The objective of American Mahjong is to build sets of tiles to create a complete hand that meets the specific hands from the National Mahjong League card. These sets can be made up of various combinations of tiles, such as sets of three or four identical tiles, or sequences of three consecutive tiles of the same suit.

Setup:

A standard American Mahjong set consists of 152 tiles, divided into different suits: characters (craks), circles (dots), and bamboos (bams) (numbered 1 to 9), winds (north, east, south, west), dragons (red, green, white), 8 flowers and 8 jokers.

The tiles are shuffled and arranged into walls, which are then stacked face-down on the table. Players sit around the table, and the tiles are dealt to each player to form their hands. Players place their tiles on a rack.

Gameplay:

Players take turns drawing a tile from the wall and then discarding a tile from their rack. The goal is to form sets of tiles on your rack that follow the lines on the National Mahjong League card.

A player's turn typically involves drawing a tile, considering the options for a meld, and then discarding a tile. The player must always have a certain number of tiles in their hand, usually 13.

Melds can be either "Pung" (three identical tiles), "Kong" (four identical tiles), or "Chow" (a sequence of three consecutive tiles in the same suit).

The player can also declare a "Mahjong" if their hand meets the winning criteria. This typically involves having a complete hand of four sets and a pair, or in some variants, a specific combination of sets.