[Contents]

The Chinese Game

It is said that in China, Mah-Jongg has been played one way for 1000 years; in the Western world, Mah-Jongg has been played for one year in 1000 ways. This is somewhat exaggerated, but it makes a point. The point is that there are many different ways to play Mah-Jongg, so Shanghai: Dynasty offers some options. When you click on the Chinese option in the Mah-Jongg Game Setup dialog box, you will see the following dialog box which gives you different options for the Chinese Mah-Jongg game:

Flowers/Seasons
In Chinese Mah-Jongg, the Flowers and Seasons are optionally used to give a player extra points. If you draw a Flower (or Season; for simplicity's sake these are usually referred to as just Flowers), it is immediately placed in your meld area and replaced by a tile from the back end of the Wall.

Then if you go out, you'll get four points for any Flowers you drew. If a Flower that you drew matches your seat, and you go out, your score is doubled. Flowers numbered 1 match East, Flowers numbered 2 match South, Flowers numbered 3 match West, and Flowers numbered 4 match North. E-S-W-N = 1-2-3-4 (ESWN is the order of play around the table). If you get four Flowers in a row (all the Seasons or all the Flowers), you get 1000 points immediately.

Special Hands
Choosing this option allows you to score big points if you go out with any of a number of special tile combinations.

False Declaration Penalty
If you declare Mah-Jongg, and it is seen that your hand is either not a winning hand or below the minimum score, then you have to pay big bucks to all the other players. The hand is over. When this option is on, the Win button is always lit up - be careful!

Thrower Pays For All
If you're the one who discards a tile that lets somebody win, you have to pay for everybody else if this option is checked.

Payment To: All/Only Winning Hands
Check one of these options to determine who will get points at the end of a hand or round. Normally, only the player who goes out receives points (Only Winning Hands). If All is checked, then all players' hands are scored regardless of whether the player went out or not.

Minimum Score
Allows you to set the level of skill for the game. Our default setting is Chicken Hand (you can go out on a Zero Fan, or zero doubles, hand). Users can choose up to a maximum of a 3-Fan (three doubles) minimum hand as they improve their skills.

Reset To Default
Clicking on this button resets all the settings of the Chinese game to their "factory" settings.

Mah-Jongg

The Western Game

Special Hands

Finishing a game; Strategies; FAQs

Contents