Designing a Cult Solo Game, Part 1: Planning the Beginning

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

I like solo rpgs, as one can tell by reading this blog, and I think it’s about time I try to turn my hand to making one. 

The perfect excuse just came up.  Solovember 2026.  This is a game jam celebrating solo table top rpgs in the month of November. It is hosted by Sero, co-founder and creator of the Solo RPG List. 

I’ll be participating, and this blog post is the first in a series of my thoughts on creating a solo game about starting and managing a cult until a horrible Something is forcibly brought into the modern world. Fun, fun, fun!

The Thinker, Musee Rodin

Thoughts on Starting

“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.” – Frank Herbert, Dune 1965

I’ve never made a solo game before. I’ve played several. I have a handful of ideas and a general theme to go with. 

But that’s not all. Whenever starting a new project where I technically don’t know what I’m doing, I look towards models of other successful projects and the people who made them. 

So, let’s get into some game design inspirations.  

Anna Blackwell aka BlackwellWriter, of Blackwell Games, really needs no introduction in the solo rpg world as they are the author of many solo games including the very successful journaling game Apothecaria.

They wrote a really interesting blog post a couple months back titled “How I Make A Game”.  It is a very encouraging piece of work that lays out a good structure (in my view) on how to approach making a game, solo or not. Like a man floundering in an ocean, I’ll cling to this life raft. 

One of the points that I am taking away from this blog post is the line, “I recommend creating a skeleton of what you think you’ll need to do. Work out what your most important mechanics are and build those.” So, I’m going to do that.

The second blog post that really struck me and I’ve been rolling over in my mind for a bit is titled “TTRPGs Are Games, Not Improv Theater” by Dawnfist Games.

When it comes to solo games, I see them as a spectrum. This spectrum ranges on one extreme to solo games that are mostly writing prompts for journaling, to the other side of the spectrum where solo games are mechanistically defined procedures.  I want my cult management game to be mechanistically heavy with journaling options; but primarily a game where decisions are adjudicated by rolling on a table, or for some challenge, and then determining a result based on that roll. 

Dawnfist Games’ blog post is sort of a defense and explanation of how mechanisms in games can generate fun. I really like this blog post and I’ve come up with three main quotes from it that I will focus on while designing my game. 

The first quote is “Outcomes Must be Dictated by Mechanics.” Now that statement is a header from a section of the blog rather than a quote, but it’s succinct and encapsulates what I want to do.

Quote number two is, “I don’t play solo TTRPGs to relive my own already imagined ideas. I want to be surprised. I want to be forced to react to things I hadn’t planned for. Clear mechanical consequences are the only things that allow a solo player to experience truly unexpected situations. If we have to invent the friction ourselves, we can’t ever truly be surprised.”

I agree. I want to be surprised by outcomes and labor under unforeseen circumstances when playing my solo game. I want to, by necessity, adapt and shift gears when confronted with events that change the game environment.  There must be a central goal to work towards for the game, but I want the outcome to be in question. 

Quote the third is, “…tracking resources is even more vital in solo play than in group play, because depleting resources force tricky, uncomfortable choices, and that is the foundation of any good story generator.”

YES. I’ve played enough Darkest Dungeon and similar video games to know this to be true. I want the cult management game to start with a singular angst-ridden, perhaps partially unhinged; individual whispered to in the darkness by something from Beyond. I want the game to describe their story as they gather a following, accrue dark resources, and have them threatened by antagonistic powers of the Light; as the cult seeks to bring their patron into the world to overthrow the established order.  

Putting Pencil to Paper; Current Ideas and Initial Game Skeleton

So here are my rough ideas.  

I’ve already established I want a cult management game. 

The flow of the game should be making a single cultist, choosing a supernatural patron, accumulating resources including additional cultists, making decisions on where to allocate those resources, and at the finale seeing if your character/cult has enough resources to achieve endgame which is summoning your patron into the reality of a modern world. 

Gameplay Skeleton 1. Main Gameplay Loop left undefined

Concurrent to this there will be an antagonist system.  This will comprise of two systems, I think. The first is a Doom Tracker, not unlike the one in the Arkham Horror boardgame, where the player has a certain number of increments until their actions are overwhelmed and ended by an antagonistic force.

