FAQ 13. Q: I'd like to find rules of Mah-jongg for 2 players or 3 players.

A: Sorry to answer a question with 5 more questions, but: which of the below most nearly resembles your question? Click the question letter to jump directly to the full answer.

 "I play American-style mah-jongg, and need to know what to do when I have fewer than 4 players. (Oy, why don't you just already know what I'm asking you, you're such a schlemiel, Tom!)" (Click here to jump to Answer 13A.)

  "I play Chinese Classical mah-jongg or HKOS, or another Asian form of the game (including British, Western, & Wright-Patterson, but excluding Japanese riichi-dora majan), and need to know how to play with fewer than 4 players. Ayah!" (Click here to jump to Answer 13B.)

  "I play Japanese riichi-dora majan, and need to know the rules for 3 players." (Click here to jump to Answer 13C.)

 "American? Chinese?? HKOS??? Japanese???! I don't play any kind of mah-jongg yet. I want to learn "true 4-player mah-jongg" but don't have 4 people to play it with, so what I want rules for 2 or 3 people to play the true game of mah-jongg so we can start learning the game." (Click here to jump to Answer 13D.)

 "I don't know anything about the stuff you said above. Isn't mah-jongg a solitaire game?"
- I'm familiar with "Shanghai" tile-matching, and I want to do that with a friend, using real tiles.
- I'm familiar with "Shanghai" tile-matching, and I want to know about other solitaire games using mah-jongg tiles.
Maybe I'll move up to true mah-jongg later. Maybe." (Click here to jump to Answer 13E.)

Author's note: Sorry if this seems overly complicated. I want to help you learn the game you are here to learn, but because "mah-jongg" means different things to different people, many questions about mah-jongg are (by their very nature) ambiguous. Not your fault -- not my fault!   (^_^)

The 2P or 3P rules are different for American and Chinese, for example (if you play Chinese, you'll ask "huh?" when I mention the Charleston; if you play American and I don't mention the Charleston, you'll ask "but what about the Charleston?" and you'll say "huh?" when I mention Chows).

If you do not know what kind of Mah-Jongg you play (and it would not be unusual if you did not know that), you need to find out. FAQ 2 tells you how to identify your style of MJ. You would not want to buy a book about the wrong kind of Mah-Jongg! The reason I mention books is because each book describes 2P or 3P rules for the kind of MJ described in that book. There is a list of books in FAQ 3. Once you know which kind of mah-jongg you play, look in this FAQ to find the 2P or 3P rules for that kind of mah-jongg.

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