Brainstorming: Theme

"Sell or be sold."

Now that I've gotten initial ideas out of the way, it's time to focus on the general theme and concept of what I want in my game.

It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and in order to survive, you have to be able to take out your competition.  In this not yet named game, players assume the guises of black market organ traders attempting to reach the top of their trade, either by upgrading their "services," stealing from the competition, or both.    To extend the above theme:

"The black market organ game where players struggle their way to supremacy."

or

"The game where all is fair in war and organ trading." 

If you haven't guessed by now, there really isn't a lot of entertainment material out about the organ trade (and for good reason--it's bad and shouldn't be made fun of.  Except by me.)  The only examples I can find are references for tone and how I want my game to feel--which, for me, is just as important.

What?  Uno?  What does that have to do with a game about organ trading?

Uno, as well as games like Capitalism (President, Scum, etc.) and Fluxx are fast-paced and highly competitive.  They can be over in a flash and provide players with ample opportunities to screw each other over.  A lot of games (Uno especially) end up with multiple players ganging up on one player to mess up their end game, then turn on each other until a winner finally emerges.  I feel like this kind of strategy is what I want in my game, and reflects the overall theme.


Humour-wise, I'm looking at this game:

Or, it's more 18+ variety:

The humour in these games is sharp and to the point.  You feel bad for laughing (more so in Cards Against Humanity, in my experience), but you laugh anyway.  I'm not going to pretend like I'm not making fun of a serious situation.  My hope is to make you laugh anyway.

Colour-wise, I'm looking for a general tetrad scheme for the organ cards, with the coolest colour worth the lowest amount of points and the warmest the highest (this is so the player can differentiate at a glance).  

For special achievements and event cards, my plan is to go with a simple black + white scheme, to keep them separate from the ranking point cards.