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You will need

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• A set of mahjong tiles.
• Optional: 3 six-sided dice.

Terms

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• the wall - the pile of tiles not yet drawn.
• the live end - the end of the wall tiles are normally drawn from.
• the dead end - the (other) end of the wall where supplement tiles are drawn from, when calling a "quad".
• a terminal - a 1 or a 9 tile.
• a middle - a 2 to 8 tile.
• an honour - a wind or dragon tile.
• a run - a set of 3 consecutive numbered tiles.
• a pair, triplet, quad - a set of 2, 3, 4 identical tiles.
• pattern - a combination of tiles that make points.
• concealed - a set made inside the hand.
• melded - a set made outside the hand.
• small - a set of triplets/quads, where one set is a pair instead.
• big - a set of triplets/quads, where all sets are triplets/quads.
• mixed - a set including honours.
• pure - a set excluding honours.
• branching - a hand containing runs that "branch" from a terminal, e.g. "123" and "789".
• rooted - a hand containing triplets/quads including only terminals, e.g. "111" and "999".

Deal

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Shuffle the tiles by "washing" them on the table, and choose a player to be East. Going counter-clockwise, the other players will be South, West, and North.

Make 4 walls of 17 tiles long and 2 high in a square shape.

The East player rolls 3d6 and, moving counter-clockwise starting with themselves, counts the sum of the roll to choose a wall to "break".

The player whose wall is chosen then rolls 3d6 again to choose a break point, counting right-to-left the sum of the roll.

At the break point each player, starting with the East player and moving counter-clockwise, takes chunks of 4 tiles (2 by 2) to form their hand.

Once each player has 12 tiles, each player takes 1 tile to reach 13, and the East player takes 1 more to reach 14. The East player can take both tiles at the same time, so long as the order of who would take the tiles is the same.

Play then begins when the East player discards a tile.

Play

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Play starts with the South player and moves counter-clockwise.

Each player at the beginning of their turn may either:

1. Draw a tile from the live end of the wall
2. Claim the most recent discarded tile to make a Melded Run, Melded Triplet, or Big Melded Quad

Claiming a discarded tile is a special move, of which there are steps listed below to follow.

Otherwise, a player should draw a tile from the wall. If they want to they may declare a Concealed Quad or a Small Melded Quad, which are also special moves.

If a player has a winning hand (4 runs/triplets/quads and a pair, or an irregular hand), they may call Mahjong and win the round.

If no special move is played and the player can't or decides not to call Mahjong, then the player discards a tile to the center and their turn is over.

If there are no more tiles to draw at the beginning of a player's turn, then no player wins and the game goes into the next round.

The game lasts 4 to 12 rounds, and the role of the dealer rotates counter-clockwise after every round.

Additionally:

• Only score the hand of the player that calls Mahjong, even if other players have winning hands.
• If a winning hand's value exceeds 320 points, they score 320 points or the value of the highest-valued pattern in the hand, whichever is higher.
• If a winning player claims a tile from another player, and that same tile was discarded in the same "go around" (last 4 turns), the player who first discarded that tile is "responsible", and the winning player receives payment from that player instead. If the winner is the one who first discarded that tile, they win by self-draw instead.

Calling Mahjong

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As soon as a player has a winning hand, they may call Mahjong to win the round.

If you draw a tile to make a winning hand, you win by self-draw.

If another player discard a tile that's needed by you to make a winning hand, you win by discard.

If another player makes a Small Melded Quad, and you require that tile to make a winning hand, you win by robbing a quad.

Special moves

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There are a few special moves players can make instead of drawing a tile from the wall, or before discarding a tile:

Discarded

Melded Triplet - If you have a concealed pair in your hand, and the most recently discarded tile would make a triplet:

1. Call "Triplet"
2. Take the discarded tile, and lay the triplet, face up, next to your hand
3. Discard a tile

Melded Run - If you have a two concealed consecutive tiles in your hand, and the most recently discarded tile would make a run:

1. Call "Run"
2. Take the discarded tile, and lay the run, face up, next to your hand
3. Discard a tile

Big Melded Quad - If you have a concealed triplet in your hand, and the most recently discarded tile would make a quad:

1. Call "Quad"
2. Take the discarded tile, and lay the quad, face up, next to your hand
3. Draw a supplement tile from the dead end of the wall
4. Optionally, call Concealed Quad or Small Melded Quad, and follow that move's steps instead
5. Discard a tile

Self-drawn

Small Melded Quad - If you've already played a melded triplet, and you draw a tile that would make it a quad:

