Learning to play Mahjongg

Background

I have been playing Mahjongg solitaire for some time and have recently made some Mahjongg tiles - fascinated by the physical tiles as objects themselves and what can be done with them (besides playing games!) Now though I have received a nice set of tiles as a gift and I have started to learn the proper 4-player game. I want to teach nerds like myself at the Hackspace (and The Dice Cup) so that I have plenty of people to play and learn with.

Michael E.

Mahjongg Basics

Mahjongg is similar to the card game of Rummy where each player tries to make high scoring sets from their 13 tiles. There are numerous regional rules but the and the set I want to start off with is the World Series of Mahjong Rules and then simplify for new players.

• no wildcards or fixed hands (so especially not like American versions)
• no minimum score?
• discards can be used by next player without forming a meld?
• discards for chow can only be claimed by next player?
• skipped turns when claims made by player other than next player?
• simplified scoring?
• East player changes each turn but no special payouts apart from own winds?