With the release of 51 Worldwide Games for the Nintendo Switch, I thought about all the people that are going to try out riichi mahjong for the first time. Perhaps you played it before in the Yakuza series but were too overwhelmed by all those tiles, weird names, and the complexity of the rules to really get into it. Maybe now is the time to give it another shot.
Explaining riichi mahjong isn't something you can do in one sitting. It has like a million different rules. You can teach someone how develop a winning hand, but learning every single winning pattern, how to calculate scores, and all the intricacies takes a lot of time and dedication. Still, don't let that intimidate you. Keep playing and believe me when I say that all the pieces will start falling into place eventually. Mahjong can be just as fun even if you don't know every rule right off the bat anyway!
Luckily for us, mahjong video games streamline many of the aspects that people can find frustrating. Score is calculated automatically, some games tell you which tile you should discard after declaring riichi, others let you hover over any tile in your hand to highlight any same tile that has already been discarded… Things like that.
I'm not going to write an extensive guide on how to play because there already exist websites where everything is explained much better than I could ever hope to. I'm not an expert by any means, I don't have the answer to every question. I'm trying to get better at this game myself. So, if you have any suggestions, please let me know!
It's my first OT, please be nice.
The purpose of this thread:
- Get people interested in Japanese mahjong
- Explain just enough rules to help new players win some games
- Recommend mahjong resources
- Recommend mahjong games
- Ask and answer questions
- Play together!
Okay, so some of the things that I've written here might sound strange or convoluted, and I might not have been able to explain things as clear as I could have, but please bear with me here. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to answer them. Here we go.
Let's start with the suits
In mahjong there are 3 suits with values that go from 1 to 9:
Pinzu (dots/circles)
Souzu (bamboos)
Manzu (characters)
There are 3 types of dragon tiles
White dragon
Green dragon
Red dragon
And 4 types of wind tiles:
East
South
West
North
Tiles with the values 1 and 9 are called terminal tiles.
Tiles with values 2-8 are called simple tiles.
Dragon and Wind tiles are called honor tiles.
Every single tile in the game has 4 copies, which makes a total of 136 tiles.
It would be very useful to remember the order of both dragon and wind tiles as soon as possible. For the dragon tiles, it's quite easy, since it's alphabetical: (G)reen goes first, then (R)ed, then (W)hite.
You'll have to memorize the wind order, so repeat after me: East, South, West, North! East, South, West, North! East, South, West, North! East, South, West, North!
Trust me, it'll be useful later.
Okay, so what's up with the wind?
At all times, every player is designated as 東East, 南South, 西West, or 北North. Seat winds go in that order, counterclockwise, with the dealer always being East. For example, let's say you're the dealer. Your seat wind is East. To your right sits South. In front of you sits West. To you left sits North.
East, South, West, North! East, South, West, North! East, South, West, North!
During the game, the dealer seat rotates counterclockwise among the players. This means the designation for East, South, West and North also rotates with the dealer position.
I guess at this point I should also try to explain what wind rounds are. A wind round is full round where each player has been the dealer at least once (if dealer wins a hand, he gets to be dealer again), supposing the game doesn't end prematurely, like if someone has a crazy strong hand that takes from another player every single point they had left or something.
East Round 4
Remaining tiles. (Nice)
Players have 25000 points.
In this image, the players are currently playing the 4th hand of the East, or in other words, East Round 4. The player's current seat wind is South.
A full game of mahjong is either played for two wind rounds (East round and South round – this is called "hanchan"), or just one round (East round only – called "tonpuusen").
Playing the game
You typically begin the game with 25 000 points. Your goal is to take points from other players by building a strong winning hand. Think of it like poker, except players can't choose how much they bet. The amount of points you win will depend on how strong/complex your hand is.
At the start of a round, you are dealt 13 tiles. You draw and discard a tile every turn.
You do this until you have a valid hand. Let's say 4 tile sets (somestimes referred to as melds) and 1 pair. As a general rule.
What is a set/meld?
