Four Winds Rule Collection – Chinese New Style

4. Miscellaneous rules

The following rules can be considered optional.

4.1 Penalties

The etiquette for correct drawing and claiming of tiles may vary, as may the consequences for violating the etiquette. Basically the irregularities which have no effect on other players should have no consequences in friendly games. To avoid confusion, the players should agree on the etiquette and penalties before beginning the game.

In the following some common practices are listed:

• If a player notices that he has too many tiles in hand, and has already seen the face of the superfluous tile, he must continue playing with a long hand to the end of the deal (thus being deprived of the chance to go out). If he has not seen the face of the tile, he can put the tile back in the Wall.
• If a player notices that he has too few tiles in hand, he must continue playing with a short hand to the end of the deal (thus being deprived of the chance to go out). 
• If a player mistakenly draws an incorrect tile, he can replace it and draw the correct tile, provided that he has not yet discarded. If he has already discarded, he may not replace the tile, but can continue without penalties.
• A player is allowed to change his discard as long as another player has not claimed the tile, and as long as the next player in turn has not drawn from the Wall.
• If a player claims a tile, but cancels his claim before his next discard is claimed (or another player has drawn from the Wall), there is no need to penalize him for his mistake. 
• Also, if a player claims a tile for Chow, Pung or Kong, but notices that he does not have right tiles in hand, he is allowed to cancel his claim without consequences, provided that he does that before his next discard is claimed (or another player has drawn from the Wall).
• If a player makes a faulty declaration of out, but notices his error before the other players expose their hands, there is no need to penalize him for his error. On the other hand, if one or more players have already exposed their hands, the deal is abandoned and the offender shall pay each of the other players 100% of the Limit (i.e., full laak, which in the rules described here is 64 points). If the faulty declaration was made in context of a claimed tile, the discarder gets double the amount. The deal normally passes after a faulty declaration of out.

4.2 Insurance penalties

Insurance penalties are normally not used in pattern-centered Asian games as there are so many possibilities for high-scoring hands and it would be pointless to insure just some hands.

Related topics:
Introduction
Tiles
Preliminaries
Playing
Scoring
Payments