| Guangdong Style | Overview | Gameplay | Scoring |
|---|
| Guangdong Style | |
|---|---|
| Game Length | Varies |
| Tiles | 136, 144 |
| Hand | 13 |
| Dead Wall | 14, 16 with Flowers, None |
| Replenishing Dead Wall | Varies |
| Discards | Varies |
| Scoring Type | Additive |
| Scoring System | Discarder-Pays-All |
| Self-Draw Split | x1 x1 x1 |
| Discard Split | x3 x0 x0 |
| Dealer Bonus | None |
| Dealer Curse | None |
| Minimum | Varies, but >2 |
| Maximum | Varies |
| Multiple Winners on Discard | Varies |
| Continuous Dealer Wins | No |
| Payout | Winner only |
| Concealed Kongs | Displayed |
Guangdong Style ( 廣東十三張麻將 ) is a 13-tile competitive variant that was popular in South China and Taiwan. It is based on Hong Kong Old Style (HKOS), but uses a large number of "New Style" winning conditions and an additive scoring system.
History
Guangdong Style Mahjong's developmental timeline has particularly eluded Western Mahjong enthusiasts for decades. It is commonly lumped together with its predecessor, HKNS.
Guangdong Style uses the scoring of HKOS and several winning conditions from "New Style" HKNS.
- 1970s: "New Style" variants became associated with gambling in HK. A simpler "back to basics" variant known as "Clear Chapter" or HKOS was adopted. Not only were the number of winning conditions shrunk to those in early Chinese Classical rulesets, but the scoring system was simplified. Individual Pungs were no longer scored and Fu were removed.
- 1980s: Although the new simplified scoring system proved popular, competitive players felt the low number of winning conditions made the game boring. "New Style" winning conditions were added onto the new ruleset. The scoring system was simplified further. Fan were removed in favor of an additive system. Guangdong Style Mahjong was born.
- 1990s: Guangdong Style was adapted into two popular synthetic competitive variants Chinese Official MCR and Alan Kwan's Zung Jung Mahjong.
- 2000s: Taiwanese developer IGS develops a 13-tile Guangdong Style video game for GameTower.
- 2010s: Japanese Riichi explodes in popularity worldwide.
- 2020s: The synthetic competitive variant Guangdong Mahjong Competition Rules (GMCR) is made.
Terminology
Concealed: Self-drawn tiles within the player's hand.
Exposed: Melds made in part from an opponent's discard.
Chow: A run of 3 tiles. Players say "Chow!" to make a Chow.
Pung: A set of 3 identical tiles. Players say "Pung!" to make a Pung.
Kong: A declared set of 4 identical tiles. Players say "Kong!" to make a Kong. There are three types of Kong…
- Self-Drawn: All 4 tiles were self-drawn. Some call this "Concealed".
- Called: The first 3 tiles were self-drawn, the 4th was called from a discard.
- Added: The first 3 tiles are an exposed Pung, the 4th was self-drawn.
Mahjong: A valid winning hand. Players say "Mahjong!" or "Hu!" to declare that they have won.
Equipment
Tiles: A basic set of 136 tiles. Playing with 8 Flower tiles is common.
Dice: 2 Dice if playing without Flowers. 3 Dice if playing with Flowers.
Round Wind Indicator: The first East player of the game holds onto this.
Players & Seating
A Round of Mahjong is made up of 4 Hands. There are ideally 4 Rounds in a Game.
Seat Winds: Each Seat at the table has a Wind associated with it…
- The Dealer is always East. East displays the dice to their right.
- At the end of a Hand the Seat Winds rotate counter-clockwise. The dice are passed to the new East player.
At the beginning of a Game there are several ways to assign players to Seat Winds. Two examples…
- Everyone rolls a dice. Highest value is East, next is South, next is West, and lowest is North.
- 1 of each Wind tile are set aside face down and mixed around. Each player picks a tile.
Round Winds: Each Round also had a Wind associated with it. The Round Wind is shown on the Round Wind Indicator. After each player has been dealer once the Round Wind rotates. The Round Wind order goes East, South, West, North, and then back to East.
Each player starts with the same number of points. This value depends on the point limit.
Building the Wall & Dealing
Each player builds a wall 17 tiles long and 2 tiles high.
If the group is playing with Flowers, each player instead builds a wall 18 tiles long and 2 tiles high.
- East rolls the dice, counts stacks in their wall from right to left, and makes a break in the wall. To the left of the break is the beginning of the Live Wall; to the right is the end of the Dead Wall.
- Starting with East, players draw 13 tiles starting from the beginning of the Live Wall. Players take turns grabbing 4 at a time (2 stacks) until they have 12. Then each player takes 1 more tile. Tiles are removed from the wall clockwise, but the players take turns counterclockwise.
- The last 14 tiles (7 stacks) form the Dead Wall or the Kong Box. If playing with Flowers, some groups make the Dead Wall 16 tiles long.
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