Proto-mahjong › Chinese classical › Babcock rules › Twenty Point Mah Jong

Twenty Point Mah Jong

R.F. Foster, 1924

Western / American

Sources

The documents this entry rests on, as published. Each can be opened and checked; nothing in this part is anybody’s reading of them.

Guide Sloper, Tom. "FAQ 2b: Identifying a Mah-Jongg Variant." Sloperama. canonical checked 2026-09-18
https://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq02b.html
chart’s note Tile counts, hand sizes, flower handling and scoring for roughly 50 named variants. Primary source for most leaf nodes in this chart.
for this variant The chart's canonical source: a hobbyist's summary that names Foster's two books but quotes neither. Foster's own texts confirm its rules and its motive, but his first article credits the game's origin to W. F. Smith, so its 'designed by R.F. Foster' is too strong
Also cited on: Chinese archaic, Late Qing style, Chinese pre-classical, Chinese classical, Shanghai / Hong Kong new style, Hong Kong old style and 45 more · bibliography #1
Historical Foster, R. F. Foster on Mah Jong. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1924. cross-check checked 2026-10-08
https://archive.org/details/bwb_Y0-ACE-714
AI summary Foster's first book on the game, published and reprinted in February 1924: play, scoring, the Seasons, the Chinese and American games, the one-double and cleared-suit fashions he opposed, and his laws. Read in the Internet Archive's scan.
for this variant Foster's own book of February 1924, independent of the chart; it predates the game and argues against the very kind of minimum the twenty-point game imposes, while showing the complaint Sloperama names (quick wins, constant wall-building) and Cobb's flowers-in-hand idea already current
Also cited on: Chinese classical, Babcock rules, Regional US house rules · bibliography #321
Journalism Foster, R. F. "Twenty-Point Mah Jong: An Absolutely New Game Played With 144 Tiles." Vanity Fair 22, no. 6 (August 1924): 41, 92. cross-check checked 2026-10-08
https://archive.org/details/sim_vanity-fair_1924-08_22_6
AI summary Foster's magazine article introducing the twenty-point game, copyright 1924 in his name, with its scoring of sequences and pairs, flowers held in the hand and the 20-point condition. Credits the game's origin to W. F. Smith of Portland, Oregon, and the flower rule to James S. Cobb. Read in the Internet Archive's scan.
for this variant The earliest dated account read, by Foster himself and independent of the chart; it confirms the 20-point minimum, the scoring of sequences and pairs and flowers used in the hand, but places the game's origin with W. F. Smith, so the chart's 'R.F. Foster, 1924' holds for the published system rather than the invention
Only cited here · bibliography #322
Rulebook Hoyle's Games, Autograph Edition. Revised and brought up to date by R. F. Foster. New York: A. L. Burt Company, 1926. "20-Point Mah Jong," pp. 408-421. cross-check checked 2026-10-08
https://archive.org/details/hoylesgames0000unse_t9y0
AI summary A popular Hoyle whose only mah jong section is Foster's twenty-point game, with his score card; the copyright page runs from 1907 to 1926. The Internet Archive dates this scan 1907.
for this variant A 1926 Hoyle revised by Foster, so the same author as the 1937 Hoyle; it confirms the rules two years on and shows Foster presenting Twenty-Point as the American standard, which Sloperama's verdict that it satisfied nobody does not reflect. The Internet Archive's 1907 date for this scan is wrong
Only cited here · bibliography #323
Rulebook Foster, R. F. Foster's Complete Hoyle: An Encyclopedia of Games. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1937. "Twenty Point (Mahjong)," pp. 667-677. cross-check checked 2026-10-08
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.151986
AI summary Foster's games encyclopedia in a post-1924 edition, whose mah jong section is the twenty-point game in full: set, deal, play, the 20-point condition, Foster's Twenty Point Score Card (copyright 1924), settlement and penalties. Read in the Digital Library of India scan at the Internet Archive.
for this variant One of the two books the chart's source cites, read in the 1937 printing; independent of the chart though by the game's author, it matches the chart on every defining fact and gives Sloperama's motive in Foster's own words
Only cited here · bibliography #324
Journalism "Twenty-Point Mah Jong. By R. F. Foster." Unsigned review. The Saturday Review of Literature 1, no. 24 (10 January 1925). cross-check checked 2026-10-08
https://archive.org/details/sim_saturday-review_1925-01-10_1_24
AI summary A short review of Foster's book: its aim of reviving American interest, values for sequences, flowers and seasons as honours, and the twenty-point basic score. Read in the Internet Archive's scan.
for this variant An independent period review of the book, not by Foster; it confirms Foster's authorship, the 1924 date, the 20-point basic score and flowers as honour tiles
Only cited here · bibliography #325
Commercial Dodd, Mead and Company. Advertisement for Twenty-Point Mah Jong by R. F. Foster. The Publishers Weekly 106, no. 17 (25 October 1924). cross-check checked 2026-10-08
https://archive.org/details/sim_publishers-weekly_1924-10-25_106_17
AI summary The publisher's announcement of the book at $1.50, as a new system of counting and play carrying the standardized laws for all forms of the game. Read in the Internet Archive's scan.
for this variant Dates publication to late October 1924 and shows the book carried the standardized laws alongside the new game; publisher's copy, so it confirms the book, not its rules
Only cited here · bibliography #326
Collection Library of Congress, Copyright Office. Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1924, Part 1, Group 1: Books. New Series, vol. 21. Washington, 1924. cross-check checked 2026-10-08
https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig211libr
AI summary The register of books copyrighted in the United States in 1924. Entry 7307 records Foster's Twenty-point mah jong with its full title, publisher and copyright date. Read in the Internet Archive's scan.
for this variant Fixes the book's full title, publisher and copyright date of 25 October 1924, confirming the chart's 1924 and the title Sloperama cites
Only cited here · bibliography #327

