Base building (and its scaled-up cousin, kingdom building) is fiction where constructing and managing a settlement is a primary plot driver. The protagonist leads the effort: gathering resources, recruiting followers, building infrastructure, defending against threats, and growing from a campsite to a community to something larger. If you’ve ever lost an evening to Rimworld, Factorio, or Civilization and thought “I wish this was a story,” this is your subgenre.
The overlap with LitRPG is heavy — most base building series include system mechanics (settlement levels, building upgrade trees, resource dashboards). It’s adjacent to dungeon core but structurally different: you’re a person building in the open world, not a sentient structure managing your own interior.
What Defines Base Building
Construction and management carry narrative weight. Characters make decisions about what to build, what to prioritize, how to allocate limited resources, and how to handle the social dynamics of a growing population. These decisions have consequences: build walls before a farm and your people are safe but hungry. Invest in crafting before defense and you’re rich but vulnerable.
The progression metric is the settlement itself. You track it growing: lean-to and campfire in chapter 1, palisade wall and basic forge by chapter 10, walled town with specialized districts by the end of the first arc. This macro-scale progression runs alongside the protagonist’s individual power growth, giving you two satisfying tracks to follow.
Resource scarcity and trade-offs create the tension. There’s never enough of everything. These spending decisions are the genre’s version of combat — moments where judgment is tested and consequences unfold.
Kingdom building is the scaled-up variant. Where base building focuses on a single settlement, kingdom building expands to multiple territories, diplomacy, armies, and governance. Many series transition from one to the other as the protagonist’s power grows. The mechanical satisfaction is similar (building complex systems from nothing), just at a larger scale.
Common Tropes and Elements
Starting from nothing is nearly universal. Wilderness, ruins, empty plot, or a settlement that’s barely hanging on. The protagonist brings some unique advantage (a rare class, a system-granted building ability, foreknowledge) but the early chapters emphasize scarcity and improvisation. The first shelter, first successful harvest, first recruited NPC — these small wins carry emotional weight because the starting point was zero.
NPC recruitment and management. The settlement needs people. Recruiting farmers, guards, crafters, and specialists, then managing their needs and morale, adds a social layer. Named NPCs develop their own arcs. The settlement feels alive when the community has personalities beyond the protagonist.
Economic systems as content. Trade routes, crafting supply chains, agriculture, mining, resource optimization. The genre treats economics as interesting in the same way LitRPG treats builds as interesting. If you enjoy watching a supply chain come together, this is your content.
Defense and siege warfare. External threats test preparations. Monster waves, rival factions, bandit raids. The payoff: watching carefully-built defenses perform (or fail) under pressure. These are the action beats in a genre that otherwise leans toward management.
System-assisted building (in LitRPG-adjacent entries). The settlement has an interface: population counter, resource dashboard, available building upgrades, defense rating. Leveling the settlement unlocks new structures and capabilities. Number Go Up, but for your town instead of your character.
Where to Start: 5 Recommended Entry Points
Life Reset by Shemer Kuznits
Status: Completed (6 books) | Audiobook: Yes
A top VRMMO player gets betrayed and reset to level 1 as a goblin in the wilderness. He rebuilds from nothing: personal power AND a goblin settlement that grows into a thriving community. The series gives roughly equal weight to LitRPG leveling and base management. Being completed means you get the full arc from nothing to established settlement.
The VRMMO framing means the building has game-style interfaces (construction menus, resource counters, upgrade trees) that make the management tangible and trackable.
Might not work for you if: “It’s a game” reduces your emotional investment. Some readers need real-world stakes to feel tension. The VRMMO framing means death is respawn-with-penalty rather than permanent.
Noobtown by Ryan Rimmel
Status: Ongoing (9 books) | Audiobook: Yes
Jim gets isekai’d and becomes mayor of a struggling settlement. The series balances humor with genuine base mechanics: resource management, NPC recruitment, building upgrades, and defense against escalating threats. The tone is lighter than most base building — comedic characters and absurd situations thread through the management gameplay.
Good entry point if you want the base building satisfaction without grimdark stakes. The humor keeps 9 books from feeling like a grind.
