idly brainstorming other situations besides conquest/combat that you could transplant most of a roguelike's gameplay/appeal onto.
- gathering ingredients for something?
- delivering messages to far-off places?
- documenting little-known and skittish creatures who you have to both successfully follow and hide from?
reacting to other autonomous things is definitely a big part of it, and only the third one covers that..... maybe it would be enough to take a Scarab Of Ra approach and be menaced by creatures but only trying to placate or escape them?
growing in power is also often part of the fantasy, but that could probably be satisfied nicely with metroidvania-ish increasing movement options? or hell: even just accrued knowledge of the generated map as you cross back and forth over it. knowing good places to get a resource, or discovering (or creating?) faster ways to make a necessary trip. (growing plants in new places, for the resources or movement options they would create?)
I'm not going anywhere with this, just thought it would be fun to think about.
