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.

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

A typical modern Themiclesian set, with one copy missing

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

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

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

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

Winds

Trumps

Flowers

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
			❌	❌	❌	❌

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
			❌	❌	❌	❌

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

Melds
	Concealed, peripheral triplet	8 pts
	Concealed, middle sequence	1 pt
	Concealed, peripheral quadruplet	32 pts
	Exposed, peripheral triplet	4 pts
	Exposed, peripheral pair	0 pts
Bonus exponents
	Doubles self and coin melds: add 8 + 1 + 32 pts	41 pts
	Imperfect flush, doubles suit: add 8 + 1 pt	9 pts
Bonus points
	Going out	10 pts
	GO on calling only	2 pts
	GO on , peripheral	2 pts
	GO on , from bottom of deck for	4 pts
Sum total		113 pts

1890s rules

Coins × 4	Strings × 4	Myriads × 4	Trumps × 4	Winds × 4	Flowers	Jokers
					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

Melds
	Concealed, peripheral triplet	8 pts
	Concealed, middle sequence	1 pt
	Concealed, peripheral quadruplet	32 pts
	Exposed, peripheral triplet	4 pts
	Exposed pair	0 pts
Bonus points
	Going out	10 pts
	GO on calling only	2 pts
	GO on , peripheral	2 pts
	GO on , from bottom of deck for	4 pts
Subtotal		63 pts
	Trump	double
	Trump	double
	Imperfect flush	double
Sum total		504 pts

New Style

Coins × 4	Strings × 4	Myriads × 4	Trumps × 4	Winds × 4	Flowers	Jokers
						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

Going out		Base
GO on , from bottom of deck for		1
	Trump	1
	Trump	1
	Imperfect flush	1
Sum total		16 × base

Modern Standard

Coins × 4	Strings × 4	Myriads × 4	Trumps × 4	Winds × 4	Flowers	Jokers
						❌

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

Classic Tournament

The Classic Tournament began in 1953 after the Themiclesian Bengo Association decided to move the World Championships to New Style rules in 1952, replacing points with exponents. The shift had caused TBA to become internally divided whether one of the world's most recognized regulatory bodies should recognize evolving rules or remain fast to the original rules established in 1875. One half of the association believed that it must remain relevant to the home audience, while the other half proposed that much of the rest of the world still played rules that counted points. The latter seceded from the TBA in 1951 to form the IBA—International Bengo Association, which began the World Tournament that was later renamed Classic Tournament, when New Style rules also spread abroad.

The Classic Tournament plays on a 120-tile set including all three suits and the three Trumps, with four copies of each; Winds and Flowers are not played. Entrants are divided into geographic divisions that first play internally to produce qualifiers for the main tournament, which occurs annually. The divisions are Dayashina, Eastern Hemithea, Western Hemithea, Upper Themiclesia, Lower Themiclesia, Hallia, Northern Casaterra, Southern Casaterra, Vinya, and Abyalaa, though a constant complaint is the over-representation of Themiclesian players. In the main tournament, a round robbin game is first played by the 128 qualifiers with accumulating points to determine seeding in the play-off. To date, no player has successfully defended a title at the Classics.