Tibet rules
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.
- 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. In 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.)
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. 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 as well that you can also start 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 of three tiles, and one pair.
Approaching the complete game
There are multiple possible paths here for what to add in order to bring players up to full-sized mahjong. From this point onwards, the rules start to deviate from "Tibet Rules" and start to go towards actual "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:
Since understanding the meaning of these tiles is not necessary, this can push back the need for outside reference cards which might take away from the flow of learning. 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 sequency by mixing up tiles of different numeric suits.
Due to dragons' inability to form sequence, it's evident that 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 peoples' 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 |
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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.
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.
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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. 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 call.
Introducing Riichi + Calls
A suggested simplified ruleset, which introduces riichi, furiten, and tile calls, is as follows. This specific ruleset should be adjusted depending on the player group.
- Riichi: A player may declare riichi when their hand is in tenpai and has not been opened. (In other words, Calling either chii or pon opens the hand and prevents you from calling riichi. Declaring riichi tells your opponents that you are close to winning, but increases your score in your process. Riichi does not cost anything for right now.
- Simplified points: When winning, a hand that declares riichi scores 2 points. All other types of hand score 1 point. No yaku are required yet. You should mention that a yaku is required to win with regular rules, but don't actually require yaku to win.
- 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 fuirten may win from tsumo (self-draw) as normal, or change its wait so that it is no longer in furiten.