Multiplayer mah jong has 42 tiles, three suits (Circle, Bamboo,Characters), Winds, Dragons, Seasons and Flowers. The game includes two identical classical tiles sets, the only difference is the classical number tile set includes English numbers and flower/season assigned player in upper left corner.

Each Suit contains tiles from 1 to 9.

Circle Suit (Pin)

Bamboo Suit (Sow)

Character Suit (Wan)

Winds
	North(Pei)		South(Nan)		East(Ton)		West(Sya)
Dragons
	Red		White		Green
Seasons
	Spring		Summer		Autumn		Winter
Flowers
	Plum		Orchid		Chrysanthemum		Bamboo

Winds and Dragons tiles are also called Honor tiles
Flowers and Seasons are unique tiles. Use of Seasons and Flowers are optional, see multiplayer options under options.

A player will receive specials points for having the their own flower or season tile, or own pair of winds, see score below. The season and flower tiles above have the corresponding player position denoted on each tile.

Flowers, Seasons and Wind Associations

If the player position is East, the East Wind is called own wind for that player, the own season is Spring and Plum is the own flower. Each position has a corresponding wind, season and flower (see above)

Flowers and Seasons

Flowers and Seasons are optionally used.

When a Flower or Season tile is drawn, the tile is placed face up next to the player and the player draws an additional tile. Flowers and Seasons are not used to complete sets. They are separated from the other tiles. Flowers and Seasons are counted in your game score. If a player has their own flower or own season, they get one double.

A complete set of flowers is called a Bouquet. There are two Bouquets in a game (one with Flowers, the other with Seasons)

Object of game

The object of the game is to declare a Mah Jong. A player must have four sets and a pair of any tiles in your hand. A set is a (three consecutive tiles with the same suit: circle, bamboo or character), a pung (three identical tiles) or a kong (four identical tiles) to declare a Mah Jong. Player declaring mah jong is paid points by losers (if option selected). A player needs a minimum of 14 tiles for a mah jong, so the game automatically adds one tile for each Kong made. The final game winner is the player with the greatest number of points.

Starting a game

At the beginning of the game, each of the four players sits at one of the fourth positions on the compass (North, South, East, and West). The tiles are shuffled and dealt. Each player receives 13 tiles.

The East player begins the game. Each player can either draw a tile or pick up a tile from the board, then discards a tile, leaving 13 tiles in their hand. The discarded tiles are placed face up in the center of the board. Each Player position's rotate (E,S,W,N) at the end of each game, so each player get a change to be dealer. .

Discarded tiles

Picking up a discarded tile

Only the last discarded tile can be picked up instead drawing a tile in the following cases. All previously discarded tiles are dead for play.

Chow: You can pick up the last discarded tile, by clicking on the chow button at the bottom of the screen, only if it will complete a set of three consecutive numbers in the same suit (circle, bamboo or character only). A player may chow only the tile discarded by the player sitting on his right. After you make a chow the three tiles will be separated from the other tiles in your hand. If you make a chow with a discarded tile it will be placed face up on the board. A chow made with a discarded tile is called an exposed chow. Below is an example of a exposed circle chow, circle 1, 2 and 3.
What if I have more than two tile to make a chow? Click on the tiles, in your hand, to use for the chow, then click on chow to pick up the discarded tile.

Pung: You can pick up the last discarded tile, by clicking on the pung button at the bottom of the screen, to complete a set of three identical tiles (circle, bamboo, character, dragon or winds (example below is of 3 north wind tiles). A player can pung a tile discarded by any of the other players. The three tiles are separated from the other tiles and are placed face up. After a Kong is exposed you CAN NOT add the 4th tile to make a Kong
To make a Pung or a Kong a player only has a limited amount of time to pick up the discarded tile before the next players turn. After a player picks up a discarded tile for a pung or Kong, one tile must be discarded. After a tile is discarded it will be the turn of the player sitting to the left of the player, who just punged or konged.

Kong: You can pick up the last discarded tile, by clicking on the Kong button at the bottom of the screen, to complete a set of four identical tiles (circle, bamboo, character, dragon or winds (example below is of 3 three bamboo tiles). A player can Kong a tile discarded by any of the other players. The four tiles are separated from the other tiles and are placed face up. After picking up a tile for a Kong, the program will automatically draws an additional tile for the player so they have enough tiles for a mah jong play.

Kong (quadruples). An exposed Kong will be displayed on screen with all tiles face up. An in hand Kong (also named a closed Kong) is displayed with one tile face down.

Exposed Kong		In Hand Kong

Mah Jong, ends the game: You can pick up the last discarded tile from any other player, by clicking on the mah jong button at the bottom of the screen to complete your mah jong hand of four sets and a pair of any tiles. You will not need to discard a tile. A set is a chow (three consecutive tiles with the same suit: circle, bamboo or character, a pung (three identical tiles) or a Kong (four identical tiles). The first player with a mah jong wins the game, but you must click on the mah jong button to pick up the last tile if you are completing a mah jong with a discarded tile. If your draw tile make a mah jong, the program will automatically declare you the winner. Your score will only be added to the hall of game if you are the high scorer for the game. A Mah jong gives you 20 points and receives points from losers if option selected. See mah jong options below for additional payment from mah jong.

