Bêng'-goi

Revision as of 07:06, 6 August 2020 by Themi (talk | contribs) (→‎See also)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

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.

Manner of play

While there are a great variety of Bingo, the basic manner of play is similar amongst them.

At the start of the game, the players determine which seats they take. After constructing the deck with all the tiles, into four sections of 36 tiles long and 2 high, three dice are tossed to determine which player will be the house (公家), who cast the dice again to decide where on the deck to start playing. One corresponds with the section of the deck facing the house, two with the player with his right, and so forth; at the same time, one means the the house takes four tiles, starting one tile away from the right end of his deck, and so forth. Tiles are taken in a clockwise direction, but the sequence of play is counterclockwise. After all players receive thirteen tiles, the house takes the top tile from the first and third tiles on the upper layer from the deck, on the top of the deck, and the others one tile each, in the playing order. House should then have 14 tiles, and others 13.

After all players receive their hand, any external flowers are exchanged at the bottom of the deck. House then discards the first tile; other players each deal and discard in turn until a player goes out. Before dealing and after discarding, all players should have 13 tiles, plus 1 extra for each quadruplet. During play, any player with two copies of one tile may claim a discard identical to them to form an exposed triplet, or with three copoies to form an exposed quadruplet, both of which must be displayed. After forming a triplet, the player must discard one tile, but after a qudruplet, the player takes an extra tile from the bottom of the deck to compensate for the extra tile in the meld. As any player may claim triplets and quadruplets from any discard, this can interrupt the order of play; in this case, the players between the one discarding and retrieving are omitted. A player may only form an exposed sequence of three tiles from the discard of the immediately previous player; no player will be omitted in this case.

After declaring going out, a player must expose his hand immediately that it might be examined.

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.

There are three suits of tiles numbered one through nine, the coin suit, string suit, and myriad suit. Originally, these suits may have represented single coins, strings of 100 coins, and myriad or ten-thousands of coins, though they are of equal weight in all varieties of Bingo.

Coin suit

MJt1-.svg MJt2-.svg MJt3-.svg MJt4-.svg MJt5-.svg MJt6-.svg MJt7-.svg MJt8-.svg MJt9-.svg

The one-, two-, and three-coin tiles typically have largere coins to take up more of the tile's obverse surface. The geometric arrangement of coins is exceedingly consistent across most sets even during the 19th century, but colouring varies.

String suit

MJs1-.svg MJs2-.svg MJs3-.svg MJs4-.svg MJs5-.svg MJs6-.svg MJs7-.svg MJs8-.svg MJs9-.svg

Some sets have a series of coins at an oblique angle, but others have their profiles only, giving rise to the nickname "bamboo" in some circles. The one-string tile is stylized into a bird of some kind on most sets. The earliest sets show an actual one-string image on the one-string tile, but with some lines added to simulate dangling or jiggling; it seems these lines later elaborated into wings, while the string itself became the bird's body. One argument provides that a single string either looked or sounded the phallus, so it was changed to a less suggestive image, especially when female players grew in number.

Myriad suit

MJw1-.svg MJw2-.svg MJw3-.svg MJw4-.svg MJw5-.svg MJw6-.svg MJw7-.svg MJw8-.svg MJw9-.svg

The myriad suit consists of two Mengja characters, though some think they originally approximated the appearance of banknotes.

Winds

MJf1-.svg MJf2-.svg MJf3-.svg MJf4-.svg

Trumps

MJd1-.svg MJd2-.svg MJd3-.svg

Flowers

MJh1-.svg MJh2-.svg MJh5-.svg MJh6-.svg MJh3-.svg MJh4-.svg MJh7-.svg MJh8-.svg

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.

There are two forms of counting score, additive and exponential. The latter refers to an exponent of two, so one exponent is double the base, two is quadruple, three is eight-fold, and four is sixteen-fold. When exponents are used, it is the norm to cap (滿和) at four exponents (the fourth power of two).

