Taipa Supreme Quick Mahjong — A Small Fast Game
Do you wish your gaming friends would play mahjong with you but they don’t seem willing to learn the (admittedly slightly intimidating) rules? Maybe this reduced tile set version will get them hooked with its verbal calls and fast game play. How hard can it be with just 36 tiles and a hand of five to start?
Print it out (free):
This is riichi mahjong lite
Taipa Supreme Quick Mahjong (I’ll call it TSQM) does have similarities to Japanese mahjong (calling chii, pon, ron, riichi, and tsumo) and there are some special scoring hands (like yaku), but this version can be played with 2, 3, or 4 players in about five minutes and is over in three rounds. Easy to get to the table and easy to learn.
Tiles
The game only uses tiles 1-3 of characters (manzu), bamboo (souzu), and circles (pinzu), 4 of each number, so just 36 tiles. No honor or wind tiles.
How a game works
TSQM mahjong is a 2 to 4-player tile game where players compete to create a winning hand. A standard winning hand is 6 (or 7) tiles in 2 blocks.
- Players shuffle all tiles face-down.
- Flip up one tile as dora (bonus) tile.
- Play rock-paper-scissors to determine first player.
- Every turn draw 1 tile and discard 1 tile face-up in front of you.
- You can call (steal)a discard to complete a set from any player. If several players call at once, the player in closest turn order gets the tile.
Calling: chii, pon, kan, and riichi
- Chii — call a tile from any player to complete a sequence (e.g., 1-2 + call 3) then discard
- Pon — call a tile from any player to complete a triplet (e.g., 3-3 + call 3) then discard
- Kan — call or draw a tile to make a quad (4 identical tiles) but do not discard
- Riichi — discard your tile sideways when you are 1 tile away from winning.
How to Win: ron and tsumo
- Ron — win by taking another player’s discard.
- Tsumo — win by drawing the winning tile yourself.
Scoring (winning patterns)
A winning hand scores points for all the combinations it contains.
| COMBO POINTS | Points | What it is |
| Pon | 2 | Having a Pon (three identical tiles) in your hand |
| Chii | 1 | Having a Chi (three consecutive tiles) in your hand |
| Kan | 3 | Having a Kan (four identical tiles) in your hand |
| ARTISTIC POINTS | Points | What it is |
| Riichi | 1 | You have a sideways discard (Reach) among your discarded tiles |
| Byun | 1 | You were the first to win in that round |
| Zen | 1 | Your hand is all one suit |
| Dora | 1 | Your winning hand contains the “Dora” tile (1 point per matching tile) |
LEGENDARY POINTS | Points | What it is |
| Kanzen | 5 | Your hand contains both a Kan and a Zen |
| Byun Byun Byun | 5 | You won on the very first turn of the set (if a steal/call happens during the first turn this bonus is invalid) |
• When achieving “Kanzen,” do not count the individual points for Kan and Zen.
• When achieving “Byun-Byun-Byun,” do not count the regular Byun point.
Dora (bonus tiles)
The dora tile is revealed at the start of the game. Each tile that matches the dora in your winning hand adds +1 , making the hand worth more points.
Tracking Points / Game End
When scoring hands, the characters tiles are used to keep track of your points. For example, 5 points could be scored as a 3 and a 2 tile, or two 2 tiles and a 1 tile. These tiles leave the game so each later round has fewer tiles. When characters run out, use circles next, then bamboo.
Play 3 hands and the player with the most combined points wins.
SPECIAL NOTES
If you already know how to play Japanese mahjong, calling riichi does not lock your hand and there is no furiten here.
I drew all of this while learning mahjong
As a break from video editing, I’ve been leaning back into graphic arts — and everything ended up mahjong! There are archival art prints, greeting cards, stickers, and shirts over on the mahjong page if you want some of it on your wall or your laptop. Made by me with Adobe Fresco or Affinity.
