Mario Party - The Board Game

[Artemendo]

We have all, at some point or other, thought about what it would be like to have Mario Party as an actual, real-life board game. Some concepts (like everything luck-based) would translate surprisingly well, while some others are really hard outside a computer (skill-based minigames) and some outright impossible (nonhuman players).

I would like to gather ideas from everyone interested on how they would build a Mario Party board game using only dice, coins, pen and paper. If we come up with something great, it would be no problem to design the parts in cut-out form and make a PDF so Mario fans Internet-wide can enjoy a real Mario party.

Here are my ideas so far:

-Paper tokens can be used for coins and stars. With 36 1-coin tokens, 36 10-coin tokens, 12 100-coin tokens and 25 star tokens it's possible for all 4 players to have any plausible Mario Party score at any time, simultaneously. There also need to be indicators for on-board NPCs that move - like the current Star (or Koopa Kid or whatever), and of course the players themselves. But that's really not a lot of pieces compared to some other board games.

-Almost all luck-based events can be decided via dice and coins. However, some things are better off if all possibilities come up once before any one is repeated, like minigames and star locations. Retail board games like having people draw cards for that. Is there a solution that doesn't waste as much paper and isn't tedious like keeping a list of the items already exhausted? It could be fun in a cheap way to assign these to a deck of normal playing cards (which almost everyone should have at home), and looking up in a list.

-Now skill-based things are difficult. The minigames are the big draw of the console Mario Parties, and while people may complain it takes no skill to win, replacing everything by luck would simply not have that same spirit as the original. I had the idea of the minigames being literally tiny variations of other games that can be played on paper. There's Tic Tac Toe and its many cousins like Connect Four, Battleships, Dots and Boxes, Bulls and Cows/Mastermind, word games like Hangman, Paper Soccer, Nim, Racetrack, and that's just the ones I know from the top of my head. There are hundreds of these, heck, we could make up some of our own. The challenge lies in adapting them to four players (either directly or through a tournament system that would require 3 games for a win, but that only works with very short games).

Would you play something like that or does that sound completely boring? I'd love to see your ideas!

[Vent]

I used to try drawing my own board maps but trying to translate this into a real board game proved difficult thanks to the mini-games.

You came closer than I did though, but I doubt playing a bunch of common paper games can even compare to an actual game of Mario Party.

Edit: I would like to point out that both Mario Party-e and Mario Party Advance actually attempted to make Mario Party into a real game, but both of them utilized a Game Boy Advance for the mini-games.

[Artemendo]

Thank you, DINOSAUR.

I know that MPA and MP-e did that, but this was a very simplified version of Mario Party and the minigames were extremely boring on the MPA version and too few in number on both.

Of course nothing can compare to the interactivity of Mario Party, but let's keep in mind that many board games are very popular even today, and none of them are technically as skill-based as Mario Party. What we have here is an attempt to make a board game in the spirit of the original - having (let's say somewhat) skill-dependent mini-games with a lot of variety inside an overarching board game framework.

Also, I am not saying we should only have "common" paper games - we can think of our own, or even have games where not even paper is required (the kind of stuff playable in a car on a trip) - the only requirement is that it can be played without any external devices or materials or arrangements.

[Le Mario Bro]

Speed challenges?
Maybe even one of those Grab-the-Coins challenges?

I'd love to think of more, but I'd have to look in a Cranium Kadoo manual.

[Vent]

I dunno, I think with a better board and better mini-games a new Mario Party video game that utilized a real board would be pretty funky.

[cheat-master30]

I made a few games like this when I was younger, although they weren't so much 'Mario Party' themed as just general 'Mario' themed with the Mario Party mechanics and some differences in space symbols. Unfortunately, they didn't have mini games (although like Artemendo, I considered using smaller pen and paper utilising games for various things, such as boss battles), but they were... fairly close to Mario Party in style, just a bit too over complicated in both game length and board style/size and I actually played them a few times.

Still, I'd love to see a proper Mario Party themed board game. Heck, even a map remaking one of the actual Mario Party's game boards would be interesting. Like how would Wario's Battle Canyon, or Pirate Land, or the desert level from the third game translate to a traditional board game concept?

[SMBBQ]

Well, I'm not very good at this stuff, but I do have a few ideas.

-Minigames could include the battleship-like ideas Artemendo had, but also a"Jacks" style game where you pick up the coins, a timed trivia game (maybe about Mario games, but probably just details about the board), and such.

-I imagine that there could be a few different types of dices (die?), rolled to decide which order people go, which minigames will be played, etc.

I hope this is alright...

[Le Mario Bro]

a few different types of dices (die?)

You dare bring light to my lair?!

It's just dice, I believe.

Okay, Ontopic. I rather like your ideas, SMB. I was toying with the idea of Trivia Challenges too, but decided against it.

