Hmm... City Building RPG?

[RndmNumGen]

Some of my friends have recently expressed interest in playing a game where instead of adventuring into monster lairs to retrieve loot, the focus on the game is instead securing land to build an outpost, which grows into a town and eventually a city. However, none of the systems I know of would really work for such a game. I suppose I could adapt 3.5 using stuff from Arms & Equipment Guide, Strongold Builder's Guide and a healthy dose of houseruling, but there are so many things in 3.5 which would completely break the resource management aspect it almost seems better to start from scratch. So does anyone know of any good RPG systems which at least give a significant nod towards this, if not focusing on it?

[Ravens_cry]

The Pathfinder adventure path Kingmaker has just such a system. If you don't want to buy a whole adventure path just for the system, I don't blame you if you do, there is this. It is supposed to be a expanded reprint of the Kingmaker city building rules.
I haven't used it personally, but I did play in the Kingmaker campaign and it was a lot of fun.

[MickJay]

Houses of the Blooded has a whole part devoted to managing your province(s), which includes a village (which can become a city) and your castle, and the role playing part can also involve that heavily (who's sending all those spies who are blowing up my stuff? how can I bribe my enemy's vassals more efficiently?). Mind you, city building itself is quite limited here (you just use resources and wait for it to grow by next season, and you can build a few things extra), you have multiple regions and, eventually, many provinces as well. The setting is somewhat unusual as well, you are a noble, you don't go exploring dungeons, you have people to do that for you, and the system itself slightly resembles FATE, though it's mostly original.

[Endarire]

How well do these city building RPGs work if in a completely barren world where D&D 3.5 PCs are level 15+?

[Ravens_cry]

How well do these city building RPGs work if in a completely barren world where D&D 3.5 PCs are level 15+?

For a Level 15 party they will probably work better because it is very easy to become very wealthy, when you are, well, running a city, to the point that money isn't exactly important if you are willing to wait. How barren is this barren land? What resource is there that would make people want to come to your city? Or if not resources, is it a natural meeting of trade routes, or a strategic location?
Petra, despite being in inhospitable terrain, had water, which was damned important for people journeying along the Silk Road.