Might not work for you if: You want serious tone. The comedy is constant and sometimes goofy. If you want base building with dramatic weight, Life Reset or Warlords of the Circle Sea are better fits.
The Land (Chaos Seeds) by Aleron Kong
Status: Ongoing (8 books) | Audiobook: Yes (Nick Podehl)
Richter is transported to a fantasy world and becomes master of a Place of Power, which he develops into a functional settlement while navigating regional politics. One of the earliest popular English LitRPG series, and its base building elements were influential on the subgenre.
The series is heavy on system mechanics (detailed crafting, enchanting, alchemy alongside construction). Aleron Kong is a polarizing figure in the community (self-proclaimed “Father of American LitRPG”), but the books themselves have a large readership and deliver substantial crunch.
Might not work for you if: You want tight plotting. The series meanders, particularly in middle volumes. Mechanical detail sometimes crowds out narrative momentum. Also, the publication schedule has been irregular.
Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko
Status: Ongoing (4 books) | Audiobook: Yes (Luke Daniels)
Marcus enters a next-gen VRMMO and takes on rebuilding a ruined frontier town. The base building is grounded in the MMO context: organizing other players, establishing trade, defending against scaling PvE threats. The VRMMO framing makes the game mechanics feel natural, and the multiplayer aspect adds a coordination challenge that solo-base-building series lack.
Might not work for you if: You want fast releases. 4 books with gaps between them. The series is ongoing with an uncertain schedule. If you need completed or rapid-fire releases, this will frustrate.
Warlords of the Circle Sea by Ember Lane
Status: Ongoing (5 books) | Audiobook: Yes
Kingdom building with strategy game DNA. The scope is larger from the start: the protagonist must unite a fragmented region by building strongholds, recruiting armies, and navigating alliances. Army management and territorial control share space with settlement construction.
Good for readers who’ve done the “small village grows bigger” arc and want something that starts at larger scale. The strategic layer (multiple settlements, army positioning, diplomatic maneuvering) gives it a Civilization-campaign feel.
Might not work for you if: You want the intimate satisfaction of building one settlement from scratch. This series skips past the campfire-and-lean-to phase into regional strategy. If you want the early-game scrappiness, start with Life Reset.
How Base Building Differs From Dungeon Core
Both appeal to the management simulation reader. Both involve construction, resources, and watching something grow from nothing. The structural difference:
In base building, you’re a person in the open world. You move around, travel for resources, interact with other settlements, fight threats outside your base. The settlement is your project; you’re not confined to it.
In dungeon core, you ARE the structure. You perceive your domain from inside, and the world comes to you in the form of adventurers. You can’t leave. Your agency is expressed entirely through what you build within your domain.
Many readers enjoy both. The “build and manage” loop is the common appeal. Life Reset blurs the line (goblin settlement with dungeon-like elements). If you like one, try the other.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to enjoy strategy games to like base building fiction?
It helps a lot. Civilization, Rimworld, Factorio, city-builder fans tend to connect immediately. The appeal is the same: complex systems growing from simple beginnings through smart resource allocation. If you’ve never enjoyed a management game, the genre might not click.
What’s the difference between base building and kingdom building?
Scale. Base building: one settlement, construction, resource management, local defense. Kingdom building: multiple territories, armies, diplomacy, trade networks, governance. Many series start as one and transition to the other. The satisfaction is similar at both scales.
Is base building always LitRPG?
Usually, because system interfaces (settlement levels, building upgrade trees, resource counters) give readers a clear, satisfying way to track growth. Some base building is progression fantasy without game UI, describing management narratively. But the LitRPG version is more common and arguably better-suited to the subgenre, since the management sim appeal maps naturally to system displays.
Why is “starting from nothing” so universal?
Same reason progression fantasy protagonists start weak: you need room to grow. The satisfaction of a thriving settlement is proportional to how dire the beginning was. A protagonist who starts with an established town and makes it slightly better isn’t base building fiction — it’s administrative fiction.
Explore More
Browse base building deals in our daily deals section.
Get base building recommendations in your inbox: Sign up for the Gamelit.com newsletter and select Base Building as one of your preferred subgenres.