Root Style

Coins × 4 Strings × 4 Myriads × 4 Trumps Winds Flowers Jokers
MJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJt5-.svgMJt6-.svgMJt7-.svgMJt8-.svgMJt9-.svgMJd3-.svg MJs1-.svgMJs2-.svgMJs3-.svgMJs4-.svgMJs5-.svgMJs6-.svgMJs7-.svgMJs8-.svgMJs9-.svgMJd2-.svg MJw1-.svgMJw2-.svgMJw3-.svgMJw4-.svgMJw5-.svgMJw6-.svgMJw7-.svgMJw8-.svgMJw9-.svgMJd1-.svg

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 Seasons (East, South, West, and North) or Flowers, though the "high" tiles were likely ancestral to the Middle, Fortune, and White tiles (or Trumps, in some parlance). Some authors believe that an even older style was played with only two copies of each tile, though others 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.

Mid. Peri.
Sequences 0 0
Triplets 1 2
Quadruplets 4 8

Old Style

Coins × 4 Strings × 4 Myriads × 4 Trumps Winds Flowers Jokers
MJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJt5-.svgMJt6-.svgMJt7-.svgMJt8-.svgMJt9-.svgMJd3-.svg MJs1-.svgMJs2-.svgMJs3-.svgMJs4-.svgMJs5-.svgMJs6-.svgMJs7-.svgMJs8-.svgMJs9-.svgMJd2-.svg MJw1-.svgMJw2-.svgMJw3-.svgMJw4-.svgMJw5-.svgMJw6-.svgMJw7-.svgMJw8-.svgMJw9-.svgMJd1-.svg ❌ 

By the mid-19th century, Root Style had evolved into Old Style (OS; 舊格, gwjes-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 in the broader sense, 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). However, a representative set of rules did emere in 1875 (see below).

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.

Exposed Concealed
Mid. Peri. Mid. Peri.
Sequences 0 1
Triplets 2 4 4 8
Quadruplets 8 16 16 32

Since a player now had the freedom to construct entire hands, numerous rewards appeared during the OS period to reward various feats of skill or luck. These rewards came in two kinds, bonus points (加副, krar-pjegh) and bonus exponents (加翻, krar-pjar). Bonus points were awarded for challenging conditions to complete the hand, such as calling only one possible tile (獨聽, dok-l′êng), and for rare situations like going out on the very last tile (海底撈月, m′e′-ti′-raw-ngwjat). Bonus exponents extended from RS rules to the entire hand's score. An imperfect flush hand, i.e. consisting of one suit plus Honours tiles (Seasons or Trump tiles), which could only form triplets or the pair, was worth double; if it was a perfect flush, it was worth eight-fold.

The concept of "cap" (滿貫) was probably introduced in gambling settings to establish the maximum changing hands per game. The cap is set by players before start of play. If the number of points scored going out exceeds cap, the score is recorded as cap. The natural hand (天和), where a player finds his starting hand plus the first tile is already good to go out, is universally considered a cap hand. Exceptionally diffiuclt hands such as all-winds (melds of all four Winds) and all-trump (melds of all three Trumps) are also cap. If there is no cap, then custom dicatates that the natural hand cannot combine with any other bonus, as the player cannot be rewarded for skill when he has not started playing.

Bonus points
Going out (GO) 10 Calling one tile 4
Calling two tiles 2 GO on dealt tile 2
GO on last tile 2 GO on extra tile 2
GO on steal 2 GO on peripheral 2
GO mid-sequence 2 Matching flower 4
Other flowers 2 Matching season 4
Other seasons 2 No sequences 4
Natural hand Cap
All winds Cap
All trumps Cap
Bonus exponents
Matching wind 1 for meld
Trump 1 for meld
Imperfect flush 1 for suit
Perfect flush 3 for hand

1875 standard

In 1875, Bingo had become sufficiently amongst the gentry that official rules were written down for it. Classically, OS refers to the 1875 set of rules that is still followed by some communities today. Originally a commoner's game, Bingo clubs sprung up in the 1850s for social elites who sometimes squandered away fortunes gambling on it, whether as a player or bettor. These clubs then started organizing into leagues that played with each other for social and competitive reasons, though over-indulgence was considered a vice. It was originally for these leagues that the 1875 rules were written down, covering mostly scoring but also aspects of the game like etiquette and prohibitions of underhanded play.

