Theme park-themed TCG (!?!?!?)

I've never played Magic or any other collectible/trading card game (CCG/TCG).  However, I recently visited a well-known amusement park and had the idea that the park could provide a good context for a CCG to be played by attendees during their visit, with the following motivations:


- You have to wait in line a lot.  What if there was a quick game you could play to spend some of that time?


- An app is the obvious thing here, but people spend way too much time on their phones already.  A tactile experience could offer something more interpersonal and fun than yet another screen-based experience.


- Moreover, people from all over the world are at the park.  It might be neat to be given the opportunity to meet a couple of these people.  It's awkward to strike up a conversation with strangers but perhaps playing a short game with them creates a context for a brief social interaction.  Maybe the game comes with a lanyard, so you know who the potential players of the game are if they're carrying the lanyard.


- The park's variety of attractions, and their associated gift shops, provide an obvious CCG tie-in -- each gift shop could sell booster-packs that are specifically associated with that attraction.


Ok, so this provides a possible motivation.  What constraints do these set on the game itself?


1.  It must be quick.  A minute or so, maybe 2 minutes tops.


2.  It must be simple.  People who buy the starter kit have to be able to learn the game quickly, maybe while waiting in line for their first attraction.  The gameplay has to be easy so that non-gamers can easily pick it up.


3.  It must be language independent.  That creates a problem for the rules document, but the game itself can't have text-based effects.  Numbers and icons only, and the icon language has to be very simple.


4.  It must be playable without a table.  This is the hard one. 


5.  It would be nice if it could have some skill, or decisions, or deck-building.  If you are supposed to acquire cards from different attractions, it would be nice if these offer something other than variety.


My first idea is to emulate something like one of my favorite childhood games, Slapshot.  This is a hockey manager game where you draft player cards, and then play "games" against opponents in a simple fashion:  you arrange your six players in order, then reveal one card at a time, simultaneously.  If your number is higher than theirs, you get a goal.  Most goals wins the game.  Winning the most games wins you the season.  It's simple and fun, and there's some doublethink involved in arranging your cards based on what you know the other person has.


Something like this meets all of the above criteria reasonably well.  Maybe it's that we're going to play five cards and compare their numbers, and whichever of us plays the higher number 'wins' that point, first to three points wins the match.  But this doesn't have much depth or promote much deck-building.  Thus a better deck always wins and that's boring.


So, perhaps we add in a couple of simple combo effects.  One could be that each card has one or several icons, and maybe icons from previous cards you played 'buff' the current card if it shares that icon, perhaps if they're all in a chain.  Another could be that some cards have a 'react' power, which can be played straight out of your hand after both players have revealed their number card (or maybe it's that a previously-played card's 'react' power can be triggered at any time).  Again, simplicity is key so there are only a couple of powers and they're extremely simple:  something like "remove the opponent's card from play", "block the opponent's card (i.e. cancel its number)", or "steal all matching icons from your opponent and apply them to your own card", all simple things that can be communicated with an icon.


With simple rules like these, you can achieve the kinds of things one wants from a game like this.  Namely, you want some multi-card synergies, and the ability to construct decks that potentially work together.  But you also want this to be somewhat fragile, such that your deck can't just be on autopilot every play.  You want every card to be potentially useful in the right situation or deck, and you want some of the combos to be emergent; i.e. you want there to be room for some player creativity in putting together interesting decks.


And most importantly there are in-game decisions to be made.  Maybe you get your icon-heavy cards out early so they can boost the later cards, but they may themselves lose points.  Maybe your best 'react' abilities are on cards that are also high number cards, so do you play them for their number or hold back for their react ability?  Or if instead it's that previously-played cards' react powers are actionable, it's the same consideration as with the icons -- do you get those react powers down early to put the other player on edge?  This, relatedly, may shake up your own play -- maybe you were going to play a run of three "magic wand icon" cards, but your opponent's second play was an icon stealer, so maybe you have to go in a different direction.


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It's hard to imagine how to get a theme park to buy in to this concept or to even get them to hear the pitch, but as a thought experiment it's interesting.  So instead, maybe this is a tabletop game that simulates the experience of going to a theme park, acquiring cards, and playing matches against opponents along the way, such that each 'win' you achieve  is a point and you win the overall game by winning X matches.  Maybe there's an added 'time' economy whereby each attraction has a certain time cost associated with it, such that getting the attractions with better 'booster' packs eats up more time.  Or maybe each area has cards on display and they can be drafted with the Vinci "draft cost" construct.  Perhaps just walking around the park eats up time as well, so criss-crossing the park to get the best cards would be time consuming.


Actually, this table-top game sounds like a mix of two of my favorite childhood games, the aforementioned Slapshot and Fun City.  Hmm...