There are three types of tile sets, known as mentsu.
Shuntsu (a sequence) - colloquially "chii"
Koutsu (triplets) - colloquially "pon"
Kantsu (quads) - colloquially "kan"
These have the same function as triplets. They need to be called and are always set aside. Can be closed if the 4th tile is self drawn.
Every tile set must be of a single suit, and you can't mix honor tiles in a set.
Lastly, there's the pair of the hand, also called jantou.
Stealing tiles
If you have 2 tiles of a set, and another player discards the third tile you need to complete it, a prompt will pop up letting you know that you can "steal" it by calling "chii", "pon" or "kan". Stealing essentially makes it your turn to play, and counts as a drawing a tile, so you have to discard a tile from your hand, and the next turn goes to the player sitting to your right.
You may call chii to steal from the player sitting to your left, but only if the set you complete is a sequence.
You may call pon or kan to steal from any player to complete a triplet or a quad, respectively.
If you just started learning, though, avoid stealing tiles if you don't have in mind a specific yaku as a clear objetive, as it "opens" your hand, which in turn makes some yaku unattainable.
Yaku?
They're like poker hands. But different yaku are worth different points (called "han", but let's not worry about that).
Several yaku can even be combined into a single hand. You need at least one yaku to be able to win. Remember this!
If you are just starting to play mahjong, be sure to keep a yaku list handy. I'll link some resources below, but here's a few simple yaku to get you started:
Riichi: The name of the game! All that is required is that you achieve tenpai, a "ready" hand (one tile away from winning), without stealing tiles/opening your hand. A "Riichi" prompt will pop up. If you click it, your hand is locked and you'll automatically discard every tile you draw until you win by declaring Ron or Tsumo (more on that in a bit). It's also worth noting that by declaring riichi, you also make a small bet of 1000 points, which whoever wins the round will keep. It's high-ish risk, high-ish reward.
Tanyao (All Simples): There are no 1s or 9s in your hand, only simple tiles! Depending on the rules set, you can have an open hand and still achieve this yaku.
Chiitoitsu (Seven Pairs): Self-explanatory. It's an exception to the rule of "4 sets and 1 pair". Instead, try to get seven pair, but keep in mind that every pair must be different!
Toitoi (All triplets): Can be open or closed.
Yakuhai: This is scored for completing a specific set of honor tiles (winds or dragons), like the following:
Pon (triplets) of green dragons
Pon of red dragons
Pon of white dragons
Pon of East tiles when you're the dealer or the Round Wind is East.
Pon of South tiles when you're on the South seat or the Round Wind is South.
Pon of West tiles when you're on the West seat.
Pon of North tiles when you're on the North seat.
(Note: Beginners should simply try to go for Riichi and not to make any calls. However, let's say you start the game with a pair of 2 green dragons. If someone then discards a green dragon, feel free to call Pon! This guarantees you'll have a yaku, so from that point on, you can go ahead and start stealing tiles from other players by calling chii or pon in order to win the hand as soon as possible.)
How to actually win
So, let's say you have successfully drawn and discarded all the right tiles and, at this point, you're just waiting for the last tile you need to win.
If a player discards a tile that completes your hand, you declare Ron.
If you yourself draw a tile that completes your hand, you declare Tsumo.
Usually by pressing a nice big button that appears!
Don't forget that to win, your hand needs to have at least one yaku!
Dora
To put it simply, dora tiles are a kind of bonus, that grant you points, as if you had another cheap yaku in your hand.
But that's just to put it simply. It's not a real yaku!
Somewhere in the screen there something called a dora indicator. In 51 Worldwide Games, it looks something like this:
As you can see, the dora indicator shows the 4 of bamboos (or 4sou, if you wanna start getting technical).
The actual dora is the tile that comes sequentially after this indicator, which in this case would be the 5 of bamboos.
Also, the dora order loops, so if the indicator shows a 9, the dora is 1.
Likewaise, if the indicator shows a green dragon, then… (Remember, G -> R -> W) The dora is the red dragon!
