What is Pai Sho?

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Pai Sho is a collection of fictional strategy games from the world of Avatar: the Last Airbender. The family of games that form Pai Sho take their inspiration from many sources, but most notably you'll find similarities to Go, Chess, Xiang-qi, Mahjong, and Dominoes. Because of the inconsistencies in its depiction, several kinds of games have been developed to fit all manner of style and purpose over the years. Despite the variety of inspirations and ideas, there are many feautes that tie these games together and ideas will often overlap being reused and reinterpreted from game to game.

## The Board

   The game is played on an 18x18 circular grid split north to south and east to west by two central lines and then again by four lines that form a diamond shape divided into four alternating red and white regions. These four regions are the Central Gardens, the yellow regions diagonally adjacent to these gardens are known as the Neutral Gardens, and the small red regions to the north, south, east, and west are known as the Gates.

## The Tiles

Few tiles are actually depicted from the show, however over the years, several sets of tiles have been created to explore the ones left up to the audience's imagination. are typically based on one of the three major sets, though plenty of games incorporate custom tiles or completely custom sets to bring themselves to life.

### Canon Tiles

The Canon Tiles are the ones we've seen depicted on-screen in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. While not every tile makes an appearance along side one another, all tiles unambiguously shown on screen or discussed in fiction are as follows:

* Rose
* Jade
* Wheel
* Lotus
* Orchid

The names of several of these tiles have been dubbed by the community, and it is worth noting that these tiles are depicted in such a way that does not distinguish between players.

### Nickelodeon Tiles

The Official Tiles are the ones seen in the Flash game developed by Nickelodeon. Each player gets the following tiles in their color:

* Firebender tiles
* Airbender tiles
* Waterbender tiles
* Earthbender tiles
* White Lotus tiles
* Avatar tiles

### Community Standard Set

The Community Standard Set is the most commonly used set for games to base themselves on. Developed by the Pai Sho Project in the late 2000's, these tile designs became the de facto tiles for players to use and play with over the years. As always, specific tile counts tend to vary between games. They are as follows:

* 3 Red Flowers
	+ Rose
	+ Chrysanthemum
	+ Rhododendron
* 3 White Flowers
	+ Jasmine
	+ Lily
	+ Jade
* Special Flower Tiles
	+ White Lotus
	+ Orchid
* Accent Tiles
	+ Boat
	+ Knotweed
	+ Rock
	+ Wheel

#### Original Benders Expansion

The Original Benders are a more recent innovation based on the 4 creatures most associated with their bending style. This set of tiles is usually included along side the Community Standard Set and was developed in conjunction with the game of Vagabond. They are as follows:

* Dragon
* Koi
* Sky Bison
* Badgermole

#### Expanded Special Flowers

The Expanded Flowers consists of two extra special flowers. Their use originated in Vagabond, but several variants have included a similar number of non-standard special flowers. These tiles are usually included alongside the Community Standard Set. While the exact name number often varies between games, some variants, like Key Pai Sho, do make full use of the additional tiles.

* Dahlia
* Ginseng