AI-generated

Analysis

Written by an AI model from the sources above. It is a reading of them, not a source in its own right: every figure in it points back to a numbered source, and where the two disagree, the source is right.

Assessment

Confidence: documented a published ruleset or rule description exists and is cited
Evidence: corroborated two or more independent sources agree on the facts that define this variant

Cross-comparison

What each source was read to say, set side by side. The numbers are the sources above.

Source	Tiles	Hand	Flowers	Scoring	Payout
[1]	144 (the standard 136 plus 8 flowers)	13, out on 14	used in the hand to form sets	all sets earn points; the hand cannot go out until points reach at least 20; points can be doubled	all players earn points
[1]	144 (the standard 136 plus 8 flowers)	13, out on 14	used in the hand to form sets	all sets earn points; the hand cannot go out until points amount to at least 20; points can be doubled	all players earn points, not only the winner
[2]	136 in the standard game; the eight Seasons (Flowers) are extra and never enter the sets	—	kept apart as bonuses; Foster reports James S. Cobb's suggestion that the Seasons be used as Dragons, drawn and discarded and grouped three of one colour in the regular hand	Foster rejects any minimum for going out, such as the rule requiring at least one double: the first player with four sets and a pair wins whatever they are worth	—
[3]	144	—	Flowers and Seasons go into the honour suit, kept in the playing hand to form sets like Dragons or Winds and discarded when not wanted; 4 points each; they double like Dragons, a bouquet adds no extra double, and there is no double for a player's own number	the player who woos must show at least 20 points before any doubling; sequences score (open-end 2 on the table and 4 in hand, one-end double that, longer runs more) and so do pairs (simples 2; terminals, winds and dragons 4); 20 is added for winning	hands that do not woo are counted for their sets and may double for a cleared suit, all terminals or all honours
[4]	144	13, out on 14	honours with their own values: triplet of one colour 12 on the table and 24 in hand, pair 8, single flower 4; one double for own flower or season	Mah Jong may be called only when the sets and pair total 20 or more, exclusive of doubles and bonuses; 20 is then added for Mah Jong and the total doubled; limit hands include seven pairs (Heavenly Twins), All Green, and Fourteen Odds, which need not count 20	the winner is paid by each and pays nobody; the others need not have 20 and settle the differences between their scores, East paying or receiving double; usual limit 500
[5]	144: 108 suit tiles, 16 winds, 12 dragons and 8 flowers; four spare blanks kept aside	13, out on 14 (four sets and a pair)	kept in the hand and used like Dragons: three of one colour form a set (12 grounded, 24 in hand), a pair 8, a single flower 4; one double for own flower, two for both own flowers	pairs, sequences, triplets and kongs all score; the winning hand must total at least 20 points exclusive of bonuses and doubles, then adds 20 for winning and its bonuses; doubles are cumulative and open to all hands; the Orphans and the Heavenly Twins (seven pairs with 20 points) are limit hands	the winner is paid in full by each and pays nobody; the others then settle differences among themselves, East paying or receiving double; a 300-600 or 500-1,000 limit is usual
[6]	—	—	flower and season tiles used as honour suits in addition to their usual scoring value	sequences are given values; before going out a hand must have a basic score of at least twenty points, exclusive of doubles and bonuses	—

