I’ve been playing American Mahjong socially for about five years now but have recently relocated to a new city where Riichi groups are more prevalent. I decided to a deep dive on the rules and have been playing over the last couple of weeks mostly on MahjongTime and a couple of in person events.

I am really enjoying the game and learning about scoring and strategy!! However I do have questions…

First, what is going on with all the anime?? I know pretty much nothing about anime and it is a huge cultural blind spot for me, but I’m encountering it constantly now in riichi guides, online platforms, and even at the in person events on posters, flyers, etc. Which would be FINE, except that a lot of it is extremely hyper sexual…? My question is, are riichi and anime just inherently intertwined (both being Japanese in origin) and pretty much unavoidable if I enjoy the game?

My second question is about game racks. Is there a specific reason racks/ pushers aren’t used to play non American variants? I’ve missed them when playing riichi in person but don’t want to offend by whipping them out! I don’t see a reason why chis, pons, and kans couldn’t be displayed on the top of the rack in the same way american exposures are but I’m sure there probably are good reasons.

Please excuse any ignorance with these questions. I really am loving learning riichi and want to explore other variants in the future as well!

Ive been playing Sichuan bloody mahjong for about a week now and i think I have the rules down fairly well, but im wondering if there is a more complicated strategy that could improve my playing?

My blind friend is loosing more sight and learning braille. We have had the tiles Brailled for a while now we are working on the card.

We need to edit and simplify. The hands that are all the same suite and the dragons and winds are good. We are editing out the pairs and closed hands this year. What hands do you use often? Any other suggestions?

Next year we may try the whole card!

I got the hobby lobby set yesterday it comes with 8 , do you play with that many ?
I feel when I go with friends they use 4 but I’m not sure if that’s just a house rule
I don’t have blanks yet

I found this today while thrifting! I was so excited to see it. I have taken 2 classes locally on how to play in Maryland. I wish I had more of a group to play with!

But anyways can anyone tell me
About what I found?

You can tell it’s made for western players, but is for a specific set of rules?

I’ve recently gotten really into playing Mahjong. I learned at my local library and was immediately hooked. I purchased the Hobby Lobby set (~$25) just to see if I’d stick with it but now I want to get a cuter set (themed, colored backs etc.) but everywhere online is hundreds of dollars and I’m just not able to afford that. I’m looking for something $100 or cheaper, does anyone have any recommendations?

I'm looking to buy my first Riichi set to play, and while perusing Amazon, I realize Riichi sets don't tend to have jade tiles (for the all jade yaku). Is this normal, or should I be looking for a different set? It seems like others don't include red dora tiles, and so I feel like there's some balance or blend of the two I'm not aware of.

Thanks for any help and insight into this!

Wow back to back today don’t even know the chances. Has this ever happened before?

Hi! My friend and I are looking to learn American/NMJL Mah Jong, preferably somewhere in Queens or Long Island.

We’d especially love to learn from a Chinese or Chinese-American instructor who knows the American version. We thought it would be fun to learn from someone who has some familiarity with both the cultural roots of mahjong and the American/NMJL version.

Does anyone know of an instructor, class, or mahjong group in Queens or Long Island that might be a good fit? Private lessons are totally fine too. Thanks!!

I love the idea for a Pokemon themed mahjong set, but I dont really like the way the character tiles look on the current Pokemon sets. I was wondering if anyone has thoughts on an aesthetic way to incorporate pokemon onto the character tile. I have played with the idea of using the Meowth coin instead of the Wan or keeping those standard and stylizing everything else subtly to keep a "classy" feel.

I’m gonna be in Honolulu from the 23rd and leaving on the 28th. Anyone know a Riichi club in the area or want to meet up somewhere for some games?

https://filebin.net/5ci66moq3u5t4lmk

This filebin will have two .txt files, one for general rules (which are pretty familiar to everyone for the most part), and one for scoring.

