Rule variations

Claiming rules – **Sacred Discard (jap. furiten)**

In the Japanese Mah Jong, where an unwise discard may result in severe losses, the meaning of discarded tiles is very important. Accordingly the Japanese rules often apply special rules which restrict a player's right to go out on a discarded tile. The rule of Missed Discard regulates player's right to go out on successive identical discards while the rule of Sacred Discard regulates player's right to go out on a tile which he himself has discarded earlier during the deal.

Four Winds supports four different versions of the rule of Sacred Discard:

Traditional rule is used by default in the Japanese Transitional rule preset and forbids a player to go out on a discard that is identical to his own last discard. (The player, however, is allowed to claim a sacred discard but he cannot go out on the same turn, but needs to discard one of his tiles.)
Extended version applies the rule to entire deal. In this case a player is not allowed to go out on a discard that is identical with any of the tiles he has discarded during the deal.
1-4-7 Rule is sometimes used in Japanese and other Asian versions of Mah Jong and further extends the previous version of this rule. 1-4-7 rule forbids a player to go out on another player's discard, if that tile completes any set which his own discard could complete. E.g., if a player calls the winning tile with a Wind pair and Bamboo 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and has discarded Bamboo 1 at an earlier stage of the game, he may not go out on a claimed Bamboo 1, but going out by claiming a Bamboo 4 is allowed (provided that the player makes it clear that the winning tile is used with the tiles 5 and 6 and not with the tiles 2 and 3, the completion of which is prohibited because of the sacred discard Bamboo 1). On the other hand, if the sacred discard is Bamboo 4, the player is not allowed to go out on any discard (Bamboo 1, 4 or 7), since he cannot use the winning tile in a set that is not affected by the sacred discard (Bamboo 4 contaminates all possible completing sets, since it makes both Bamboo 3 and 5 sacred as it could be used either in a Chow 2-3-4 or 4-5-6, and accordingly cannot be used in Chows 1-2-3 or 5-6-7, either).
Absolute rule is used by default in the Japanese Modern rule preset and is the strictest of these rule versions. It forbids a player to go out on any discard if he has discarded during the deal a tile that would complete his hand into a structurally legal winning hand. Note that the possible minimum point restriction is ignored when determining the sacredness of hand (e.g., the hand is considered sacred even if the discarded tile would not complete the hand into a legal winning hand as regards the minimum point requirement).

Example of the 1-4-7 Rule. Assuming that a player is calling with Bamboo 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, plus a Wind pair in hand and that he has discarded Bamboo 4 earlier during the deal, he may not claim any of the possible three winning tiles Bamboo 1, 4 or 7 from another player, but is forced to go out on a self-drawn tile (or change the affected tiles in his hand). He cannot claim Bamboo 1 since that tile completes the same set (serial pair Bamboo 2-3) as his sacred discard (Bamboo 4) would. Similarly, a claimed Bamboo 7 would complete the same serial pair (Bamboo 5-6) which his sacred discard would and accordingly cannot be claimed. And naturally he cannot claim Bamboo 4 as he has Bamboo 4 amongst his discards.

Example of the absolute rule. If a player has Bamboo 3, 4, three Bamboo 5's, and a pair of East Winds in hand and he has discarded earlier during the deal Bamboo 2 or 5, he may not claim any winning tile from another player, but is forced to go out on a self-drawn tile (or change the affected tiles in his hand). This is true, even if he could complete the hand with another set for which he has not discarded a completing tile (e.g., East in the example above), or if he has discarded the tile before having the other tiles needed to complete the hand (what matters is the current state of the hand).

To apply the rule of Sacred discard:

Choose Preferences on the File menu.
From the Rule Presets list, choose a customized rule preset.
Choose Claiming under the Rules section of the category tree.
From the Sacred discard list, choose the desired version of the rule.

Allowing declaration of “Sacred Discard”

Sometimes rules allow a player to declare “sacred discard”. When a player makes this declaration, all restrictions related to going out on a sacred discard are removed. To enable this rule option, do the following:

Choose Preferences on the File menu.
From the Rule Presets list, choose a customized rule preset.
Choose Claiming under the Rules section of the category tree.
Check the Allow declaration box.

Note: To make the declaration, choose Declare Sacred on the Game menu. After the declaration the player's last discard is marked with player's own wind disc to indicate the point of the declaration: the sacred tile can be a tile marked with the disc, or any discard preceding it. Note that if declaration of “Sacred Discard” is allowed, and the rules support voluntary ready declaration (Riichi), the declaration of “Sacred Discard” must be made before (or on the turn) a player declares ready.

Displaying extended discard information

The rule of Sacred Discard requires the use of extended discard information as to allow players to see in melded sets the discarder of the completing tile. This gives the players an opportunity to make "safe" discards, which is particularly important in the Japanese Mah Jong, where the discarder pays for all losers.

In Four Winds you can enable this feature by checking the Extra info box on the General option page (under the Rules section of the category tree). For more information on this option, see Using extended discard information.

Sacred discards and the rule of Ready

The rule of Sacred Discard is often used together with rule of voluntary ready declaration (Riichi), but sometimes interpreted in a special way: