Collecting games

In collecting games, the player’s goal is to form specific combinations in their hand. Once a player has collected all the required combinations, they lay them on the table and win. Some games allow combinations to be laid during the play, while in others they are revealed only at the end.

Game Dynamics

Most collecting games share a similar flow:

• The player takes a tile – either the last discarded tile or a closed tile from the deck.
• The player discards one tile from their hand.

This is similar to Western card games like Canasta or Rummy. Even Mahjong, which eventually supplanted Chinese dominoes, is a collecting game.

At the start, the first player often receives one extra tile. Technically, it doesn’t matter if the tile is drawn one at a time or all at once, but this custom persists.

Variations in Combinations

Although collecting games are similar in dynamics, each of them uses its own combinations.

• Ho-Hpai (Barbarian Tablets, Korea) Uses most of the classic triplet combinations, plus its own.
• Jjak-mat-chu-gi (Korea) - Matches civilian and military pairs..
• Kap Shap (China) Pairs tiles based on equality or sums divisible by 10.
• Little Mahjong uses its unique way of combining tiles.

All of these, except Little Mahjong, were described by Stewart Culin. I also found a modern version of Ho-Hpai called Tok.

Taking Discarded Tiles

Surprisingly, even though the games share similar dynamics, the rules for taking tiles vary. They differ along three dimensions:

1. Which tile can be taken (only the last one, or any)
2. Who can take the tile (next player only or any)
3. Is it mandatory to create a combination

That’s how the rules differ:

• Jjak-mat-chu-gi – Only the next player may take the last tile, and only if it forms a combination.
• Kap Shap – The player can take any set-aside tile, with no restrictions.
• Ho-Hpai – No tiles may be taken from the discard. (The exact rules have some ambiguity, discussed in its section.)
• Tok – Modern Ho-Hpai variant; the next player only may take the last tile, with no combination required.
• Little Mahjong – Any player may take the last tile, provided it forms a certain combination.

It is surprising that these games, described by the same source (Culin), have such diverse rules. Based on the available evidence, it seems likely that most traditional collecting games followed one of two standard approaches:

• The last tile can be taken by any player, but only if it completes a combination (modern Mahjong and Small Mahjong follow this).
• The last tile can be taken only by the next player, with no requirement to form a combination (modern Rummy or Canasta follow this; Tok uses this rule).

It is probable that Jjak-mat-chu-gi, Kap Shap, and Ho-Hpai originally followed one of these two rules, rather than having their diverse variants described by Culin.

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