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Mahjong: With Dominoes??

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BigOleBob
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Joined: 03/24/2010

I am not sure if this goes best into the Playtest forum or the Variant Forum. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I believe that there is merrit in creating a Mahjong variant that uses 4 sets of double-six dominoes. This concept is nothing new. Many of the rules stay exactly the same with a few exceptions. What I would like to do here is to nail down the scoring elements.

Malaysian and Korean 3 handed mahjong proves that with 108 tiles that gameplay procedes pretty much as normal with standard hands. It's only in scoring that things change. (Note: 4 double six sets of dominoes = 112 tiles )

I'm not going to go over mahjong rules in general here. I would like to make a few suggestions.

A. No Dealer
B. No Doubles / Fann
C. No Seat importance
D. No claiming for Chows, except to go out.
E. 4 Players
F. A complte game is 4 Hands.
G. Pattern based Scoring.
H. Suites (see below)

(Suite definition)
A suite has one side of the tile matching. Therefore you could have
3-0, 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, 3-6
Due to this, almost half of the dominoes can be double used for two differnt suites.

Therefore

The concept of not claiming for chows is used because the tiles double in use for definition in suites. Which makes createing chows much more easier than normal.

For now without any idea of which patterns would be harder or easier to get, I suspect that Set scoring would be used much like in Chinese Classical Mahjong.

(Personal note) The point of the conversion is to create a simplified varriant to act as a gateway to real mahjong for western players. It's meant to use the familiar imagery of childhood dominoes to be inviteing. It also offers a cheap option to mahjong tiles that may otherwise be unaccessible.

In my opinion using 4 paper poker decks does not satisfy the tactile sensation of holding a tile in your hand. something that you can move, fidget with, and even incur injury upon your enemies with. That excuse to really slam a tile down in that oh so "I'm in charge" kind of body motion that poker seems to lack. Yeah. I love Mahjong.

If Playtest prove that this variant is viable, then perhaps more complex rules so often found in real mahjong may be integrated. Options such as the use of a dealer, seat winds, dead wall, and even a 'dora' could be implemented.

The only big issue in scoring that I see is that there are no honor tiles beyond "terminals" and possibly "Doubles"

The question is 'Will it work' ?

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