Scoring variations

Penalties

There are several penalties that different Mah Jong versions apply for offenses and mistakes players can make during the game. Some deal with blunders like faulty declarations or having too many tiles in hand. Others deal with punishments for bad playing, e.g. giving away a valuable winning tile gratuitously.

To specify the penalties, choose Penalties under the Scoring section in the category tree of the Preferences dialog box. The basic penalties for faulty declaration of Out and false claims are specified on the main option page while the more uncommon “Pao penalties’ and “Yakitori penalty” are specified on a separate dialog box accessed by clicking the Other button.

Basic penalties

In version 2 of Four Winds, the following two basic penalties can be applied:

Faulty declaration of ‘Out’: Lets you specify the amount of penalty points the offender must pay and whether the penalty is paid to the winner or simply reduced from the total points of the offender, and whether East pays/receives double. In addition, you can specify how the deal continues after a faulty declaration of Out. You can choose to continue deal normally, force the deal to be abandoned, or specify an alternative according to which the deal continues but the offender is not allowed to go out. Yet another alternative specifies that offender's hand is dead during the rest of the deal, and after the deal is over, the offender pays and receives, if applicable, points normally (unless the Offender's score is zeroed option is checked). If the deal is abandoned, you can also specify whether the deal should be passed (traditionally the deal is passed if the offender is East).
Faulty claims: A specified amount of points (often 100 or 1,000 points) is reduced from the offender’s total points for each erroneous claim. If the Allow canceling box is not checked, a canceled claim is considered as a faulty claim, as well. The penalties are added to the winner’s total points. If the offender wins the hand or deal ends in a draw, his personal penalties are withdrawn.

Insurance penalties

In addition to the penalties mentioned above, the following insurance penalties against an irresponsible discard (resulting in "pao" – discarder paying for all losers) are supported:

Classical hands. This penalty insures that other losers are not unfairly penalized if one player's irresponsible discard results in winner going out on Big Three Dragons (or Three Great Scholars), Little Three Dragons, Big Four Winds, Little Four Winds, All Honors, All Terminals or All Green. The rule is applied as follows:
a) Big Three Dragons (or Three Great Scholars): Player A has melded two Pungs or Kongs of Dragons, and player B discards a Dragon tile which is claimed by A, who composes a third Pung (not Kong) of Dragons. If player A subsequently goes out (whether self-drawn or on any discard), player B must pay all losses.
b) Little Three Dragons. Player A has melded two Pungs or Kongs of Dragons, and player B discards a Dragon tile which is claimed by A, who goes out by completing a Dragon pair. Player B must pay all losses.
c) Big Four Winds: Player A has melded three Pungs or Kongs of Winds, and player B discards a Wind tile which is claimed by A, who composes a fourth Pung (not Kong) of Winds. If player A subsequently goes out (whether self-drawn or on any discard), player B must pay all losses.
d) Little Four Winds: Player A has melded three Pungs or Kongs of Winds, and player B discards a Wind tile which is claimed by A, who goes out by completing a Wind pair. Player B must pay all losses.
e) All Honors: Player A has melded three Pungs or Kongs of Honors, and player B discards an Honor tile which is claimed by A, who composes a fourth Pung (not Kong) of Honors. If player A subsequently goes out self-drawn and has All Honors hand, player B must pay all losses. (If another player later discards yet another Honor, which A claims, this player pays all losses, instead.)
f) All Terminals: Player A has melded three Pungs or Kongs of terminals, and player B discards a terminal tile which is claimed by A, who composes a fourth Pung (not Kong) of terminals. If player A subsequently goes out self-drawn and has All Terminals hand, player B must pay all losses. (If another player later discards yet another terminal, which A claims and goes out, this player pays all losses, instead.)
g) All Green: Player A has melded three sets consisting of green bamboos (2, 3, 4, 6 or 8) or Green Dragons, and player B discards a green bamboo or green Dragon, which is claimed by A, who composes a fourth set (Chow or Pung, not Kong) of green tiles. If player A subsequently goes out self-drawn and has All Green hand, player B must pay all losses. (If another player later discards yet another green tile, which A claims and goes out, this player pays all losses, instead.)
Nine tiles error. This penalty is applied, if one of the players (e.g., player A) has melded three (or four) Chows/Pungs/ Kongs of the same suit, and another player (B) discards a tile of the same suit. If the discarded tile is claimed by player A, and he goes out and the winning hand is One Suit Only, the discarder (B) must pay to winner on behalf of other players. Notice that the penalty is applied even if player A claims the tile and composes a fourth set (either a Chow or a Pung, not a Kong) of the same suit (instead of going out), provided that he subsequently goes out on a self-drawn tile, and the winning hand is One Suit Only. However, if a third player (C) later discards a tile of the same suit, and player A claims the tile and goes ‘Out’, player C is penalized, instead.
Last five tiles error. If there are five or less tiles left in the Wall, and a player discards a tile that has not been played already (i.e., that is not visible on the board or amongst the discarded tiles), and another player claims the tile and goes out, the discarder must pay to winner for all losers. Note that this penalty is meaningless (and cannot be chosen), if you have applied a rule according to which the discarder always pays for all losers.

In addition, the following option can be used when any of the insurance penalties is enabled:

Allow 'No Choice'. If checked, accepts an exception to the pao rules according to which a player who has no other choice than making a dangerous discard is not penalized for pao. This situation can arise only after a player has drawn a tile from the Wall or Dead Wall (but not after he has claimed a tile for a Chow or a Pung). E.g., if player A has only tiles of the Bamboo suit in hand, and player B has three or four melded sets of the Bamboo suit, player A is not penalized for making a dangerous discard, if B claims A's discard and subsequently goes out on a One Suit Only hand.
Traditionally a player who pleads 'No Choice' has to (temporarily) expose his hand, but in Four Winds the 'No Choice' situation is announced and validated automatically by the program so the hands are not exposed.

Note: "No choice" means that a player has only dangerous tiles in hand, it does not cover situations where a player is forced to make a certain discard only because his hand is locked as a consequence of a ready declaration.

When insurance penalties are applied, there is no settlement for losers' scores (the pao discarder just pays the winner and no other payments are done).

Note: If any of the insurance penalties are applied, Four Winds automatically plays a sound effect whenever a risk for a dangerous discard arises (e.g., after one of the players has melded his third triplet of Winds). You can turn off the sound effect for Pao warnings by using the Sounds control on the Themes option page.

Yakitori

Four Winds also supports a penalty for not winning a single deal during the entire game (or match, when a tournament is played). This penalty is sometimes applied in Japanese Mah Jong and known as "yakitori" (roast chicken). The penalty is applied at the end of the game (or match).

Four Winds indicates the players with no wins in the Players window by marking their wins and losses with a highlight color (yellow in the default Four Winds theme).

Procedures:
Creating and managing custom rule presets