Little pith
 A typical little pith starting setup | |
| Years active | 1500s to present |
|---|---|
| Genres | Matching, Vying |
| Players | 2 to 4 |
| Skills | Tactics, observation, memory, bluffing |
| Related games | |
| Pith * Piṭṭháu * Peuh Taus | |
Little pith is a matching game popular in Hearn and Phyrea, dating from the mid-1500s. It is a variant of pith, therefore played using pith tiles, and forms part of a family of card games originating in Nashfor.
Gameplay
The objective of the game is to build combinations of tiles. Each player has a concealed hand they must build upon from other players' discarded tiles.
Setup and turn order
A typical 4-player little pith game has the players shuffle the tiles face-down before setting them up in four 39-tile "walls" (stáerwy, sg. staer), with four groups of six tiles set aside for each player to begin with. These last groups are set down with the front facing their players so as to not let other people see their tiles. Turn order can go either way based on regional biases: in Hearn, it is usually clockwise, while in Phyrea it's most often counter-clockwise, except in Blackstrath and Nemmark.
Gameplay
The game is divided in rounds. On their turn, a player has three options:
- They draw a tile from the wall in front of them, at which point they replace one of their tiles and give it to the next active player face-down.
- They "check" or "confirm," meaning that they are going to play their hand at the end of the round, at which point subsequent turns of theirs are skipped.
- They "pass" or "retreat," which means they do not play their hand this round. Their turns are skipped, and they do not bet anything.
When near the end of a round there is still one person who hasn't confirmed or retreated, they are removed from the round. When all players have confirmed, everyone reveals their hands, and whomever has the highest valued hand wins.
Melds and hands
A meld is a combination of up to four tiles that may be played with other melds to make a hand. A full hand is six tiles long. In a sequence, wanderers (D or W), seasons (L or S) and high kings (H or K) are equivalent to numbers 9, 10 and 11, while moons (M), of which there are only 4 in a 180 tile set, are the most valued tiles, and treated like wild cards (i.e. they can be any number and suit needed for a hand).
| Meld | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Eyes (médr) | The weakest meld, two tiles of the same number |  
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| Short (maf) | Three tiles in numerical sequence |   
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| Threefold (mi) | Three tiles of the same number |   
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| Row (lirn) | Four tiles in numerical sequence |   
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| Fourfold (pyn) | Four tiles of the same number |  
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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). These are the highest valued hands in the game, with a perfect proper, i.e. a long made of tiles of the same suit, being the best.
| Hand | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Fish eyes (médr a n-arm) | Three eyes |    
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| Stairs (thaptin) | Two shorts |   
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| Twins (noed) | Two threefolds |      
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| Hat (gwremt) | A short and a threefold |   
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| Snake (cronyn) | A row and eyes |   
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| Eel (cronyrm) | A fourfold and eyes | 
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| Long (chwad) | Six tiles in numerical sequence |  
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| Level hands (made exclusively of level melds) | ||
| Level fish eyes (médr bar a n-arm) | Three level eyes |
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| Level stairs (thaptin bar) | Two level shorts |  
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| Level twins (noed bar) | Two level threefolds | 
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| Level hat (gwremt bar) | A level short and a level threefold | 
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| Level snake (cronyn bar) | A level row and level eyes |  
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| Level eel (cronyrm bar) | A level fourfold and level eyes | 
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| Perfect hands (made exclusively of tiles of the same suit) | ||
| Perfect fish eyes (médr hibeng a n-arm) | Three level eyes of the same suit |
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| Perfect stairs (thaptin hibeng) | Two level shorts of the same suit |
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| Perfect twins (noed hibeng) | Two level threefolds of the same suit |
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| Perfect hat (gwremt hibeng) | A level short and a level threefold of the same suit |
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| Perfect snake (cronyn hibeng) | A level row and level eyes of the same suit |
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| Perfect eel (cronyrm hibeng) | A level fourfold and level eyes of the same suit |
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| Perfect (hibeng, hibengyd) | Six tiles of the same suit in numerical sequence |  
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