I've been playing games more frequently of late, and my two favourite genres are worker placement and deck builder. So of course I come up with ideas in that 'genre'.
Board Game Ideas List:
Herbs and potions
The Idea is, to have a herbal gatherer, either by worker placement or by card draws, gather herbs. You then use some kind of tools to change the herbs from their raw form into a more accessible form, then you combine them into potions that you can sell on the market, to afford more to upgrade and to create the final 'prize' which ends the game.
My Initial thoughts were pure deck builder, where playing of certain cards allow you to draw from certain decks: Play a sickle and draw a card from the herb deck (or maybe one of many herb decks), play a backpack to allow you to draw more or hold more.
i.e.
sickle: draw 2 cards from the herb deck. You may keep 1 + any number of storage items.
satchel: you may store 1 extra dry ingredient.
vial:: you may store 1 extra wet ingredient.
bottle: you may store 2 extra wet ingredient of the same type.
pouch: you may store 1 extra dry or moist ingrediatnt
Once you've got some ingrediants, you might draw them in your next hand, and you can play them with their relevant tools, such as pestle and mortar to grind into powdered form,
Once you've drawn the powdered form, you can attempt to create potions, by combining the ingrediants, drawing random effects cards, and doing some quick calculations to see what kind of potion it is.
i.e.
Dandelion seeds, ground into 'sage powder' which has +2 rest, but +1 stomach ache.
Pig snout root, ground into 'concoction sap' which has +2 healing but +2 stomach ache.
Frogs Legs, boiled into 'slimy soup' which has -3 stomach ache, but -1 comfort.
and
Rosemary Leaves, ground into 'herbal rememdy' which has '-1 any'
combined, this would result in +2 rest, +2 heal. Which consulting a chart = a 40 gold potion.
You'd use the 40 gold to buy an upgraded sickle, maybe a apothacary kit, and a +1 satchel, so in future turns you could get 5-7 ingrediants in a turn.
Once you can get as high as 10 ingediants, you'd be able to make the famed "Healers Broth" which is needed for the Kings sick son. It needs 10 ingrediants, and they need to heal +5. Or some game setup sickness which lists a preset number of ailments all to be cured by the potion.
Possible, doesn't need to be 1 potion, but does need to heal the child in one turn.
The King Awards 500 gold to the player who heals their child, and players can add up their gold & wealth to determine who actually won.
The Castle
Akin to Stone Age, you place workers in regions to gather resources, but, with some complexity.
Soldier meeples, will 'move away' enemy meeples, on resolution. i.e. blue places 4 peasants in the stone mines, red places 2 peasants and 1 soldier. the soldier moves 2 of blue away from the mines.
Players can't just breed, they also need houses, you start with 5 thatch houses, which can house 1 meeple. you can upgrade to other forms of houses that can cope with more meeples.
You also need to breed animals for food for happiness, else, instead of negative points, the meeples don't come out of their house.
So you could try to build some places which help happiness,
At the same time, you have tech trees to invent better things, improve the number of resources that come out. i.e. SWORD All soldiers are worth 1 extra point, but its done on a turn by turn basis to improve your deck. put meeples into the 'science places' to draw cards, to add to your deck. but also those cards can improve other cards.
Stone age has 'tech' cards, but you only get them, you don't use them, the game is a static move of choices. but by adding the 'randomness' of your deck, as to 'improve' your actions, you get a sway of the strategic 'worker placement' and the random effect of 'deck builder'