Starting around that time, sets of Bingo tiles were made for export and spawned a number of player communities abroad. Bingo has become popular in Menghe and Dayashina, in particular, with player communities and stylistic variations that dwarf those in Themiclesia.

For a significant period of time, the 1875 standard was the standard in Bingo clubs and their leagues Themiclesia and most of the world; however, the 1875 rules have not prevented further development that lead to newer styles which are more popular than OS today. Games historian G. H. Hart writes:

Once it is established that a player can re-arrange his hand to fulfil challenging patterns, it follows that he should be rewarded for undertaking this risk and extra effort. Then arises the question how much should he be rewarded for it, and in the past there was no science in making these determinations. Creation of new criteria and re-evaluation of old ones is one, if not the main, driving force behind most of Bingo's evolved styles that exist today.

The 1875 rules are remarkably convoluted with its system for rewarding skill, risk-taking, and luck, with points for various melds and then exponents rewarded on top of some or all of them. This is certainly to be expected, as OS evolved out of RS, a game with a different objective. As the rules of a regular league with prestigious patrons, it has remained unchanged, but many evolving styles have done away with this scoring system in favour of a scale that assesses complete hands only.

An example hand, below, is calculated as follows under 1875 rules:

Exposed Concealed
MJd1-.svgMJd1-.svgMJd1-.svgMJt9-.svgMJt9-.svg MJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg
Melds
MJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt1-.svg Concealed, peripheral triplet 8 pts
MJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svg Concealed, middle sequence 1 pt
MJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg Concealed, peripheral quadruplet 32 pts
MJd1-.svgMJd1-.svgMJd1-.svg Exposed, peripheral triplet 4 pts
MJt9-.svgMJt9-.svg Exposed, peripheral pair 0 pts
Bonus exponents
MJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg Doubles self and coin melds: add 8 + 1 + 32 pts 41 pts
MJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJt9-.svgMJt9-.svg Imperfect flush, doubles suit: add 8 + 1 pt 9 pts
Bonus points
Going out 10 pts
GO on calling only MJt9-.svg 2 pts
GO on MJt9-.svg, peripheral 2 pts
GO on MJt9-.svg, from bottom of deck for MJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg 4 pts
Sum total 113 pts

1890s rules

Coins × 4 Strings × 4 Myriads × 4 Trumps × 4 Winds × 4 Flowers Jokers
MJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJt5-.svgMJt6-.svgMJt7-.svgMJt8-.svgMJt9-.svg MJs1-.svgMJs2-.svgMJs3-.svgMJs4-.svgMJs5-.svgMJs6-.svgMJs7-.svgMJs8-.svgMJs9-.svg MJw1-.svgMJw2-.svgMJw3-.svgMJw4-.svgMJw5-.svgMJw6-.svgMJw7-.svgMJw8-.svgMJw9-.svg MJd1-.svgMJd2-.svgMJd3-.svg MJf1-.svgMJf2-.svgMJf3-.svgMJf4-.svg Varies Varies

Some time during or after the 1875 OS rules were in fashion, a variety of "flower" (華) tiles were added to the standard Bingo set. These could be divided into two categories, the "inner" and "outer" flowers. The latter category gave the player an opportunity to draw a tile from the bottom of the deck but have no other function. The former came in several varieties of playable tiles that either convenienced the player, such as wild cards of limited or unlimited abilities, or gave additional scoring opportunities, like Winds and modern Flower tiles. During the 1890s, the Winds tile set became standard for play in many circles, as each player was assigned a cardinal direction.

