Typically something I don't do. I like learning new and exciting game mechanics, it's only natural to like creating them as well - even if some of my games don't really have anything mechanically interesting to them.... However I do have two themes I really like and am having trouble matching mechanics with.
Theme 1.... raising and battling dragons, from egg to grave. I'm absolutely lost with this game at the moment. Maybe someone will have an idea or two that will spark something.
Theme 2..... decaying earth. Many science groups are building exploration ships to navigate distant space to inhabit foreign worlds.
I have a basic skeleton of an idea for this game, I'll try to break it down.
All players are given a "sponsor" which will dictate how much money they have to fund the exploration mission as well as a unique ability useable in the game and finally a unique score condition.
During the game portion of the game, players will be building 5 specific parts of the mission. Ship, propulsion, navigation something else and finally crew. Each piece contributes ultimately in the scoring phase.
During scoring. Players Roll Dice provided By The Mission Pieces with modifiers to determine probability of mission success. Highest wins.
Needs some work but the skeleton is there. How do players build the mission peices? No idea as of right now. Suggestions?
Thanks for reading and the help
Those are a kind of my guiding principle in all me designs. I like to play those short and simple games because who wants to spend 2 hours building and positioning troops in Egypt only to have your best friend clear out most of your hard work in a single turn because he doesn't ever roll less than 5! I don't play a Risk anymore but the principle is the same, long games can create sore losers much easier than short games in my experience.
Ideal target time is 20 - 40 minutes. And depth is always good.