[1] designed in 1924 by R.F. Foster to solve the Chinese Classical problem of high-scoring hands thwarted by cheap wins and frequent wall-building
[1] Re-read 2026-10-08 and unchanged: designed in 1924 by R.F. Foster to solve the Chinese Classical problems of high-scoring hands thwarted by cheap wins and too-frequent wall-building; names as books Foster's Twenty Point Mah Jong (1924) and Foster's Complete Hoyle (editions after 1924 only); the styles list adds that the attempt satisfied nobody but paved the way for American mah-jongg in the 1930s
[2] Published February 1924, before the twenty-point game; reports that the one-double rule's backers said it made games longer, with no one going out too quickly and less time spent building walls, and calls such restricted games mongrels
[3] Foster, under his own 1924 copyright, describes a game they are even now playing in the far west that seems to have originated with W. F. Smith of Portland, Oregon, and credits the flowers-in-hand rule to James S. Cobb of New York; its object is to meet American objections to the straight game, avoid the monotony of the one-double and cleared-suit games, and avoid quick wins and the continual rebuilding of the walls
[4] Foster says the three older forms (the Chinese game, the cleared-suit and the one-double) are no longer played and Twenty-Point is the game now played; the score card is again marked copyright 1924
[5] Presents the game as the third American stage, after the Chinese game, which lost interest through small results, short games and the continual pulling down and rebuilding of the walls, and after the cleared-suit and one-double games; Foster's Twenty Point Score Card is marked copyright 1924
[6] Reviews Foster's book (Dodd, Mead, 1924, $1.50) as his proposal to revive American interest, since by his count only 8 per cent of American players played the Chinese way and most played the cleared-suit or one-double forms; judges that it may fall short of its goal but improves on those forms
[7] The publisher announces the book, illustrated, at $1.50, as a new system of counting and play containing the full code of the latest standardized laws for all forms of the game
[8] Entry 7307: Foster, Robert Frederick, 1853-, Twenty-point mah jong, with the American standard code of laws for all forms of the game, New York, Dodd, Mead and company, 1924, $1.50; copyright 25 October 1924, claimant R. F. Foster, Brooklyn

Reading it

Foster's own writings, read in full text, carry every defining fact the chart and Sloperama give. His Vanity Fair article of August 1924, his Hoyle of 1926 and Foster's Complete Hoyle (1937 printing) all describe a 144-tile game in which sets, sequences and pairs all score, flowers are held in the hand and grouped like Dragons, and the hand that goes out must hold at least 20 points before doubles; losers settle among themselves. The Catalog of Copyright Entries dates the book to 25 October 1924, and an unsigned Saturday Review notice confirms its rules independently of Foster. Foster also states the motive Sloperama gives: small scores, short games and the constant rebuilding of the walls. The sources qualify the authorship. Foster wrote, named and published the system, but his first article says it seems to have originated with W. F. Smith of Portland, Oregon, and credits the flower rule to James S. Cobb. In February 1924 he had argued against any minimum for going out. The rules changed a little between versions: there was no own-flower double in 1924, and there was one by 1926. Nothing read tests Sloperama's verdict that the game satisfied nobody, and in 1926 Foster called it the game now played. Still wanted: the 1924 book itself, and Oregon sources on Smith.