These "flower" tiles diversified the rules of play and scoring methods. One argument provides that such an abundance of scoring opportunities from flower tiles transferred focus from the original game from the suits to the flowers, as earning points from quadruplets was significantly more challenging than from a triplet of flowers. There was a trend described by games historians of a gradual inflation of points scored by various flower tiles. In the 1860s, when they appeared, a flower triplet usually scored the same as a peripheral triplet set; by the 1870s, a matching Wind triplet granted an exponent to its holder, and in 1891 obtaining one matching external flower granted 10 points, and both merited an exponent. By 1900, some rules regarded a single one as one exponent.

The scoring system on the rest of the set also underwent changes during the late 19th century. The three Trumps were dissociated with their respective suits, givine one exponent to the entire hand's score. The same occurred with the imperfect flush, which formerly gave an exponent to only the melds and pair that composed of it. Though seemingly a minor alteration, the new scoring system placed a vastly greater emphasis on a hand conforming to patterns, rather than seeking out triplets and quadruplets. Some authorities take this as the end of the "canonical game" that revolved around contrasting values of individual melds. These changes also have the effect of simplifying the scoring system.

The same hand as above is calculated as follows under rules typical for a game in the 1890s:

Exposed Concealed
MJd1-.svgMJd1-.svgMJd1-.svgMJt9-.svgMJt9-.svg MJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg
Melds
MJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt1-.svg Concealed, peripheral triplet 8 pts
MJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svg Concealed, middle sequence 1 pt
MJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg Concealed, peripheral quadruplet 32 pts
MJd1-.svgMJd1-.svgMJd1-.svg Exposed, peripheral triplet 4 pts
MJt9-.svgMJt9-.svg Exposed pair 0 pts
Bonus points
Going out 10 pts
GO on calling only MJt9-.svg 2 pts
GO on MJt9-.svg, peripheral 2 pts
GO on MJt9-.svg, from bottom of deck for MJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg 4 pts
Subtotal 63 pts
MJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg Trump double
MJd1-.svgMJd1-.svgMJd1-.svg Trump double
MJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJt9-.svgMJt9-.svg Imperfect flush double
Sum total 504 pts

New Style

Coins × 4 Strings × 4 Myriads × 4 Trumps × 4 Winds × 4 Flowers Jokers
MJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJt5-.svgMJt6-.svgMJt7-.svgMJt8-.svgMJt9-.svg MJs1-.svgMJs2-.svgMJs3-.svgMJs4-.svgMJs5-.svgMJs6-.svgMJs7-.svgMJs8-.svgMJs9-.svg MJw1-.svgMJw2-.svgMJw3-.svgMJw4-.svgMJw5-.svgMJw6-.svgMJw7-.svgMJw8-.svgMJw9-.svg MJd1-.svgMJd2-.svgMJd3-.svg MJf1-.svgMJf2-.svgMJf3-.svgMJf4-.svg MJh1-.svgMJh2-.svgMJh5-.svgMJh6-.svgMJh3-.svgMJh4-.svgMJh7-.svgMJh8-.svg Varies

While the 1875 OS rules remained dominant in competitve events, playing halls (down-market establishments distinguished from clubs) started offering new scoring rules that would speed up play, since frequently players were charged by number of games and the hall collected a percentage of winnings.[1] These halls, where gambling frequently but not universally occurred, were legalized in 1901. While playing rules differed, the desire to play more quickly was shared with patrons, many of whom had little leisure time after a working day. Surviving records tell that during the 19th century, Bingo was played mostly to bide time away. Pace was sedate, and arguably the freedom of concealed hands developed to make the game slower and more nuanced. The various changes gave rise to what contemporaries called New Style (NS; 新格, sjing-k.rak), though in the late 1800s and early 1900s, NS was not a regulated style.

