Not to be confused with the flash series of the same name, Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom
is a mod for Dwarf Fortress. Based on the Super Mario Bros. series, it adds a ton of Mario-themed elements to the game, and can be played both by itself and alongside vanilla Dwarf Fortress. It's set in a hypothetical future, where the events of the Mario series have long since faded into myth and legend. Needs a better description.
It features three playable races in fortress mode:
- Toads: Optimistic and even-tempered but fragile, Toads are an industrious race focused on trade and diplomacy. They have many allies, can build warp-pipes that pull resources from other regions, and can even raise Yoshis to act as both livestock and hunting companions. And they're going to need every ally they can get; Toads are extremely fragile in combat, not helped by the fact that they're all but forced to live above ground due to a deep-seated fear of caves.
- Koopas: Where Toads are simple and carefree, Koopas are militant and orderly. They rely on military prowess to defend against their innumerable enemies, and are often backed by a powerful but unruly "Demon Koopa", not to mention a host of mighty pets. And while they get fatigued spending time below ground, they can eventually become "cave-adapted", which makes them even more powerful, and they can even train spell-slinging magikoopas.
- Shy Guys: An enigmatic race of forgetful wonder-workers, Shy Guys specialize in building absurd megaprojects. They can master any task in just a few seasons, but their skills rust just as quickly, not helped by their finicky work-ethic. Arguably the most "fun" race to play.
This game mod contains examples of the following tropes:
- Awesome, but Impractical: Shy guys in a nutshell. They can whip up all sorts of crazy contraptions right from the get-go, but they lack any kind of organizational structure (read: no bookkeepers or managers) and you can only form one (absurdly large) military squad with them.
- After the End: Retcons the entire Mario series as being this; the reason the Mushroom World is so strange is because the Shroobs unleashed the Mycon Plague.
- Loads and Loads of Races: While only three are playable in Fortress Modes, there are at least a dozen others that can be controlled in Adventure Mode.
- The Beastmaster: Goombas, oddly enough, making them valuable allies to Toads, Koopas and Shy Guys.
- Darker and Edgier: Being a Dwarf Fortress mod, people still die in all kinds of gruesome ways.
- Starfish Language: Shy Guys name their stuff in this way.
- Zerg Rush: Shy Guys can only have one military squad, but it's a really really big one.
