How about a goofy strategy game featuring humans as the primary resource, and different factions of Zombies for the players to control?
Yes, I have a major thing for zombies. Most people that I know do though.
Anyway! On to the things I brainstormed!
The different factions of Zombies would all be thinking creatures for the most part, and thus would have access to all the big bad weapons, technologies, and...you got it...nuclear weapons of the world prior to them. Of course, each faction would excel in a particular area of interest.
There would be three ways to win. Conquering the world is the foremost. Having a large pool of unused Humans (resources) is another. And lastly, collecting the body parts of Big Daddy Z and putting him back together to rule as king of your faction (will explain later) works too.
There would be four factions (and maybe two colors of each, to allow for an 8 player game)
Hulks (really, REALLY thick zombies with a long, muscular necks that protrude forward, topped off with itsy-bitsy skull heads) would be the most militaristic. They would carry the really big guns to battle (machine guns and rocket launchers) and they might have access to more nukes at the start.
Nuttsies (jittery, spastic, thin zombies) would be able to expand and fortify quite a lot faster, but they would lack in strength and stronger weapons.
Pussbuckets (Zombies that glow green) would utilize nasty acid attacks and also have a much easier time collecting humans, but just as the Nuttsies, they'd be frail and weak.
And finally, Clots (strong like Hulks, but red in color, and don't sport the same kinda higher-tech gear) would be the slowest in expansion, but would make up for it with extremely powerful, brutish weapons like big shotguns, clubs, and axes, and could also fall into fits of rage under certain circumstances that would make them nearly unstoppable.
NUKES - Believe it or not, nukes serve more than one purpose. ASIDE from completely annihilating enemies in a given area, ANY humans in that area and the surrounding areas are converted into smaller pockets of your own forces. Of course, everyone has a limited number of nukes, and it's very rare to get more, so it's wise to use them only when they're needed.
BIG DADDY Z - The biggest, baddest, zombie-est Zombie of them all, Big Daddy Z had to be killed in a special way when the Zombie outbreak first occurred. Headshots didn't do the trick...he has no brain! (what?) Fire didn't fry him...it just made him crispy and angry! And nukes didn't incinerate him. Instead, he ate them. That's how bad ass he is. So what did the humans do? They cut him apart and hid his body pieces in science labs all over the world. Two legs, two arms, a head and a torso. The keys to recreating the most terrible, stench-breathed, rot-ridden, denture-needing zombie in the world would be stashed away so that any zombie wishing to bring Big Daddy Z back would have a helluva hard time doing it.
HUMANS - Though Zombies are the top of the food chain in the world today, there is still a mass of humans hiding around the world in fort-cities and small holdouts. When Zombie scientists discovered that creativity and worker-speed increased upon eating brains, and soldiers could grow tougher and tougher when they consumed the stuff, and human guts could be shoved into any magical machination of the undead to make it run, it was deemed that humans would not only be used as food, but as a resource to help the economy!
Humans would serve three uses. Expend them to create structures, expend them feed wounded soldiers, and expend them create new units at a Fort. Obviously, if you managed to save up enough of them, you'd win too, but it's doubtful anyone will give you a decent chance if they see you getting that close to victory. Attaining humans for use would be a difficult task, as they are sort of a faction of their own, and can fight Zombies off.
Another thing to take into account is that there are a set number of humans always flowing through the cycle of the game. They are either being saved, used, or are on the board. There are never any extra humans just laying around. The instant a player uses humans to do something, new humans appear randomly in holdouts around the map. If a player is saving humans up to win that way, it will become clear after a while when the board begins to lack the warm, fleshy comfort of food.
Every Faction would have similar buildings, as well as one or two unique ones, and there would only be maybe one or two types of units. Hulks, for instance, would have Machine Gunners and Tanks (not what ya'd think), whereas Pussbuckets would have Acid Zombies and Ticktocks (Zombies that explode. Go figure), and the other two Factions would have units of their own.
Don't think of this as being on the same scale as RISK though. The world is a very different place. There are only three small continents, and most combat would be handled by small groups of Zombies, not 'armies' like RISK. There would even be wounded counters which would make your Zombies more susceptible dying.
In the end, I'm aiming for a strategy game that's shorter in length and more creative in side-mechanics and strange tidbits than most other strategy games.
Opinions!? I couldn't resist posting this when I thought of it.
