Rule Variations of McGill Mahjong HKOS

This page is for people who are familiar with mahjong, but don't know which rules exactly the McGill Students' Mahjong Club play with. Here are the subtle variations we use in our Hong Kong Old Style games that other players may or may not be familiar with. Note that none of these apply to our recently-included Japanese Riichi Style Games.

• We do not use dora, red fives, we do not count fu, etc.
• We do not use a dead wall or kong box. We always play with all of the tiles being drawn before a game ends in a draw.
• We do not use separate ponds. Any and all discarded tiles are just placed randomly into the center of the table.
• We do not use a full 'furiten' rule. If you or another player discards your winning tile, you may not win off of any copies of that same tile until your next draw. You may still win off of any other tiles prematurely if your hand has multiple different winning tiles.
• If your hand qualifies for multiple 'limit hands' at the same time, it scores the limit multiple times (i.e., Big Three Dragons All Honors self-pick would receive 256 points from all other players instead of 128).
• However, no single limit hand is worth a double limit (i.e. Big Four Winds does not score more than Little Four Winds, Four Concealed Pungs Pair Wait does not score more than Four Concealed Pungs...)
• We play with the responsibility rule. If a player gets her third dragon pung, fourth wind/terminal/honor/green pung for a limit hand, fourth gong, or fourth meld for a Ruby Dragon or Full Flush off of you, you will pay for all three players in she self-picks her win. If another player discards her winning tile, you pay for half of the cost. Even if she called most of her tiles from another player, if she calls the fourth (or in the case of Big Three Dragons, third) open meld from your discard, it is your responsibility.
• We play with a 3 faan minimum. A player who tries to declare a win with a hand that does not score at least 3 faan (or a hand that does not meet the valid conditions of four melds and a pair, seven distinct pairs, seven or eight bonus tiles, or the Thirteen Orphans hand) is no longer allowed to win the current hand, and it is treated as if the responsibility rule applies for her to each other player.
• Bonus tiles (or the absence of bonus tiles) *can* contribute towards the 3 faan minimum.
• The dealer does not win or lose any more points than any other players.
• If a player wins by discard, the discarding player pays 100% of the hand's value. If the player wins by self-pick, all other players pay 50% of the hand's value.