1. Call "Quad"
2. Add the 4th tile to the melded triplet to make the quad
3. Draw a supplement tile from the dead end of the wall
4. Optionally, call Concealed Quad or Small Melded Quad, and follow that move's steps instead
5. Discard a tile

Concealed Quad - If you have a concealed triplet in your hand, and you draw a tile that would make it a quad:

1. Call "Quad"
2. Lay the quad, with the two outside tiles face down and the two inside tiles face up, next to your hand
3. Draw a supplement tile from the dead end of the wall
4. Optionally, call Concealed Quad or Small Melded Quad, and follow that move's steps instead
5. Discard a tile

Patterns

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Patterns are sorted into categories and series (e.g. "Three Identical Runs" is notated as 5.1.3, or 5th category, 1st series, 3rd pattern). Only the highest scoring pattern in each series counts towards a player's score. i.e. you can't score on both 4.2.1 and 4.2.2.

If the winning player wins by self-draw, the losing players pays the winning player the value of the winning hand.

If the winning player wins by discard or by robbing a quad, the player that discarded/melded the required tile pays the winning player 3 times the value of the winning hand.

1. Trivial

#	Name	Points
1.1	All Runs	5
1.2	Concealed Hand No melded sets	5
1.3	No Terminals	5

2. One-suit

#	Name	Points
2.1.1	Mixed One-suit	40
2.1.2	Pure One-suit	80
2.2	Nine Gates A "1112345678999" in a single suit, and another tile in the same suit	480

3. Honour

#	Name	Points
3.1	Value Honour A triplet/quad of your own Wind, or any Dragons	10 per set
3.2.1	Small Three Dragons Two triplets/quads and one pair of Dragons	40
3.2.2	Big Three Dragons Three triplets.quads of Dragons	130
3.3.1	Small Three Winds Two triplets/quads and one pair of Winds	30
3.3.2	Big Three Winds Three triplets/quads of Winds	120
3.3.3	Small Four Winds Three triplets/quads and one pair of Winds	320
3.3.4	Big Four Winds Four triplets/quads of Winds	400
3.4	All Honours	320

4. Triplet/Quad

#	Name	Points
4.1	All Triplets	30
4.2.1	Two Concealed Triplets	5
4.2.2	Three Concealed Triplets	30
4.2.3	Four Concealed Triplets	125
4.3.1	One Quad	5
4.3.2	Two Quads	20
4.3.3	Three Quads	120
4.3.4	Four Quads	480

5. Identical

#	Name	Points
5.1.1	Two Identical Runs Two runs of the same suit, of the same values	10
5.1.2	Double Two Identical Runs Two runs of the same suit, of the same values, twice	60
5.1.3	Three Identical Runs Three runs of the same suit, of the same values	120
5.1.4	Four Identical Runs Four runs of the same suit, of the same values	480

6. Similar

#	Name	Points
6.1	Three Similar Runs Three runs of the same value, in all three suits	35
6.1.1	Small Three Similar Runs Two triplets/quads in two suits, and a pair in the third suit, all of the same value	30
6.1.2	Big Three Similar Runs Three triplets/quads of the same value, in all three suits	120

7. Consecutive

#	Name	Points
7.1	Nine-tile straight A "123-456-789" of the same suit	40
7.1.1	Three Consecutive Triplets/Quads Three triplets/quads of consecutive values, of the same suit	100
7.1.2	Four Consecutive Triplets/Quads Four triplets/quads of consecutive values, of the same suit	200

8. Terminal

#	Name	Points
8.1.1	Mixed Branching Terminals Each set contains Terminals and Honours	40
8.1.2	Pure Branching Terminals All sets contain Terminals	50
8.1.3	Mixed Rooted Termincals All sets are exclusively Terminals and Honours	100
8.1.4	Pure Rooted Terminals all sets are exclusively Terminals	400

9. Incidental

#	Name	Points
9.1.1	Final Draw Winning by self-draw on the last tile	10
9.1.2	Final Discard Winning by discard on the last tile	10
9.2	Win on Quad Winning by self-draw on a supplement tile (e.g., from playing a quad)	10
9.3	Robbing a Quad Winning by robbing another player's triplet-to-quad promotion	10
9.4.1	Blessing of Heaven East winning on the first draw without a concealed quad	155
9.4.2	Blessing of Earth Non-East winning on East's first discard without a concealed quad	155

10. Irregular

#	Name	Points
10.1	Thirteen Wonders All 13 Terminals nd Honours, plus an additional Terminal or Honour	160
10.2	Seven pairs Pairs only	30

Tile list

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Characters

Pins

Bamboo

Dragons

Green • Red • White

Winds

East • South • North • West