Mahjong consists of 144 tiles, all of which a player must arrange in the correct order. The game is preceded by a pre-game ritual where each participant builds an, "opening game", of 18 sets. Within these sets are 34 special tiles unique to the specific game, which are randomly placed and set apart from the remaining 110 tiles. After the ritual is completed, the game can begin.
The objective of Mahjong is for the players to draw and discard to build sets of matching tiles. Two of the sets are called Pungs and Chow, the third is Knitted. A Mahjong set is complete when a player has four sets and a pair of the same tiles. Players may also end the game by having a 'declare' or 'mah jong' hand.