Looked for, not found

Tournament rules No event is known to have played Twenty-Point; nothing turned up in the Internet Archive full text or Chronicling America.
Law No law bears on a 1920s American parlour variant; not searched beyond that.
Scholarship Crossref gave nothing on the game. Pritchard's books list Foster's title in their bibliographies but are lending-only and were not read. No study of the game was found.
Encyclopedia No Wikipedia article on the game was found (one REST search, then 429); Wikidata could not be queried (429).
Forum Not searched: Reddit and BoardGameGeek refuse automated readers; no forum discussion is known.
Organisation No body governed or promoted the game. Foster sat on the 1924 American Standardization Committee, and the Book Review Digest for 1924 quotes Hartman's foreword naming mixed hands, cleared hands and one-double as the forms officially recognised in the American Code.

Known, not yet read

Sources that look worth having but could not be read for this entry. If you can reach one, it can be read and added. Every variant’s list is gathered on Missing sources.

Official rules Foster, R. F. Twenty-point mah jong, with the American standard code of laws for all forms of the game. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1924 (London: John Lane, 1925) — The book the chart's source cites: Foster's full statement of the game, published 25 October 1924, which should show how far he changed the Vanity Fair version and how he credited W. F. Smith
Where: Print; in the US public domain since 2020, so a library scan may exist on HathiTrust (LC card 24-27658). Tried: Internet Archive title and full-text search (2026-10-08) found catalogue entries, reviews and advertisements but no scan; HathiTrust's catalog API by LCCN returned no record and its catalog search answered a Cloudflare challenge (403, the site's refusal); the Google Books API and WorldCat answered 429 to the research environment's shared address

Where it was searched

Every place the search checklist names for this variant’s languages, and what each gave, including nothing. The last full pass was on 2026-10-08.

Names searched: English Twenty Point Mah Jong, Twenty-Point Mah Jong, Twenty-Point Mahjong, Twenty Points, 20-Point Mah Jong, Twenty Point (Mahjong).

