A board or board map is a playing field in the Mario Party series, starting with the first installment, Mario Party. The board maps that appear in each game feature a wide variety of different locations from the Mario series games. The board maps contain spaces that the characters travel around with the use of a Dice Block. In each board map, the characters collect coins and stars while they travel around them. The objective for each board map is similar in most Mario Party games, in which the characters must chase around a star and pay twenty coins to collect the star. Although in later Mario Party games, the characters can collect stars using different methods.

Each board map contains characters that can be found in other Mario games and events. The characters on the board maps can either help or harm the player. The events create strategies on the boards that can affect the character's coin amount, position, items, or even the number of stars they achieved. In the later Mario Party installments, new items like capsules and orbs can be thrown on spaces on the map to create traps. The board maps also feature conjunctions where the characters have choices on what route to take,

Some features on the board maps that appeared in earlier Mario Party games were the Koopa Bank and Boo. The board maps in most of the Mario Party games contain some type of Item Shop.