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 6s as a triplet, we can claim 5 for a pair; if we set aside a pair of 6s, 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 anti-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.
More advanced ruleset
Once the player(s) are comfortable with 4 tile mahjong hands, increase the base hand size to 7 tiles. In these rules, the goal is to create a winning hand of 8 tiles: 2 sets and 1 pair. A tenpai hand is 7 tiles: either 1 set + 1 incomplete set + 1 pair, or 2 sets + a tile waiting to be paired. Still use only 1 suit for now.
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 combination 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. It can be seen as 3 + 456 + 789, 345 + 6 + 789, or 345 + 678 + 9. Therefore you can complete a pair with any of the three listed tiles.)
After players are comfortable with that, introduce another suit: the bamboos. Note that pairs, sequences, and triplets cannot be made by "mixing" suits - each set/pair can only be made from a single suit.