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Gamehelphkmahjong
This game plays Hong Kong Old Style mahjong. Its scoring is not the Chinese Official (MCR) fan list that ships with many mahjong sets: hands are counted in Faan from 0 to 13, and many MCR hands (Seven Pairs, All Green, Knitted Straight, ...) don't exist here.
Winning hand
A winning hand (Sik Wu) is four Sets plus one pair, the Eyes:
- Chow: three consecutive tiles of one suit.
- Pung: three identical tiles.
- Kong: four identical tiles, declared as one Set (you then take a Replacement draw).
Thirteen Orphans is the only winning hand with a different shape.
A hand must be worth at least the table's Minimum Faan to win: 3 Faan by default, or no minimum at a beginner table. Faan from Bonus tiles count toward the minimum. Small and Great Flower hands win regardless of the minimum.
Counting Faan
- Add everything. Every element the hand meets adds its Faan, including elements implied by another one (Small Dragons also scores its two Dragon Pungs).
- Limit hands pay flat. A 10- or 13-Faan limit hand scores exactly its limit. Nothing else is added. A hand that is both a 10- and a 13-Faan limit hand scores 13.
- Cap. The total is capped at 13.
- Best reading. If the hand splits into Sets in more than one way, the split worth the most Faan counts.
When a hand ends, the game shows each element with its Faan, the total, and who paid what.
Faan table
| Element | Faan | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken hand | 0 | A complete hand with no scoring element. Wins only at a table with no minimum. |
| Common hand | 1 | Four Chows and Eyes. |
| Dragon Pung | 1 each | A Pung or Kong of one dragon. |
| Seat-wind Pung | 1 | A Pung or Kong of your Seat wind. |
| Prevailing-wind Pung | 1 | A Pung or Kong of the Round's wind. Scores 2 if it is also your Seat wind. |
| Concealed hand | 1 | No Chow, Pung or Kong claimed from a discard. A Concealed Kong keeps the hand concealed. |
| Self-draw | 1 | The winning tile is drawn from the Wall (Replacement draws included). |
| Robbing the Kong | 1 | Winning on the tile another player adds to a Pung to make a Kong. |
| Last tile | 1 | Self-draw of the last tile of the Wall. |
| Last discard | 1 | Winning on the last discard of the Hand. |
| Win by Kong | 1 | Winning on the Replacement draw after a Kong (plus 1 for the Self-draw). Doesn't count after a Bonus-tile Replacement draw. |
| Own-seat Flower / Own-seat Season | 1 each | A Flower or Season whose number matches your Seat wind (East 1, South 2, West 3, North 4). |
| No Bonus tiles | 1 | Winning without having declared any Bonus tile. |
| Mixed terminals | 1 | All Pungs made only of 1s, 9s and honours. With All Pungs: 4. |
| Full set of Flowers / Full set of Seasons | 2 each | All four tiles of one kind. The own-seat tile inside it isn't counted again. |
| All Pungs | 3 | Four Pungs or Kongs and Eyes. |
| Mixed one suit | 3 | One suit plus honours. |
| Small Dragons | 3 | Two Dragon Pungs and Eyes of the third dragon. With the two Dragon Pungs: 5. |
| Small Flower hand | 3 | Holding seven Bonus tiles. Wins at once, counted as a Self-draw with no extra Self-draw Faan. |
| Great Dragons | 5 | Three Dragon Pungs. With the three Dragon Pungs: 8. |
| Small Winds | 6 | Three wind Pungs and Eyes of the fourth wind. Other elements (wind Pungs, Mixed one suit) add to it. |
| Pure one suit | 7 | One suit, no honours. |
| Kong-on-Kong | 8 | Winning on the Replacement draw of a second Kong in a row (plus 1 for the Self-draw). |
| Limit hands: 10 Faan, flat | ||
| All Honours | 10 | Every Set and the Eyes are winds or dragons. |
| All Terminals | 10 | All Pungs of 1s and 9s only. |
| Nine Gates | 10 | Concealed 1-1-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-9-9 of one suit, winning on any tile of that suit. |
| Self triplets | 10 | Four concealed Pungs (Concealed Kongs allowed) and Eyes. Waiting on either of two pairs, the win must be a Self-draw. |
| Limit hands: 13 Faan, flat | ||
| Great Winds | 13 | Four wind Pungs. |
| All Kongs | 13 | Four Kongs and Eyes. |
| Thirteen Orphans | 13 | One of each 1, 9, wind and dragon, plus one more of any of them. May rob a Concealed Kong. |
| Heavenly hand | 13 | The Dealer is complete on the initial deal. |
| Earthly hand | 13 | A non-Dealer wins on the Dealer's first discard. |
| Great Flower hand | 13 | Holding all eight Bonus tiles. |
Not in this game: Seven Pairs, the Jade, Ruby and Pearl Dragon hands, and the Hand of Man (人糊).
Examples
- Four Chows and Eyes, won by Self-draw, holding your own-seat Season: Common hand 1 + Self-draw 1 + Own-seat Season 1 = 3 Faan.
- Three Dragon Pungs, a Chow and Eyes, won on a discard: Great Dragons 5 + three Dragon Pungs 3 = 8 Faan.
- Great Winds won by Self-draw with an own-seat Flower: 13 Faan, nothing added.
- Three Chows, one claimed Pung of 6 Characters, Eyes of South, as West in an East Round, holding Bonus tiles: no element at all, 0 Faan. It can't win at a 3-Faan table.
Payment
The capped Faan total gives the hand's base points (b):
| Faan | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 | 48 | 64 | 96 | 128 | 192 | 256 | 384 |
| How the hand is won | Who pays | Winner receives |
|---|---|---|
| Self-draw | Each of the other three pays 2b | 6b |
| Discard win | The Discarder pays 2b, the other two pay b each | 4b |
| Robbing the Kong | The Kong-maker alone pays 6b | 6b |
Example, 3 Faan (b = 8): a Self-draw collects 16 from each player (+48). A Discard win collects 16 from the Discarder and 8 from each of the other two (+32). Robbing the Kong collects 48 from the Kong-maker alone (+48).
- The Dealer pays and receives like everyone else.
- A Draw (Wall exhausted, nobody wins) moves no points.
- Everyone starts with 10,000 points. Nobody is knocked out; a score below zero keeps playing.
Game end and ranking
The Dealer (East) keeps the seat after winning. After anyone else wins, or after a Draw, the deal passes counter-clockwise to South. A Round ends once every player has dealt. The table chooses one Round (East), two (East, South) or a full game of four. Players are ranked by score; ties go to the player who won more Hands, then to the one who scored more Faan over the game.