vietnamese.md

Vietnamese mahjong

Vietnamese mahjong is a four-player variant. The wall consists of:

• four each of the 1-9 character tiles
• four each of the 1-9 circle tiles
• four each of the 1-9 bamboo tiles
• four each of the four winds
• four each of the three dragons
• sixteen flowers:
  • Four flowers (🀢🀣🀥🀤)
  • Four seasons (🀦🀧🀨🀩)
  • Four emperors (皇)
  • Four empresses (后)
• three each of these green/blue jokers:
  • General joker (縂): Can represent any tile above.
  • Circle joker (筒): Can represent any circle tile.
  • Bamboo joker (索): Can represent any bamboo tile.
  • Character joker (萬): Can represent any character tile.
• three each of these red jokers:
  • Flower joker (花): Can represent any flower.
  • Wind joker (喜): Can represent any wind.
  • Dragon joker (元): Can represent any dragon.
  • Suit joker (合): Can represent any suited tile.

for a total of 176 tiles.

Of the 34 basic tiles, the numbered tiles are considered suited tiles, and the winds/dragons are considered honor tiles.

The three copies of each joker are also different: one has a rectangular frame, one has a diamond frame, and one has a circle frame. This has scoring implications.

Starting with a hand of 13 tiles, your goal is to make a 14-tile hand comprised of one of the following:

• Standard hand: Four sets (triplets or sequences) and a pair
• Thirteen Orphans: one of each 1, 9, wind, and dragon tile, with one tile forming a pair
• No Flowers No Leaves (NFNL): any combination of nonjoker suited tiles, and you must not have declared any flower or joker

Note that seven pairs is not a Vietnamese mahjong hand.

There is a separate win condition: if you discard three green jokers and no red jokers, you can also declare a "self-drawn" win. More on this later.

Calls

You may Phỗng triplets, Khàn quads, and Phình sequences with the usual rules and precedence. In addition, any flower or joker tile may be declared on your turn to be set aside for points, before drawing a replacement tile. Note that due to the NFNL hand, declaring flowers is optional -- NFNL hands would rather discard flowers.

By default there are no joker restrictions on calls, but house rules may rule this differently.

Winning off a discard is done by declaring Ù. There is no multiple Ù -- if multiple people call Ù on the same tile, then the player closest in turn order wins.

Discarding flowers

For the purposes of winning, discarded flowers (including the Flower joker) are treated as the General joker, meaning anyone who is ready to win can win off a discarded flower or joker. This treatment only applies to those who can call Ù -- normal calls cannot claim flowers.

Phán table

The basic score in Vietnamese Mahjong is Phán, but every 6 Phán is converted to 1 Mủn, the limit score unit. Once you have 1 Mủn, Phán is immaterial except for converting into Mủn.

The score essentially doubles every Phán, and after 6 Phán (1 Mủn), it doubles every 1 Mủn.

The easiest way to score Phán is by declaring flowers and jokers. For declared flowers, scoring is straightforward: you get 1 Phán if the flower number matches your seat (1=east, 2=south, 3=west, 4=north) and 0 Phán otherwise. For declared jokers, consult the table below:

• Green jokers
  • General joker (縂): 2 Phán, +1 Phán if east*
  • Circle joker (筒): 1 Phán, +1 Phán if south
  • Bamboo joker (索): 1 Phán, +1 Phán if west
  • Character joker (萬): 1 Phán, +1 Phán if north
• Red jokers
  • Flower joker (花): 2 Phán always
  • Wind joker (喜): 1 Phán, +1 Phán if south
  • Dragon joker (元): 1 Phán, +1 Phán if west
  • Suit joker (合): 2 Phán, +1 Phán if north*

* Additional rule: if you aren't east but you declare the General joker before the start of the game, you get the +1 Phán as well. Same applies to north and the Suit joker.

A rare occurrence is declaring the General joker and the Suit joker together before the start of the game. Doing so gives you 9 Phán outright. If the two jokers also share the same frame, (e.g. both have a circle frame) then you get 12 Phán instead.

Below are all the other ways to score Phán and Mủn. Note that these are not required. In other words, it is allowed to have a Chicken Hand (0 Phán).