- Chow button- claim chow on the last discarded tile if allowed
- Pung button - claim pung on the last discarded tile
- Kong button - claim Kong on the last discarded tile
- Mah Jong button - claim mah jong on the last discarded tile. Must be used to declare a mah jong on a discarded pile.
- Draw - draw a tile
- Discard - discard the selected tile
- Score - check the score details in the last game

More than one player trying to pick up a tile: If more than one player tries to pick up a discarded tile, the play that will make the largest number of points from the discard will be able to pick up the tile. A pung has precedence over the chow, a Kong over the pung and chow and a mah jong over chow, pung and Kong

Exposed tiles: If a chow/pung or Kong is completed by picking a discarded tile, it is labeled as exposed or revealed set, otherwise it is named a concealed or in hand set. Exposed scores are lower than concealed scores.

The goal of the game is to have a mah jong hand to win (four sets and a pair of any tiles in your hand).

The first player is called "the dealer". After playing a hand, the dealer is the next player on the left ( E, S, W, N, E etc.). The game winner is the player with the greatest number of points.

The game has an optional rule: if East is the dealer and winner of a hand, next hand East will remain the dealer, instead of South player.

Scoring

Initially all players have the same number of points (see multiplayer option below). After playing a hand, if there is a winner all scores for each hand are totaled. Some penalty rules for losers may apply, like losers pay winner and losers pay losers (see multiplayer options below).
If there is no winner, no points are received. You can enter your score into the hall of fame only If you are game's highest point scorer and scoring is selected under options.

The points received for a set or a combination are listed below:

Samples of calculated in hand scores:

Case 1:

Exposed tiles (completed with discarded tile):
- three circle 1s: 4 points
- bamboo sequence: 0 points
In hand tiles: (completed with tiles drawn)
- three character 5s: 4 points
- three West winds: 8 points
- pair of Dragons: 2 points
---------------------------
Total in hand score: 4+4+8+2=18 points

Case 2 (North player):

Exposed tiles:
- circle sequence: 0 points
- four character 6s: 8 points
In hand tiles:
- three bamboo 9s: 8 points
- character sequence: 0 points
- three seasons and flowers: 3x4=12 points
Total in hand score: 8+8+12=28 points

Doubling the score

In some cases the final score for a player hand can be doubled by multiple times. These situations are configurable:

Multiplayer Options

The winner player (the first player with mah jong) is paid the number of points of in hand by the other players. The paid points are subtracted from each loser points. This rule is optional and is known as "losers pay winner" rule. Example if winner's total score (with doubles) was 50, the each loser would pay the winner 50 points.

The "losers pay losers" rule allows the payments between losers. The losers with lowest points in hand pays the losers with higher scores in hand the difference between their scores.

Example:

All players start game with 500 points.

- the winner (player1) has 100 points in hand from game
- player 2 has 60 point in hand from game
- player 3 has 20 points in hand from game
- player 4 has 8 points in hand from game

At the end of the game, the players 2, 3 and 4 each pay 100 points. Player 1 start with 500 points add+100+100+100+100=900

player 1 =500 + 100 + 100 + 100 +100= 900
player 2 =500 - 100(paid to winner)+ (60-20)(paid by player 3)+(60-8)(paid by player 4) = 492
player 3 =500 - 100(paid to winner)-(60-20)(paid to player 2) + (20-8)(paid by player 4) = 372
player 4 =500 - 100(paid to winner)-(60-8)(paid to player 2) - (20-8)(paid to player 3) = 336

To configure the multiplayer game, from the tool bar select Options, then select Multiplayer Options.

Check the options you want to use in the game.

Below is a list of options:

- Minimum score: the minimum score required for a player to have mah jong. This option is used if "Score limits enabled" box is checked.
- Maximum score: the maximum number of points allowed for a player in one hand. This option requires "Score limits enabled" box to be checked.

- Losers pay winner (losers pay the winner player the amount of points in winner's hand. These points are subtracted from each loser's total scores).
- Losers pay losers (the losers with the lowest number of points pays the loser (with large in hand scores) the difference between their scores, see above example).
- Double score paid between losers (active only if losers pay losers option is checked)
- Use seasons/flowers tiles. This box must be check to include season and flower tiles in game.

- Doubling options: when this is check hand score can be doubled
- Deals number: the number of hands played in each game
- Starting points: the number of points each player has in the beginning of the game
- Human player name
- Computer players name and game skills (easy, medium, difficult). If you set all the computer players to easy an interrupt hint message will display to assist human player.

For strategy suggestions go to http://21stsoftware.com/mah_jong_strategy.htm