Final question, if the indicator shows a North tile, the the dora would be… East!
(East, South, West, North! East, South, West, North!)
Additionally, some game rules include akadora, red dora tiles. These tiles automatically count as dora, regardless of the dora indicator shows.
But don't forget! Dora should not be confused with yaku. Even if you have several dora in your hand, you can't win if you don't have an actual yaku!
Play defensively
Always keep an eye on discard piles. When someone declares riichi, you will not deal into their hand as long as try to discard the same tiles that are in that player's discard pile. This also includes the tiles that any player discards from the moment a riichi is declared. Sometimes it's better to give up on completing your hand instead of risking dealing into someone else's hand and potentially losing lots of points. Don't be greedy.
Furiten
It has happened to all of us. You're in tenpai, you've declared riichi, and now you're just waiting for someone to deal into your hand. Waiting… waiting… And there it is! Someone discarded the tile you need! You've won! Now just to press the bu--- Where's the button? No ron, no win.
Furiten is a condition where you cannot declare ron to win. Most of the time, this is because the tile you need to win is also in your pile of discarded tiles, you might have discarded it at the start of the game and forgot about it.
Unless you have have declared riichi, you can change your hand composition to get out of furiten. But, as you now know, declaring riichi locks your hand, which means that you'd be in permanent furiten, where the only way of winning would be with a self-drawn tile - tsumo!
Let's talk games!
You're all set! Here are some personal game recommendations!
Tenhou
The tried and true. Very popular. Where pros play. Less hand holding. Visually lackluster, but that's kind of the point.
Browser and mobile. Windows client is slightly more customizable, but subscription based.
Japanese only (some menus in English) but here are some addons you can use to have English UI: Firefox. Chrome.
You can also read the documentation here.
Mahjong Soul
Available in English. Browser and mobile. Very popular right now.
Published by Yostar Games. Anime aesthetic. Bad event rewards. Gacha rates are... even worse.
SEGA NET Mahjong MJ
Now with partial English UI in-game! Very popular. PC, iOS and Android clients.
Gacha can make it as anime or non-anime as you want. Frequent tournaments and collabs with Mahjong anime/manga and SEGA IPs.
Daily login rewards. Features amusing live commentary. Gacha quite fair. English guide here.
Hime Mahjong
Not available in English. Steam and mobile. Anime aesthetic. Looks slick. Cool character designs.
Gacha rates are better compared to Mahjong Soul. Season pass. Good event rewards.
Overwhelming UI if you can't read Japanese.
Touhou Gensou Mahjong Released on the Japanese Switch eShop.
Touhou characters. Japanese only. Superpowers and stuff.
Some honorable mentions, might update with screencaps later:
Simple Series G4U Vol. 1 THE MAHJONG (PS4/Switch) - Has multiplayer, but it's dead at this point.
Saikyo no Mahjong 〜Bannin no Tame no Mahjong Dojo〜 (PS4/Switch) Single player only.
Minna no Mahjong (Mobile) - Single player only.
Kemono Mahjong (Mobile) - Single player only. Apparently quite good. Furry aesthetic.
Mattari Mahjong (PC) - Single player only. Good AI.
Now I'll just plug our brand new Mahjong ERA Discord server for those interested in playing with us or asking questions!
If we're enough people we could eventually arrange friendly tournaments and things like that, I dunno.
Hope to see you there!
Hidden content
Useful resources - Huge thanks!
Yaku list
Arcturus - Japanese Mahjong Wiki Bookmark this!
Mahjong game with yaku list Great for beginners. Requires flash.
Japanese mahjong terms
Riichi theory, defense theory, tile efficiency
Tile efficiency trainer
Score trainer
Basic suji Deducing safe tiles - Thanks, gachapin
Overview of current mahjong video games - Thanks, sanchhat
Mahjong clubs outside Japan - Thanks, whatsinaname
Riichi Mahjong Strategy Books - Thanks, Kansoku
World Riichi Championship: Yaku Reference Sheet Thanks, whatsinaname
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