Bêng'-goi
Bingo (Shinasthana: 並和, bêng′-goi) is a tile-based game that evolved into its current form in Themiclesia in the early 19th century and subsequently spread to other countries during the 20th. It is commonly played by four players on a square table as the playing surface, though three- or even two-player variants exist. Bingoi is a game of skill, placing emphasis on intelligence, tactics, observation, and memory as primary advantages in gameplay, and there is a degree of chance involved. It is frequently a method of gambling, which some argue have contributed to its evolution since the 19th century.
The game is played with a standard set of 144 tiles, though variations of the game may include or omit certain subsets of the tiles. Each player receives a hand of 13 tiles and take turns to draw one tile from either the deck (usually shaped into four "walls) or from the previous player's discard. Unless completing a "going out" hand of three melds and one pair, a player must always maintain 13 tiles in hand, discarding one tile from the hand after drawing one. The game provides the twin objectives of completing a hand before others and to do so following special patterns or conditions for extra score. As other hands are not fully visible, players must balance the demands of their own hand while denying opponents of a discard that might complete theirs.
Etymology
The name "Bingo" is a anglicized rendering of bêng′-goi (並和) according to a number of possible dialects of Shinasthana, where the word sounded more like bing-go. The word "Bingo" first appeared in the Camian press in 1773, though it remains to be decided whether it described this game, any of its predecessors, or something else completely. bêng′-goi means "assemble-merge" in Shinasthana, very probably a reference to the primary objective of gameplay—to assemble a hand of three melds and one pair.
Equipment
Tiles
Most Bingo tiles are rectangular with a ratio between height, width, and thickness approximating 3:2:1.5. In Themiclesian terminology, the inscribed side of the tile is the obverse (面, mngjênh), and the other, the reverse (背, pek). Regardless of the number of tiles in a set, tiles are inscribed on the obverse only, and the reverse is kept uniform to prevent identification of the tile. Some sets may be two-tone, with a plain inscribed side and a more decorative non-inscribed side, though this is not universal.
Modern tiles are most commonly manufactured out of a variety of plastics, but historically tiles have been made from semi-precious and common stones, ivory, animal bones, wood, and bamboo. Most of these materials are selected to withstand stress incurred during play and to possess adequate mass for ease of handling and resistance to vibrations. Ornate sets may have obverse and reverse sides made from different materials, though for materials such as ivory a cheaper material may be used for the reverse. Animal bone tiles are typically backed with bamboo or wood. The importation of ivory Bingo sets became illegal in Themiclesia in 1990.
Most sets from the 19th century were made to a standard of about one Themiclesian inch (2.45 cm) tall, with little regional variation or that between materials. Very large tiles exist, mostly one-off and not in a set, and may have been used as paperweights, doorstops, or garden ornaments. Most modern sets are at least slightly larger than this size, with industry-standard size in Themiclesia being about 2.6 cm tall. For leagues and associations that play variations with fewer than the canonical 144 tiles, there is a trend of using larger tiles, with some up to 5.4 cm tall.
Furniture
With dedicated furniture, Bingo is played on a square table so that each player may occupy one side and access the deck from equal distances. There is no standard height of the table, and very short dedicated tables survive from the 19th century; however, too short and grabbing tiles becomes awkward, and too tall the players cannot see the discards. The table should ideally be level and have a smooth playing surface, so that tiles can be shifted across it with minimal friction but not slide in any direction. Many modern tables are lined with felt for this purpose, but this was unusual before the Pan-Septentrion War, when wooden surfaces were normal. A lip is present on most Bingo tables to prevent tiles from sliding off.
In recent times, mechanical Bingo tables have become common. The first mechanical table, which only provided a shuffling function, was patented in 1904 in Themiclesia but never manufactured. In 1984, modern mechanical tables that shuffled and built the four-sided deck started appearing on the market. These tables are preferred at some tournaments to prevent cheating, though their efficacy and tamper-proofness has been questioned. Such tables usually operated on two sets of tiles; one being in play, and the other in reserve. Once the current game ended, the table opened and the players may push the tiles into the aperture, and via four holes the other set of shuffled tiles emerge in the shape of a wall.
Variations
Though Bingo has a great number of variations in different regions, competitive association, and house rules, the basic manner of play and a hand good for going out are mostly consistent. Much of the variations come in hand sizes, custom sets and tiles, further restrictions on good hands, and scoring.
