DAVE'S HELPFUL MAHJONG RESOURCES MARK II

(This is an updated and expanded draft of my old mahjong tips post designed for visitors to the Otakon panel and, as such, is written like Otakon already happened. Don't worry, you are not in a time warp.)

Hi. If you're here, you were probably directed from my and Carl's mahjong panel at Otakon this year. We hope you enjoyed yourselves, and we are happier still that you've decided to follow up on learning about Japanese mahjong! Now as I'm sure we said during the panel, we were seriously strapped for time and it was impossible to get you to walk out of that room knowing how to play from scratch. As content-stuffed as that panel was, we only ran through the barest, barest essentials of the game. This is the stuff that would answer the question "what the hell is Akagi/Saki doing?". If you want to play online, or sit down at a table with your friends and play, that's going to take a little time and some light study.

Because it was hard enough for Carl and I to learn the game, I had the idea of assembling the resources that helped us the most when we were learning in a post. I've done this before, but I think I can do better for the panel, so here we are.

(also if you're here from the panel check out this blog, and Ogi Maniax, and Colony Drop, and Astro Toy, thanks!)

First Step:

In the age of the internet you have the luxury of being able to play at any damn time you want. I am a learn-by-doing kind of guy, so why not play right now? This flash game supplies a reasonable explanation of the game, complete with yaku, right there on the page. Don't worry about being bad or not, it's the computer, who cares. Play around with this to get yourself vaguely familiar with the game, but try not to stay for too long.

The game's also in English with Arabic numerals on the man suit, something you're not going to see on other Reach videogames or online play services. You're going to want to take this opportunity to start memorizing the numbers if you don't know them. You really must know these. They're not very hard to learn.

Now you can learn the rules!

This is a friendly run-through of all the rules aimed at beginners, covering initial setup to everything about actual play. I think this is the most accessible guide online.

My personal rules and scoring bible is Japanese Mahjong Scoring. I recommend learning the yaku from here. I keep a printout of this entire document in a folder and refer to it as necessary.

Oh my god look at all the yaku:

Don't feel immediately obligated to learn all the yaku straight away: that's exactly how people get intimidated out of playing. Understand the most essential yaku that show up most often: riichi, pinfu, tanyao, yakuhai. Understanding these will help you more than anything else. Come back to the yaku charts every time you play and let the rest of them sink in, both through a conscious effort to learn them and by seeing them in play. Also, play the yaku quiz every once in a while.

By the way, I personally stick to the Japanese terminology or the super-straight translations on the Mahjong Scoring site simply because if you ask two or three different English-speaking Reach organizations or websites they'll give you four or five different English names for the same yaku. It's easier this way and my mahjong-playing friends always know what I'm talking about when I say "sanshoku". Unless it's sanshoku doukou but when do you ever see that one? Anyway!

Scoring:

At the panel, we probably said that scoring was complex enough in Reach rules as to be beyond the scope of the panel. Well, it is. The reason our example goes directly to 5 han is that when you're under that 5 han you have to count up another number (the fu) using some very particular criteria that alters the score somewhat. 1 han is not always 1000 points, depending on dealer/non-dealer and the fu. Once you get to 5 han you're at "limit" hands which have simple scores that are easy to remember, so long as you remember that the dealer gets 1.5x more.

Carl and I are both complete trash at scoring in live games because computers usually do it for us. We always have a score sheet on hand at our live games, and after every hand we count up the han and fu and go straight to the sheet. We are lazy players and we should have memorized that sheet already.

Don't just say "I don't need to learn scoring" if you only intend to play online, that's crap. You are eventually going to be making decisions based on how many points you stand to make. Keep in mind that riichi is a game where you play for table position more than just for points, and you can take or lose first place by only a few hundred points.

(Also playing live is way more fun, try it out man)

Unfortunately, "memorize it" is the only tip I have for you with regards to learning Riichi scoring. There's a system, but it's extremely convoluted and you're actually better off memorizing a table. Here are some resources, including a chart you will need and a scoring quiz for quick and easy practice.

Intermediate stuff:

There is not a lot of in-depth riichi mahjong strategy reading out there in English. If you read Japanese then absolutely hit up Beginner's Luck: there is a mountain of great common-sense info and theory there. It's the kind of material that I wish had an English-language equivalent. Of course there's a ton of strategy reading in Japanese, so I won't get into it.

These posts on Osamuko's blog about defense are pretty good info.

I like to watch pro footage on Nico to see how people who are actually good at mahjong manage their hands. I'm not telling you to directly copy their play, but try and play along and compare their decisions with your own.

