History TabletopGame / Mahjong

** ''Tanyao'' (a.k.a. "All Simples", a ''yaku'' consisting only tiles of 2's to 8's) in Riichi Mahjong is among the easiest to score with, but is consequently low-value. That said, the ease of scoring with it allows the player to end a round quickly to deny someone else the win.

!!! Online mahjong clients:

!!! Offline mahjong games:

* The ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series has mahjong parlours where you can play against CPU opponents and potentially win lots of in-game cash.

!!! Non-playable instances of mahjong in video games:

** Multiple ''yakuman'' is undoubtely an awesome feat, but most HouseRules don't pay more for a multi-''yakuman'' win than for a single-''yakuman'' win.

* CoolButInefficient: ''Suukantsu'', a ''yakuman'' hand in the ''riichi'' variant, consists of four ''kan'' calls and a pair. It looks nice especially if you can nail all four calls by self-pick, but it's the hardest ''yakuman'' hand to get because of how telegraphed it is (even if you self-draw a ''kan'', you have to declare it or it doesn't count) and because four ''kan'' calls total from two or more players or a fifth ''kan'' call from any other player after you've gotten the fourth ''kan'' will cause a draw, meaning that other players will easily catch on and will make sure you can't form this hand either by calling ''kan'' themselves or simply winning with a much easier hand of their own. Yet despite the extreme difficulty of getting this particular hand, it's worth no more than other, easier ''yakuman'' hands, which by themselves are already AwesomeButImpractical due to the high degree of luck involved.

** In a similar vein, ''pinfu'', which is when a player forms a closed hand (i.e. no claiming an opponent's tile at any point) that only has three-tile sequences, one pair that isn't of dragons or a seat or round wind, and ''tenpai'' due to an "open wait" (you have a sequence to complete and one of two adjacent-numbered tiles will complete it).[[note]]Sometimes misleadingly called "all sequences", but that is only ''one'' of the conditions. The formal definition is a hand with 0 ''fu''; the ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' series calls it a "No-Points Hand".[[/note]] It's common to end up with sequences as the game progresses, and the fact that this hand is always closed, which as far as your opponents believe could mean just about any other ''yaku'' in progress or not even near completing one, and an open wait gives you many different tiles to win off of, means you can sneak in a victory that nobody else saw coming because they discarded a number tile that they ''thought'' was ''probably'' safe. Like ''tanyao'', it's only worth 1 ''han'', but it can nonetheless block another player's high-value hand from winning, or help you maintain a lead and accelerate the end of the game.

* AwesomeButImpractical: In ''riichi'' rules, ''yakuman'' is the highest class of winning hands available, and scoring a ''yakuman'' awards a whopping 32,000 points, or 48,000 if one is the dealer, which can easily give a player a nigh-insurmountable leader, and if ''yakuman'' was scored by claiming an opponent's discard and the ''tobi ari'' rule is enabled (immediate GameOver if any player falls below 0 points), that poor sap will likely die instantly of negative score unless they had a strong lead of their own. However, ''yakuman'' hands are exceptionally difficult to get, pretty much [[LuckBasedMission boiling down to luck]], and sometimes one can easily telegraph if someone is going for one[[note]]Such as someone calling ''pon'' on two different dragons for ''[[https://riichi.wiki/Daisangen daisangen]]'' (big three dragons -- have triples of all three dragons), or multiple ''kan'' calls for ''[[https://riichi.wiki/Suukantsu suukantsu]]'' (four ''kan'' calls)[[/note]], so players generally only try to play for a ''yakuman'' if their starting hand is close to it.

* {{Calvinball}}: That's what it looks like when someone tries to explain the rules. Or when one looks at the length of this page.

** In a similar vein, ''pinfu''[[note]]Sometimes misleadingly called "all sequences", since that is only ''one'' of the conditions. The formal definition is a hand with 0 ''fu''; the ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' series calls it a "No-Points Hand".[[/note]], which is when a player forms a closed hand (i.e. no claiming an opponent's tile at any point) that only has three-tile sequences, one pair that isn't of dragons or a seat or round wind, and ''tenpai'' due to an "open wait" (you have a sequence to complete and one of two adjacent-numbered tiles will complete it). It's common to end up with sequences as the game progresses, and the fact that this hand is always closed, which as far as your opponents believe could mean just about any other ''yaku'' in progress or not even near completing one, and an open wait gives you many different tiles to win off of, means you can sneak in a victory that nobody else saw coming because they discarded a number tile that they ''thought'' was ''probably'' safe. Like ''tanyao'', it's only worth 1 ''han'', but it can nonetheless block another player's high-value hand from winning, or help you maintain a lead and accelerate the end of the game.

