Cope Mahjong Rules

This is the “Cope Mahjong” ruleset, a simple “mod” intended as a catch-up mechanism, compatible with most existing rulesets (e.g., Shuugi House Rules). The core theme of this mod is: when you lose points, you can “Cope” by getting some tokens that you can spend to benefit your future hands.

The Gist

Every time you pay someone points, you get 1 “Cope Token” for every 4000 points paid, rounded up (i.e., any payment earns at least 1 Cope Token).

When you draw a tile, you can choose to spend a Cope Token to Cope: discard 1 tile face down, and draw another tile (then continue playing normally). The face-down discard cannot be interacted with in any way:

• it cannot be called
• it does not count as a call (i.e., doesn’t affect tenhou, chiihou, double riichi, ippatsu, nagashimangan, etc.).
• it does not count toward furiten for any player

If you Cope, you cannot Cope again until your next non-Cope draw.

Clarification

Earning Cope Tokens

Cope Tokens are tokens you earn when you pay points to another player. Specifically:

1. paying due to dealing in
2. paying due to someone else’s tsumo
3. paying no-ten penalty

Riichi bets are not paid to another player, so they do not earn Cope Tokens.

If you paid multiple players, you earn Cope Tokens according to the total amount paid for that transaction. (i.e., a “1000 each” no-ten penalty earns only 1 Cope Token total)

Spending Cope Tokens

You may only Cope when you draw a tile without Coping. This means you can only Cope in these scenarios:

1. you just drew a tile at the beginning of your turn
2. you just drew a tile after a kan or pei replacement

In other words, you cannot Cope in these situations:

1. you just called chii/pon
2. you just drew a tile due to Coping

However, this sequence of actions is valid:

• in the same turn, you Cope, then kan, and then Cope again.

Also note that you may not riichi with the face-down discard from Coping – you can, however, riichi immediately after Coping.