The scoring system largely dealt away with counting melds and established, in its stead, a "base" (底, ti′) for going out. Any bonus was reflected in terms of exponents, many bonus points in OS being converted to one exponent in NS. Since the base was fixed, calculating exponents was easier. However, since exponents expanded the base geometrically, most playing halls capped them at four, or 16 times base. The simplification of the scoring system has been connected by some to the desire of playing hall owners to expand the popularity of the game. One could score highly by combining several non-challenging criteria, which would have been additive rather than exponential in OS. For rapidity, several criteria that required careful or even exhaustive analysis of a hand were eliminated, as these also tended to cause controversies in a gambling setting; those that were easily distinguished, quick to assemble, or luck-based (such as going out on a dealt tile versus a discard) were retained.

Bonus exponents
Going out (GO) Base GO on dealt tile 1
GO on steal 1 GO on last tile 1
GO on extra tile 1 Matching flower 1
Matching season 1 No sequences 1
Matching wind 1 Trump 1
Imperfect flush 1 Perfect flush 3
Partial winds 1 Partial trumps 1
Natural hand Cap
All winds Cap
All trumps Cap

The same hand above is calculated under NS rules, typical in playing halls in the 1920.

Exposed Concealed
MJd1-.svgMJd1-.svgMJd1-.svgMJt9-.svgMJt9-.svg MJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg
Going out Base
GO on MJt9-.svg, from bottom of deck for MJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg 1
MJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svgMJd3-.svg Trump 1
MJd1-.svgMJd1-.svgMJd1-.svg Trump 1
MJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJt9-.svgMJt9-.svg Imperfect flush 1
Sum total 16 × base

Modern Standard

Coins × 4 Strings × 4 Myriads × 4 Trumps × 4 Winds × 4 Flowers Jokers
MJt1-.svgMJt2-.svgMJt3-.svgMJt4-.svgMJt5-.svgMJt6-.svgMJt7-.svgMJt8-.svgMJt9-.svg MJs1-.svgMJs2-.svgMJs3-.svgMJs4-.svgMJs5-.svgMJs6-.svgMJs7-.svgMJs8-.svgMJs9-.svg MJw1-.svgMJw2-.svgMJw3-.svgMJw4-.svgMJw5-.svgMJw6-.svgMJw7-.svgMJw8-.svgMJw9-.svg MJd1-.svgMJd2-.svgMJd3-.svg MJf1-.svgMJf2-.svgMJf3-.svgMJf4-.svg MJh1-.svgMJh2-.svgMJh5-.svgMJh6-.svgMJh3-.svgMJh4-.svgMJh7-.svgMJh8-.svg

The various styles of Bingo underwent competition during the Pan-Septentrion War, as it became a favourite pastime for troops, who brought the game home after the war. Though regional styles predominated before it, the assembly of troops from different regions fostered a need for a broadly-accepted scoring system, especially when many units sponsored Bingo recreation and tournaments. Of the facilities Themiclesian forces operated in Menghe between 1946 – 49, cinemas and Bingo halls were open to locals. The Consolidated Army sponsored the first pan-service Bingo tournament in 1948, commanding every department to run internal tournaments and present victors for a play-off. Some scholarship has been done on the effects of military lifestyle on playing habits.

As gambling was banned during war, the desire for speed and excitement seems to have promoted changes in the scoring system. This first led to lfiting the cap from four to six exponents, so that the top score was 64 times base, and then after 1950, exponential scoring was gradually abandoned in communities. The motivation for this change is unclear, though under NS the sheer multitude of compounding bonus conditions may have led to the feeling that a minor achievement giving one exponent should not double an existing, large achievement. For example, a perfect flush worth 16 times base might double to 32, because the winning tile was dealt rather than retrieved; conversely, a "plain hand" won on a dealt tile would receive double base. In the former, the dealt tile was felt to be worth an absolute amount of 16 times base, while in the latter only one time, for what is fundamentally the same criterion.

