Also how do I play mahjong?

edit: the lichess.org of mahjong. ie where can I play mahjong that is open source, non commercial, no ads, communal etc

  • SwagliacciTheBadClown [comrade/them, null/void]@hexbear.netEnglish
    15·
    11 days ago

    I was in a hotel bar once (pretty late) and in the lobby they rolled out a bunch of automatic mahjong tables, then a big crowd of older women came and had a pretty raucous time up past when I went to bed. Not sure how to find a group like that, but they’re apparently out there! It looked like a great time.

    Growing up i remember learning to play on one of the free games that came built into microshart windows; obviously they had to get rid of that at some point (could you imagine letting people have fun? Without any sort of rent?🤮 shudder).

    Seems like a good opportunity to spam (hang up) LFP requests (cute fliers) at Org (local library, post office). My local library has a regular game night where you just bring games and play with the community who show up. Maybe even your local game shop would be able to point you towards something similar.

    All that said - I haven’t yet been able to find a decent digital version in a while

    • zedcell@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      8·
      11 days ago

      Mahjong soul is Riichi Mahjong (the most popular in Japan), and has slightly modified rules to most of the Chinese rulesets.

      To play official Chinese Mahjong rules you can play against AI on “Mahjong 13 tiles” on the playstore/app store on mobile. On PC you can play online on https://playmahjong.io/login as a guest if you don’t want to log in. None of these options are as slick as Mahjong Soul in presentation or have a ranked mode, so you’ll miss out on that.

      For Chinese Official Rules you can find them here: https://playmahjong.io/chinese-official-rules

      And here as a picture guide (plus other popular rulesets): https://www.mahjongpictureguide.com/

      Riichi is fun but I much prefer Chinese Official in person as scoring is way easier and you need less shit to just get started.

    • KuroXppi [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      11 days ago

      The way I’d explain it simply is:

      Basic mahjong is building a simple hand with four sets, and a pair.

      A set is three tiles in the same suit, either in sequence or as a triplet:

      • a sequence is three consecutive tiles, and looks like 123, 234, 345 etc
      • a triplet is three of the same tile in the same suit, and looks like 111, 222, 333 etc

      Your pair can be any two of the same tile of the same suit.

      There are three suits, with tiles numbered from 1 to 9. There are four of each tile in the game.

      Your starting hand* will be 13 tiles. You will draw a tile on your turn, see if your hand meets the criteria of four complete sets and a pair (14 tiles total). If it does, you win**. If it doesn’t, throw away a tile and wait til your next turn.

      This is very simplified but it’s the foundation of most hands.

      Next step mahjong is introducing how to ‘call’ tiles (and declaring a win from another player’s thrown tile)

      If a player discards a tile that you need to complete a sequence (e.g. 123) or a triplet (e.g. 111) you can make a verbal call and take that tile.

      You can only complete a sequence with a tile thrown by the player to your left. You can complete a triplet with a tile thrown by any other player.

      If your hand is ready, and is waiting on any tiles to finish a complete hand (e.g. you have four sets, and a single tile, which is waiting on another copy of itself to become your pair) then you can declare your win when any player throws away that tile.

      You can only take these tiles when the player throws them, if another player makes another discard before you make your call, bad luck that’s too late.

      These rules are common across all the variants of mahjong I’ve played. Learn the basics and the rest can come later.

      There are special tiles (flowers, dragons, jokers, winds), and special patterns (flush, half flush, straight, all simples, all terminals etc.) but learning these can come after you’ve learnt how to form a basic winning hand.

      *dealer’s starting hand is 14 because they will have already drawn their first tile
      ** you don’t have to declare a win if your hand is complete