There's a lot of cheat sheets out there for Riichi Mahjong, but most of them share a characteristic of cramming a lot of information onto a single page. Sometimes that page is double-sided, but it can still be a lot to sift through.
I've developed a series of double-sided, half-page reference sheets to address this potential concern of information overload. By splitting pages to half-size, each page can be focused in purpose. The text can also be larger so that strain is reduced (especially for older players trying to learn). I'll also argue that it's easier to handle half-size pages at the table instead of full-size pages. By not limiting ourselves to a single page, we can split up information such that as a player increases their proficiency, they can gradually set them aside one by one. While there is a downside to having multiple pages in that it may take some time to find the page with the relevant information for the situation, but I'd like to believe that tradeoff is worth the compartmentalization of information into easier chunks.
Links
All documents are provided as PDFs printable at US Letter (8.5" x 11"), but should also have plenty of margin to be printed onto A4 as well. When printing single-sided, you'll only need the first page of each document and just fold them in half. When printing double-sided, flip on the long edge as standard to get two reference sheets properly back to back.
- All Four Reference Sheets (combined ZIP)
- Tile and Call Reference - Tile reference on one side, call reference on the other.
- Basic and Uncommon Scoring Patterns - Basic patterns on the front, uncommon patterns and dora explanation on the back. The front also has a dotted bold line to focus on the foundational scoring patterns: Riichi, All Simples, and Value Triplet.
- Lucky and Rare Scoring Patterns - I've separated out the lucky and rare patterns out from the rest since in most cases, players should be building value from the basic and uncommon patterns.
- Scoring - Score table on the front, fu calculation on the back. Since most players struggle with scoring hands as the last thing they learn, I find this the most important of the sheets to have on its own pages.
Bonus Sheet: Introduction to Mahjong - Inspired by the Tibet Rules method of teaching mahjong, this document provides a reference to a partial-sized game which only uses two numeric suits with the dragons, and tasks players with building a hand with only three sets and a pair. If you're introducing the idea of mahjong to a group of players without any experience and only have a limited time with them (e.g. a convention setting), this could be a useful guide to give them the essence of what mahjong is like without burdening them with needing to learn Chinese characters or the tricky rules that the full Riichi ruleset introduces.
