So! A long time ago, I discovered the
Mario D20 ruleset. Now, it's far too much for me to run as it stands, but I've wanted to try my hand at a "real" Mario P&P RPG for a long time. Obviously, if I ever did it, it wouldn't look like the above image (I'm masochistic, not suicidal).
I'm not sure if the game would work best on Maptools or as PBP. Time will only tell.
Game World: the game world would actually NOT be my normal Mushroom Kingdom With Swords setting. It would revert back to the idealism of Paper Mario with hammers, badges and other such silly items. Shops would pop out like a story book when entered, and many races both friendly and hostile would inhabit the world. Expect such location names as "Breezy Bay" and "Starlight Cliff."
Character creation: I would ONLY use the Mario D20 rulebook for content, so no classes or races outside of it. Monster races might be possible, but I think some of the standard ones would already count. Players would gain EXP as a pool to save me some headache. I would also probably only take a party of four to start with, given the complexity of the game.
House rules: as an online RPG, I would have to cut out anything very unfun or heavily slowing the game down. This means maps/illustrations no more complex than my current Mario game, and some aspects of the game simplified/sped up (especially combat).
Story: In all the past games in similar settings I've run, players have always been guards, ambassadors or other royal figures in the Mushroom Kingdom. Due to the crazy freedom the ruleset and game world would allows, players would instead start the story as a freelance adventuring group - perhaps at the entrance to the Twilight Tower or some other sinister, level one dungeon.
It would be up to them to decide where they should go and what they should do.