Here's my idea based on the idea of dwarf fortress + boardgame.
Make it have the "dug too deep" ending.
Group of players compete with each other mining/building a fortress (maybe the setting is that they're groups/guilds of dwarves within one fortress that are competing with each other). So each player has an incentive to continue digging deeper, but the more that is dug out, the greater chance to release demons. Whoever is the one to pierce the gates of Hell loses and then the game ends and the richest of the remaining players wins. So it's like a game of chicken, and players will try to be the greediest/most profitable group of dwarves while avoiding being the one to dig too deep. Maybe have an aspect of economic development, so you can stop mining and just sit there refining ores and smithing if you're already very profitable. Rich players will have an incentive to keep the game going longer in order to use their advantage, while the disadvantaged players will want to keep mining adamantine, potentially regaining the advantage or losing completely.
I can imagine it'd be pretty fun, since a suicidal player who has no hope might choose when to continue digging in order to spite another player that messed them up earlier. Like, player 1 just needs 3 more turns to make more profit than player 2, but player 3 hates player 1 for stealing his gold or whatever, so he intentionally tries to dig to hell in order to let player 2 win.
Of course you'd need to include various events/cards that players pick up that can mimic the pandemonium of a fortress falling into ruin in ridiculous ways.
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Topic: Do we want a board game? (Read 3173 times)