Player each have a variety of unrelated powers known initially only to them. All the players are competing to achieve some goal on a board where position matters. Player may reveal their powers to use them, but any unrevealed powers give extra VPs at the end of the game, putting players on the horns of a dilemma – use the powers to perform better, or save them and get more VPs?. The powers could also be used only used a certain number of times (like genie wishes) – the power is worth a certain number of points if it is unused, but is then worth less each time the power is invoked. Given enough powers, the players could have emergent gameplay as certain powers combine together to give strange results.
Each player is dealt a hidden hand of variable player powers. Each power is worth a certain number of Victory Points at the end of the game, or perhaps at various mid-game scoring rounds, but only if that power has not been invoked. Players may invoke their powers at any point, but at the cost of losing VP later on.
Given enough powers, there could be some really fun combinations. Even grossly unbalanced combinations can be fun if the game is light-hearted and fast-paced enough to move past those rare exceptions.
This system needs to work in conjunction with some other mechanisms in order to generate enough game depth for bunches of powers. Perhaps the players are trying to positions teams of meeples on board, and the powers relate to the meeples’ strength/defenses, or to their movement speed, or to their ability to extract bonus VP from certain terrains each turn.
Player power could be aimed directly at each other as well. The most obvious powers would be “discard a single enemy power”, but you could also have a steal or trade power in their as well. To constrict player’s power, maybe you can normally only have 3 powers in play at once; unwanted older powers must be discarded for no VP once they are replaced by newer ones.
Hook:Do I keep this powerful ability in my hand for extra VP at the end of the game, or do I use it now in the hopes of gaining more convention VP over the course of the game?
A variant on this might be a game where players each start out as an average Joe. Each turn, players gain a random power. They are limited to 3 powers at a time, so they must decide then and there which powers to keep and which to discard. Some powers are very useful in the larger game but are worth no endgame VP. Other powers have a weak passive effect (or none at all) while granting a large number of endgame VP.
Hook:I just acquired a high VP card of low utility – do I keep it for more points at the end of the game even though it has a relatively high opportunity cost?