When we’re on the road a lot, it can become challenging to keep in touch with family and friends. Thanks to our oldest son, we found a great way to stay connected. He introduced us to Board Game Arena, a website where you can play board games online. Our favorite is Japanese (Riichi) Mahjong, which is perfect as it requires four players and there are four of us. Being back in PA, we recently had the chance to play the game in person thanks to our eldest buying a beautiful set of physical tiles.

Steve and I along with our eldest, who also lives in the Pittsburgh area, drove to State College where our youngest is in school at Penn State. Campus is quiet right now being between semesters, so we managed to snag a table at the cafe in the bookstore. It took some studying of the rule book & practice to set up the “board” and make sure all our moves were legal. (when you play online the computer does all that for you which makes it much easier and faster) We got the hang of everything fairly quickly and began playing.

The next big hurdle is figuring out the score. There are many factors that go into figuring out the winner’s score and who “pays” the winner (everyone starts with a certain number of points) There are several rounds, exact number depends on who wins each round, and at the end of the final round, the winner is the one with the most points.

While some of the nuances and the scoring may take some time to learn, the basics of the game are fairly simple. If you’re looking for a fun game for a group of four, I recommend Riichi.

Mahjong Time

Rocks and mud

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