Ruleset
Our core ruleset is based on the Mahjong Soul ranked ruleset, with modifications for fairness and in-person gameplay. See the final section for a comparison with the WRC 2025 Ruleset.
Major Modifications
These are the changes that commonly affect gameplay.
- Abortive draws are off.
- Kiriage Mangan is on.
- Agariyame and tenpaiyame are off.
- Leftover riichi bets are lost.
- South/West Extension is off (game ends upon rotating out of East 4/South 4).
- Kansai Chiitoi is on (duplicate pairs are allowed in a chiitoi hand).
- Uma is split in case of ties.
We follow the WRC 2025 Ruleset for any rules specific to in-person play, including the definition of chonbo and dead hand under the “lower penalties” variation, with the following exception:
- Chonbo penalty is -10 to the player’s score, instead of -20.
- Chonbo penalty is not enforced on beginners.
If we find that a player has intentionally committed chonbo, we will issue discretionary severe penalties, including banning the player from Queen City Riichi.
Seasonal 2026 Yaku
The following 2 yaku are specific to Season 2026, chosen by the 2025 leaderboard winners.
- Shiiaruraotai: 1-han. (nominated by Oliver K.)
-
Open Riichi (nominated by Peter G.):
- Is worth yakuman if dealt in by non-riichi player; 2-han otherwise.
- Declare WITHOUT betting 1000.
- Reveal the whole hand AND announce the waits
- More details in Clarification
Uma
- Yonma Hanchan: +24/+8/-8/-24
- Yonma Tonpuu: +12/+4/-4/-12
- Sanma Hanchan: +24/0/-24
- Sanma Tonpuu: +12/0/-12
Time Limit
To ensure a consistent schedule and fair access to leaderboard games, we enforce the following timing limit:
- 15 minutes before the meet-up’s planned end time, the current hand of any leaderboard game becomes the last hand of the game.
E.g., for Sunday meet-ups, at 5:45 PM, tables that are playing a leaderboard game will finish their current hand and end the game early, entering the current standings into the leaderboard.
Players should acknowledge this time limit before starting a game that will likely not finish by the cutoff.
Minor Modifications
These are very specific changes that rarely affect gameplay.
- Renhou is a 7-han yaku.
Clarifications
- Nagashi Mangan payment will void tenpai payments. All other game progression stays unchanged (i.e., riichi sticks stay in the center, honba counter +1, dealership rotates if dealer is not tenpai).
Open Riichi Clarification
- When someone declares Open Riichi, the hand reveal and wait announcement happen AFTER the riichi discard resolves (the same timing as putting down the 1000 bet for regular riichi). This means other players don’t get to see the Open Riichi hand before deciding to call the riichi discard.
- Non-riichi players are not allowed to deal into Open Riichi if they can avoid it. If dealt in by mistake, the player must take back the discard and make a valid discard.
- Open Riichi that are dealt in by a non-riichi player (who could not avoid it) is worth yakuman, and can stack with other yakuman.
Comparison with the WRC 2025 Ruleset
WRC 2025 Rules (without modification) that are different from the base QCR ruleset (without the seasonal yaku):
Core rules (page 6)
- No red fives (changeable with Mod.2.1)
- 30k start
- Uma is 15/5/-5/-15
- Atamahane (Head Bump)
Riichi (page 6)
- Can riichi with <4 tiles remaining
- Can riichi below 1000 points
Scoring (page 7):
- suttan/daisuushi/kukoshi 13/chuuren 9 are all only single yakuman
Yaku and minipoints (page 7)
- Renhou is a special mangan yaku
- Cannot chankan concealed kan for kokushi
- No nagashi mangan (changeable with Mod.3.2)
- Double wind pair is 2 fu
Miscellaneous (page 7)
- No busting (changeable with Mod.5.3)
Valid Hand (page 10)
- “seven non-unique pairs” is not a valid hand