Tibet rules: Difference between revisions

* '''[[Japanese mahjong setup|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 drawing tiles from a pool of face-down tiles in the center of the table can 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. Other than the number of tiles, the wall-breaking and starting hand draw procedure should apply 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.

* '''[[Kazehai|Wind tiles]]''': Like the dragon tiles, winds are honor tiles that cannot form sequences, only pairs and triplets. Unlike dragons, however, the value of a triplet of winds is conditional on your seat and the round of play.

** '''Seat Wind Triplet''': [1 ''han''] A triplet of wind tiles that matches your seat. 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.

** '''Round Wind Triplet''': [1 ''han''] During each player's first dealership, this is called the East round; a triplet of East winds during this round is worth 1 ''han'' for any player. For the dealer, a triplet of East winds counts for both the Seat and Round wind scoring patterns for 2 ''han'' total. In games with two rounds of dealerships, the second round is the South round, and so those tiles form a value triplet for any player. (In Japanese Mahjong, games are usually only one or two rounds in length. But depending on rules, this pattern extends to the West and North rounds for the third and fourth rounds, respectively.)

** 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''. They can also be used alongside dragons towards the Half Flush ''yaku''.

* '''[[Wanpai|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.

* '''[[Kan|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'. There are three types of ''kan'':

** When starting out, declaring ''Riichi'' has no point cost. 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'' off of another player. (If a player declares ''ron'' off the tile you use to declare ''riichi'', you do not need to pay the 10-point ante.) And if the hand goes to a draw, then your bet is set aside to be claimed by the next winner of a 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]]''': ''Furiten'' is a restriction on a player that prevents them from calling ''ron'' on any other player's discards. It reduces the ability of a player to target a specific opponent, and allows for more defensive play, such as avoiding discarding into an opponent who has declared ''riichi''. There are two main types of ''furiten''.

** '''Declined win furiten''': If you decide not to call ''ron'' on another player's discard (or if you cannot due to a lack of ''yaku'' in the full ruleset), then you are locked out of declaring ''ron'' until after you draw your next tile. You can still call ''tsumo'' on your own draws, regardless. However, if you decline ''ron'' while in Riichi status, this declined win ''furiten'' becomes a permanent status since you have no option to change your hand, and so you can only win via ''tsumo''.

* '''[[Dora]]'''

** '''Kandora'''

** '''Uradora'''

* '''Additional scoring patterns (yaku)''': There are a few dozen scoring patterns in Riichi Mahjong, but some of them are quite 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.)

* '''Scoring in Riichi Mahjong'''

** '''[[Honba]]'''

** '''Point exchanges at exhaustive draw'''

* '''Common [[rule variations]] in Riichi Mahjong'''