game usually lasts for one or two rounds.

Completing the journey to Riichi Mahjong

With all of the rules above, players are at the point where they're pretty much just playing actual mahjong. In order to get all the way to Riichi mahjong, there are first a few more 'core' rules to learn that are found in most common variants of mahjong, followed by a number of rules that are specific to the full Riichi Mahjong ruleset. From this point in this article, specific details on teaching and instruction will be more brief: this is more an overview of the remaining facets of the game that have not yet been introduced.

Common core mahjong rules

  • Wall building and breaking: With all three numeric suits and the dragons, there will be 120 tiles on the table. This is enough tiles that just drawing tiles from a pool of face-down tiles in the center of the table might feel a bit disorganized. So you can start going through the rituals of wall-building and breaking at this point. Without the wind tiles, each player should gather thirty tiles after shuffling, and build walls of fifteen tiles long, stacked two tiles high. Otherwise, the wall-breaking and starting hand draw procedure applies as standard (no dead wall or dora indicator until those rules are introduced). A key point for new players: while turn order is counter-clockwise, tiles are drawn from the wall in clockwise order.
  • Wind tiles: Like the dragon tiles, winds are honor tiles that cannot form sequences. Wind tiles can also be used in Half Flush hands just like dragons. Unlike dragons, however, their value is conditional on your seat and the round of play. Wind triplets that do not match your seat or the round wind can still be used to advance your hand towards completion, but are not inherently worth han. The dealer is always the East seat, and the winds advance in order of play to South, West, and North. Note that this does not reflect the compass directions when looking at the ground, but rather the celestial compass when looking up towards the sky.
  • Dead wall: With the full set of tiles, not only will the wall be seventeen stacks on a side, but there's enough tiles to introduce the dead wall concept. Now, rather than exhausting the walls entirely before a draw, a draw will end when there are only fourteen tiles left in the wall.
  • Quads / kan: It is possible to create sets consisting of four identical tiles, but they require additional handling. Since a kan requires one more tile than a normal set, after a kan has been declared (which includes if you want to set a quad where you've drawn all four tiles), a replacement tile must be drawn from the back (dead) end of the wall before a discard is declared. (The replacement tile can also complete the calling player's hand, which lets them call tsumo.) Note that a draw is still declared when there are fourteen undrawn tiles left, so after a kan, the last tile in the 'live' wall will become 'dead'.

Riichi-specific rules

  • Riichi: Riichi is the name of the game, and the most important yaku to understand. If your hand is in tenpai and does not have any open calls (no chii or pon calls, and any kan calls must have been from having all four tiles in-hand), then you can declare riichi when making a discard. The discarded tile is turned sideways to show that you have called riichi; if that tile is called, your next discard should be turned sideways. Declaring riichi tells your opponents that you are ready to win, which can cause them to change the way to play in order to avoid discarding your winning tile. Additionally, your hand is locked in: tiles that do not let you win must be discarded (exception: a kan can be declared using a drawn tile, if doing so doesn't change what you could win on). On the other hand, a hand won under the riichi status confers an additional [1 han], which can represent a large point boost when stacked with other scoring patterns.
    • After introducing Riichi, Concealed Hand should no longer be allowed as a scoring pattern. If your hand is in tenpai, but doesn't have any particular scoring pattern, you should declare riichi if you want to score more than just the baseline points! The full Riichi ruleset also has a 1-han minimum value required to win a hand, so being able to declare riichi becomes even more important once you implement that requirement!
    • When starting out, declaring Riichi can be free. Once you get more experience, riichi should also cost a 10-point bet to declare. If you win the hand, then you get to take back your bet. But if someone else wins, they get your points, even if they won via tsumo or ron from another player. And if the hand goes to a draw, then your bet is set aside to be claimed by the winner of the next hand, whomever that might be.
    • Remember: you can't call riichi if you've made a chii, pon, or open kan call! Often, there's a tradeoff between whether you should keep your hand concealed to try and earn more points, or if you should make calls to speed it up at the cost of potential value.
  • Furiten: If a player had discarded a tile that their current hand could've won with, they are in furiten. A hand in furiten may not call ron by any means. Even if the player's discarded tile and the opponent's tile are different, you may not call ron. A hand in furiten may win from tsumo (self-draw) as normal, or change its wait so that it is no longer in furiten.
  • Additional scoring patterns (yaku): There are a few dozen scoring patterns in Riichi Mahjong, but many of them are fairly rare.
    • Closed-only scoring patterns: Fully Concealed Hand (menzen tsumo), Pinfu, Two Identical Sequences (iipeikou). Most of the time, if your hand reaches tenpai without making any calls, you're probably going to want to call riichi. So you might think of these patterns are bonuses to your hand's value when it is won with riichi.
    • Uncommon patterns: Full Straight (ikkitsuukan), Three Similar Sequences (sanshoku doujun), Included Terminals and Honors (chanta), Included Terminals (junchan), Seven Unique Pairs (chiitoitsu). Identifying opportunities for these yaku is trickier than the bread-and-butter patterns that were introduced at first. However, their higher han values can make them valuable when those opportunities show up. Note that many of these patterns are worth fewer han if they are in a hand with open calls. (Such is also the case for the Half Flush and Full Flush hands.)


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