The setting of a game matters quite a bit, even though it doesn't actually affect the moves to make. I've been thinking for a while about the idea of recasting or porting a game to a different theme. For example, race for the galaxy is very similar to puerto rico, but in space. Julia and I have noticed that she likes agrarian themed games much more than similar industrial or business games: she likes settlers of catan, carcassone, and agricola, but does not like race for the galaxy, modern art, or power grid. I like power grid, and I would like to play it with her, so perhaps it should become agrarian.

I think power grid converts well to agriculture; cities need food as well as power. The goal is to change only the names of things, with everything else staying the same. So you have the conversions:

• The map, cities, and connection costs stay the same
• Power plants become farms
• The board is redrawn to reflect the new theme

What I'm not sure about is what to do with fuels. I understand the idea that as the game goes on farms get larger and more efficient, and the availability of something changes. But there need to be five types of farm with different requirements [1]. These could be inputs (water, labor, seed, tractors), but then it's tricky to see how each farm can require only one type. Maybe farms are monocultures? And the inputs are seeds? So you have:

• coal becomes corn
• oil becomes wheat
• garbage becomes potatoes
• nuclear becomes quinoa
• wind becomes ?

I'm not sure what to do with wind. What crop is there that doesn't need seeds? Or maybe they should be different types of farm:

• coal becomes grain
• oil becomes dairy
• garbage becomes meat
• nuclear beomes vegetables
• wind becomes fruit (fruit trees are perennials)

Other ideas?

[1] coal, oil, garbage, wind, and nuclear, plus coal/oil flex-fuel