Dice Mahjong

[Barticle]

I have a deck of mahjong playing cards (and a Mhing set which serves the same purpose) but I've been reading today about another option for portable play known variously as サイコロ 麻雀 or ダイス麻雀 (Dice Mahjong) or ポケット麻雀 (Pocket Mahjong) and marketed under the name ロンパオ (Ronpao) or more recently ジャンコロ麻雀 (Jancolo Mahjong).

I discovered a set (mis)labelled as a normal mahjong game on eBay US. It has twenty-four dice marked as mahjong tiles (144 sides in total including 2 x 4 seasons) in a smart travel case which makes for quite an attractive package. The manzu tiles have the older character so I assume it's fairly historic (evidently late 1950's). To play the game you would throw all 24 dice, pick out 13 to form a hand and then keep rolling the other 11 up to five times to complete your hand. It could be played solo or potentially by any number of players taking turns to make hands.

I found a few Japanese posts about the game (with pics) and several sets for sale on Yahoo Japan.

http://www9.plala.or.jp/majan/col35.html

http://ameblo.jp/aroma1503/entry-11511484681.html

http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f178340445

[Ignatius]

It's really weird. But looks interesting.

I wouldn't buy something like that, though.

I already have something unusual to play riichi mahjong: cards.

[Barticle]

Certainly it's no good for playing proper mahjong but I'd probably pick up a vintage set if I found one fairly cheap.

The presentation is attractive, the dice retain some of the physicality of mahjong tiles, it allows quick solo play/training and it's a novel piece of Japanese mahjong history.