ickya wrote...
I cant figure out how the hell to play mahjong for the life of me....anyone able to find a good beginners intro?
I used to have a kickass site that explained everything very well, but it seems that it's been deleted. I found this site using Google, and it seems alright:
http://www.mahjongonline.eu/mahjong-rules.html
To put it simply, you need 13 tiles to win, four sets of three and a double. There are two exceptions - when you have all pairs or when you have four of a certain tile (in that case, while you have four, you call a kan, and they only count as three). You have to construct a hand made up of 13 tiles, drawing a tile and then discarding a tile every turn. A set of three can either be three of one tile (same number, same suit) or three consecutive numbers of the same suit (for example, 3 pin, 4 pin, and 5 pin [pin is the one that looks like dots or circles]). It can be a very hard game to learn, but if you just keep trying, you'll at least get good enough to understand the basics of the game and enjoy yourself.