American Mahjong

There are 152 tiles:

• Three suits, numbered 1 to 9, four of each: Bams (green), Craks (red) and Dots (blue).
• Winds: North, East, West and South, four of each.
• Dragons: Red, Green and White ("Soap"), four of each. Each dragon goes with a suit: Red with Craks, Green with Bams, White with Dots. The White Dragon is also used as a zero, as in a year like 2026.
• 8 Flowers and 8 Jokers.

The tiles are mixed face down. Each player builds a wall in front of their rack: 19 stacks, two tiles high. East (the dealer) rolls the dice to decide where to break the wall. Then the tiles are dealt, 4 at a time, three times around the table, then 1 more each. East takes one extra, so East starts with 14 tiles and everyone else with 13.

Before play starts, players trade tiles they don't want. Everyone passes 3 tiles at the same time:

• First Charleston (always): pass right, then across, then left.
• Second Charleston (only if every player agrees): pass left, then across, then right.
• Courtesy pass: you and the player across from you may trade 0 to 3 tiles. You trade the smaller of the two numbers you each choose.

Jokers can never be passed. On the last pass of each Charleston you may pass blind: pass on tiles that are coming to you, without looking at them.

East starts by discarding a tile. Then play moves to the right: each player draws a tile from the wall, then discards one, so you always hold 13 tiles between turns. Say the name of the tile you discard so everyone knows what it is.

When someone discards a tile you need, you may call it, even if it isn't your turn:

• To make a set of 3 or more of the same tile (a pung, kong, quint or sextet), which you then place face up on your rack for everyone to see. Then you discard, and play continues to your right.
• To complete your hand (Mahjong). This is the only time you can call a tile for a pair or a single.

If two players want the same tile, Mahjong comes first. Otherwise the player next in turn gets it. Once you have exposed a set, you can no longer win with a concealed (C) hand.

• A joker can stand in for any tile in a set of 3 or more: a pung, kong, quint or sextet.
• Jokers can never be used in a pair or a single tile.
• A discarded joker can't be called by anyone.
• On your turn, if another player has an exposed set with a joker in it, you may swap in the real tile from your rack and take the joker.

When your 14 tiles match a hand on the card exactly, declare Mahjong. Each hand on the card has a value (25, 30, and so on):

• Every other player pays you that value.
• If you won on someone's discard, that player pays double.
• If you drew the winning tile yourself, everyone pays double.
• A win with no jokers at all doubles the value, except for Singles and Pairs hands, which can't use jokers anyway.

In this game you play for tokens, which have no money value.

A hand is dead when its exposed sets can no longer be finished into any hand, for example because the tiles it needs are all already out. A player with a dead hand stops drawing and discarding, but still pays the winner.

If the wall runs out and nobody has Mahjong, it's a wall game: nobody pays, and a new game begins.