Gameweave

Hong Kong Mahjong

A four-player tile game where players draw and discard tiles, claim opponents' discards out of turn, and race to assemble a winning hand of four melds and a pair, scored with the Hong Kong faan system.

Players

•
4 players, seated East, South, West, North.
•
East (Player 1) is the dealer and draws first.
•
Play proceeds around the table East → South → West → North.

Tiles (144)

•
Suits (108): Characters, Circles, Bamboo — ranks 1–9, four of each. Ranks 1 and 9 are terminals.
•
Honors (28): four Winds (East/South/West/North) and three Dragons (Red/Green/White), four of each.
•
Bonus (8): four Flowers and four Seasons, one of each. Bonus tiles never form melds; they are set aside and score a small point each.

Melds

Meld
Description
Example
Chow
3 consecutive tiles of the same suit
Bamboo 2-3-4
Pung
3 identical tiles
3× Red Dragon
Kong
4 identical tiles
4× East Wind
Pair (Eyes)
2 identical tiles
2× Circle 5

Setup

1.
All 144 tiles are shuffled into the wall (face down).
2.
Each player is dealt 13 tiles.
3.
Any Flower/Season dealt is revealed to that player's bonus area and replaced from the wall.
4.
The last 14 tiles of the wall are the dead wall and are never drawn — reaching them ends the hand in a draw.

Turn flow

1.
Draw one tile from the wall. A drawn Flower/Season is revealed and replaced automatically.
2.
Optionally expose a concealed triplet or run from your hand into one of your four meld slots (see Digital meld model below).
3.
Discard one tile face up, ending your turn and offering the tile to the other players.

Claiming discards (out of turn)

When a tile is discarded, the other three seats may claim it:
Claim
Priority
Who may claim
Win (Hu)
Highest
Anyone who can complete their hand
Kong
High
Anyone holding 3 matching tiles
Pung
High
Anyone holding 2 matching tiles
Chow
Lowest
Only the seat to the discarder's right
A successful claim moves the discard (plus the matching tiles from your hand) into one of your meld slots and makes you the active player — you then discard to continue. Passing offers the tile to the next eligible seat; if everyone passes, the seat to the discarder's right draws.
A Kong claim draws one replacement tile from the wall before you discard.

Priority enforcement (digital)

Rather than a real-time race, claims are offered one seat at a time, in order around the table from the discarder's right. To keep the traditional priority Win > Pung/Kong > Chow exact and deadlock-free:
•
Pung, Kong and Chow are unavailable while any seat could win on the tile — so those seats can only pass, advancing the offer to the winner.
•
Chow is unavailable while any seat could Pung/Kong — so a nearer seat's Chow can never pre-empt a farther seat's Pung.
This guarantees the higher-priority claim always resolves first without needing simultaneous input.

Digital meld model (winning)

This digital version uses player-laid melds, the same approach as Rummy and Canasta: every meld you form — by claiming or by exposing from your hand — is moved into one of your four meld slots. A winning hand is therefore:
Four filled meld slots + a pair (two identical tiles) in hand.
You win by:
•
Self-draw (Tsumo): after drawing, your four melds are laid and the two tiles left in hand match — declare Mahjong.
•
Discard win (Ron): your four melds are laid, a single tile remains in hand, and the discard matches it — claim the tile to complete the pair.
v1 simplification: because melds must be laid to count toward the win, the concealed "one hidden final set" win is out of scope; expose your sets as you build them. Special limit hands (Thirteen Orphans, Nine Gates, All Honors, All Terminals) are also out of scope for this first version.

Scoring (faan)

The winner's hand is scored in faan (capped at 13):
Feature
Faan
Base (any legal win)
1
Self-drawn win
+1
All melds are Pungs/Kongs (no chows)
+3
Half flush (one suit + honors)
+3
Full flush (one suit, no honors)
+7
Each Dragon Pung
+1
Pung of your seat wind / the round wind
+1 each
Each bonus tile (Flower/Season)
+1
This is a scoped faan set (not the full Hong Kong table); it is deterministic and easy to reason about, and can be extended later.

Game end

•
A player declares Mahjong (win), or
•
The wall reaches the dead wall (14 tiles left) with no winner — a draw.