Mahjong: A Visual Guide

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).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong_solitaire

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong

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.

This is a really nice website!

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.

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.

Love it!

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.

Really lovely designed website.

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.

> Every fan doubles your base points

Did I miss it, or are the "base points" never explained?

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).

Thank you for this. Playing with my in-laws I’m always completely baffled by the scoring!

One important note I didn’t see here:

- For league play, the scoring hands change every year!

I can finally learn this game!!!

finally, a decent guide for proper Mahjong!