Update: mario cart game

ok so after todays gathering we're fixed on the mario cart idea.

The game involves Mobile Phones + hand held GPS technology as its main tools, as such each player must have both. It is a real life pervasive game based loosely on mario cart and played over a large area.

The aim of the game is to earn points by bursting other players balloons while keeping as many of your own as possible.
- 1 point for every balloon you pop
- 1 point for every balloon you still have
The game runs for an aranged time limit depending on the size of the group playing the game and points are added up at the end of this time.
- 2 bonus points are also awarded if someone is the last man standing before the time limit is up.

Setting up: Before the start of the game players are given a list of locations, land marks/notable areas where they can pick up items/weapons and set up with 3 balloons attatched to their back as an indicator of "lives".

How it Works:
To pop another players balloons you must confront the other player by tagging them, a confrontation cannot be refused and once started cannot be aborted until complete.
The confrontation involves comparing weapons (sms msgs) that are aquired by visiting a location on the list. Once at the site the player sends a text to the game master with its GPS coordinates to prove they're where they say they are and the game master replies to them with their randomly determind weapon.

Ideally we would have an app that would determine the randomised weapon after reaching the GPS location but as not everyone has an iphone the game master fills the gap.

Currently Weapons/Items are as follows:
Star: ultimate weapon, you are god! beats Red and Green Shells no matter how many your opponent has.
Ghost: randomly steals another players weapon as soon as you recieve it via GM
Red Shell: bursts one balloon, beats green shell, can stack up to 3.
Green Shell: bursts one balloon, stack up to 3.
Upside down questionmark: works like a landmine, can be left at any location you visit as long as you're there to plant it by msging the GM. The next player who gets an item from that location looses a balloon (you can be hit by your own mine).
Banana: works in the same way as the upside-down questionmark but it takes 2 hits from bananas to actually loose a balloon.
Mushrooms: earn the player bonus points toward their final tally but do not replace balloons.

- Players cannot use the same location twice in a row
- Players can reuse locations inconsecutively
- A player can only have one weapon at a time (though shells do stack up to 3 times), if the player doesnt want the weapon they currently have they can visit another location and replace it OR in the case of shells, gamble on adding another to their stack.

Combat/confrontation:
Once a player is tagged and a combat instigated the 2 players must compare the weapons they currently have (if any) to determine if their is a winner, looser or if it results in a draw. The winner then has the joy of bursting their opponents balloon and must msg the GM with details including, what weapons were used by whom so that he can keep track of score and verify the result.

The Draw: results from 2 players having the same weapon, eg. green shell vs green shell, RedvRed.
Stacks: a stack of shells can be used one after the other in the same combat, eg. in a combat where one player has 1 red shell vs 2 green shells - both players loose a life as red beats green but then he has nothing to defend against the 2nd green. Star however lasts the whole combat and beats any number of shells.

The Game Master: Is in charge of distributing items, keeping track of lives, points, time and results.

Costumes: To add some more fun to the game players dress up as a character from mario cart, matching colours with their balloons. This also helps define the magic circle in the public arena.