Rules of Singapore Style Mahjong: Animals

Animal
Chinese name: 动物 dòngwù
Value: 1 double
Description: When a player wins a hand, every animal tile in his possession will score 1 double. Animal tiles do not correspond to any player's seat, so any player can possess any animal to score doubles. Animals count towards the minimum requirement of 1 double for any win.

Comments: As there are four animal tiles used in Singapore Style mahjong but no correspondence between animal and players' seats, any player can get up to four animals and thus score up to five doubles from his Animals (see below for explanation of how to get five doubles).

Animal Set Bonus
Chinese name: 动物杠加台 dòngwùgàng jiātái (ad hoc term)
Value: 1 double
Description: When a player wins a hand, a complete set of animal tiles will score 1 double, in addition to the double individually scored for each Animal, for a total of five doubles.

Comments: This scoring element has no equivalent in other variants of mahjong, and there are thus no similar terms for such a scoring element. The flower equivalent is sometimes known as 一台花 yītáihuā, as used in Hong Kong Old Style (HKOS) scoring, but the use of this term is preferably avoided for Singapore Style mahjong to avoid confusion with the typical meaning of 'doubles' for 台. Since I used 花杠加台 huāgàng jiātái as the ad hoc term here in this blog, a logical extension to refer to a complete set of animal tiles would then be 动物杠加台 dòngwùgàng jiātái.


Related Posts
Rules of Singapore Style Mahjong: Index
Rules of Singapore Style Mahjong: Bonus Tiles
Rules of Singapore Style Mahjong: Flowers