A game where every play you make helps something, or a few things, but always hurts something else.

It'd basically be a game where you always have a few objectives going at once, and you can help some while hurting others of yours.

I'm thinking perhaps you have two red tokens and two green tokens.

Then, there is a shared board with types of materials and amounts. Each player puts one token down each turn onto an unoccupied space. One of each colour goes on an amount, and one goes on a material. Once every player has played all of their tokens, the green item goes up by the green amount, and the red item goes down by the red amount.

So, you can pick an amount first, but you might not be able to get the material you want. You can pick the material you want, but you might not be able to pick the amount you need.

Then, you can pick the one to go up first, but then get jammed into the one you don't want going down, or vice versa.

I'm thinking each player has some total amount of points, and also has goals.

• Simple goals are "Element A: 20-30 points"
• More complicated goals are "Element B: 24 points"
• Even harder are "Element C: 20-25 points, Element D: 18-20 points"

The harder goals are worth more at the end.

You can satisfy multiple goals on a turn. Your goals are secret until you finish them. So, you're all trying to adjust your totals around so that you can fill your goals. But, because of scarsity, you can end up with your totals going way off if you're not careful. You might focus on getting A to 25, but that accidentally drops your B to 3 because you had to sacrifice it and take a bad value.

I'm thinking there should also be a yellow token and player order slots. On one of your turns you also need to claim a position in the turn order.

That means that someone can sacrifice one of their turns early to make sure they get the first turn next time. If you instead grab materials or values first, then your turn order is mostly decided by others.

I feel like it's very important for there to be scarcity. The last person to choose something should have basically no choice.

I'm thinking that each player always has some number of active goals, like 3, and when one is completed they get two more and can choose to keep one and must discard the other. More generally, if a player finishes N on a turn, they draw 2N and discard N. So, if you finish 1 on this turn, you get 2 and discard the one you don't want. If you finish all 3 in one turn, though, you can draw 6 and keep any 3 you like, and discard any 3 you don't. That is superior, as it gives you more choice.

The game ends when someone completes some number of goals.

Scaling the game involves more amounts and material cards.