Hi, I haven't posted much on my own work as most is in the state of just needing more heads down time on testing and refinement. However, I'm going to have some free time coming up and am adding a new game idea to my mix.
I've recently played a few newer games with a mechanic combination I love: Deck Builder + Board movement. These are: Tyrants of the Underdark (a few months ago), Clank! (last Wednesday), and Path of Shadow and Light (Monday.)
I think these play together really well and would fit nicely into an intersection of two areas I've been on and off working with:
character developer and a cyberpunk experience. The character developer game was originally envisioned as the concept of a writer creating interesting characters and plot and working towards publishing a book. It had board movement and card purchasing to build out sets that defined story elements.
Cyberpunk is just an area I feel is underdeveloped and board games I've examined or played have not achieved what I'm looking for. A friend who is even more of an afficiendo of modern board games thinks there isn't enough out there and certainly a ton of untapped gameplay.
The basic concept I'm seeing is that the noob pre-runner is moving through a sprawl, accumulating credits and reputation. This part would be conceptually worker placement (possibly with move paths and access restrictions) and board spaces themselves give bonuses for recruiting cards (not something I've seen.) An example would be a wetware shop, you could place on the "assistant" space with bonus creds and allows access to skill cards with a wetware symbol, or you could place on the "customer" space and buy implants.
Another space might be an experimental wetware shop that requires a certain amount of rep to enter and allows purchasing implant upgrades or such; it provides a bonus wetware symbol and a bonus new tech symbol.
I'm picturing the game in two phases where the first phase is building the deck. One aspect could be to promote cards to permanent character features and thus the character is defined and the deck is the actions available. When there is enough reputation to transition to the second phase, the character(s) would go on a run or multiple runs to win.
Thought I'd share this as it is still pretty fresh, popped into my head halfway through watching a review of "Clank! in Space"
Well running is two kinds of things in a cyberpunk universe. One is the Netrunner type of going into the matrix; the other is a physical caper of the TV Mission Impossible type. It's the physcial sort that I'm planning. But a player could pursue the character path of decker/hacker/net runner who supports the strong arm/stealth folks.
Typical of capers, you are assembling a team and finishing a mission likely of a tactical movement sort. I think I'm leaning towards cooperative and a single team. It could be semi co op, where the players stand around after the mission to see who has the biggest reputation.
The bit I need to nail down first is the deck building empowered by the board. From there, it is going to be a question of time balance and how well cards can handle multiple identities. If that part feels fun, then running could be non-tactical and integrated into the gameplay.