The Fun of Playing with Restrictions with Online Friends

Lately, I've been having fun playing Tenhou (Mahjong Soul) with some people I recently got to know on Discord, but just playing normally has started to feel a bit lacking. So, we've been playing 'no-guard showdowns' with a twist: 'restriction rules'. I'm sure some Mahjong Soul users might be doing this already, but we've come up with rules like 'must achieve at least Mangan', 'must include Kanji tiles', or 'no Dora'. Our group's rule is 'Yakuman only (no counting Yakuman)'. It's thrilling because you can see your opponent's hand, making it impossible to discard certain tiles. The intense battles are really fun. Losing means an instant point deduction, of course, but the dramatic comebacks from just a few hundred points down feel very Mahjong-like and enjoyable. What's great about these restriction rules is that even when you lose, you don't feel any lingering negativity.