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 four last tiles from the discard pile and discard an equal number of their own tiles, or
• Take one tile from the starting wall and discard one of their own, 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.

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) may count for any meld, representing any number and any suit.

Legal melds from weakest to strongest

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

A meld composed exclusively of tiles from the same suit, such as , is called a level (bar) meld. Level melds are highly valued and are placed 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).

Hands

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

This hand is composed of a threefold, a row, a short and eyes, adding up to 12 tiles. This is a valid hand to end a round on.