Division of Labor v2.4 -- By Jove, I think I've got it!

 I've given this game a few tests, and made some tweaks each time, and finally have decided to add it to my pitch list. Which means I think it's "done" enough to pitch, even if I think small improvements could still be made - in this case mostly to do with thematic consonance.

Rather than paste the entire rulebook (v2.4 5-24-24) here, I'll link it, and provide a layman's summary below.

In Division of Labor, players are officers in some entity that is exploring and developing a new area - currently we're talking about a new, uninhabited planet, but perhaps it could be a newly discovered island, or some other (uninhabited) area. I'm not trying to model colonialism here!

EDIT TO ADD: maybe a better theme is this...

You and your siblings are heirs to a newspaper magnate. It may have made your father rich, but in this day and age, print media is out, and the newspaper is failing! If you are to salvage your father's legacy, you'll need to revamp the whole operation and bring it into the modern era. Which one of you will build your father's old newspaper business into a media empire?

EDIT AGAIN ON 6/14 TO ADD: I liked the novelty of the media empire theme briefly, but quickly grew tired of it. I'm working with this for the time being...

Lead a tribe of voyagers, sailing the seas with other tribes and discovering new islands everywhere you roam to explore, develop, and inhabit!

In any case, each round you reveal a new "Island," which is a worker placement space with 2 slots: one labeled "Choose" and the other labeled "Split." At the beginning of each round, you draw a random assortment of action cubes for each Island, and then players take turns placing workers. The first player to place in a space takes the "Choose" slot, while the 2nd takes the "Split" slot - immediately splitting the action cubes into 2 piles. 

Once all workers have been placed, you'll resolve the Islands from left to right - at each one, the player in the Choose slot will choose one of the available piles and use it for their turn, and the player in the Split slot will use the remaining pile for their turn. On your turn you'll do up to 2 actions based on the colors of cubes available to you, the more cubes of that color, the better.

After resolving your turn, you must advance "penalty" tracks in each color -- one advance on each track that had any cubes present in your pile, whether you used them or not. If you get too far along a penalty track, you'll suffer a penalty: that action becomes 1 cube more expensive for you. You can overcome this penalty by gaining an action cube via a certain action and placing it on your player board, covering that penalty. Those cubes can be kept for endgame points, or spent to boost future actions if you're short the cubes you need.

You keep doing that for about 5 rounds, then you count up your score. Things that are worth points are:

1. Cubes on your board (covering penalties) are worth 1 point each
2. Buildings in play are worth 1 point each (note that a higher level building can be built over the top of a lower level building of the same type -- yours or an opponent's! So if your building gets built over, it doesn't score a point anymore). Each level 3 building also has a bonus scoring condition that can be worth a chunk of points
3. Things you collect score - there are 5 icons, and you score the [number of different icons you have] x [the number of any single icon you have] (so it's good to get lots of one icon, and 1 each of the others). [EDIT: either this multiplicative scoring, or just a triangular score for different icons] There's also a 1-point majority bonus for ech icon (friendly ties)
4. There's a Training/Research track, and you advance a training marker and an Research marker on it. The training marker is not worth points (it can unlock a new worker though), but it makes way for the Research marker, which is only worth points (the Research marker cannot move past the Training marker)
5. Finally, there is a point penalty for being too high on each of the penalty tracks

And that's it, most points wins!