** In a similar vein, ''pinfu''[[note]]Sometimes misleadingly called "all sequences", since that is only one of the conditions. The formal definition is a hand with 0 ''fu''.[[/note]], which is when a player forms a closed hand (i.e. no claiming an opponent's tile at any point) that only has three-tile sequences, one pair that isn't of dragons or a seat or round wind, and ''tenpai'' due to an "open wait" (you have a sequence to complete and one of two adjacent-numbered tiles will complete it). It's common to end up with sequences as the game progresses, and the fact that this hand is always closed, which as far as your opponents believe could mean just about any other ''yaku'' in progress or not even near completing one, and an open wait gives you many different tiles to win off of, means you can sneak in a victory that nobody else saw coming because they discarded a number tile that they ''thought'' was ''probably'' safe. Like ''tanyao'', it's only worth 1 ''han'', but it can nonetheless block another player's high-value hand from winning, or help you maintain a lead and accelerate the end of the game.

** In a similar vein, ''pinfu'', which is when a player forms a closed hand (i.e. no claiming an opponent's tile at any point) that only has three-tile sequences, one pair that isn't of dragons or a seat or round wind, and ''tenpai'' due to an "open wait" (you have a sequence to complete and one of two adjacent-numbered tiles will complete it). It's common to end up with sequences as the game progresses, and the fact that this hand is always closed, which as far as your opponents believe could mean just about any other ''yaku'' in progress or not even near completing one, and an open wait gives you many different tiles to win off of, means you can sneak in a victory that nobody else saw coming because they discarded a number tile that they ''thought'' was ''probably'' safe. Like ''tanyao'', it's only worth 1 ''han'', but it can nonetheless block another player's high-value hand from winning, or help you maintain a lead and accelerate the end of the game.

** In a similar vein, ''pinfu'', which is when a player forms a closed hand (i.e. no claiming an opponent's tile at any point) that only has three-tile sequences, one pair that isn't of dragons or a seat or round wind, and ''tenpai'' due to an "open wait" (you have a sequence to complete and one of two adjacent-numbered tiles will complete it). It's common to end up with sequences as the game progresses, and the fact that this hand is always closed, which would mean just about any other ''yaku'' in progress, and an open wait gives you many different tiles to win off of, means you can sneak in a victory that nobody else saw coming because they discarded a number tile that they ''thought'' was ''probably'' safe. Like ''tanyao'', it's only worth 1 ''han'', but it can nonetheless block another player's high-value hand from winning, or help you maintain a lead and accelerate the end of the game.

** In a similar vein, ''pinfu'', which is when a player forms a closed hand (i.e. no claiming an opponent's tile at any point) that only has three-tile sequences, one pair that isn't of dragons or a seat or round wind, and ''tenpai'' due to an "open wait" (you have a sequence to complete and one of two adjacent-numbered tiles will complete it). It's common to end up with sequences as the game progresses, and the fact that this hand is always closed, which would mean just about any other ''yaku'' in progress, and an open wait gives you many different tiles to win off of, means you can sneak in a victory that nobody else saw coming because they discarded a number tile that they ''thought'' was ''probably'' safe.

* BoringButPractical: ''Tanyao'' (a.k.a. "All Simples", a ''yaku'' consisting only tiles of 2's to 8's) in Riichi Mahjong is among the easiest to score with, but is consequently low-value. That said, the ease of scoring with it allows the player to end a round quickly to deny someone else the win.

* AwesomeButImpractical: In ''riichi'' rules, ''yakuman'' is the highest class of winning hands available, and scoring a ''yakuman'' awards a whopping 32,000 points, or 48,000 if one is the dealer, which can easily give a player a nigh-insurmountable leader, and if ''yakuman'' was scored by claiming an opponent's discard and the ''tobi ari'' rule is enabled (immediate GameOver if any player falls below 0 points), that poor sap will likely die instantly of negative score unless they had a strong lead of their own. However, ''yakuman'' hands are exceptionally difficult to get, pretty much [[LuckBasedMission boiling down to luck]], and sometimes one can easily telegraph if someone is going for one, so players generally only try to play for a ''yakuman'' if their starting hand is close to it.

* The Literature/{{Discworld}} novel "Literature/InterestingTimes" has the similar-looking Shibi Yangcong-san (a mixture of Chinese and Japanese for "Cripple Mr. Onion").

* ''VideoGame/YakumanDS'' is riichi [-WITH [[Franchise/SuperMarioBrothers THE MARIO CHARACTERS]]!-] It was available for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS in Japan only.

