Mahjong: A Visual Guide

This article is talking about the (arguably less known?) 4-player competitive game [2], and assumes you already know the difference (which some may not).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong_solitaire

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong

In China it turns out there are lots of rule sets. The city I'm currently living in (Changsha) has it's own ruleset for example, with less tiles than these examples.

Though I get the sense that, typically the easiest way to learn how to play a game, is to walk through actually playing the game. Listing out a bunch of facts about how the game works is mostly just confusing for a newcomer - the brain doesn't retain that kind of information well.

The example of this I often give is Magic: The Gathering. Very easy to learn how to play just by playing it with someone who knows. Very difficult to learn how to play if you start with a reference guide on how casting and the stack and priority and resolution works.

We've been learning for a few years now and still ignore things like prevailing winds and I don't remember what else off the top of my head. Basically we have a document of our own rules and we add to it as we get more advanced. Eventually we'll play with the winds and seasons and the goal is Hong Kong scoring.

for a more comprehensive visual guide

Did I miss it, or are the "base points" never explained?

Question for HN: I've seen more and more of these interactive explainers popping up recently. Given these are far more approachable to build due to LLM capabilities (e.g. Claude artifacts, open generative UI, etc.), what is the community reaction around having a product tailored for creating and distributing these experiences?

I've been experimenting over the past 6 months with interactive educational materials and curious on the community sentiment around this topic.

- For league play, the scoring hands change every year!

Break the wall

Whose wall?

Count the total counter-clockwise starting from the dealer (East = 1).

東 East 1 · 5 · 9

南 South 2 · 6 · 10

西 West 3 · 7 · 11

北 North 4 · 8 · 12

East -> South -> West -> North - is that not clockwise? What am I missing?

OP, can you please include Beijing rules?

TLDR: Download both Mahjong Soul and Kemono and play a lot. If you don't understand something then look up on the riichi wiki or ask the mahjong reddit or the Mahjong Soul Discord.

It's much much easier to learn riichi through a game then buying a set and sit down playing. Especially if it's 4 brand new players together.

Mind you riichi/mahjong doesn't have rules like chess which are set in stone. There are local rules, competitions differ, video games play differently. The core rules are the same but there are many many optional rules. A lot of confusion comes from this.

This is for example the comparison chart of popular riichi rulesets https://riichi.wiki/Comparison_of_popular_rulesets

That being said the riichi wiki is pretty good and has info about basically everything https://riichi.wiki/Main_Page

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mahjong/ is incredibly helpful for every ruleset not just riichi if you have questions like why I'm not winning (99 out of 100 times: no yaku) or which set to buy etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlnC2rgIPrc This video if you want to play IRL. How to setup the table, the tiles, when to draw from where. Video games has the problem of "hiding" certain elements of the gameplay like how to draw from the dead wall after a kan and replenishing it.

This yaku, scoring, and teaching sheet for IRL play https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18hxO5DMVAqxSNV9VvpjA...

If you play IRL then the Riichi compass that you can use both as a quick calculator and as the name implies a compass: you put down in the middle on a phone/tablet, set up a new game and after that you use it as an automatic score calculator https://riichi.onecomp.one/

https://discord.com/invite/mahjongsoul if you have instant questions and need help

The riichi book is the next step once you understand the game and wants to learn strategies https://dainachiba.github.io/RiichiBooks/

As for where to play digitally:

- https://mahjongsoul.game.yo-star.com/ Mahjong Soul which is a gacha game but that doesn't affect the gameplay, pure cosmetic. It has a decent tutorial, very good QoL features helping the gameplay, and a big playerbase for PvP for every rank and custom modes. You can also play 3 player riichi (sanma) and there are custom lobbies where you can play with friends and setup your own rules (I actually learned here with people on a Discord call)

- https://www.mahjong-jp.com/ Riichi City which is the newer and main competitior of Mahjong Soul. I haven't played that much here but some people prefer this but there aren't that many differences either.

- https://tenhou.net/ (https://riichi.wiki/Tenhou.net) which is popular in Japan. It has less players than Mahjong Soul but some people say at higher ranks there are better gameplay, more skillful players. ymmv if you watch japanese streamers or pros they usually both play Tenhou and Mahjong Soul and reaching the top is a lot of time so doesn't really affect new players.

- https://cyberdog.ca/kemono-mahjong/ Kemono is not the best game but it has 2 very big pros: arguably the best tutorial how to play. And it has offline mode against AI characters. So if you mostly play on phone and want to play riichi while hiking in the Himalayas then Kemono is probably the best choice. The non-traditonal portrait mode on phone is different compared to other clients

- https://www.amatsukimahjong.com/en/ Has to mention this because it’s a good one where you can play multiple rulesets easily. HK, Taiwan, Riichi