[SMBBQ]

Trivia challenges might not be a good idea, actually. Not everyone is as versed in Mario lore as I am.

[Artemendo]

Trivia challenges should be optional. As we all know, people who play Mario Party may not be exactly the most savvy Mario fans around. Those really aren't games that require you to know the lore and the characters well. Maybe minigames can come in paks like in some installments of Mario Party?

Dice... that is a problem. It's not possible to simulate a 10-sided die throw as the one used in Mario Party to move around the board with 6-sided dice and coins. So I thought if people have a 10-sided one around, that's great, but if not, they could play Slightly Faster Mario Party by throwing a normal die and a coin, which adds 6 if heads. This way, it simulates a 12-sided die. Close enough, I guess.

Jacks, eh... that sounds interesting. I wonder what kind of non-intellectual, non-luck based games one could have with those materials. Like, building paper planes and looking how far they go? Try to balance coins on edge? Who can build an origami crane the fastest?

About the boards, I think they should stick to the originals pretty closely. I went through some in my mind and there's almost no board happenings that dice and coins could not simulate.

Thank you all so much for your ideas! I hope we'll have more along the way.

[Sarisa]

Here, every gaming store carries packages of 10-sided dice because White Wolf games use them. They're not hard to get.

[Artemendo]

Dec 30, 2010 10:13:03 GMT -5 Sarisa said:

Here, every gaming store carries packages of 10-sided dice because White Wolf games use them. They're not hard to get.

I am not claiming that 10-sided dice are hard to get, I am just saying that not everyone might have one handy, and it would be unfair to be unable to play without one. Plus, I believe Slightly Faster Mario Party could be pretty fun. Nothing is more frustrating than three turns of everyone having a 5 or lower, when nothing happens.

[Vent]

Er, if this were an actual piece of merchandise, then wouldn't it come with a 10-sided dice?

[Le Mario Bro]

We're gonna actually try and make this thing for real.

Also, I like the 6-sided die and coin dealy rather than just a regular(?) 10-sided die.

[Artemendo]

Dec 30, 2010 21:21:27 GMT -5 Vent said:

Er, if this were an actual piece of merchandise, then wouldn't it come with a 10-sided dice?

You misunderstood my idea. This is not hypothetical for a company to make, this is for us to really, actually create and distribute over the Internet. As such, we can only provide people with a PDF to print out and cut out, not dice.

Dec 30, 2010 22:28:25 GMT -5 Le Mario Bro said:

Also, I like the 6-sided die and coin dealy rather than just a regular(?) 10-sided die.

Thank you. I was always bothered by the low throws. For a game that's based around moving around the board many times in a game, it sure moves the characters pretty slowly. Some places on some boards are so difficult to reach that I've only seen anyone being there once or twice. Add to that some board's delight in throwing you back to the start and it's pretty clear that a 12-sided die would have been better.

[Indigo]

The die-and-coin combo is rather unconventional, but I like it. Alternatively, though, couldn't you just use two dice and get similar results? Or would you rather save having an additional die being attributed to a Mushroom item or something?

Alternatively, you could just use one die and have the board be smaller than usual. Or not.

[Artemendo]

Dec 31, 2010 9:46:42 GMT -5 Indigo said:

Alternatively, though, couldn't you just use two dice and get similar results?

Dec 31, 2010 9:46:42 GMT -5 Indigo said:

Alternatively, you could just use one die and have the board be smaller than usual. Or not.

Oh no, imagine half of all throws being 3 or lower. This would be so boring in the context of Mario Party. Also, making the board smaller would make them way too crowded.

[cheat-master30]

To be fair, Nintendo started making the boards smaller in the Gamecube era, so it's not as if it's something unlike the spirit of the Mario Party series. Besides, all the boards in the series are pretty crowded.

[ddshoeshowz]

I'm surprised that it hasn't already been made!

[kingkoopa]

Well we couold always make a PDF for a 10-sided die. But the thing about Paper dice is that is you make even the smallest thing uneven, it could make a certain side weigh more, which would make the chances of a certain number appearing higher.

Anyways. I think this is a great idea and we should certainly make more than one board. And I know not everyone will agree with me when I say this... but I think that the later Mario Parties came up with some pretty good board ideas that could be implemented in this.

Example: One board could be really long and have a star spot at the very end (when you get it you go back to the beginning)

Another Example: Something like Koopa's Tycoon Town (MP8). This board was actually quite fun to play on.

Other good boards that should appear in some way: Pirate Land, Waluigi's Island (you know you want it Arte ), Goombas Board in MP4, One of the many Bowser stages (Bowser Land comes to mind here, but there are quite a few others too.)

Other ideas: Maybe an Isle Delphino Board? Good Egg Galaxy? Luigi's Mansion? Yoshi''s Island? 25 meters? There are a lot of possibilities to choose from.