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The resource track in Power Grid leads to some interesting decisions. If you haven't played it, the resource track has costs increasing left-to-right while the resources are replenished from right-to-left. This has a few interesting effects: Resources in demand tend to cost more. You can get resources on the cheap if you have a power plant type no one ...

When trying to make something new, it is not a bad idea to see what award winning games have already done. You may wish to see the game Dixit (Spiel Des Jahres 2010) which has a simple system to let 2 to 4 players simultaneously choose between 3 and 5 options. The 2 option variant is Oltarus's method. Dixit also has wonderful artwork. The expansion Dixit ...

I feel that most board games favour clearer rulebooks over short sentences, so they'll often tell you the number to deal based on the number of players. If you prefer a shorter sentence: Shuffle and deal out all the cards evenly amongst the players. Set aside any leftover cards - all players should have the same amount. If you wanted to go with ...

Fundamentally, the OGL exists to (1) allow D&D 3.0 supplements to be made by 3rd parties and (2) to ensure the 3.0 Dev Team could take their mechanics with them if they got fired. (1) can be seen in the explosion of material in 2000-2002.(2) can be seen clearly in Pathfinder and Arcana Unearthed. While mechanics can't be copyrighted, and the US Patent ...

If the choices are always the same (Always YES/NO, for example), the simpliest ways to do that are the following: Each players has two cards, one saying YES, the other one saying NO (Or whatever choice you have). They make choices by playing a card face down and revealing them all at once. Each player has a coin of some sort that can be placed in one's ...

The standard methods: Cards - don't worry about scratches - many serious players sleeve cards these days. It's the most familiar choice. And if the cards are business card sized, they can be hidden in hand or under a hand on the table. Spinners - not used all that often, however, the mold marks on the back of the spinner may be visible if using the ...

Attributes that I use to evaluate games: Replay value (Over time how much do you enjoy it) Randomness (how much it's out of your hand) Learning curve What kind of skill does it require (strategy, resource management, deductions, spatial orientation, etc) Time required to set it up Expected time to have a game Time-ness (is it per turn? all at the same ...

I thoroughly enjoy games that force players to interact with each other. If players have to directly interact with each other in order to advance in the game, I find that rather fun. It lets you get to know your friends better, and encourages them to talk. I enjoy resource trading in games likes Settlers of Catan immensely. While there are only a few ...

Oh! I was thinking about this for a while, and couldn't come up with many good games; I can't believe I missed the family of Icehouse games Zarcana, Gnostica, and Zark City. Zarcana was, I believe, the second game ever designed with Icehouse pieces (or at least one of the very early ones after Icehouse itself). It is played with an Icehouse stash per person ...

I particularly like the strategy cards from Twilight Imperium. At the beginning of a round, everyone chooses a strategy card that gives each player a different special ability for that round. On your turn, one of your options is to activate your special ability. Most cards also come with a secondary ability that the other players can execute at that time. ...

This is meant as a response to Chad, but the comment field wouldn't hold it all: @Chad I am not a lawyer, but I have done a bit of reading on copyright and this does not seem right to me. It would be hard (not impossible) to patent a traditional board game, though some modern ones can involve some patented technology. While it is strictly true that game ...

I'd recommend using a coin or a single card. They would both work the same - the player chooses a side and lays it on the table, facing up. Since there is only one card, you don't have to worry about them being recognizable by scratches. (Which, at its essence, is a mostly negligible problem.) A similar system for multiple choices would be using a die. The ...

Some random additional axes: Theme Aesthetics Quality of construction/bits Shape of the luck/skill curve Accessibility Concrete vs. Abstract Time/difficulty to master Coop vs competitive Experience/immersion factor Cost Expandability Customizability/variations Compactness for travel Table-space required for play Number of players Age level suitability ...

I might recommend Carcassonne - it has a slightly different take on builder placement, while relying primarily on tile placement. The game board itself will be different every time, as you're drawing and placing random tiles every turn. Play itself goes quickly after your first playthrough, and there are several different strategies toward victory. With ...

I like the way Tigris and Euphrates allows a user to sabotage someone's game plan. In games like Brass, I have been in situations where a player has built a link that has blocked me off from building, due to the way coal must be shipped to the location. Therefore, If I was able to blow up the rail link, and build over it, I think this would add an extra ...

Carcassonne is a tile laying game where each player contributes to the same board while placing tokens to control different zones. Farms Cities Roads Cloisters It is very easy to learn and there are a plethora of expansions that add a huge variety of different mechanics if you wish to make the game more challenging.

Sim City the Card Game: the cards form a city grid. Phil Foglio's The Works card game: it forms a network of sorts; it's also not a great game. Carcassonne (already mentioned by others) creates a network of interlocking features; most of the related games likewise require continuing a given feature across boundaries. one owns features on the map, said ...

I would suggest Mansions of Madness. With one change to the rules. The rules currently have the keeper draw threat for the number of investigators that started the game. This would have to be modified to be the number of players currently playing the game instead of investigators. This way the threat accumulation would be accurate to the amount of players. ...

Trajan has you playing a round of Mancala each turn to decide what action you take, with bonuses for accumulating the correct colored pieces in certain locations.

Another family of games, that do involve constructing a network but in a slightly different way, would be Fresh Fish and Alien City (BGG). I haven't played Fresh Fish, so I won't try to describe it, but Alien City has been described as an adaptation of it, as they share some of the same basic mechanics. In Alien City, a game played with a Piecpack set and ...