Styles Compared
Universal Concepts
Concepts common to every style:
| Concept | Description |
|---|
| Meld / Set | A group of tiles: sequence (e.g., 1-2-3) or triplet/quad (e.g., 3-3-3) |
| Open vs. Closed | Open = took a tile from another player’s discard. Closed = all self-drawn tiles. Closed hands are worth more in Hong Kong, Riichi and MCR scoring. |
| Self-draw | Winning by drawing the tile yourself from the wall |
| Discard win | Winning by claiming another player’s discard |
| Terminal | Tiles numbered 1 or 9 |
| Honor | Wind tiles (East/South/West/North) and Dragon tiles (Red/Green/White) |
| Simple | Tiles numbered 2-8 (not terminals, not honors) |
Cross-Style Comparison
| Feature | Hong Kong | Riichi | MCR | American | Taiwanese | Sichuan | Filipino |
|---|
| Hand size | 13 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 16 | 13 | 16 |
| Total tiles | 144 | 136 | 144 | 152 | 144 | 108 | 144 |
| Scoring unit | Faan | Han/Fu | Points | Card value | Tai | Multiplier | Payouts |
| Win condition | Any valid hand; house minimum faan (0–3) | At least 1 yaku | 8+ points | Match a card hand | Any valid hand | Valid hand, two suits max | Any valid hand (todas) |
| Flowers | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Jokers | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | House rule |
| Honors | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | As bonus tiles |
| Complexity | Medium | High | Very high | Unique | Medium | Low | Low |
| Avg game length | ~30 min | ~45 min | ~60 min | ~90 min | ~40 min | ~20 min | ~30 min |