Rule variations

The rule of Ready – Obligatory Ready declaration

In certain rules (e.g., in British Official and Nordic rules) the players are required to declare that they need only one tile to complete the hand and go out. This causes other players to be more careful in their choice of discards, especially if the rules dictate that the discarder of the winning tile pays for all losers.

A ready declaration is likely to cause changes in other players’ decisions, and it could well be used for strategic purposes. E.g., if a player gets poor tiles on deal, it may be a good idea to fool other players by declaring ready early in the game: in this situation a player who has been lucky on the deal and is aiming at an exceptionally valuable combination may well re-consider his plans and try to go out as soon as possible with a hand that causes only modest losses to other players.
Note: Using ready declaration for bluffing is forbidden in many rules. If you want to prohibit faulty declarations, check the Validate the declaration box on the option page.
Four Winds does not prohibit the player from changing his hand after the ready declaration, and the player does not need to go out on the first possible winning tile (these options are available only for voluntary ready declaration). Note however, that a player cannot declare a Kong immediately after the declaration (but it is allowed on the subsequent turns).
The rule of the obligatory ready declaration adds a sort of “blunder“ element to the game. You may get in a situation, where you notice that you have a complete hand but you have forgotten to make a ready declaration. The only way out of this situation is to make a ready declaration and give away one of your precious tiles!
Tip: If you check the Scatterbrain option for computer players, it is possible that they do the same mistake. The option can be set on the Players option page.

To enable the obligatory Ready declaration:

Choose Preferences on the File menu.
From the Rule Presets list, choose a customized rule preset.
Choose Obligatory on the drop down list at the top of the page.
Specify whether the declaration should be validated when it is made. If the declaration is validated, in cannot be used for bluffing (but no penalties are applied for a faulty declaration).

Note: Normally a player cannot declare Ready and Out on the same turn, but if a player has a complete hand already at the start of the deal (before making his first discard and before having melded any sets), this is allowed.

Procedures:
Declaring Ready