Rule variations

Miscellaneous – Dead Wall

Four Winds lets you specify the way the Dead Wall is used in the game.

To specify the Dead Wall:

Choose Preferences on the File menu.
From the Rule Presets list, choose a customized rule preset.
Choose General under the Rules section of the category tree.
From the Dead Wall drop-down list, choose one of the following options:

None. The Dead Wall is not used, and accordingly all 136 tiles (or more, if extra tiles are used) are available for play. The supplement tiles are simply taken from the other end of the Wall and the deal ends after there are no tiles left to play. This option is used in the modern American and Australian versions of Mah Jong, but sometimes also in the Asian versions.

Replenishing. As the deal starts, 14 tiles to the right of the breaking point of the Wall are traditionally separated as the Dead Wall. The supplement tiles taken from the Dead Wall are replaced from the Wall so that the number of tiles in the Dead Wall always stays 14. After the last tile is picked from the Wall, the deal ends, i.e., the 14 tiles of the Dead Wall are never used. This option is used by most rules, and the number of tiles is usually 14, but it can be changed to anything between 2 and 40.

Exhaustible. As the deal starts the specified number of tiles to the right of the breaking point of the Wall are separated as the Dead Wall. You can specify the number of tiles to be used in the Dead Wall with even numbers from 2 to 40. The supplement tiles taken from the Dead Wall are not replaced from the Wall so the number of tiles in the Dead Wall decreases. The deal ends either after the last tile is picked from the Wall, or the last supplement tile is taken from the Dead Wall, and it is not used as the winning tile. This option is used e.g. in the Italian Official rules and Chinese Classical rules, the previous uses 20 tiles (with Flowers and Seasons), the latter 16 tiles (and in classical rules supplement tiles for Flowers and Seasons are picked from the open end of the Wall, rather than from the Dead Wall).

Note: Certain rule options require a specific Dead Wall option, e.g., if Dora tiles are used, Replenishing is automatically selected as the Dead Wall option and the number of tiles must be at least 14.