Additive scoring replaced the exponential system in the thrid Kien-k'ang Bingo Tournament, held in 1952. This shift further simplified counting, as the base was normally 20 or 50 points under NS.[2] According to the new rules, points simply equalled exponents, so one exponent was one point, etc. On the other hand, clubs and leagues following OS rules were interrupted by the war, their socially-prominent members either called away or curtailing merrymaking during national distress, leading to that style's decline following the PSW. The demise of the social club as a political institution further diminished the popularity of OS rules. However, it has made a minor recovery and remains in use today, most prominently in "classic rules" tournaments. On the whole, however, most tournaments today conform to the "standard" rules formalized in the 50s.

Bonus exponents
No triplets 1 GO on dealt tile 1
Calling one tile 1 Calling two tiles 1
GO on steal 1 GO on last tile 1
GO on extra tile 1 Matching flower 1
Matching season 1 No sequences 1
Matching wind 1 Trump 1
Imperfect flush 2 Perfect flush Cap
Partial winds 3 Partial trumps 3
Natural hand Cap
All winds Cap
All trumps Cap

Menghean

Dayashinese

Other rules

Incorrect win

An incorrect win or false win (詐和) refers to a hand declared going out but actually is incomplete and cannot go out. Penalties for a false win range from nothing and continual to play to compensation of each player the point cap, which could be very large in some circumstances.

Incorrect number of tiles

During play, a player might sometimes forget to discard a tile or deal one from the deck, resulting in one or more tiles too many or few. In most competitive situations, the player will not be permitted to rectify the situation, and thus he cannot complete a legal hand; however, a player with too few tiles may still participate by dealing and discarding tiles.

Competitions

History

Playing card found in Dzhungestan

The origins of both the game of Bingo and the tiles are disputed.

Tiles

Many authorities connect the tiles to playing cards that originated in Menghe, citing similarities in the money-themed suits, the quantity of each, and their sequentiality. While Menghean playing cards in this form have existed no later than the 15th century, they were used to play a great variety of games. Diffusion to Themiclesia would have occurred between then to early 16th century, when Menghean merchants and monks were active in Themiclesia, by sea and the caravan route over Dzhungestan.  A set of cards, dating to the turn of the 15th century, has been found intact in Dzhungestani desert.

Similar card sets began to appear in Themiclesia during the mid-15th century, when the attitude of the Theimclesian court towards Menghe had mollified since the war ending in 1385. While certain imports, such as Sudok Chŏndo (素德天道, sagh-tek-l′in-lu′), were politically prohibited, this was a period in which the government loosened its control over cultural interaction, whose prohibition was feared to offend the Menghean suzerain. An alternative theory provides that a game played with this set of cards was played by Menghean sailors in the Meridian Ocean, where it was brought home by Themiclesian ones; this would explain the particular popularity of card games in Themiclesian maritime communities.

Such early playing cards possessed four suits, representing coins, strings (of coins), myriads (of coins), and ten-myriads (of coins). In Themiclesian, the ten-myriad suit was quickly replaced with the catty suit, representing the gold specie auric catty, the highest-valued domestic currency. While the catty suit persisted in many games, it was eventually dropped in the game of Bingo; however, its inclusion "would not significantly change the game", according to A. B. Sai, an author on the history of games in Themiclesia.

The date when tiles began replacing paper cards is uncertain, and at any rate the game of Bingo or its predecessors is playable on both tiles and cards. However, of the family of games including Bingo, only that game is conventionally played on tiles. Some believe the maritime community may have replaced the cards with heavier tiles, fortified against waves and high winds at sea, though there is no direct evidence for this theory. On the other hand, tile-like dominoes were common possessions, and some of its games seemed to have influenced the predecessors of Bingo, which were played on cards. The earliest complete tile set dates to c. 1830 and is already very similar in scope and size to the core set of tiles in modern Bingo usage.