Root Style
The rules and scoring method of the so-called Root Style (RS; 本格, pen′-k.rak) was first recorded in 1818 by authors writing about Themiclesian games, with fragmentary descriptions before then. It is the oldest Bingo style, with good evidence of widespread application in contemporary literature, that remains extant. Despite this name, scholars think rules primitive to RS existed, since the oldest tiles predate these rules, but the game played with them cannot be ascertained. Tentative reconstructions have been posited and accepted by some authorities, and C. R. Kep says that the influence of older card-matching games is still clearly visible in RS.
In RS, a set similar to older paper card sets is used, with only 120 tiles in three suits of 40. The suits, representing coins, strings (hundreds) of coins, and myriads (ten-thousands) of coins, run from one to nine, plus a "high" (尊, tsun) tile as the tenth, with four copies of each tile. The "one" in each suit was the "low" (卑, prjê) tile. There were no Honours (East, South, West, and North) or Flowers, though the "high" tiles were likely ancestral to the Middle, Fortune, and White tiles (or Dragons, in some parlance). Some authors believe that an even older style was played with only two copies of each tile, though other think for every player one suit was added.
RS is similar to modern Bingo in that players take turn to draw and discard tiles with the objective of going out with a legal hand, but unlike Bingo, there was a dealer called the "dreamer" (夢家, mjengh-kra) who dealt open tiles to players. Players declared melds as soon as they were made, but it was not permitted to take a discard to form a sequence. A quadruplet could be formed if a player was dealt a tile whose three other copies he already had. The game ended when a player has collected four melds and one pair. According to some analyses, the objective was to finish the hand as quickly as possible by declaring melds.
In terms of scoring, RS is signficantly different from most modern varieties of Bingo because melds were the main source of scores. Each triplet was worth one point, and quadruplet four. The "high" tile could be used as the tenth of a sequence, but if a triplet was formed with them, all triplets and quadruplets in the same suit, including itself) were worth double, and if a quadruplet was formed, they were worth quadruple. If the "low" tile triplet appeared, that triplet alone was also worth double. It is unclear if imperfect or perfect flushes existed during the RS period.
| Middles | Peripherals | |
|---|---|---|
| Sequences | 0 | 0 |
| Triplets | 1 | 2 |
| Quadruplets | 4 | 8 |
Old Style
By the mid-19th century, Root Style had evolved into Old Style (OS; 舊格, gwje′-k.rak) in many regions, though the shift was protracted, and even in the late 19th century some descriptions exist of gameplay similar to RS. While there were numerous changes, the most important one was the ability to retain melds in the concealed hand, which gave players the ability to construct special hands for going out, rather than passively to receive points when melds were formed. In this case, only a meld formed by a discard must be exposed. A dealer-less game was first described in 1834 and was evidently ordinary by 1847, at least in the coastal regions and the capital city. OS is thought to be the most recent common ancestor of most varieties of Bingo.
Numerous other changes also marked the transition from RS to OS. First, the number of players was fixed at four, and each player was identified with one of the cardinal directions. The Honours and Flowers were one of several sets of "Trump" tiles (將, tsjangh) borrowed from other card and tile games, usually themed after traditional four-member sequences in Themiclesian cultural diction. It should be noted that OS, like RS, was not a regulated style, but is characterized by widespared acceptance of certain basic principles (in this case the ability of the player to conceal melds and thereby re-arrange them into higher-scoring hands).
As for scoring, OS extended the RS scheme of each triplet being worth one point and quadruplet four. Since players found melds formed by dealt tiles (one per revolution) more challenging than those formed by discards (three), those were declared worth double, which compounds with the double worth of melds formed by "high" and "low" tiles, collectively called "peripherals". A sequence formed by dealt tile was promoted to one point when melds were refactored to double their original value later in the 19th century.
The classical imperfect and perfect flushes were firmly established during the OS period. If a hand at going out was imperfect flush, i.e. consisting of one suit plus special tiles (Honours or Trump tiles), which could only form triplets or the pair, the entire hand was worth double; if it was a perfect flush, it was worth four-fold.
| Middles (exposed) | Peripherals (exposed) | Middles (concealed) | Peripherals (concealed) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sequences | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Triplets | 2 | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| Quadruplets | 8 | 16 | 16 | 32 |