Portable Mahjong:

I have Mahjong Fight Club for the DS. I have played every single other mahjong title for the console (by, uh, means) and this one is the best for more reasons than I have time to describe. It's particularly good for learning the yaku because an announcer reads out the name of every yaku a hand has. When you finish a hand in MFC, just sit and wait and listen. The sole interface issue is that it's not immediately obvious at a glance what your seat wind is, but you can figure that out. You can play online over Wi-Fi but it was a complete disaster when I tried it. I would imagine Konami doesn't care a ton about this service then they run pay services for MFC Wii and PS3...

Community:

You're going to want to play real people whenever possible: playing weak AI opponents in any game isn't really good for your play.

Aside with getting together with your own friends (who you should totally try and sell on the game), you're probably going to want competition against people who've walked the same hard road as you have. English-speaking Reach players are pretty rare anywhere, even on the Internet, so this can be tough.

Reach Mahjong is the largest Reach site online but it's also gone completely stagnant, despite a recent major overhaul of the site. The forums are a ghost town, but there's a lot of good material on the site itself if you just dig deep into the site's old posts. I can't really recommend their beginner's stuff (and I don't think it's on the site anymore after their overhaul): the writing style and inconsistent terminology severely confused me when I was starting out.

If you can make it out here to NYC once a month, I highly recommend the USPML meets. I never miss one myself. Don't feel intimidated by that name: they're very welcoming and as they say, if you can play online you'll be fine here. They also hold (paid) teaching sessions which I'd definitely recommend for those of you just starting out. I wish I'd had someone around to teach me when I started!

If you do IRC (I do) there's #mahjong on Rizon. I hear those guys know what's up, but I've never been.

Online Play:

Keep in mind that videogames, online services and so on are going to be in Japanese. Mahjong Time is in English but that is the only thing going for it. The client is horrendous. I'm not even going to link to it, it's so bad. It offends both my gaming and aesthetic sensibilities.

I'm going to keep this short: just use Tenhou. It's the fastest, simplest client and it can have you up against three strangers in ten seconds flat. Furthermore, Tenhou is extensively documented in English here. While Tenhou is completely workable without any language issues, you'll still want to read that. A small community of English-speaking players uses the 7447 lobby, though keep in mind that it will take a very long time to get a match and you might find yourself having to comb /jp/, 4chan's worst board and possible soul poison, in order to get games. I usually just play ranked with random Japanese folk instead.

When you are ready for Tenhou, I recommend the beginner's guide on Osamuko's blog.

Other online play:

There are other clients, but they're either straight-up inferior or they take a lot of trouble to get going, like Janryumon. That one's really cool: it's a straight-up clone of Sega's flashy MJ arcade games and the closest you're probably ever going to get to playing them. You're on your own getting the thing to work, on the other hand. If you're in the US, it'll be a pain in the ass.

There are a ton of Japanese mahjong games for console ranging from serious to strip (and importers don't really bother stocking them because they'll never sell a copy), but your options for online play on console outside of Japan are pretty poor. You're gonna need a PS3, and your only viable options were both nominated for 2ch's Shit Game of the Year award in '09. I'll leave it at that.

Buying a real set:

I think there's nothing like live play: the feel of the tiles, the satisfying clacking sound, the friendly banter. I can jump on Tenhou for a battle against random strangers any time, but things are different among friends. Perhaps, if you can convince them, your friends will be as fascinated as you are. It's worth a shot!

This item on Amazon (it may not be there anymore) is the only cheap Reach set I've seen online. However, There's absolutely no reason you can't use any ol' mahjong set and just take out the tiles that aren't used in Japanese-style.

But I can't be bothered to follow my own advice, so I went all-out and bought a set from Japan because I liked the mat and the smaller tiles so much. The plan for the panel was to bring the whole thing, until I realized that was crazy and I would almost certainly lose something over the trip.

There are no US-based sellers for Japanese riichi sets (though I would seriously watch Yellow Mountain Imports on Amazon and see if they pull in anything), which means you are going to have to buy your set from Japan. These things are heavy. International shipping is extremely costly. Be aware. The best solution, for those of us who spend time in Japan, would be to buy your nice set there for thirty bucks.

If you still want to buy a set online, you should do this on Rakuten. I can't recommend buying from the dedicated English-language Reach shops out there because the items are full retail price (which nobody sells them for in Japan) plus international shipping, as these sellers are still based in Japan. You're going to pay double or more, and you're already paying so much (way, way more than the cost of the item) just to ship the thing. Don't do this. Rakuten is unusually foreigner-friendly (the site is mostly documented in English) and most of the member shops will ship to you.

Well, that's about all the information I can think to dump on you. I hope it serves you well. Enjoy the game!

Comments

[Edible]

Great panel, guys. Thanks for putting it together.

[Jamaal]

Once again, thanks! I started giving Akagi another go after only getting through 8 episodes the last time I attempted to watch it, and I'm so intrigued to learn mahjong again. I favorited your last entry and I'll do the same for this one!