Game

The modern game of Bingo is a card-matching game often compared to Rummy, but there are various features that connect it to trick-taking games. The most obvious one, according to some authorities, are that the tiles are given numerical values, that Trump tiles were once played as the tenth and "high" member of each suit, and that players must expose their melds to complete them with a retrieved discard.

Early card games were played with a single copy of each card (haploid) and did not have a deck from which new cards could be dealt. In some 16th-century card games, the house first puts forth a card, and players attempt to best it with a better card, e.g. two string beats one string. In these, a player wins the trick if no other produce a better card, but all played cards are out of play.

Some speculate that, rather than giving priority to a better card, it was later given to a player who could thereby complete a meld, and subsequently capturing discards became restricted to melds; however, rarer melds, like triplets, would still be worth more than sequences, giving rise to OS-era valuation of melds.[3] In this hypothetical game, players would compete to complete melds in each trick, the player taking the most tricks being the victor; however, there is also an additional challenge in saving better cards for upcoming tricks.

The game of Makko (默和), acknowledged as more archaic than Bingo, is played along similar lines, where a player could go out with four melds plus two unmatched cards; however, the trick-taking element is already vestigial in Makko, since there is no reward for beating a discard, except to deny it to the next player. The evolution above would only be possible with the increase of the number of sets in play. Diploid and tetraploid play, consisting of two and four identical sets in play respectively, are documented in the 17th to 18th centuries.

Legends

The invention of Bingo is the subject of a large number of legends and speculations. While some contain more verifiable information than others, these legends are not considered fully historical in se. Particularly, since the 1950s, a considerable effort has been in progress to recover the ancestors of Bingo and its relationship to sister games, through material records, internal reconstruction of rules, and accounts from older literature. Most of the legends surrounding the creation of Bingo do not address its obvious shared ancestry with games like Makko or its parallels with trick-taking card games, a situation that some have taken as evidence against their historicity.

  • In the Isthmus, it is often repeated that the suits of tiles were originally coupons, in various denominations, dealers gave to fishermen, who then redeemed them at banks. However, there is no historical record of such a method of accounting in the fishing industry. Instead, B. Ho thinks that the legend might have been developed around the fact that one of the earliest social notables to play the game was a unscrupulous fish merchant active in the 1830s, who often tried to cheat and gamble his fishermen out of their earnings.
  • It is a popular naval legend that Bingo was first played by bored merchant or military sailors in the 1700s; however, the earliest unequivocal evidence that the game was played by any officer of the Themiclesian Navy dates only to 1869, when Lord M′reng, Captain-general of Marines, was seen playing the game in a club with the daughters of Lord Gwrjang-goi, who were not at all involved in the naval establishment. Subsequently, Bingo did become a pastime for naval officers, while bare-knuckle boxing was popular amongst the crew. B. Ho thinks that Lord M′reng's great notoriety at the game may have led seamen of later generations to believe the game was somehow associated with the navy, though Lord M'reng's skill was "probably inseparable from the fact that he was a mathematician."

See also

Notes

  1. Playing clubs usually charged a considerable annual due, while playing halls usually charged per round. Many Themiclesians would not have sufficient leisure money on hand to pay an annual due, which was consciously used as a barrier to entry to maintain the character of the club.
  2. Under NS, one exponent was 40 or 100 points, two was 80 or 200, three was 160 or 400, four was 320 or 800, etc.  Contra the situation under OS, where the base itself was variable and exponents applied partially, so a player might need to exponentiate several bases separately and then sum them together to find out the final score.
  3. Mathematically, a single tile n could form three sequences, 1) n - 1, n, n + 1, 2) n - 2, n - 1, n, and 3) n, n + 1, n + 2; however, in a set of four copies, only one triplet or quadruplet can be formed for each tile.