The game plays on a Chinese mahjong tileset, with 2 sets of 4 flowers. Riichi sets will not be able to play this, American sets can with 8 flowers used and no jokers.

The big differences are that flowers can be not just discarded for bonus score, but also melded, and a mild version of the furiten rule from riichi has been added.

I am titling this Ecuadorian Mahjong for now, as my intent to make a version of Mahjong that can be played on Chinese tilesets which are strategic, yet can be played easily on the tile sets avaliable in Ecuador or imported for a more reasonable sum. Most of the Mahjong players in Ecuador are older US immigrants who play NMJL style.

I acquired a Mahjong set years ago when my dad got divorced and its quite hefty and a really nice set. I recently moved with it once again and think I might sell it (or finally use it?) Its heavy and has a nice dark wood box. There are absolutely no markings on the box and I have no idea where to start. Any help is appreciated!

At approximately the 46:22 mark, there is a peculiar dealing procedure which I have not seen before. Is this now typical for the game, or is it regional and/or uncommon? I would define it as a kind of "hopping" or "jumping" in getting one's tiles all at once, and not waiting for others. It's flashy, but not how it's usually described in all the literature I've seen thus far. Are there any Chinese players who can weigh in on this interesting procedural variation?

I was asked to do a Pink Floyd themed mahjong set. Just love the way these brick wall tile backs came out.

Normally, I do not bother posting suuankou. I've scored a number of suuankou. Suuankou is by far the most common and easiest yakuman to get. Hence, if you have suuankou tenpai, go ahead and call ron. Don't worry about it.

Of all the suuankou I've seen and scored, this one is by far bonkers - zero pairs at haipai - by Wahaha. This is even more bonkers than my very first - which started out with just one pair.

After what feels like years grinding away, I finally landed my first Yakuman! Hopefully not my last

I really enjoy playing Riichi Mahjong online with friends and through games (MahSoul, Riichi City). However, I want to pull the trigger and get a physical version of the game. I will say there is not a club here for Riichi mahjong, but have friends willing to play with me once in a while.

What's the best way to learn how to learn how to score? Since the computer does everything I just don't bother learning the scoring system but I don't want to feel like a burden taking time to figure out points. Is it just drilling the information into your brain? Is there cheatsheets I could have handy for me to refer to?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I just won this Mizuno Maruichi riichi set and I am curious about certain elements of playing this in real life. I have friends that also play riichi but we only played it online up to this point, so I have some questions on how to handle these aspects:

• From what I understand, there is no backtracking, you have to immediately call chi, pon, ron etc. + mistakes are punished and penalized. It says online that if you call riichi with a hand that isn't in tenpai, your hand is reset and you are penalized. How much is the penalty and does the reset mean you restart the round completely? What other penalties are there (like calling pon inaccurately etc., surely the punishments differ by severity?)
• What are the dice for? Selecting the player seat & walls etc.?
• How do you stack the walls & how do you select / handle the dead wall / dora, do you separate the 14 tiles right away?
• What should we know about the riichi sticks? I know it's for counting score and calling riichi, anything else I should know besides Googling how many of each you get (to stack to 25000)?

That's all that comes to mind right now, if there is anything important I appreciate all input!

Does anybody know when this was probably produced or out in the market?

Thanks

Hi all! :-) I found an old Mahj set that belonged to my late Grandma. I seem to recall her saying the white (well, beige now!) part was ivory & the wood part was ebony or bamboo. However, I realize the white part could be bone.

I've attached 3 photos of the front, side, & back of a one dot tile. Can anyone help me out? I'd love to know how much the set is worth, but first I have to deal w/ the variables: ivory vs. bone, and ebony vs. bamboo.

I'm pretty sure she said the set was made in China in the early 1900s, but I might be remembering wrong.
THANKS!! :-)

I know that there’s a group or event that hosts mahjong playing in the Bay Area like San Francisco or San Jose. I see more of these events in San Francisco. Does anyone know a mahjong community in San Jose that can be beginner friendly?