• All Sequences (1 Phán): Every set is a sequence, and you don't have an honor pair.
• All Triplets (3 Phán): Every set is a triplet (or quad), none of them being honor tiles.
• All Sequences with Honors (3 Phán): Every set is a sequence, and your pair is honor tiles.
• All Triplets with Honors (1 Mủn): Every set is a triplet (or quad), and at least one of them is an honor triplet (or quad).
• All Called Triplets (1 Mủn): Every set is an open triplet (or quad). None of them are honor triplets (or quads).
• All Called Triplets with Honors (2 Mủn): Every set is an open triplet (or quad). At least one of them is an honor triplet (or quad).
• All Triplets with Terminals (1 Mủn): Every set is a triplet (or quad), including one triplet/quad of 1s and one triplet/quad of 9s.
• No Flowers or Honors (1 Mủn): You have no flowers or jokers declared, and your hand does not contain any honor tiles.
• No Flowers, Honors, or Triplets (2 Mủn): Every set is a sequence, and you don't have an honor pair, and you have not declared any flowers or jokers.
• Full Flush (2 Mủn): Your hand consists of one suit only. (Note that there is no Mixed Flush).
• Pure Straight (3 Mủn): You have 123 456 789 in the same suit.
• All Honors (4 Mủn): Your hand is all honor tiles.
• Thirteen Orphans (2 Mủn): Your hand consists of one of each 1, 9, wind, and dragon tile, with one tile forming a pair.
• No Flowers, No Leaves (3 Mủn): See the NFNL section below, because the scoring for this can vary.
• Small Three Dragons (1 Mủn): You have two dragon triplets and a dragon pair.
• Big Three Dragons (2 Mủn): Instead, you have three dragon triplets.
• Four Concealed Triplets (3 Mủn): You have four concealed triplets. Triplets obtained via win by self-draw count as concealed, but triplets obtained via win by discard/robbing a kong are not concealed. +1 Mủn if no jokers are used, +1 Mủn if no flowers are declared.
• Four Quads (4 Mủn): You have four Khàns. +1 Mủn if no jokers are used, +1 Mủn if no flowers are declared.
• Small Four Winds (5 Mủn): You have three wind triplets and a wind pair. +1 Mủn if no jokers are used, +1 Mủn if no flowers are declared.
• Big Four Winds (8 Mủn): Instead, you have four wind triplets. +1 Mủn if no jokers are used, +1 Mủn if no flowers are declared.
• Blessing of Heaven (2 Mủn): Win with your first draw as the dealer.
• Blessing of Earth (2 Mủn): Win on dealer's first discard.
• Blessing of Man (2 Mủn): Win before your first discard and before any calls.
• NFNL Deal-In (1 Mủn): Win on a discarded flower or joker.

Scoring table

If winning on a discard, everyone pays the payout but the discarder pays double. If winning by self-draw, everyone pays double. One exception: if the hand is 0 Phán, everyone pays out 1.

The Phán payout table is as follows:

• 0 Phán: 1 (see above)
• 1 Phán: 1
• 2 Phán: 2
• 3 Phán: 4
• 4 Phán: 8
• 5 Phán: 16
• 6 Phán: 32

After 6 Phán, every 6 Phán is converted into 1 Mủn, and leftover Phán is ignored. The Mủn payout table is as follows:

• 1 Mủn: 32
• 2 Mủn: 64
• 3 Mủn: 96
• 4 Mủn: 128
• 5 Mủn: 160
• 6 Mủn: 192
• 7 Mủn: 224
• 8 Mủn: 256

No Flowers, No Leaves (NFNL)

The special hand NFNL is achieved by having only suited tiles, never declaring a flower or joker, and winning on a suited tile. The idea is that you must discard every flower and joker and honor you get, which is of course dangerous especially since discarded flowers are wildcards for anyone ready to win, and they get 1 Mủn extra for it too. You probably want to discard flowers before jokers before honors.

If you do achieve this, then it's a 3 Mủn payout. But if your NFNL hand is a valid standard hand, you are eligible for the following additional Mủn:

• NFNL All Triplets (4 Mủn)
• NFNL Full Flush (5 Mủn)
• NFNL Full Flush All Triplets (6 Mủn)

If your hand is also concealed (no open calls), you can get these as well:

• NFNL Concealed All Sequences Single Wait (4 Mủn)
• NFNL Concealed All Triplets (6 Mủn)
• NFNL Concealed Full Flush All Triplets (8 Mủn)

Discarding green jokers

Regardless of your hand composition, you can win instantly by discarding green jokers (but no red jokers, which would invalidate this win).

If you are able to discard 3 green jokers and no one claims the third, then you win instantly:

• Three Green Joker Discards (1 Mủn)

You can choose to not win and continue discarding green jokers. Every time you do so, if no one claims the green joker, you can declare a win. Discarding five or more green jokers increases the payout:

• Five Green Joker Discards (2 Mủn)

These wins are considered self-draw wins, so everyone pays double the payout.

TODO

• no multiple Ù - head bump is in effect
• can't call converted jokers; recalculate buttons before conversion! also no need to convert -- use a special tile alias for e.g. {"1f", ["discard"]} after setting a status for everyone that disallows normal calls
• NFNL should be nojoker
• NFNL hand bonuses
• discarding green jokers

Discarded flowers can be claimed as an any-tile joker.