The second system is some sort of exponentially escalating series of events that drain the cultists of resources and/or forces them into a choice of two permanent negative game state outcomes.  This second system will be tied to the increments in the Doom Tracker (first system).  

I like the idea of the player choosing between two permanent negative events.  Either choice establishes an increasing challenge; but by making it a player choice, the player does not feel completely screwed by the system because they had agency in the decision.  This model has been used in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen and Star Wars Zero Company video games, to great success. 

The setting will be the modern day, or at least as current as the 1990s USA. The supernatural patron will be a choice between a Demon, Vampire, Wraith, or Outsider (i.e. lots of tentacles and eyes for the latter).  For resource I think I’ll go with Faith (an attribute for your cultists characters), Cash (for the cult) and I was considering Blood, but I feel that’s too impersonal. I want the players of my cult game to feel when a decision is meaningful. So, I was thinking of instead of a variable “Blood” that just increments and decrements; I want characters that can be encountered in game that could be titled Thralls, Kin, and Victims. I need to develop this idea further; I’ll come back to it in a future blog post.  Also, the cult should have the variable Power which determines the chance of using magic/causing “miracles” and is also critical for determining whether the endgame can be achieved. 

I’m going with a modern setting with an occult supernatural underground, inspired by White Wolf’s World of Darkness setting. 

A successful game will require the cult to have from 4-5 cultists. Cultists are characters that can be managed. They will have randomized Skills and Traits.  Randomized Skills mean that certain cultists will be useful or capable of certain actions during the main gameplay loop.  Not all cultists will be capable of the same actions. This forces choices for the player. Just as an off the cuff example, a Proselytizing skill could allow a cultist to recruit other cultists.  I am making the maximum number of skills per cultist as four.  Perhaps there will be six to eight skills in total.

Traits are unique benefits or maluses to certain actions or Skills or attributes of the cult.  Traits are randomly generated upon cultist genesis and should very rarely change in the core gameplay loop.  For example, a Trait could be “Silver Tongue” that gives a +1 to making a Proselytizing skill roll.  Traits should only range from -3 to +3 for any value. Traits are intrinsic to a cultist. Traits should be restricted to a maximum of two upon cultist creation.  I’m going to have to come up with a large random table for Traits. 

There is a possibility I was toying with from watching the developer’s Youtube log for the video game CultGame, which is expected to be released in a demo in October on Steam.  In the video game CultGame, there is the option to hire a hireling (which is a non-cultist character) that can execute some actions, for gold.  I’m not sure if I’m going to include this because it might be too complicated in scope for a solo game for now. Also, I want the player of my cult game to feel like they are working with incomplete and broken tools (their cultists) because the people who willing body and soul turn to a supernatural patron for evil … will likely not be fully mentally stable happy campers. That is where a sliver of dark humor comes in. 

Cultists may have Attributes, I’m not sure yet. I might be able to cult that out and just go with Skills and Traits. 

Also, during the main gameplay loop, the core actions cultists will able to take will include: methods to increase their personal Faith, methods to increase the cult’s Power, ability to increase infrastructure to hire more cultists (up to 5), acquiring a Thrall/Kin/Victim for a future nefarious purpose, attempt to use magic/a miracle, and initiate the endgame sequence which is currently undefined. 

Inspirations, Current Appendix N

I want to keep my core group of inspirations small to avoid feature bloat. My cult management game needs to be simple in scope because I will not finish it otherwise.  Including the antagonist’s systems idea is already complicating things, but I think it is necessary to create a failure state and generate escalating tension/challenge as the game progresses. 

Currently I have 5 touchstones. Some I have mentioned in the previous text but I’ll reiterate them here. I’m going to focus on 9 inspirations for this game maximum. Nine is a good number. 

1. Soth: a game of cultists vs investigators by Steve Hickey. TTRPG.
2. CultGame by Bucephalus Studios. Video game. 
3. The Broken Cask by Shoreless Skies Publishing. Solo ttrpg.
4. White Wolf’s World of Darkness setting. TTRPG.
5. Liberal Crime Squad by Tarn Adams. Video game.

