Use Mahjong Reference at the table without hunting for instructions.
Search a question or browse by task. This guide covers game tracking, hand scoring, choosing rules, settlement, recovery and saving across the supported Table Companion workflows; rules-specific learning stays in the Rules and Learn areas.
Set up the table, enter scores, understand settlement and correct mistakes.
How do I start a complete game?
Open Track a game, enter the four players, choose the rules for the table, then score each hand as you play.
Each player can use the detailed hand scorer or simply type a numeric score. Confirmed hands are added to the ledger, which drives settlement, running balances and the final game record.
1Open Score a game and choose the game length you want to play.
2Enter the four players in their starting East, South, West and North seats.
3Select Start game. The scorer keeps the seat assignments and prevailing Wind with the game.
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Tip: Use the players’ starting seats here. The game handles later seat and prevailing-Wind progression for you.
How do I enter the table scores?
Choose Mah Jong or Draw, select the winner if needed, then type each player’s score or use Calculate.
Manual and calculated scores can be used together in the same hand. The ledger keeps the difference visible.
1Choose whether the current hand ended in Mah Jong or a draw, and select the winner when needed.
2Type a score directly for any player whose score you already know.
3Use Calculate beside a player when you want the detailed hand scorer to work the score out from the tiles.
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Tip: Manual and calculated scores can be used together in the same hand. The game record keeps the difference visible.
I already know the score. Do I need to build the hand?
No. Enter the numeric score directly.
It can be used for settlement and game progression, but the record will not pretend that the hand was reconstructed or verified from tiles.
How does settlement work?
The game calculates player-to-player payments from the confirmed hand scores and game context.
Where the selected rules require East or dealer effects, the scorer applies the relevant adjustment. The ledger retains the actual transactions so you can see who paid whom rather than only a net change.
1After a hand is confirmed, open its entry in the Game ledger.
2Read each player’s hand score, change for that hand and running total.
3Use the transaction lines to see exactly who paid whom and why, rather than relying only on the net totals.
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Tip: The ledger is the canonical game history. Running balances, correction and the saved game record all derive from the confirmed hands here.
I made a mistake in a confirmed hand. Do I have to restart?
No. Use the game correction or undo flow.
Running balances and progression derive from confirmed history, so use the supported correction path rather than trying to adjust displayed totals independently.
Scoring a hand
Enter ordinary, winning, losing and partially known hands without learning notation first.
How do I enter an ordinary hand?
Use the visual set builder for Pungs, Chows, Kongs and pairs.
Mark exposed or concealed where relevant. For losing hands, add ordinary loose tiles under Remaining tiles. Flowers and Seasons have their own controls.
1Set whether the hand won before arranging the tiles, because winner status changes the hand-entry flow.
2Choose Pung, Chow, Kong or Pair for each completed group, then mark it exposed or concealed where relevant.
3Select a tile to define each group. Add another set until the hand structure you know is represented.
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Tip: You are describing the groups on the table, not translating them into scoring notation first.
What if I only know part of a losing hand?
Enter the scoring sets, pair and bonus tiles you know. You can stop there.
Partial evidence is valid. The scorer calculates directly evidenced components and withholds whole-hand conclusions that unseen tiles could change.
1Leave Hand is winner off, then add the completed scoring sets or pair you can see.
2Add any Flowers or Seasons that belong to the hand.
3Use Remaining tiles for loose tiles you want recorded. You can stop before all 13 structural tiles are entered.
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Tip: Partial does not mean invalid. Complete evidence is only needed for conclusions that depend on the whole hand, such as whole-hand patterns and fishing.
What are Remaining tiles?
They are the ordinary loose tiles in an unfinished losing hand that are not part of a completed group.
They can be unrelated leftovers or incomplete shapes. You do not have to force them into one fake incomplete set.
Why does a Kong make the physical tile count look too high?
A Kong contains four physical tiles but occupies one structural group slot.
The scorer understands that distinction, so a valid Kong should not make the hand invalid simply because there is an extra physical tile.
Why does the scorer say my hand is invalid?
Check for impossible structure rather than merely incomplete evidence.
Examples include too many structural tiles or more than four copies of the same ordinary playing tile. A partial losing hand, by contrast, is valid incomplete evidence.
Winning and special situations
Handle winning-tile questions, irregular layouts, special hands and fishing.
When does the scorer ask which tile completed Mah Jong?
The scorer asks only when the winning tile can change a supported result for this hand under the selected rules.
If the question appears, select the tile that completed Mah Jong from the entered hand. The scorer retains the tile and, where relevant, the set or pair it completed.
1Enter the completed winning hand and its winning method.
2When the winning-tile question appears, choose the tile that actually completed Mah Jong.
