The aim of the game is to win the most points, often represented by the special tokens (called tallies). You can play any number of sessions until you decide to finish. A session consists of:
Number of people
Four people are needed to play the game, though it can be made to work quite well with three.
There are also versions for 2 and 5 people.
Getting started
People who have no experience of Mah-Jong may find all the rules that follow quite daunting.
Example of a winning hand
The player who was South Wind went Mah-Jong with the following (exposed) hand.
It scored 544 points and South Wind collected a total of 2,176 points in tallies from the other three players.
Building a four-sided City wall from the tiles
Dealing out a portion of the tiles to each player
Assembling the tiles into sets or a special hand by:
Picking a tile from the wall or claiming one discarded by another player
Discarding a tile you no longer want
. . . until a completed hand is obtained
The first player to do this wins the session and cries Mah-Jong !
Scoring then exchanging tallies based on who wins and the sets collected
It may be advisable for them to skip to a more gentle introduction where they will be able to learn the game in stages.
General Strategy
Winning is helped by skill and knowledge of the game, but there is a large element of luck.
The game is made more interesting and exciting if people aim to achieve a high score in each session, rather than complete a Mah-Jong as quickly as possible. To this end it is better to collect sets of the high scoring tiles (called Major tiles) and to look for combinations which will double your basic score.
Watching the tiles that other people are discarding and claiming may allow you to determine what they are collecting and so influence your play.
The winner is not necessarily the one who declares Mah-Jong, as payments are also made between the other players based on the value of any sets in their hands.