Review of Voidling Bound

 

Voidling Bound is a 3D shooter action game that is a wonderful excuse for collecting alien animals, evolving them to unlock traits, and breeding them for the best stats. It is a lot of fun and has a surprising amount of depth. This is an excellent game with some minor caveats. 

The shooting combat is good and feels satisfying. The levels change up their objectives so their layouts don't feel too repetitive, but there is repetition as to the mission objectives and some of the level design.  For example, in one case you will be fighting off waves of enemies to survive in a time limit, and the next side mission will require you to occupy three independent spaces in any order you choose while fighting off more waves of goons.

Voidling Bound is really pretty

At endgame you can sink a lot more time into the roguelike final dungeon, breed your Voidlings (there are NINE species) to achieve genetic apotheosis (there are SIXTEEN unique variants per species), make gene-spliced mega-monsters to break the game over your knee, unlock all the combat traits (Enhancements) of a particular species, and explore for gold eggs/collectables that you missed in previous levels. And there is one more endgame collecting thing I'm not going to go into detail about.

Complete Glick Evolution Tree, one of Nine different species

This is one of those games I want and will buy additional DLC for. Also, the music is good and matches level themes quite well. 

A buddy and I have been playing Voidling Bound independently and here is how we have played the game.  

My buddy found a Golden Kwipeck (Think a Battle-Chicken) from a Gold Egg that had a trait that allows him to get new egg drops from any enemy death at a rate of 3%. He spliced that trait into a New Improved Golden Chicken (Kwipeck) with additional traits so that he could farm resources like mutagens necessary to evolve more Voidlings. Also, he made the spliced Golden Chicken inflict Burn on enemies, and then spliced another trait onto it to heal itself anytime an enemy takes burn damage.

These traits were found from different Voidling evolutionary trees and combined with the Splicing machine.

A Spliced Kwipeck

I followed a different route. I spliced together a Kwipeck that was a circle-strafing dodge tank. I combined the traits that allows a Voidling to move at their max speed while shooting, along with features that gave the Kwipeck the ability to spew out Lightning so that I could cut down robots, who are weak to lightning, at speed. Also, I added a Triple Jump effect to my Lightning Kwipeck and a Glick (think Lizard-Dogs) Trait that gave my Lightning Chicken armor when he landed on the ground.

You can also: have a lighting cat that shoot out homing missiles, a necromancer Gizmo-looking guy that has a damaging ring of bones, a crocodile-dog throw no-shit black holes, a turtle-gorilla that sprays down a carpet of fungus to poison enemies, and a hovering metroid-like Voidling send enemies floating into the air to then punish them with gravity. The list goes on.

A Spliced Glick

Now some critiques.  I’ve mentioned there is some repetition in mission design in the combat arenas with waves of enemies.  Also, the main quest is relatively short (about 15 hours), but it ends on a satisfying note and that unlocks the roguelike endgame dungeon to conquer.  

The Voidling management system could use some quality-of-life features though. For example, being able to lock a Voidling to prevent accidently releasing them into the wild would be very useful.  Also, you should be able to favorite a Voidling and name each Sanctuary box you have for organizational purposes when you start heavily breeding your pets. 

A Spliced cryo focused Glick built for survival

I'm pretty happy with Voidling Bound and I want to see DLC. 

Voidling Bound is $25 and is available on Steam. 

Things on my Radar

 It’s been a while.  Here are a list of games and authors that I am either actively reading or actively pursuing.  I do not have enough information to review any of these products yet, but they have all piqued my interest. 

Games

Holdout- a solitaire, roll-and-write resource management game in which you must grow your wasteland settlement, deal with mishaps that drain your resources and daily bandit raids and achieve certain objectives to win.  

I am interested in this game, because I wanted to examine simple and fun resource management games, what makes them tick, and how they can be iterated off of.

Holdout is by Humble Bard Games. $5. This is a print and play game. A video overview is here.

Dangerous Space- A sci-fi solo game that is published by PNP Arcade and designed by Jason Greeno and Jason Tagmire.

