About Meldhouse

Meldhouse is a free home for learning the tile and card games people play around a table: mahjong first, then cribbage, gin rummy, rummy, spades, canasta, hearts and Mexican Train dominoes. Every game gets a clear guide with a picture for every step, and a tool you can use while you play.

Why Meldhouse exists

Learning a table game from a rulebook or a single video is harder than it needs to be. Rules are often written for people who already know the game, and the variations between groups are rarely explained. Meldhouse aims to be the page you can open on your phone at the table: plain words, pictures of real hands, and tools that do the counting.

A "meld" is a set of tiles or cards laid down together. It's the idea that links mahjong, rummy, gin rummy and canasta, which is where the name comes from.

Who runs Meldhouse

Meldhouse is run by Northlark. You can reach us at northlarkhq@gmail.com.

How we write the rules

• Checked sources. Every rule and scoring value is checked against at least two reputable sources, such as official rulebooks and well-established rules references, before it goes on the site.
• The common version first. Each guide teaches the most common way to play, and labels house rules and regional variations clearly so your group can choose.
• Our own words. Everything is written from scratch. We never copy rulebooks or other sites.
• Tools that agree with the pages. Worked examples are calculated by the same code as the score keepers, and the site won't publish if they disagree.

Our rules sources

These are the main references we check against (we link to them, but never copy their text):

• Mahjong: Tom Sloper's mahjong FAQs (sloperama.com), the National Mah Jongg League, the European Mahjong Association's rulebooks for Chinese Official and riichi mahjong, the World Riichi Championship rules, and established teaching sites.
• Cribbage: the American Cribbage Congress rulebook.
• Card games: the rules published by the US Playing Card Company (Bicycle) and Pagat, the long-standing card game rules reference.
• Mexican Train: rule leaflets from domino makers.

Where sources disagree, the guide says so and explains the options.

The tile artwork

The mahjong tile pictures are based on riichi-mahjong-tiles by FluffyStuff, which its author released into the public domain (CC0). Thank you. The flower, season and joker tiles and the framed White Dragon were drawn for Meldhouse in the same style. The playing cards, dominoes and diagrams are original to Meldhouse.

What Meldhouse doesn't do

• No accounts, sign-ups or cookies. The score keepers save your game in your own browser only.
• No mahjong solitaire. "Mahjong" here means the four-player game.
• No reproduction of the National Mah Jongg League's yearly card. Buy it from the League.

Get in touch

Spotted a mistake in a rule, or want a game added? See the contact page.