If you do decide to start a startup we'd be happy to hear from you (http://news.ycombinator.com/apply).
"you can often do dramatically new things by making comparatively small tweaks to existing stuff."
Interesting now that you've mentioned that with respect to boardgames. That kind of thinking really worked for Fantasy Flight Games who took a simple gaming mechanic they developed for one game and replicated it for many subsequent products and all of these games are always entertaining.
They now do lots of licensing deals to make boardgames out of some very hot brands, some of which are quite entertaining.
Also from: http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html
27. Hardware/software hybrids. Most hackers find hardware projects alarming. You have to deal with messy, expensive physical stuff. But Meraki shows what you can do if you're willing to venture even a little way into hardware. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit in hardware; you can often do dramatically new things by making comparatively small tweaks to existing stuff.