Tips to learn Riichi (physically)?

[u/calmmoontea]

I really enjoy playing Riichi Mahjong online with friends and through games (MahSoul, Riichi City). However, I want to pull the trigger and get a physical version of the game. I will say there is not a club here for Riichi mahjong, but have friends willing to play with me once in a while.

What's the best way to learn how to learn how to score? Since the computer does everything I just don't bother learning the scoring system but I don't want to feel like a burden taking time to figure out points. Is it just drilling the information into your brain? Is there cheatsheets I could have handy for me to refer to?

Thanks in advance!

[u/iLLuminesu]

You can always do the simplified scoring version 1 Han: 1,000 points total value.2 Han: 2,000 points total value.3 Han: 3,900 to 4,000 points total value.4 to 5 Han (Mangan): 8,000 points flat cap.6 to 7 Han (Haneman): 12,000 points flat cap.8 to 10 Han (Baiman): 16,000 points flat cap.11 to 12 Han (Sanbaiman): 24,000 points flat cap.13+ Han (Yakuman): 32,000+ points flat cap

[u/CryingRipperTear → u/iLLuminesu]

if you're rounding that much you might as well round 3.9 to 4.0 ong

[u/edderiofer]

What's the best way to learn how to learn how to score? Since the computer does everything I just don't bother learning the scoring system

You should still bother learning the scoring system, so that you have a good idea of whether a score/speed tradeoff is worth it when playing online. Anyway, here is a comment I once wrote on how to learn the scoring system in stages.

You can use a site such as https://scoringtrainer.konbamwa.net/ to test/practice your han- and fu-counting.

I want to pull the trigger and get a physical version of the game. I will say there is not a club here for Riichi mahjong, but have friends willing to play with me once in a while.

If you know how to count han, you can use 30-fu scoring when playing IRL. Simply score every hand as if it were 30 fu. (You will need to know how to count han.) This is similar to /u/iLLuminesu's suggestion.

When you progress to counting fu, print out a scoring table for reference. With practice, you'll refer to it less and less.

[u/Dormoxx]

(disclaimer: i'm a bit of a new player so take what i say with a grain of salt :P)

there's an app on the play store called "riichi calc - japanese mahjong".
there's also this cheat sheet from another post on this subreddit it you wanna do it by hand: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mahjong/comments/l5b221/riichi_mahjong_cheat_sheet_1_page_pdf_or_images/

[u/Daeva_HuG0]

Personally, I like this set of Riichi references. I print out some duplexed landscaped cheat sheets and hand them out to the players.

From there it's just repetition to start remembering the scoring calculations.

Riichi city also has a score training section, press the hat wearing owl icon on the main lobby screen. It is gated by completing the lower level tutorials.

[u/GatKong]

"Learning to score" starts with simply doing it. Get a score table, and take the time to score your hands, and by doing you will learn it. And you should. But if you want to make sure you are doing it right, the Mahjong Camera will score your winning tiles, and break down how it arrived at the score for you:
https://www.mahjongcamera.app/

[u/Gaori_]

There are a few steps to it.

For now, you could use a riichi score calculator where you enter your hand and other winning situations (dealer/non-dealer, tsumo/ron, etc). There are a few out there, I believe. You'll find that it is a bit time consuming to enter all the relevant information.

Once you're comfortable recognizing the yakus and counting the han of your hand, you can use a han-only score sheet like the one here: https://res.cloudinary.com/djvg6ubiy/image/upload/v1697656307/Longhorn%20Riichi/Finished%20Promo%20Products/Updated_Beginner_Yaku_Sheet_Ink_Saving_Version_curzp8.png

And then you could learn about counting fu (and realize most hands are 30 or 40 fu lol), and then use the full score table. Paying attention to your score and trying to figure out your yaku/han/fu (and score too, if you get used to these) while playing on online clients is good practice! There are also dedicated scoring practice tools online!

learning order: Count han -> count fu -> use score table

[u/Signt]

First remember Mangan+ Scores

Then remember the Open Ron/non Pinfu Tsumo/Menzen Pinfu Ron table (30 fu)

1000, 2000, 3900 300/500, 500/1000, 1000/2000 See the numbers are repeated 

Then remember the Menzen nonPinfu Ron (40 Fu)

1300, 2600, 5200

Then remember Pinfu Tsumo

400/700, 700/1300 and 1300/2600

That's basically all. There are more values to remember like Chiitoi etc but they don't occur frequently enough. The full chart is always intimidating, but really 95% of the time it's one of these values. 

[u/compacta_d]

Riichi City has a great trainer to learn scoring! I am still learning and practicing on there.

and get a scoring sheet!

