I was going through my hard drives, when I found some things from a NES I played a loooooot of time ago ('bout 4 years, whew). It was called Dawn of Ages, was modded by now missing Dannydehz, and it was quite fun. (Funnily enough, I found that the forum where we were playing it (for some reason, it was done in some other place) still exists)
The idea was that, instead of the normal stats system, you would get "dice" alloted to one thing or another, related to each of the following seven branches: Economy, Army, Navy, Magic, Culture, Influence and Technology. These dice could then be used to expand certain parts of these branches (which could be as diverse as Roads (Economy), Temples (Culture), Wizards (Magic) or Galleys (Navy), it did not matter much). As dice accumulate, you can use them to start or power up other things. It allowed for a lot of customization in the whole "development of the nation", but it was rather random. About the only one I think might still be around from that is SBredberg.
Wondering if someone around here might be interested in playing such a game. Would require less time from me, so I'd be willing to mod it.