* ''Mahjong Soul'' is a multilingual riichi and sanma client with ''gacha'' elements. Players can roll the gacha for cosmetics such as tile and board designs, as well as characters to serve as their avatars. However rolling the ''gacha'' will not give the player any gameplay advantages. Notably, it prevents non-Japanese players from being able to match up with Japanese players until they RankUp from Novice to Adept.

The set of tiles contains three regular Suits, with individual tiles having a value from one to nine
* '''Characters''' (萬子/万子), sometimes called "cracks" or "craks", are classical Chinese numerals. Each tile has the specific value written on top (usually in blue), and the ''wán'' character for "myriad" (signifying prosperity) on the bottom in red. Modern sets are commonly marked with Arabic numerals in addition to the Chinese ones. There are in fact three possible ''wán'' characters; the first two are 萬 and 万, and the third is 卍, no longer seen on Western sets [[NoSwastikas for reasons which should be obvious]].
* '''Sticks''' (索子), also called "bamboo" or "bams", use little bamboo rods to represent the number. Traditionally, the 1 Stick has a picture of a sparrow perched on it.

* '''Dots''' (筒子), also called "balls", "circles", "stones", or "loaves", use little circles to represent the number.

* CoolButInefficient: ''Suukantsu'', a ''yakuman'' hand in the ''riichi'' variant, consists of four ''kan'' calls and a pair. It looks nice especially if you can nail all four calls by self-pick, but it's the hardest ''yakuman'' hand to get because of how telegraphed it is (even if you self-draw a ''kan'', you have to declare it or it doesn't count) and because four ''kan'' calls total from two or more players or a fifth ''kan'' call from any other player after you've gotten the fourth ''kan'' will cause a draw, meaning that other players will easily catch on and will make sure you can't form this hand either by calling ''kan'' themselves or simply winning with a hand of their own. Yet despite the extreme difficulty of getting this particular hand, it's worth no more than other, easier ''yakuman'' hands, which by themselves are already AwesomeButImpractical due to the high degree of luck involved.

* CoolButInefficient: ''Suukantsu'', a ''yakuman'' hand in the ''riichi'' variant, consists of four ''kan'' calls and a pair. It looks nice especially if you can nail all four calls by self-pick, but it's the hardest ''yakuman'' hand to get because of how obviously telegraphed it is (even if you self-draw a ''kan'', you have to declare it or it doesn't count), and because four ''kan'' calls total from two or more players or a fifth ''kan'' call from any other player after you've gotten the fourth ''kan'' will cause a draw, it's really not worth trying for this hand. Yet despite the extreme difficulty of getting this particular hand, it's worth no more than other, easier ''yakuman'' hands, which by themselves are already AwesomeButImpractical due to the high degree of luck involved.

* CoolButInefficient: ''Suukantsu'', a ''yakuman'' hand in the ''riichi'' variant, consists of four ''kan'' calls and a pair. It looks nice especially if you can nail all four calls by self-pick, but it's the hardest ''yakuman'' hand to get because of how obviously telegraphed it is (even if you self-draw a ''kan'', you have to declare it or it doesn't count), and because four ''kan'' calls total from two or more players or a fifth ''kan'' call from any other player after you've gotten the fourth ''kan'' will cause a draw, it's really not worth trying for this hand. And it's worth no more than other, easier ''yakuman'' hands, which by themselves are already AwesomeButImpractical due to the high degree of luck involved.

* SuddenDeath: In the Japanese Riichi variant, some rules will have the game continue into a West round (or a South round in an East-only game) if no one has reached a quota (usually 30,000 points) by what would have been the end of the game. Some rules will end the game as soon as someone exceeds the quota, or sometimes the entire extra wind is played.

* ''Manga/CaseClosed'' - Kogorou loves playing it, but he's not very good; and Ran, being BornLucky, tends to win rather improbable hands. In a later case involving a SerialKiller, mahjong as a whole is pretty important: [[spoiler: several of the victims plus the killer of the past were mahjong players, the hints about the past killer's identity were related to mahjong terms, and a certain mahjong tile acts as Takagi's PocketProtector when [[JackTheRipOff the killer of the present]] shoots him.]]

* The crew of the Bentenmaru in ''LightNovel/BodaciousSpacePirates'' play this while stuck in quarantine.

** If a player has a concealed triplet, then draws the fourth instance of those tiles and declares ''kan'', their hand is still considered closed, meaning they can still declare ''riichi'' or play for a closed ''tsumo''.