What Do I Need To Play Mah-Jong?

The game of Mah-Jong requires four players, and the following equipment; dice, tiles, tallies, wind discs, racks and the chuang-tzu box.

There are 144 tiles in a complete Mah-Jong set and these are the main playing pieces. They are traditionally made from carved ivory though plastic versions are on the market. The wind discs and chuang-tzu box are used as counters at the beginning of the game to decide which player is East Wind for the first round. The discs are placed into the box with the top disc showing what the prevailing wind is for that round.

The dice are tiny and are used to determine who breaks the wall and where. They are traditionally numbered with black numerals, except for the one and four which are coloured red. The racks are designed to hold the tiles during play. The black rack is used by the East Wind player, and so the rack is passed from player to player after each round with the East Wind title.

The scoring tallies are used to mark points throughout the game. This is because Mah-Jong is a game played for money, although some people do just play to improve skill and for fun. The scoring alters after each round, and each player starts a game with tallies that amount to 2000 points.