GD: Board Game Brainstorming Part 2: Theme

So now that we have an idea, we have to solidify it and bring it all together with a theme.

So what kind of theme should we have?

If we're choosing the archaeological excavation board game, then the theme should be pretty simple: archaeology. But that by itself isn't that interesting, isn't it? (well, ok, it's interesting to me. But we have to make it interesting to a lot of people!) So what about archaeology and breaking into an archaeological dig site is interesting?

Let's ask Steven Spielberg.

Heck, let's just make an Indiana Jones board game and get it over with! Sneaking into temples, trouncing evil Nazis, "that thing belongs in a museum," and getting the girl, well, what else could you want from an archaeology-themed game? It's got thrills, chills, and morally depraved opponents, so it should make the perfect game for anyone.
But that's still not enough! Indiana Jones is just one person, and this game needs to be multiplayer. There isn't room enough for more than one Indie in the world, let alone a small board. But what if this was a game of egos, pitting presumed Indie against presumed Indie? A lot of temple-robbing, tomb-scavenging films feature other treasure hunters acting as opposing forces to the main fellow, so why not integrate this into our game? Each player starts off thinking they're the swashbuckling protagonist and everyone else doesn't deserve the fame and glory of rescuing priceless items from the hands of the enemy, and acts accordingly.

So, for a concept statement, how about this?

In this game of tombs and temples, grab fame and glory for yourself whilst sabotaging your opponents!

Or, better yet,

Your personal progression is sped up by hampering others'.

I want to make this an extremely competitive game, with lots of opportunities for sabotage and outright confrontation. A lot of the mechanics will serve to send your opponents back, or stop them in their tracks, or even make them lose their place entirely! The board itself should have room for adaptation and change as each card is played, and the layout should be reasonably mutable to suit the player's whims. There should be a combat mechanic and serious consequences to losing. All in all, this game should be annoying as all get out, and super cathartic if you don't like the person you're playing against.

Let's get a feel for the aesthetics theme as well. The best place to start is with your traditional pulp-fiction-y movie posters. Take these, for instance:

Can you see a general visual theme?  There's a lot of papery, old textures that reference the posters of 1930s treasure hunter films. The fonts are, for the most part, bombastic and overly dramatic to emphasize the romantic nature of treasure hunting. The colour scheme is a whole lot of warm, dusty tones to bring to mind exotic places with hidden reliquaries and deadly temples.
This carries on into the films themselves, which primarially have a lot of earthy tones.

We can solidify our archaeological theme by mimicking these colour schemes. A particular theme that works could be this: