Not to be confused with
Mojang.
Mahjong |
| Years active | Late 19th century to present |
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| Genres | |
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| Players | 2–4 players |
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| Setup time | 1–5 minutes |
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| Playing time | Dependent on variation or rules |
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| Chance | Moderate |
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| Skills | Tactics, observation, risk management, adaptive strategies |
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Mahjong is a tile-based game for three to four players. Though regional variations may exclude certain tiles or add unique ones, it is typically played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols. Players hold one of four "wind" positions referred to as the East, South, West, and North. Once each player draws a hand of thirteen tiles, in clockwise order beginning with the "prevailing wind," each player draws a tile, then discards that tile or another from their hand. Players may call to use another player's discarded tile under certain conditions. The object of each round is to complete and score a legal hand using a drawn tile or another player's discarded tile to form four melds (or sets) and a pair (eye.) Players may also score with special hands that do not follow the typical pattern. Players hold a persistent score across rounds until the game ends.
Mahjong was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. The game and its regional variants are played throughout the Sinosphere in East and Southeast Asia and have also become popular in Western countries. The game has been adapted into a widespread form of online entertainment. Similar to the Western card game rummy, mahjong is a game of skill, strategy, and luck. To distinguish it from mahjong solitaire, it is sometimes referred to as mahjong rummy.
While mahjong typically follows a common set of rules for the order of play, how tiles are dealt, how a piece is drawn and discarded, what melds are allowed, and how suits (numbered tiles) and honors (winds and dragons) are used, regional variations and house rules may differ moderately to radically on criteria for legal melds, winning hands, and scoring systems, and may feature additional rules.
