Pith

Pith

A game of pith about to begin
Years active	In various forms, 200s BNB to present
Genres	Matching, Vying
Players	2 to 4
Skills	Tactics, observation, memory, bluffing
Related games
Little pith * Piṭṭháu * Peuh Taus

Pith is a tile-based game popular in the western Orddonach, introduced to the region in the form of the Namunian piṭṭháu sometime in the 200s BNB.

Gameplay

Players start with a concealed hand of 12 tiles. The objective of pith is to be the first to make a winning hand. To achieve this, they must use both discarded tiles from the player directly preceding them or from the walls of tiles in the centre of the table (stáerwy, sg. stáer).

Setup and turn order

Before the game can begin, the tiles are all scrambled face down and then arranged into four 36-tile walls arranged in a square, with an extra square of 36 tiles (4 layers of 9 tiles) at the centre of the table. From this square each player will take their first 9 tiles at the very beginning of the game for their initial hand. One player is chosen to be the head (towr), and, depending on regional and house rules, the order of play will go clockwise or counterclockwise starting from this player (generally, it is counterclockwise, except in Hearn, Blackstrath and Nemmark). Starting from the wall in front of the head, each player takes an additional three tiles, and their starting hand is complete.

Gameplay

The game is divided into rounds and officially begins when the head draws first from the starting wall (the one directly in front of them). At this point, they can:

• Take the tile they drew and discard one of their own, or
• Discard the tile, along with at most 3 other tiles in their hand.

The moment a player discards a tile, the turn goes to the next player, who may either:

• Take at most the 4 last tiles from the discard pile (in the order they were discarded) and discard up to 4 of their own tiles (taking care to never have a hand under 4 or over 12 tiles), or
• Take one tile from the starting wall and discard one of their own, or
• If the player's current hand is less than 12 tiles, take at most the four last tiles from the discard pile and don't discard, or
• Discard at most four of their own tiles and pass the turn.

A player may never have more than 12 tiles or less than 4 in their hand. Winning hands can only be 12 tiles long (with a few exceptions for special hands which may or may not be valid depending on regional rules). The moment a player gets a winning hand, they must show it to the rest of the table, at which point they become the head of the next round.

If the walls are completely exhausted by the end of a round, the game ends in a draw, and no points are awarded to any player. The game resets from there (new walls are built, new hands are started) and a new round begins. In these situations, the role of the head may remain the same or move to the next player in play order.

Scoring and end of play

Scoring in pith serves to determine the overall performance of each player, as well as determining who becomes the head of the each round. A hand's score is based on the sum of the scores assigned to each of its composing melds. The maximum score for the end of a session differs by region, custom and house rules, but is usually somewhere around 144 points.

Melds

A winning hand must be made of combinations of tiles called melds. A meld is a combination of at least 2 and at most 4 tiles, either all of the same number or in numerical sequence. Wanderers (W), seasons (S) and high kings (K) cannot be used in numerical sequences (unlike in little pith), while moons (M) are wildcards that may stand in for any rank (numerical or not) of any suit. Each meld has a score that counts to the overall value of the final hand.

A meld composed exclusively of tiles from the same suit, such as , is called a level (bar) meld. Level melds are valued above their non-level counterparts. Levelness also applies to hands with the same logic. A hand that is composed entirely of level tiles of the same suit is called perfect (hibeng), and is worth double the sum of its melds.

Legal melds from weakest to strongest

Meld	Description	Example	Score
			Base	Level
Eyes (médr)	The weakest meld, two tiles of the same number		2	4
Short (maf)	Three tiles in numerical sequence		4	6
Threefold (mi)	Three tiles of the same number		4	6
Row (lirn)	Four tiles in numerical sequence		6	8
Fourfold (pyn)	Four tiles of the same number		6	8

Hands

A winning hand is composed of 12 tiles arranged in melds. The following is an example of such.

This is a valid ending hand composed of a threefold, a row, a short and eyes, adding up to 12 tiles. They are all level, but of different suits, and thus the hand is not perfect. It would score the player 24 points.

This is a valid perfect hand composed of a fourfold, a row and two eyes, adding up to 12 tiles. They are all level and of the same suit (cups), and thus the hand is perfect. It would score the player 48 points (the double of the sum of its melds, 24).