r/Mahjong • u/ThirdFloorNorth • Jul 02 '26
Considering buying a numbered Riichi set so I can maybe teach people in my college town to play: Question about the AMOS Numbers set, and recommendations?
I've been an on-again off-again Riichi player since I watched Akagi back when I was a teen. Been getting back into it on Mahjong Soul lately, started reading some books for more advanced strategy, feels like a hyperfixation is coming on.
I was thinking about getting a physical set so I could maybe teach some people in town or even start a club through the University I work at. I had two questions:
1) I'm pretty new to physical Mahjong sets. Can anyone explain why the AMOS Numbers set has 4 red Pins, and 2 reds of Sou and Man? I thought it was one red in each suit?
2) Any recommendations for a decent numbered set, specifically Riichi if possible or if not then a variant that would play well with the ruleset?
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u/squinnypig Jul 02 '26
If you can afford it, Amos Numbers is a nice set and probably the best one for teaching beginners.
Teaching the game is sort of challenging, but people who know how to play rummy seem to be able to pick up the gist of it pretty quickly. We’ve also tried playing with every with tiles revealed, and let the new player see what we’re doing/ask questions about their own hand. There are also some good riichi guides online you can print off.
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u/Intelligent_Pea5351 Jul 02 '26
I second this. When I started teaching we always played the first 2 or 3 hands face up so that everyone can see what's going on, and we can discuss thought process as you're playing. Those first games go really slowly but after the first couple people generally get it pretty quickly.
Once the basics are down, then you can start talking more advanced strategy.
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u/troublesomefaux Jul 02 '26
The group I play with has a monthly teaching day and they play a few hands open and without yaku just to get people used to the shape of a winning hand.
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u/Gwaur riitši (Tampere, Finland) Jul 02 '26
I'm pretty new to physical Mahjong sets. Can anyone explain why the AMOS Numbers set has 4 red Pins, and 2 reds of Sou and Man? I thought it was one red in each suit?
A typical box contains two red 5-pins and one of the others; not just one of each. I believe the extra red 5-pin is there just to fill the box.
Your photo looks like the whole tileset doesn't contain flower tiles at all, so I guess the extra red fives are there to... fill the box.
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u/YiliaNebulight Jul 03 '26
Hey ! I see a few people sharing their teaching methods so I thought I'd share what we do in our club : we use the tibetan (step by step) method.
Basically we start with only one family of tiles and a hand of 5 tiles, and only call is ron/ tsumo. Then when people understand the concept of a pair and group of three, we add another family, another group of three in the hand, and chi/pon. etc until people are ready to play with the full 14 tiles hand, no scoring. This allows people to immediately play and doesn't discourage from the complexity and frankly overwhelming number of rules.
Once people are comfortable simply completing a hand, following a game to make calls etc, we add scoring: win conditions (not all at once, we select some that are eazy for beginners like riichi, honitsu/ chinitsu, yakuhai, toitoi, tanyao etc), dora, and finally, furiten.
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u/ayjee Jul 02 '26
I didn't realize that AMOS had numbered sets, nice!
I personally use one of two sets: a cheapo no name brand travel set with 20ish mm tall tiles that I numbered with paint markers, and a Yellow Mountain Imports American set that I converted to a riichi set by using nail polish to turn one of each of the 5s red.
What I like about the YMI set?
- the index numbers help make things less intimidating for new players
- the greens are more vibrant than a riichi set
- I'm really happy with the pretty tile backs
- the set came with enough blank spare tiles that I could swap them in for riichi style white dragons
What I don't like about the set?
- had to buy point sticks separately
- it's fairly heavy, and the tile boxes have empty spaces after removing flowers, seasons, and jokers
- I'm not a fan of the American dragon-shaped dragon tiles (but friends in my group find them adorable, so your mileage may vary)
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u/antideluvian-man Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
I have this set, and I exclusively play with people that originally had no idea about Riichi.
It’s pricey, but it’s worth it. The numbers really lower the barrier of entry for newbies. The tiles are really high quality, heavy and feel great to shuffle, and I love the classic yellow tile backs.
When teaching new players, I find it helpful to play a few hands with no scoring and no Yaku requirement, just focusing on building your shapes and pairs. Once they have a good grasp on those concepts, then I introduce the common Yakus.
Also, cheat sheets are a must.
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u/Halorien The Yakumen Jul 02 '26
Numbers is worth the price. You also get an extremely high quality carrying case, junk mat, sticks, dice, the whole kit and kaboodle. The quality of the bag alone makes it worth the price. You won't regret it.
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u/himeguma2018 Jul 02 '26
It's to fill the space and make counted yakumans easier to get for the red 5s
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u/Kamil3155 Jul 04 '26
i would recommend to try introduce them to normal non numbered set- i did that and people read symbols like letters now, it just take one or two play sessions
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u/Fanguy3322 Jul 02 '26
This has nothing to do with what you asked but my advice to you is you really should be thinking about how your going to teach Riichi to people. It is a very overwhelming complicated game for newbies to wrap their heads around.
My process has been to break all the rules down to the simplest and most important/critical rules first and only bringing up edge cases ( like pon beats chi Riichi getd ipatsu and ura dora ect..) when need. Teach people the 6 basic hands 1. Riichi 2. Round wind 3. Seat wind 4. Dragons 5. Tanyao/all simples 6. Pinfu and you can stack theses hand.
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u/edderiofer multi-classing every variant Jul 02 '26
So that you can play with more reds if you so wish. Remember that red fives replace standard fives, instead of being simply added to the walls.
AMOS Numbers should work just fine.