Really well made website. I played a few times in Shenzhen (slightly different rules), but it's difficult to find players willing to accommodate a beginner because Mahjong players typically play really fast (I'd say on average <1s per turn).
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.
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.
Some (mostly American?) people know Mahjong as a solitaire game [1] that they likely have played on their phone or Windows PC/Mac.
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).
I know the 4 player version from the Yakuza games. I only knew about the solitaire version until then from a demo version on Net Yaroze on the PlayStation, where you basically got some weird games along side the demos on a new demo disc every month.
Reminds me of poker.
Also I miss the excitement of a new issue of a magazine with a demo disc of a few new games.
I never knew about the solitaire game but growing up in America, starting in childhood it seemed everyone "knew" (or thought they knew and spread rumors) why certain people were missing fingers.
I've known about Mahjong for decades but TIL it has many similarities to a game I play regularly, Rummykub. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rummikub describes it as combining elements of the card game rummy and Mahjong.
There are so many different variations of the rules, especially scoring. Scoring can vary even from family to family.
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.
I've been playing a few times a year with family and once we got over the steep learning curve we really enjoy it and play for many hours several times a year.
What has helped a LOT is we've developed a double sided sheet we print out with the basic game mechanics, tiles, and scoring. It still needs some tweaking but means our rules[1] are clear and we can quickly refer to them as we're playing.
We've a second sheet which shows the winds, once that's been decided we just just orientate it with the players.
[1] We're very aware there are lots of sets of rules, we've just decided on the ones we consistently play.
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.
In the Kaiji manga, the “Minefield Mahjong” arc uses a variation of Japanese Mahjong. It can be read without knowing the general rules (as I did), but I guess they make some of the scenes more understandable and/or impactful. Maybe I’ll give it a reread after checking this out.
If you want to read manga for mahjong I'd say go straight for Akagi and Ten, by the same author. Akagi has a great anime adaptation that covers the first third. Both are excellent mangas in their own right, with or without understanding mahjong.
Some resources if you want to learn and player riichi, the japenese variant
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.
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.
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://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.
Riichi City gives you the score you'll make when you declare riichi or declare winning, and also shows which tiles were discarded just after being drawn in the discard piles. Mahjong Soul doesn't do that.
Riichi City the app is better than Mahjong Soul, but the matching/rating system sucks.
It's also like, straight up softcore porn with the avatars. Which is fine I guess, but I feel gross playing it in public, which is annoying. Mahjsoul is not a lot better there, but a little.
A friend taught me and a few other friends how to play Mahjong early this year. Great game! You do need a skilled instructor and four people to play. This article is good, I wish that I had it five months ago.
I knew some of the basics of mahjong but didn't realize it was almost exactly like rummy, to the point that it would be very difficult to believe they aren't somehow related.
i was pretty confused until i realized this article is about the multiplayer version of this game, and not the solitaire version i've seen my whole life.
40 comments
[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 78.4 ms ] thread- For league play, the scoring hands change every year!
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.
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.
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
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mahjong
I only learned it was also multiplayer when it appeared in some movies.
Reminds me of poker.
Also I miss the excitement of a new issue of a magazine with a demo disc of a few new games.
Did I miss it, or are the "base points" never explained?
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.
What has helped a LOT is we've developed a double sided sheet we print out with the basic game mechanics, tiles, and scoring. It still needs some tweaking but means our rules[1] are clear and we can quickly refer to them as we're playing.
We've a second sheet which shows the winds, once that's been decided we just just orientate it with the players.
[1] We're very aware there are lots of sets of rules, we've just decided on the ones we consistently play.
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.
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 s...
It's also like, straight up softcore porn with the avatars. Which is fine I guess, but I feel gross playing it in public, which is annoying. Mahjsoul is not a lot better there, but a little.
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?
> N
> E W
> S
(sorry about formatting)
OP, can you please include Beijing rules?
for a more comprehensive visual guide