Looking to the Stars for Inspiration

First, a confession: I forgot my game idea. I remembered it was a good one, so I came back to this very blog, and reading my posts sparked inspiration for a new round of ideas.

Been thinking about Race for the Galaxy and how they didn't introduce combat rules until the 3rd expansion. I hear it's a bad mechanic, but I like the idea of having a game in which you build your engine toward your goal without someone else tearing it down, though they can obstruct your way as they build their own.

To this end I have been looking at the Star Wars universe as my main source of inspiration, and chewing on whether there is enough in if I remove all the combat.
Political intrigue, trading via legal and illegal means, bounty hunters, and more go along in the background, so I think there is something to work with.

I've also been thinking of some of the 4X video games I've played, such as Master of Orion and Civilization and looking for ideas - possible victory conditions in particular.

As I was typing this, I actually thought to look some things up, and an idea sparked - what if instead of playing a supreme leader type of role players took the role of some sort of galactic criminal. Like Firefly, I guess? (Not a huge fan of the series.)

Snake Oil

My roll and move game has a snake oil salesmen theme to it.

The basic premise involves moving around a track and choosing the action that would be most beneficial for you while being careful not to help your opponents even more.

After rolling and moving your pawn, you may choose an action, perhaps from a limited set according to location, and receive a bonus for it, which your opponents can then follow (to help eliminate down time, one of the problems of classic roll and move.)

These actions may include collecting ingredients, brewing concoctions, improving potions and equipment for a variety of bonuses and combos, and selling your product for gold and reputation.

Worker Placement Deck Builder - Now With Auction!

Last couple of weeks have been a little stale as far as my thoughts go on games. Probably the recent job, new classes and with playing Burnout 3 on the PS2.
A game night and some Dice Tower videos have made me think board games again, with some new possibilities on my deck builder - an auction mechanic.

This may not be exactly compatible with previous iterations on the idea - trying to incorporate too many elements for a diluted experience, but it might be worth looking into.

What I am imagining specifically is players building a deck of various resources (wood to lumber, seashells to beads, whatever) and cards enabling them to make these various resources. As each turn passes, a travelling merchant piece is moved forward. When it reaches a predetermined spot (perhaps aided or hindered by certain player actions) a number of new options are put up for auction. Players will then use the resources they collected until that point to bid. While they will gain various improvements to the way they play their deck, or to final scoring, they will bid on what they had earned so far, thinning out their deck of the resources  they still need to continue playing, thus needed to find the right balance.

This auction will occur several times throughout the game until final scoring.