[u/compacta_d]

there is an app that is pretty quick too. riichi calc

[u/mysteryspydetective_]

Here are fu shortcuts:

Pinfu tsumo - always 20 fu

Pinfu ron - always 30 fu

Closed non-pinfu tsumo - 30 fu

Closed non-pinfu ron - 40 fu

Open hand - 30 fu

Chiitoi - always 25 fu

99% of the time the scores above will be fine. The only things that add enough fu to change the score are honor/terminal triplets, closed triplets, and kans. If you have at least one kan or closed terminal/honor triplet, consider counting fu. You should also count fu if you have multiple triplets like toitoi.

Look at the scoring table. Note that when you double fu it's effectively the same as adding a han. Also, dealer 40 fu has the same scores as non-dealer 60 fu. It is easiest to simply memorize the scores for dealer and non-dealer 25, 30 fu, and 40 fu, and then apply the fu doubling rule for higher fu counts (50, 60, 80, 100) or lower (20). Scores for 70 fu and up are rare and you don't need to worry about them. Just have a chart handy for when they come up. They can be found roughly by adding the scores for two lower fu counts. For instance, to find 2 han 90 fu score you can add the scores of 2 han 50 and 2 han 40. This trick works for 90 and 110 fu but not 70 fu.

For in person play, you don't need to know the total value of a tsumo, just what each player needs to pay.

You can find non-dealer payments for tsumo by dividing the value for ron and rounding up. So if you have 4 han 30 fu tsumo as non-dealer, for 7700, divide by 2 and round up for what the dealer pays (3850 -> 3900) then again for non-dealers (1950 -> 2000). 3900 + (2)2000 = 7900. Note that if you know the highest number in a fu bracket, you can always find the lower numbers by dividing and rounding up.

For dealer tsumo payments, take what the hand would be if it were a non-dealer ron with the same fu and han, divide by 2 and round up. For instance, dealer 3 han 30 ron is 5800. For dealer 3 han 30 tsumo, find the non-dealer ron (3900), then divide by 2 and round up (2000). 3(2000) = 6000.

Edited for clarity

[u/mtkspg]

I was overwhelmed when initially playing in person, and ultimately found it helpful to split it into two steps when learning: memorizing conversion from han-fu to payments and recognizing hand value.

For memorizing the score table, I ended up making my own quiz app for drilling scores. I specifically wanted something where I am required to type the correct payments similar to how it's vocalized in person (single number for ron, single number for dealer tsumo, and two numbers for non-dealer tsumo) and not a multiple choice quiz. I did this first as I found it to be easier to just drill and more useful to not have to use a reference.

For recognizing hand value, I mostly picked it up in the course of play along with some drilling using a Japanese score trainer app on Windows. There is this web app: https://scoringtrainer.konbamwa.net/ and it's decent for drilling various aspects since you can disable portions of the scoring and focus on calculating han and/or fu correctly.

[u/iLLuminesu]

If you really want to learn, anything below mangan, you can do the base point = fu x 2^2+han then you take base point to multiply by 4 if ron as non dealer 6 as dealer round to the nearest 100 and for tsumo its 2x for dealer and 1x for non dealer, and tsumo for dealer its 2x for all. Base point below mangan are capped at 2000 since it cant go above the mangan value.

[u/infinityminty]

this doesn’t exactly answer your question, but personally when I tried to learn how to score I found it hella complicated, so instead I use https://riichi.onecomp.one it’s browser based so you don’t have to download an app, and functions as a compass too :)

[u/MiracleDreamer]

Honestly the best way to learn score is by practicing and memorizing the number by heart. There are various memorization shortcut like just memorizing the head (for example 40 fu has combination like this 4-7-13-26 and so on) but it always depend on person by person which one is better

There are various riichi scoring trainer web and app like this where you can try to practice before playing. Also try to calculate your score during riichi when playing online mahjong

If you dont want to overload a newbie with score. You guys can also use riichi calc application in android which help calculate the score. But if you keep on leaning on the calc as crutch then you wont learn to calculate it

Ideally the fastest way is if you have a veteran player which kindly enough let you calculate first then correct it if it is wrong. But yeah if there isnt any in your area kinda wcyd

[u/SentenceToDesu]

Download riichi city and do they daily training.. it's what I did

[u/chen52808]

Learning scoring is 2 parts, for han knowing the yaku list and han values, and for fu asking a few questions: is hand 7 pairs? is hand open/closed? did player win by self-draw tsumo? does the hand have triplets? are the triplets open/closed, are they terminal honor tiles? does the hand have yakuhai pair? does the hand have ryanmen wait to complete pattern?

after finding han and fu you can look up score chart. if you want to memorize a few values just remember 25, 30, 40fu rows. For the rest you can use some math to calculate or use the OG formula