44
edits
Tibet rules: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| (2 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 79: | Line 79: | ||
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. | 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 | == Approaching the full-sized game == | ||
There are multiple | 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 === | === Thirteen-tile hands and the characters suit === | ||
| Line 115: | Line 115: | ||
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. | 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) === | === Calling for sequences (chii) === | ||
| Line 129: | Line 131: | ||
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". | 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. (In other words, ''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'' 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. | 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 to play while keeping 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: | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
!'''Total Han''' !! 0 !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4-5 !! 6+ | |||
|- | |||
| '''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 ''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'' value. Hands earn ''han'' based on the scoring patterns, or ''[[yaku]]'', that they satisfy; scoring patterns reward hands that are consistent or exceptional in its sets. 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. | |||
At the ten-tile hand game with two numeric suits and dragons, we'll 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, you 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 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. You should be encouraged 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 [[atamahane|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. | |||
* Playing a set of hands where each player has had a chance to be dealer forms a single round. (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 playing actual games of mahjong. In order to get all the way to Riichi mahjong, there are 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 here, 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. All other parts of the wall-breaking and starting hand draw procedure apply as standard. 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. 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. | |||
* '''[[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'. | |||
=== Riichi-specific rules === | |||
* '''[[Riichi]]''': 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. 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 ''han'', which can represent a large point boost. In the full ruleset, a closed hand without any other inherent ''yaku'' cannot be won on ''ron'', so ''riichi'' is a vital part of being able to win with arbitrary hands -- it's the name of the game, after all! | |||
* '''[[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''. | |||
* '''[[Dora]]''' | |||
* '''Additional scoring patterns (yaku)''' | |||
* | * '''Scoring in Riichi Mahjong''' | ||
** '''[[Scoring table|fu points and higher scoring limits]]''' | |||
** '''[[Honba]]''' | |||
** '''Point exchanges at exhaustive draw''' | |||
* | * '''Common [[rule variations]] in Riichi Mahjong''' | ||
== External Links == | == External Links == | ||