The description for Dangerous Space says: 

"Dangerous Space is a dungeon crawl experience in futuristic starships.

This solo, roll & write game has a tactical emphasis on dice management and careful placement. 

With puzzle-optimizing challenges combined with a hero tech tree, you’ll find yourself racing the clock, dodging enemy laser blasts and confronting some deep space terrors.”

The Dangerous Space Core Set is $4.

Stoneburner- I’ve been reading through this game. Stoneburner is about being a Space Dwarf and inheriting a space mine in an asteroid that is infested by demons and worse.  It takes its inspiration from Deep Rock Galactic, Doom, Dwarf Fortress, The Expanse and Firefly. In addition, it claims it is “solo friendly.”

Mechanically, to perform a check you roll a skill die, or a die from an item.  The roll result of 1-2 indicates you outright fail, or you may succeed with a major complication. A roll of 3-4 means you succeed in your endeavor, however there is a minor complication.  A roll of 5+ means you greatly succeed, and the higher the roll result the better. 

Now after you use a skill or item, your die for that skill or item decreases by one step, (ie 1d6 turns into a 1d4).  Skills cannot go lower than a 1d4.  Dwarven classes have three skills: Strength, Dexterity and Willpower.  These skills may vary from 1d4 to 1d8, depending on starting class. 

Stoneburner is created by Fari RPG’s, specifically by René-Pier Deshaies. It is $15. 

Bandit Republic- The Bandit Republic OSR hexcrawl from itch.io is set in an alternate history 1925 where the Republic of Jelenia broke off from Poland and the characters are all deserters from the Army of Jelenia. There are artillery, radios, soldiers and spies from East Prussia, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia; guns galore, witchers, leshy and other supernatural oddities along with revolutionaries and communists.

The system is based on the Wolves Upon the Coast hexcrawl's system. Bandit Republic was created by Tom Mecredy who some of you may remember as the author of the Napoleonic naval OSR hexcrawl Shot and Splinters that I liked so much I designed two additional random tables for.  

 

Bandit Republic is currently 50% off through 1/30/24. Normally it is $20 as of January 2024. As the hexcrawl is further developed, the price will increase.  

Over War: Monarch Edition-  

UPDATE **Kickstarter is LIVE Through Feb 15th** 

Patreon post link about Over War: Monarch Edition here. 

Over War: Monarch Edition is a tactical tabletop rpg (inspired by Fire Emblem, Yggdra Union, Langrisser, and the works of Yasumi Matsuno) soon to be a Kickstarter (possibly in February) by author Richard Kelly and expanded by Blackoath Entertainment.  Blackoath was responsible for Across a Thousand Dead Worlds which I enjoyed reading and wrote a review of.  So, expect the Blackoath touch of a solo mode and tons of interesting random tables with Over War: Monarch Edition. 

Here is the blurb that got me excited about Over War: Monarch Edition from the Patreon post.

“But how does it play, I hear you ask? Well, players maintain a warcamp, unlock new units and supplies between missions, then take to the field, relying on the types of characters they've recruited and the formation they've put them in to carry them through battles.

Missions take place on hex maps covered in unique terrain types. Cities can be conquered, swamps can be slogged through, units can take to the air to avoid the effects of terrain or stand on mountains and fire downward into foes for extra damage. Throughout all this, the emphasis is on keeping things simple and keeping choices meaningful. Dice are rarely rolled. Attacks typically hit. And good formations, tactical choices, and resource spending carry the day.”

Want to see how the original Over War plays? There are FREE Community Copies of Over War: The Night Comes Down on the itch.io page. Make sure you scroll down to the bottom to get it. 

Books

Mark Samuels; The Age of Decayed Futurity- I’m sorry to say I first heard of Mark Samuels and his weird and Lovecraftian fiction upon an announcement of his passing on r/WeirdLit. The blog Wormwoodiana had a very nice tribute for Mark Samuels, specifically saying that he was a passionate advocate for Machen, Lovecraft and Ligotti. I am looking forwards to reading some of Mark Samuels’ “best” short stories as collected in The Age of Decayed Futurity once I get my hands on a physical copy.   

