Latest game idea, card-based. Each player is a candidate in an election. The game is the campaign period before the election. The winner is the one with the most ‘votes’ (highest score). My goal is to create a humorous, somewhat realistic if cynical simulation of an election without being too biting or satirical of any given real election or candidate. By the end of the game, due to various cards, you’ll have a point balance and a modifier (i.e. add 1d6, 1d8, 2d6 to your balance to imitate the fickleness of the public - even if you think you’ve locked up the election, you might not have). Everyone starts with a score of zero.
Various cards you play on yourself and others. One of them would be the incumbent, he’d start off with a big plus, but there are numerous cards in the deck good and bad that affect the incumbent (or only can affect a challenger). Some potential cards (cards have a name and description and a modifier, followed by a duration….some events only sway the public for so long. If the game ends before the player has taken that many more turns, it counts, otherwise it is gone):
Incumbent: +20
Tragedy: The candidate has lost a loved one (to make this a bit more light-hearted, it could be ‘the challenger’s dearly beloved kitten Whiskers passed away’), public sentiment gives +10 (4 turns)
Scandal: (various humorous stories and pictures) -10 (4 turns), then -5 (2 turns)
War: (affects incumbent only) +10 for 3 turns, -5 for 3 turns (as war goes on too long)
Great photo op: (kissing a baby, etc.) +5 for 2 turns
Should the candidates have war chests? Cards could drive it up and bring it down, higher $$ could translate to more votes (maybe more dice rolls at the end?)
$1000/plate dinner: +$3 (in hundreds of thousands) every $10 gives +1d6
Advertising blitz: costs $10, +10 for 3 turns
What would make the game end? A fixed length? (20 turns?) How make it easy to keep track of when expiring cards should go away, a turn board with chits (i.e. put a red chit with #7 on it on your tragedy card on turn 4, on turn 8 on the turn board put another #7 red chit). Hmm. So far as I write this not liking the turns, in reality everything affecting the candidates is only temporary, but it makes it too complex I think.