Tibet rules: Difference between revisions

'''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, new players are able to jump immediately into playing and building their understanding of how mahjong works. Gradually, complexity is introduced in game size until they are ready to take on the full game.

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 the other players' discards to finish things up.

* If the person with the first turn (the dealer) won the hand, they get to stay as dealer for the next hand. Otherwise, the role of the first player moves counter-clockwise, to the player on the previous dealer's right.

'''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 bamboo tiles from next step at the same time you move up to seven-tile hands.

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 there to be complex group patterns, and it's easier to figure out which of your tiles will end up in each set or pair of the completed hand. Since there are two sets and only one pair, there's also a clearer distinction between each type of hand element. For these reasons, it is possible to start teaching with two suits and seven-tile hands, instead of starting with the one-suit, four-tile hand introduction.

As an alternative to introducing the characters suit to players, you can instead introduce them to the dragons first. Dragons are one half of the honors tile type, which do not have numeric values. 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 before the characters suit 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. One tile of each type '''does not''' 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 still might want to hold off on going from ten-tile hands to the full thirteen until the characters numeric suit is introduced.

Due to the dragon tiles' inability to form sequences, it's difficult to make use of these tiles just by drawing them 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.)

* 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 requires that a hand include some kind of scoring pattern so it can be good to be prepared for that additional restriction in the future!

* 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. If you think that it will cause more friction for your players to unlearn ''menzen ron'' without ''riichi'', then feel free to substitute this pattern with [[Riichi]] instead (see the later section on this article for implementation tips). 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.

At this point, players have learned all of the standard "Tibet Rules", and with ''chii'' and basic scoring, 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 forward, specific details on teaching and instruction will be more brief, acting as an overview of the remaining facets of the game that have not yet been introduced.

* '''[[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.

** 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''.

* '''[[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'':

** '''Added Kan''' (''shouminkan''): After having previously called ''pon'', draw the fourth tile, then call and reveal it to form the ''kan''. Note that you cannot call a discard of the fourth tile to create a ''kan'' on an opened triplet; a ''kan'' requires you having drawn at least three of the matching tiles yourself.

* '''[[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 alert them to play more defensively to avoid dealing into you. 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 plus side, 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, the Concealed Hand ''yaku'' 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'' 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. 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.