Premee Mohamed; No One Will Come Back For Us - From her bio on Amazon, Premee Mohamed is “a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta.” Her science degrees are in molecular genetics and environmental science. 

I recently downloaded the Kindle sample of Premee’s book No One Will Come Back For Us. It contained two and a half short stories: Below the Kirk, Below the Hill; Instructions; and The Evaluator.  In Below the Kirk, Below the Hill; and the section of The Evaluator that was present in the Kindle sample, Premee Mohamed creates a mood of a normal world but with pinpricks of oddity that she pulls on to lead the reader through mystery and horror indicating that what these people live in, is not our world, or if it was; something very alien has happened to their surroundings and they are trying to cope.  I’m very eager to continue reading The Evaluator to see how the story develops.  I’ll report back if she is one of the authors who also treads the path of cosmic horror in her tales.  

Review of The Monster Breeder

Last week I found a brilliant Indy game called The Monster Breeder and I’ve already sunk many hours into it. It is $19.99 on Steam, in Early Access, and a labor of love by one developer.

Monster Breeder bills itself as a monster cross-breeding game, and it is; but the monster breeding part is the icing on the cake that is a core good gladiatorial management game.  Once I understood that the economics of the game is to win big purses by fielding your monster hybrids in the more lucrative gladiator arenas, then everything clicked into place.

My insectoid hybrids ready to rumble

You start with some seed money, an old keep and a spring in your step as you immediately swing down to the hunter’s shop to see what types of juvenile monsters they have that you can purchase and eventually crossbreed.

Monster Breeder is in Early Access, so systems are rough around the edges. There is a hard limit to the interesting monsters you can crossbreed, however acquiring a monster hybrid with the attributes and traits you want will undoubtable take a while. And it’s a lot of fun to tinker around with the systems of blood infusion, feeding baby monsters with different meat, and treating baby monsters with different magic fields (from runestones and scrolls) and potions to improve certain traits.

Also Monster Breeder has a lot of systems. Forgers can make you arms and armor, and some items can be sold to keep you economically afloat. This is a necessity in the early game when you are just treading water economically and a majority of your income comes from the pittance given at the Catacombs arena. Alchemists can make potions you can use in combat, but more importantly at greater levels alchemists can make you potions that allow you to crossbreed, mutate, tame or enchant the monsters you collect. So, they are a long-term investment.

Once you get into the midgame when you have viable monster hybrids to take on the challenges in the non-Catacombs gladiator arenas and win thousands of gold, things really open up as you can run multiple monster breeding programs in parallel. You can also invest in human gladiators coming from warrior, archer or mage backgrounds.  Equipping your human gladiators with the best gear either from your high-level forgers, gladiatorial winnings, or special shopping festivals is another fun gameplay loop of optimizing your units. 

The biggest drawbacks have already been described by other reviewers.  The graphics are quaint, the sound effects can be annoying and the early game has a learning curve.  However, this is one of the best monster breeder games on the market that I can think of and one of the better gladiatorial games available on Steam.  Ultimately as other have said, it’s rough and in Early Access but it already has a good gameplay loop and personally I want to see how the developer further iterates and defines this monster breeder game. 

Gladiator Manager Wargame, Ludus: A game of gladiators and lanistas

I purchased the fresh (released March 10^th) new wargame Ludus: A game of gladiators and lanistas by Michael Bergen Henegouwen on Wargamevault. I’ve read through it, and I like what it has to offer. Ludus takes skirmish games to the extreme. You are usually fighting one vs one, with your choice of a gladiator from one of 7 classes. Each gladiator class has a different roster of 10 cards they can choose from in a match, and you reveal one card as your opponent does, per turn. This card determines your move score, your combat action and your AFTER combat move score.  With the exception of a special action card that defines your class, you can choose the same action card turn after turn as long as you have fatigue to pay for it.

