Rikka

• Designer: Hashimoto Atsushi
• Publisher: Arclight
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20+
• Played with copy provided by Arclight

Rikka is a game that simply recreates the experience of the popular traditional game Mahjong. The aim is to complete the “role” faster than anyone else by exchanging the 6 tiles in your hand with the tiles on the field. There are only three types of roles, and the feature is that anyone can play easily.

When it’s your turn, just draw one tile from the field and discard one. Although it is a simple action, you can change the hand you are aiming for by switching the tiles in your hand up and down, and you will notice that there are many options.

The game ends when someone completes a role, and they take scoring chips according to their role. The person who collects 10 or more scoring chips will gain fame as a fireworks master!

The game is played with 42 dominoes, 2 copies of each of the possible combinations with 1-6 on each side; these are placed face down on the table and mixed well. Each player draws five of these dominoes and places them on their stand.  

On a turn, the active player draws a tile from the center of the table and adds it to their hand.  If you are able to make a scoring set, you can end the round.  If you cannot or choose not to make a set, you discard one of the tiles from your hand face up to the table.  This is repeated until someone scores a completed set.

There are three basic sets that can be scored:

• Sparkler – all six tiles have the same value on one half – 1 point
• Firecracker – pair of sequential triplets on top – each triplet has matching on bottom – 3 points
• Rikka – top has 1-6, bottom all match – 6 points

In addition, each tile that has a spark on it (a star in the middle of the two icons) is worth an extra point.

Next, each other player looks to see if they can be a secondary scorer – if they can point to a single face up tile on the table that would give them a completed set, they show their set and score as above, including the spark bonus.

The game continues until someone has 10 points or if each player has been the start player twice.  At that time, the player with the most points wins. There is no tiebreaker.

When you are more familiar with the game, there are six optional scoring rules that can be added in – you can use any/all of them.  Simply add the reminder cards for the rules you want to play with to the table.

My thoughts on the game

Well I grew up playing Mahjongg with my family, so I was immediately attracted to this introductory version.  It’s obviously simplified as you only deal with the ranks here (and not the suits nor special tiles nor winds) – but you get a lot of the feel of the set collection.  Sure, there is no bearing off, and no pung/kung as interrupts – but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?

As you’re only making a set of 6 tiles, hands can go fast – but players also have the option to wait and not claim a combination and try for a higher scoring set…  Interestingly, sometimes it’s worth it to go out early if you think you can prevent other people from getting secondary scores; othertimes, especially if there is a tile on the table to give you a full set; it’s worth it to keep digging for a higher scoring combo.

The hands play quickly, and just like the full game, a hand can occasionally be brutally short as someone simply gets a great initial deal, sees a tile they want on the first turn and then just goes out.  Other hands can get prolonged a bit as opposing players might each be holding onto the tile that someone else needs – though, in this case, it’s still rare to be more than 5 minutes or so for any particular hand.

If you need more spice to the game, you can add in the alternate advanced scoring rules.  I think they work fine, but for me, the additional scoring combinations make the game a bit longer and a bit finickier, but of course, YMMV with that.  The extra rules can be added in whole or piecemeal, so each group can find the combination that works for them.

Each round only takes a few minutes, and once people know the rules, the game shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.  Yeah, that’s not a long time, but honestly, if you want more than that, go get a real mahjongg set and play the full game!

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor