Mamma Mia!
1998
A lively card game of shared ingredients, careful timing, and pizza orders competing for the kitchen’s supplies.
30
minutes
2 - 5
player(s)
10+
Light
About this board game
Mamma Mia! is a card game for 2–5 players that plays in about 30 minutes, challenging you to time your pizza baking and complete the most orders.
Each player begins with eight different pizza orders, including one order in hand, plus ingredient cards showing pepperoni, mushroom, pineapple, green pepper, or olive. On your turn, place one or more cards of a single ingredient type onto a common stack, then optionally add a pizza order.
After playing, refill your hand with as many cards as you used. You may draw from the shared ingredient deck or your own order deck, creating an important choice between gathering more ingredients and finding the orders you need to complete.
- Play ingredient cards into a shared pool.
- Add pizza orders when you are ready to bake.
- Sort the revealed ingredients and check whether each order can be filled.
- Score completed orders across three rounds.
When the draw pile is exhausted, the shared stack is flipped over and sorted by ingredient. Orders are then revealed one at a time. If the available ingredients are sufficient, the order’s owner scores it. If the kitchen is short, the player may supply the missing cards from their hand and still score the order, or return it to the bottom of their order deck.
Once all orders have been scored or returned, the ingredients used for pizzas are shuffled and another round begins. After three complete rounds, the player who has filled the most orders wins. With its shared card pool and distinctive pizza theme, Mamma Mia! turns every play into a question of when to commit an order and how to use the ingredients available.
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Board Game Rules for
Mamma Mia!
Who is the Best Pizza Maker?
In this card game, players step into the shoes of busy pizza chefs. You will collect orders from your waiters and gather ingredients from the shared supply, tossing everything together into the oven to bake.
Once all available ingredients run out, the oven is opened to check which recipes were successfully baked and which failed. Chefs reclaim their unbaked orders to attempt them again in the following round.
The competition lasts three rounds; whoever delivers the highest number of pizzas earns the title of master pizza maker and wins the game!
Game Components
- 65 Ingredient cards (13 cards of each type: salami, pineapple, mushroom, pepper, and olive)
- 40 Order cards (8 cards in each of the 5 player colors)
- 1 Mamma Mia! card
- 1 Rule booklet
The game features three distinct categories of cards.
Preparation
- Shuffle all the ingredient cards together and deal 6 cards face down to each player to form their starting hands.
- Combine the Mamma Mia! card with the remaining ingredient cards and shuffle them thoroughly. Place this deck face down in the center of the playing area to serve as the draw supply.
- Each participant takes the set of 8 order cards matching their chosen color, shuffles them, and places them face down in front of them to form their waiter deck. Each player then draws the top card from their waiter deck and adds it to their hand.
- Determine a starting player; turns will proceed clockwise around the table.
- Establish the oven area adjacent to the supply deck. The oven is a common face-up discard pile.
The Mamma Mia! Card
- Whenever a player draws the Mamma Mia! card from the supply, they must immediately lay it face up on the table beside their waiter deck and draw a replacement card.
- At the conclusion of the round, the holder of the Mamma Mia! card is responsible for opening the oven, checking the baked pizzas, and determining success or failure. This player will also become the first player for the upcoming round.
Put Pizzas in the Oven
On your turn, perform the following steps in sequence:
- Add Ingredients: You are required to place at least one ingredient card from your hand face up into the oven (the discard pile beside the draw supply). You may discard multiple cards, provided they are all identical ingredient types. Announce out loud the quantity and type played (for instance, “three peppers”).
- Play an Order (Optional): You may then place exactly 1 order card from your hand face up on top of the oven stack. You should do this when you believe the oven already contains all the ingredients required to fulfill that recipe.
- Maintain Hidden Information: Players may never browse through cards in the oven; only the topmost card remains visible. Everyone must wait until round resolution to discover which orders succeed.
- Refill Hand: Draw cards until your hand is back up to 7 cards. You must choose to draw exclusively from the general supply or exclusively from your personal waiter deck; combining draws from both decks during the same turn is not allowed.
If the chosen deck contains fewer cards than needed to reach 7, take all remaining cards from that deck and continue your next turn with a reduced hand size. You may not switch to the other deck to make up the deficit.
Note: If a player starts their turn without any ingredient cards in hand, they are forced to pass completely, playing no ingredients and no order cards. They simply draw cards according to the usual rules to refill their hand to 7 cards.
Your turn concludes and play passes clockwise to the left neighbor. As soon as a chef draws the very last card from the central supply, the round ends immediately, and the player holding the Mamma Mia! card takes charge of the oven.
Example of a Player’s Turn
On Alberto’s (green) turn, he discards 3 salami cards face up onto the oven pile, announcing: “Three salami!” Next, he places an order card requiring 4 salami and 1 pepper on top of the oven stack. He chooses to draw from his waiter pile, but only 3 cards remain there; he takes all 3 and must play with a hand of 6 cards until his next turn, when he can draw back up to 7.
Take the Pizzas from the Oven
The holder of the Mamma Mia! card gathers the entire oven pile and flips it upside down so the cards are face down in hand, taking care never to alter the order of the cards.
Cards are now revealed one by one from the top of the stack:
- Ingredient Cards: Placed face up on the table, sorted by type into overlapping rows so the exact number of each ingredient remains clearly visible.
- Order Cards: Whenever an order card appears, verify whether all necessary ingredients are present among the sorted cards on the table:
- Pizza is Complete: If all required ingredients are available, the pizza is properly baked. The owner of the order (matching the card’s color) takes the card and places it face up next to their waiter deck in their delivered stack. The Mamma Mia! player collects all ingredients used for this recipe and places them face down in a used ingredients pile.
- Missing Ingredients: If the oven does not contain all needed ingredients, the owner of that order may play the missing ingredient cards directly from their hand to satisfy the recipe.
- Hand Completion: If the owner provides all missing ingredients from hand, the pizza is successfully baked: the order joins their delivered pile, and all used cards (from table and hand) go into the used ingredients stack.
- Incomplete Pizza: If the player cannot or chooses not to supply all missing ingredients, the pizza fails. The order card is slipped face down underneath their waiter deck.
Any ingredients not consumed by an order stay face up in the sorted area, available for subsequent orders. The Mamma Mia! player continues revealing cards from the oven stack until it is fully depleted.
Example of a Properly Baked Pizza
The oven currently displays: 1 pepper, 2 salami, 3 pineapples, and 4 mushrooms. The Mamma Mia! player reveals an order from Alberto (green) asking for 4 pineapples and 1 pepper. Because only 3 pineapples are in the oven, Alberto contributes 1 pineapple from his hand. The recipe is fulfilled: all 5 ingredients (4 pineapples, 1 pepper) are discarded to the used pile, Alberto places the order in his delivered stack, and the remaining ingredients stay in the oven for future orders.
Preparing the Next Round
- All remaining unused ingredients on the table are gathered and placed face up to form the starting oven discard pile for the new round.
- The used ingredients stack is combined with the Mamma Mia! card, shuffled thoroughly, and placed face down as the new central supply.
- The holder of the Mamma Mia! card takes the opening turn of the next round.
The Orders
Five of the eight order cards in each player’s deck are standard recipes specifying exact ingredients. To succeed, those specific items must be available in the oven or supplemented from the player’s hand.
Each player also holds three special pizza orders, resolved using the same mechanism from oven and/or hand:
Pizza Bombastica
Requires a minimum of 15 ingredients of any combination. When completed, the Mamma Mia! player clears all ingredients currently visible in the oven to bake this pizza, leaving the oven completely empty of face-up ingredients!
Pizza Minimale
Requires 1 of the chef’s personal ingredient (indicated on the card) plus 3 matching ingredients of a different type, represented by a “?”.
The “?” must be assigned to the ingredient type that currently has the lowest non-zero count among face-up cards in the oven. If multiple eligible types tie for the lowest count, the owner selects which tied type to use. You can never choose your own personal ingredient, nor an ingredient with zero cards present in the oven.
Pizza Monotoni
Requires 1 of the chef’s personal ingredient (depicted on the card) plus 6 matching ingredients of any single different variety, denoted by a “J” (joker). The owner freely designates which ingredient acts as the joker when the card is revealed, but they may never pick their own personal ingredient.
Example of a Pizza Minimale
The oven shows: 2 peppers, 2 salami, 2 mushrooms, and 3 pineapples. Alberto’s (green) Pizza Minimale is turned up, calling for 1 pepper and 3 of another ingredient. Peppers, salami, and mushrooms tie for the fewest cards (2 each). Alberto cannot select pepper because it is his personal ingredient, nor olives because none are present. He must choose between salami or mushroom; if he can provide a third matching card from his hand, the pizza bakes successfully.
