There are many kinds of mahjong, some ranging from easy to the most complicated, with all of them set to certain rules. There are two different ways of playing the game: the 13-tile version of mahjong or the 16-tile version but both style soes not differ that much to each other. A traditional mahjong game is played with 4 players with players throwing the dice to determine the seating of each player.

The objective of the game is to find out who scores the most points, earned by collecting certain tile combinations. There are 144 to 156 tiles (but it depends on the type of mahjong) which includes the following:

Suits. Three suits, each with 4 tiles for each number from 1 to 9.

Winds. Four tiles each for East, West, North and South.

Dragons. Four tiles for each of the three dragons too.

Seasons. Spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Flowers. Plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo.

There is one player for each direction: east, west, north and south.  The east player is the dealer. Each is have 34 facedown tiles to build ‘walls’ with. The dealer rolls the dice to determine who will break the wall. The numbered roll by the dealer/east is the also the number used to count off the players, himself included, and goes on counting clockwise the number rolled in the dice to select a player.

The new selected player rolls the dice with that player adding up the sum of the first and second throw. The number rolled also determines where the wall will be broken. The players will start counting stacks beginning with the player’s right. The two stacks following the counted stacks goes to the dealer. The next two players on the dealer’s right also does the same and so on until each player has already three stacks of two.

Starting with the dealer, the game goes on a clockwise manner with each player taking turns and following this:

*drawing a tile. Either choosing a tile from the wall or the discard pile.

*discarding a tile

*players announcing the tile they are discarding.

The game will end after the walls have been consumed. In order for players to score, they must complete a set that includes:

Kongs: a set of four identical tiles

Pongs: a set of three identical tiles

Chows: a sequence of three tiles of consecutive ranks in one suit.

But to win a landslide, a player must mahjong. A mahjong is when a player collects four sets and collects a pair.