3Use I’m not sure if you cannot reliably identify it; the scorer will leave tile-sensitive conclusions unsupported rather than guess.
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Tip: The final 14-tile layout is not always enough to prove which scoring exception applies; the actual completing tile can matter.
What if I do not know which tile completed Mah Jong?
Use I’m not sure where the option is available.
The scorer still calculates what it can, but it will not apply winning-tile-sensitive exceptions it cannot prove. That conservative behaviour is intentional.
My hand does not fit normal Pungs, Chows, Kongs and pairs.
Use the Special layout route.
Some supported special hands use irregular layouts. Enter those tiles directly; you do not need to know the special hand name before choosing this route.
Do I need to know the name of the special hand first?
Usually, no.
Where the entered evidence is sufficient, the scorer detects supported special-hand patterns from the tiles and context. The Special hands page is currently a British-focused reference catalogue while the wider reference experience is being expanded.
What if I think I am fishing for a special hand?
Enter the complete non-winning tile evidence and let the scorer check supported one-tile-away patterns.
Fishing analysis needs complete evidence because unseen tiles could change the answer. The scorer can surface possible completing tiles and handle overlapping supported matches.
What if I do not know whether a rare event-based special happened?
Use I’m not sure where provided.
The scorer omits an unsupported event special rather than assuming the favourable answer. It should ask only when that event fact can actually affect the score.
Recovery and saving
Recover an in-progress game and save the confirmed record without an account.
What happens if I refresh during a game?
The in-progress game should recover from the local saved snapshot in the same browser.
The same applies after an ordinary tab or browser closure, provided the browser still has the compatible locally stored game data.
Can I continue the game on another device?
Not with the current recovery model.
Saved game recovery is local to the browser and device. There is no account-based cloud sync or cross-device game history in the current product.
How do I save the game record?
Use Print / Save game and your browser’s print flow.
Most browsers provide Save as PDF as a print destination. The current product does not generate a separate hosted report or custom PDF file.
1Open Print / Save game above the game ledger.
2Choose Full game record for the detailed evidence that was captured, or Game summary for a compact hand-by-hand record.
3Use the browser print destination to print the record or save it as a PDF.
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Tip: Both choices come from the same confirmed game ledger; the summary simply leaves out the detailed tile and scoring-evidence cards.
What is the difference between Full game record and Game summary?
Full includes the detailed confirmed evidence that was actually captured. Summary keeps the result compact.
Summary focuses on standings, hand-by-hand results, score changes and running totals. Full can expose detailed hand cards, tiles and scoring evidence where those records exist.
Can I print before the game is finished?
Yes. The printout can represent the confirmed history and current standings so far.
It should not falsely present in-progress standings as final completed-game results.
Rules, trust and privacy
Choose the right rules, find the right reference material, and understand what the scorer does and does not infer.
Where do I choose or change the rules?
Choose the rules profile in the game or hand-scoring flow you are using.
For a new game, choose the table’s rules during setup. For a standalone hand, use the rules selector in the scorer. The Rules hub explains the supported profiles before you choose. An in-progress game keeps the rules selected for that game unless you explicitly start a different flow.
Where do I find rules, examples and learning material?
Use Rules for supported profiles and Learn for gameplay, scoring, special hands and worked examples.
The Rules hub is the best starting point when you are not sure which profile matches your table. British learning pages remain the fullest learning set today; profile-aware learning and wider cross-rules reference material are being expanded separately.
What if the scorer and our table disagree?
Inspect the scoring breakdown and compare the relevant rule.
Possible causes include different house rules, a different Mahjong variant, missing or incorrect entered evidence, a project interpretation, or an implementation defect.
1Read the final score together with the points and doubles shown directly beneath it.
2Open the Breakdown entries to see which scoring components were applied.
3Check Why this hand scores for contextual patterns the scorer detected from the entered evidence.
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Tip: If your table gets a different answer, this is the useful comparison point: entered evidence, scoring components and the rule interpretation are all visible.
Does this support every form of Mahjong?
No. It supports selected rules profiles, not every form of Mahjong.
The current product exposes five selectable profiles: British / BMJA-style, provisional Western — Thompson & Maloney, a configured Club profile, source-backed Buzzard 2000, and provisional MCR / WMO 2006. Their scope and maturity differ, so use the supported Rules hub to see the current boundary for each profile.
Do I need an account?
No. You can score a hand or complete game without signing in.
Current game recovery uses local browser storage rather than an account or backend game database.
Why does the scorer sometimes refuse to infer a bonus or pattern?
Because missing evidence stays unknown.
If a rule depends on a fact you have not entered, the scorer calculates only what can be supported, asks a short question when necessary, or leaves the uncertain result out.
