Rule presets

These rules represent the American classical Mah Jong specified by a standardizing committee that published the "official" American rules in 1924 (The American Code of Laws for Mah Jong). These rules are very seldom used today but are included to illustrate the way Mah Jong was introduced in the Western world.

The American classical rules are rather close to the rules of classical Chinese Mah Jong, though its scoring is slightly simplified. On the other hand, the rules introduce some new special hands, especially seven pairs hands, that were not used in the classical Chinese Mah Jong. The American rules were often modified by applying either a minimum point requirement on the winning hand (so called 1-double game), or requiring that the winning hand may not contain mixed suits (so called Cleared hand game). These restrictions are not used in this rule preset.

Many European rules are based on American classical rules and their early derivations. The modern American rules have deviated more radically from the classical rules. The American Modern rules included in Four Winds 2, represent a sort of mid way between the classical and more extreme modern versions of American Mah Jong.

Note: These rules differ slightly from the American Classical rules included in Four Winds 1.x, so if you load a version 1.x game in Four Winds 2, the rules will be displayed as "customized" rules.

Tiles	144 (136 + 4 Flowers and 4 Seasons)
Initial points	2,000
Limit points	500
Restrictions for the winning	None
Claiming rules for going out	Player first in turn wins
Passing of the deal	When non-dealer wins
Rule of Ready	None
Dead hand rules	None
Payment	Between all players; Chinese Classical scheme
Discards	In random order, no extended discard information
Specialties	No doubles for Flowers and Seasons to losers.
Scoring	Standard
Basic tile points	Standard. The losers are paid the same as the winner.
Scores for basic sets	Standard. The losers are paid the same as the winner.
Scores for Flowers and Seasons	4 pts for each Flower and Season, 1 dbl for own Flower or own Season, 4 dbl for all Flowers or all Seasons. The losers are paid only the basic points for Flowers and Seasons (no doubles).
Scores for patterns based on Chows	None
Scores for patterns based on Pungs and Kongs	Four triplets, one concealed (1 dbl), Four triplets, two concealed (1 dbl), Four triplets, three concealed (1 dbl), Little Three Dragons (3 dbl). The losers are paid the same as the winner.
Scores for patterns based on the whole hand	No-points hand (1 dbl, special ways of going out allowed, but no scores paid for them), All Terminals and Honors (1 dbl); One suit with Honors (1 dbl), One suit only (3 dbl). Note: No scoring for losers.
Scores for miscellaneous patterns	None
Scores for winning	Standard, i.e., Winning (20 pts), Self-drawn last tile (2 pts), Out on a one-chance Chow (2 pts), Out on a pair (2 pts), Out on the last tile of the Wall ( 1dbl), Out on the last tile discard (1 dbl), Out on a supplement tile (1 dbl), Out by robbing a Kong (1 dbl), Ready on first turn (1 dbl).
Rounding	Rounding off to nearest ten after doubles; for losers, the rounding is done after calculating the scoring difference.
Penalties	Faulty out: Deal ends and the offender pays 50% of the Limit, East pays/receives double (deal passes if the offender is East); Faulty claims: 100 pts for each faulty claim, paid to the winner; Insurance penalties: None
Limit hands	Classical: All 100% except Little Four Winds, which pays 1 extra double (impure version of Nine Gates and pure version of Thirteen Orphans are not acknowledged, nor is Fully Concealed Suit Hand); losers are paid the same as the winner for Three Great Scholars, Big Four Winds and Little Four Winds; Serpents: None; Pairs: Seven pairs (100%), All Honor Pairs (100%), All One Suit Pairs (100%), One Suit and Honor Pairs (50%); Special ways of going out: Heavenly hand (100%), Earthly hand (100%), Moon from the Bottom of the Sea (100%), Plum Blossom on the Roof (100%), Scratching a Carrying Pole (100%), Kong on Kong (100%);American hands: None; Miscellaneous: None.

American Classical

Note: These rules differ slightly from the American Classical rules included in Four Winds 1.x, so if you load a version 1.x game in Four Winds 2, the rules will be displayed as "customized" rules.