Game End and Scoring
The game concludes once the oven has been fully emptied and scored for the third time (at the end of the third round).
The winner is the chef who successfully delivered the highest number of pizzas (most cards in their delivered stack). In the event of a tie, the tied player with the greatest number of ingredient cards remaining in hand claims victory.
Credits
- Author: Uwe Rosenberg
- Graphics: Franz Vohwinkel
- English Translation: Anna & Jay Tummelson
- Distribution United States: Rio Grande Games
- © 2004 ABACUSSPIELE Verlags GmbH & Co. KG
Overview & Components
Who is the Best Pizza Maker?
In this card game, players step into the shoes of busy pizza chefs. You will collect orders from your waiters and gather ingredients from the shared supply, tossing everything together into the oven to bake.
Once all available ingredients run out, the oven is opened to check which recipes were successfully baked and which failed. Chefs reclaim their unbaked orders to attempt them again in the following round.
The competition lasts three rounds; whoever delivers the highest number of pizzas earns the title of master pizza maker and wins the game!
Game Components
- 65 Ingredient cards (13 cards of each type: salami, pineapple, mushroom, pepper, and olive)
- 40 Order cards (8 cards in each of the 5 player colors)
- 1 Mamma Mia! card
- 1 Rule booklet
The game features three distinct categories of cards.
Setup
Preparation
- Shuffle all the ingredient cards together and deal 6 cards face down to each player to form their starting hands.
- Combine the Mamma Mia! card with the remaining ingredient cards and shuffle them thoroughly. Place this deck face down in the center of the playing area to serve as the draw supply.
- Each participant takes the set of 8 order cards matching their chosen color, shuffles them, and places them face down in front of them to form their waiter deck. Each player then draws the top card from their waiter deck and adds it to their hand.
- Determine a starting player; turns will proceed clockwise around the table.
- Establish the oven area adjacent to the supply deck. The oven is a common face-up discard pile.
The Mamma Mia! Card
- Whenever a player draws the Mamma Mia! card from the supply, they must immediately lay it face up on the table beside their waiter deck and draw a replacement card.
- At the conclusion of the round, the holder of the Mamma Mia! card is responsible for opening the oven, checking the baked pizzas, and determining success or failure. This player will also become the first player for the upcoming round.
How to Play
Put Pizzas in the Oven
On your turn, perform the following steps in sequence:
- Add Ingredients: You are required to place at least one ingredient card from your hand face up into the oven (the discard pile beside the draw supply). You may discard multiple cards, provided they are all identical ingredient types. Announce out loud the quantity and type played (for instance, “three peppers”).
- Play an Order (Optional): You may then place exactly 1 order card from your hand face up on top of the oven stack. You should do this when you believe the oven already contains all the ingredients required to fulfill that recipe.
- Maintain Hidden Information: Players may never browse through cards in the oven; only the topmost card remains visible. Everyone must wait until round resolution to discover which orders succeed.
- Refill Hand: Draw cards until your hand is back up to 7 cards. You must choose to draw exclusively from the general supply or exclusively from your personal waiter deck; combining draws from both decks during the same turn is not allowed.
If the chosen deck contains fewer cards than needed to reach 7, take all remaining cards from that deck and continue your next turn with a reduced hand size. You may not switch to the other deck to make up the deficit.
Note: If a player starts their turn without any ingredient cards in hand, they are forced to pass completely, playing no ingredients and no order cards. They simply draw cards according to the usual rules to refill their hand to 7 cards.
Your turn concludes and play passes clockwise to the left neighbor. As soon as a chef draws the very last card from the central supply, the round ends immediately, and the player holding the Mamma Mia! card takes charge of the oven.
Example of a Player’s Turn
On Alberto’s (green) turn, he discards 3 salami cards face up onto the oven pile, announcing: “Three salami!” Next, he places an order card requiring 4 salami and 1 pepper on top of the oven stack. He chooses to draw from his waiter pile, but only 3 cards remain there; he takes all 3 and must play with a hand of 6 cards until his next turn, when he can draw back up to 7.
Resolving the Oven & Next Round
Take the Pizzas from the Oven
The holder of the Mamma Mia! card gathers the entire oven pile and flips it upside down so the cards are face down in hand, taking care never to alter the order of the cards.