The gladiator classes consist of the following: Arbelas who wields a fixed blade in their main hand and a gladius in their off hand; Dimachaerus who dual wields a pair of gladii; Hoplomachus who represents a Greek Hoplite by wielding a spear, a small shield and a dagger; Murmillo, probably the most famous type of gladiator, who holds a large shield (the scutum) a gladius and a helmet; Retiarius the lightly armored trident wielder and net thrower; Thraex, inspired by the Thracians, who wielded the curved sword the sica and a medium shield the parmula; and the Veles, based on the light skirmish troops of the Roman army, wielding a long spear called a veruta and a gladius.

Combat usually involves a 2d10 contested roll unless your gladiator is wounded. Movement is carried out on a hex map where relative facing and position give bonuses and penalties. Gladiators also gain levels from arena experience and accrue traits and can choose individual skills to help them in combat.

Beyond the combat engine, there are nine types of arena scenarios to combine with six types of arena terrain. Arena scenarios consist of traditional variations of one vs one and two vs two, but also include more exotic scenarios. For instance, a Sagittarius match consists of two gladiators pitted against each other, but with the added wrinkle of an archer (the Sagittarius) on a pillar in the middle of the arena shooting each turn at the gladiator that is furthest away from him.  Additional arena scenarios include matches against beasts, and one where the gladiators are chained to a condemned man and have to protect him from the other gladiator.  To complicate these matches there is a table to roll for different arena terrain, including a circle of fire, a swampy arena and the hazard of chained animals.

Finally in chapter four we get to the lanista campaign section of Ludus. The rules are clear and even just reading them gives me a sense of excitement at the prospect of growing and managing one’s own gladiator school.  Lanista compete with each other using gladiators to gain glory points, and the winner is the lanista who has accumulated the most after a set number of campaign turns.  Each lanista chooses four gladiators with which to compete from the 7 classes and can have no more than two gladiators of a given class.

There are additional rules to add to gladiatorial combat to spice up encounters.  Gladiators can now gain Favour, which allows a combat action reroll, through lanista action or by playing to the crowd.  In addition, assuming they are of a sufficient level, gladiators gain the option to intimidate their opponent which reduces their opponent’s vital statistics and thus combat capability. 

Lanista also get the opportunity to carry out an action once per turn in between the gladiatorial combats. This action can range from upgrading one’s ludus which strengthens one’s gladiators, to hiring specialist for an additional roll on certain challenges like rolling on the injury table or rerolling initiative.     

Overall, the book is filled to the brim with clear rules, combat examples, interesting tables, summary sheets and several pages of action cards. I can’t wait to engage in gladiatorial competition with a game group or even attempt some of the scenarios solo.  The designer mentions that he chose to not include gambling, and I think the lack of a money and prices system actually enhances the flow of the game, particularly the lanista campaign.  All you have to be concerned with is what action a lanista will take per turn, not how much such an action would cost.  So lanista actions are more easily balanced with each other. Having said that I also can see that there is room for expansion with Ludus.  More classes, perhaps actions gladiators could take outside the arena, and maybe a limited betting system where glory is wagered over gladiatorial results, would be welcome additions. For $8, the pdf is 62 pages with 81 action cards to print out in the back.

Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant!

Base Building, Domain Management or Organization Building RPG Resources

 I am a big fan of base building and domain management type games. I assembled a list with help from the Something Awful traditional games board, of all the RPGs we could think of that had elements or full on rules of management types of games.  

This list will be updated as needed.  If a game line is listed (like Ars Magica) then these organizational rules are in the core book.  Most of the others are supplements to major game lines, as these topics do not always get a central focus.

11/1/22 Edit: I've updated this list with additions from a Reddit thread on base building rpgs, here. Where possible, I have verified that these additional rpgs have base building rules.

4/20/23 Edit: Updated the list again thanks to another Reddit base building in rpgs thread, here.  In addition I am using the excellent Realm-management wiki page from the Tabletop RPGs subreddit as a source for some of entries for this list.