16 places searched

General web search — Standard WebSearch, 2026-10-08: "Twenty Point Mah Jong" Foster 1924; "twenty-point" mahjong Foster flowers; "Twenty-Point Mah Jong" OR "Twenty Points" mah jong 1924 newspaper. Results were Sloperama pages (same author as the chart's source), the VIAF record for Foster listing the title, a TinyCat library record for Foster on Mah Jong, themahjongtileset.co.uk on Babcock (fetched; no mention of the game) and a GenealogyBank blog saying Foster wrote mah jong articles for the Seattle Daily Times in 1924 (unread lead). No independent description of the game. Extended mode not used.
Wikidata — wbsearchentities for 'twenty point mahjong' answered 429 (Wikimedia rate limit on the shared address), 2026-10-08; no item known.
Wikipedia, in every declared language — English Wikipedia REST search for '"twenty-point" mahjong Foster' returned no page (200), 2026-10-08; later API calls answered 429. A web search restricted to en.wikipedia.org listed only general scoring and American mahjong articles, none read. No article on the game is known.
The sources' own references, and who cites them — Sloperama FAQ 2b cites Foster's Twenty Point Mah Jong (1924) and Foster's Complete Hoyle (editions after 1924): the Hoyle was read in the 1937 printing and the 1924 book is wanted. Following Foster led to his Vanity Fair article (August 1924) and Hoyle's Games (1926). Second-round leads, unread: Foster's later Vanity Fair mah jong columns (September-December 1924) for replies on Twenty Points; Oregon newspapers of 1924 on W. F. Smith of Portland; James S. Cobb's proposal in Vanity Fair (date not found); Foster's Laws of Mah Jong for 1924 (Vanity Fair pamphlet); Foster's 1924 articles in the Seattle Daily Times; D. B. Pritchard's Mahjong (2001) and Play and Win Mah-jong (2013), whose bibliographies list Twenty-point Mah-jong and a 1924 Foster Mah-jong Scorecard (lending-only at the Internet Archive).
Internet Archive full-text search — Full-text search for "twenty point mah jong" (100 hits), 2026-10-08. Read: Foster on Mah Jong (1924), Vanity Fair August 1924, Saturday Review 10 January 1925, Publishers Weekly 25 October 1924, Catalog of Copyright Entries 1924, Hoyle's Games (1926), Foster's Complete Hoyle (1937), and the New York Times of 5 October 1924, whose book notes announce the forthcoming book from Dodd, Mead (not recorded separately). Found, not read: Saturday Review 6 December 1924 listing; Life 18 December 1924 listing; The Bookman November 1924 and New York Times 26 October 1924 advertisements; Publishers Weekly 20 September and 1 November 1924; English Catalogue for 1925 (London edition by John Lane, October 1925); United States Catalog 1928; later Foster's Complete Hoyle printings of 1946, 1953 and 1963, whose snippets show the Twenty Point section kept; Who's Who entries listing the book. No scan of the 1924 book was found. Four items are quoted from the /stream/ form of the OCR text because stray '<' characters in the raw _djvu.txt would be swallowed by tag stripping.
Wayback Machine — Not searched: every source read is live, and no dead site is known for this variant.
Google Books — Books API query intitle:"twenty-point mah jong" answered 429 (daily quota), 2026-10-08.
HathiTrust full-text search — Catalog API by LCCN 24027658 (the LC card number in the Catalog of Copyright Entries) returned no record; the catalog search page answered a Cloudflare challenge (403), 2026-10-08. Full-text search not tried, being behind the same challenge.
WorldCat — search.worldcat.org answered 429 to a search for the title, 2026-10-08. VIAF lists the title under Foster (seen in web search results, not read).
Scholarly indexes — Crossref bibliographic query 'twenty-point mah jong Foster', 2026-10-08: only OED entries, two 1924 Notes and Queries items on mah jong and chapters of Abacus and Mah Jong (2009); nothing on the game. OpenAlex and Google Scholar not tried.
YouTube — Not searched: a 1924 American variant with no known modern play.
English-language forums — Not searched: Reddit and BoardGameGeek refuse automated readers, and no forum discussion of this game is known.
Mahjong reference sites — Sloperama FAQ 2b re-read. Sloperama's CC-theory pages argfor.html and work.html, same author and not independent, were checked: they discuss Foster's Laws of Mah Jong for 1924 and name Foster on the August 1924 Standardization Committee, but do not mention Twenty-Point. The Mahjong Wiki's site search returned a page whose results are drawn by script; nothing was visible.
App and platform listings — Not searched: no app is known to offer a 1924 variant.
English-language newspaper archives — Chronicling America through the loc.gov JSON API (the old chroniclingamerica.loc.gov search now redirects to a 404; page viewers answer a Cloudflare challenge, so OCR came from tile.loc.gov), 2026-10-08. Two keyword searches, 'foster mah jong twenty' 1924-1926 (84 pages) and 'twenty point mah jong' 1924-1925 (264 pages): each page's OCR was scanned for 'twenty point(s)' near mah jong or Foster, with no hit. Lead seen in passing: Indianapolis Times, 20 August 1924, on the new standardized code. The New York Times notice of 5 October 1924 was read through the Internet Archive. Trove, Papers Past, NewspaperSG and the BNA were not searched; the BNA may hold notices of John Lane's 1925 London edition.
Statutes published in English — Not searched: no statute names a 1920s American parlour variant.

In the tree

Descends from Babcock rules, as the source chart draws it.

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