Cards are now revealed one by one from the top of the stack:
- Ingredient Cards: Placed face up on the table, sorted by type into overlapping rows so the exact number of each ingredient remains clearly visible.
- Order Cards: Whenever an order card appears, verify whether all necessary ingredients are present among the sorted cards on the table:
- Pizza is Complete: If all required ingredients are available, the pizza is properly baked. The owner of the order (matching the card’s color) takes the card and places it face up next to their waiter deck in their delivered stack. The Mamma Mia! player collects all ingredients used for this recipe and places them face down in a used ingredients pile.
- Missing Ingredients: If the oven does not contain all needed ingredients, the owner of that order may play the missing ingredient cards directly from their hand to satisfy the recipe.
- Hand Completion: If the owner provides all missing ingredients from hand, the pizza is successfully baked: the order joins their delivered pile, and all used cards (from table and hand) go into the used ingredients stack.
- Incomplete Pizza: If the player cannot or chooses not to supply all missing ingredients, the pizza fails. The order card is slipped face down underneath their waiter deck.
Any ingredients not consumed by an order stay face up in the sorted area, available for subsequent orders. The Mamma Mia! player continues revealing cards from the oven stack until it is fully depleted.
Example of a Properly Baked Pizza
The oven currently displays: 1 pepper, 2 salami, 3 pineapples, and 4 mushrooms. The Mamma Mia! player reveals an order from Alberto (green) asking for 4 pineapples and 1 pepper. Because only 3 pineapples are in the oven, Alberto contributes 1 pineapple from his hand. The recipe is fulfilled: all 5 ingredients (4 pineapples, 1 pepper) are discarded to the used pile, Alberto places the order in his delivered stack, and the remaining ingredients stay in the oven for future orders.
Preparing the Next Round
- All remaining unused ingredients on the table are gathered and placed face up to form the starting oven discard pile for the new round.
- The used ingredients stack is combined with the Mamma Mia! card, shuffled thoroughly, and placed face down as the new central supply.
- The holder of the Mamma Mia! card takes the opening turn of the next round.
Order Cards Reference
The Orders
Five of the eight order cards in each player’s deck are standard recipes specifying exact ingredients. To succeed, those specific items must be available in the oven or supplemented from the player’s hand.
Each player also holds three special pizza orders, resolved using the same mechanism from oven and/or hand:
Pizza Bombastica
Requires a minimum of 15 ingredients of any combination. When completed, the Mamma Mia! player clears all ingredients currently visible in the oven to bake this pizza, leaving the oven completely empty of face-up ingredients!
Pizza Minimale
Requires 1 of the chef’s personal ingredient (indicated on the card) plus 3 matching ingredients of a different type, represented by a “?”.
The “?” must be assigned to the ingredient type that currently has the lowest non-zero count among face-up cards in the oven. If multiple eligible types tie for the lowest count, the owner selects which tied type to use. You can never choose your own personal ingredient, nor an ingredient with zero cards present in the oven.
Pizza Monotoni
Requires 1 of the chef’s personal ingredient (depicted on the card) plus 6 matching ingredients of any single different variety, denoted by a “J” (joker). The owner freely designates which ingredient acts as the joker when the card is revealed, but they may never pick their own personal ingredient.
Example of a Pizza Minimale
The oven shows: 2 peppers, 2 salami, 2 mushrooms, and 3 pineapples. Alberto’s (green) Pizza Minimale is turned up, calling for 1 pepper and 3 of another ingredient. Peppers, salami, and mushrooms tie for the fewest cards (2 each). Alberto cannot select pepper because it is his personal ingredient, nor olives because none are present. He must choose between salami or mushroom; if he can provide a third matching card from his hand, the pizza bakes successfully.
Game End & Scoring
Game End and Scoring
The game concludes once the oven has been fully emptied and scored for the third time (at the end of the third round).
The winner is the chef who successfully delivered the highest number of pizzas (most cards in their delivered stack). In the event of a tie, the tied player with the greatest number of ingredient cards remaining in hand claims victory.
Credits
Credits
- Author: Uwe Rosenberg
- Graphics: Franz Vohwinkel
- English Translation: Anna & Jay Tummelson
- Distribution United States: Rio Grande Games
- © 2004 ABACUSSPIELE Verlags GmbH & Co. KG