   

D&D

Birthright (AD&D)

Stronghold Builder’s Guidebook (3.5 D&D)

Dragon 395 (4ed D&D) – strongholds and upgrades

Adventurer’s Vault 2; Dragon 383 – lair magic items

Dragon 412 (4ed D&D) – boats

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium – hireling rules

Admiral o' the High Seas (4ed D&D; Pathfinder) aka Seas of Zeitgeist – building ships, naval combat

DMGR2 - Castle Guide for 2e AD&D

Strongholds & Followers (5e D&D)

OSR/D&D related

Ultimate Campaign (Pathfinder) – has updated Kingmaker rules

Hell’s Rebels Campaign (Pathfinder) – build a rebellion

Way of the Wicked Book 2 (Pathfinder) – Henchmen management rules

Way of the Wicked Book 6-7 (Pathfinder) – Kingdom management rules

The Nightmares Underneath - establishing ties to and influence over local businesses and organizations

Fields of Blood- The Book of War (d20) 

Empire (d20) 

Kingdoms: A Zine of Generational Proportions (OSR) 

Sine Nomine (Kevin Crawford)

An Echo Resounding

Godbound

Stars Without Number

Other Dust

Silent Legions

HarnMaster

HarnManor – manage noble estate, growing motherfucking turnips

Pilot’s Almanac – sailing ships, trading cargo

White Wolf

Gilded Cage (V:tM)

Damnation City (V:tR)

Exalted 2e Storyteller's Companion – Mandate of Heaven rules.

Exalted 2e Masters of Jade

Traveller (Mongoose)

Traveller: Core – build planets

Merchant Prince - trading companies

Dynasty – manage dynasties over generations

Mercenary – military bases.

GURPS

GURPS Boardroom and Curia

GURPS Low-Tech Companions 1-3

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Taverns

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Guilds

GURPS City Stats

Forged in the Dark

Blades in the Dark

Wicked Ones (Free Edition)

Mountain Home

Powered by the Apocalypse

Apocalypse World - hardholder has to manage their settlement, the hocus has to manage their cult, the chopper manages their gang.

Stonetop

No Country for Old Kobolds

Solo

Penciltown

DELVE: A Solo Map Drawing Game

UMBRA: A Solo Game of Final Frontiers

Other

Base Raiders (Strange FATE) - p.187

Sagas of the Icelanders - Icelandic Homestead Management minigame

Mutant: Year Zero

Conspiracy X

Reign

Ars Magica

Pendragon

Gods and Monsters (Fate)

Mystic Empyrean

Legacy: Life Among the Ruins 

Weapons of the Gods Companion

Green Law of Varkith (Dungeon World) – build guild

Spellbound Kingdoms

Savage Worlds Super Hero Companion – build superhero bases

Champions (all versions) – build superhero bases

Rogue Trader: Stars of Inequity – build planets and manage colonies

A Song of Ice and Fire (Green Ronin) – run game of thrones house and holdings

Dune: Chronicle of the Imperium – manage a House Minor

Dune (2d20): The Great Game: Houses of the Landsraad

Underground – changing society to be more or less crime-ridden rules

Conan the King (Modiphius) - see mostly chapter 8 about kingdom management and faction power struggles

Vaesen

Forbidden Lands

Twilight 2000 4th edition

After the War

Death in Space – spacecraft and space station rules

Shadows Over Sol: Siren's Call - systems for colony building, societal planning, advancement and mass combat.

Seeds of Wars - fantasy system agnostic rules for realm management and tactical warfare. Supposedly inspired by AD&D Birthright rules (above). 

Sorcerers of Ur-Turuk – similar to Ars Magica, this rpg has rules for constructing a Vahnam, the home base for sorcerers and their staff. 

Do Not Let Us Die In The Dark Night Of This Cold Winter – obtain and manage supplies for a doomed village

Lord Flataroys Guide to Keeps and Fortifications (Hackmaster 4e)

The Ultimate Base (Hero System)

The Quiet Year 

HELLPIERCERS

Sanctum (Heart: The City Beneath) - focuses on supporting a base

Flatpack: Fix the Future 

Numenera: Destiny – has rules for GMing Communities

Wrath of the Autarch

Fragged Kingdom 

Blood and Honor 

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition, Renegade Crowns – not a resource management game, but it provides background charts and tables for developing petty kingdoms and a simple system for resolving Internal and External problems for a realm.