Follow suit

A brief guide to mahjong’s tiles

Characters

Learn Chinese numerals as you build a hand. This is the number five.

Bamboo

The stalks indicate the value of the tile, except for one, which is a peacock.

Dots

By far the simplest of the suits. No symbols or birds, just count the number of dots.

Wind

The more complex of the two types of honor tile, you’ll be discarding these.

Dragon

Like winds, but more useful. No matter the situation, a dragon set will mean points.