do you know of any sort of... aggregations of how SBURB/SGRUB/etc actually works mechanics wise as a game? maybe sorted somehow linearly? i am trying to create a tabletop roleplaying system for my friends and i but it's extremely difficult due to how vague the game as a process seems to be. thank you always for your thoughtful answers, and hard work :)

The game is actually very explicitly explained, but it has a lot of customization.

First you enter with as many friends as you can gather. Ideally you want to have a chain of server-clients that’s then closed with the first to enter being the server of the last- However you can mix and match and it’s not always this easy and potentially the chain could get cut off half-way and leave you with less players than you were expecting, and it’ll still work.

Once in, the stuff you Prototyped powers up the Underlings and the Royalty. From there, your main objective is to level up- Defeat Underlings, gather Grist, and complete your Land’s Quest, whatever it may be. As you progress, you’ll build your Client’s house up, and so will your Server. Ultimately, reaching the 7th gate should coincide with the End of your Land’s Quest, when you’re ready to face your Denizen, and either complete the Choice or Kill them, releasing the Grist Hoard.

Either before or after this, however, you also need to take care of both the Black Queen and King. Ideally, first taking out the Black Queen as the power of her Ring is a huge risk, then taking onto the Black King. SBURB is designed for the White Army to lose, so regardless of what you do, the Reckoning will have started by the time you go face the Black King. You must kill him to stop the Reckoning, yet it must also be initiated to send the relevant meteors to Earth and complete any Time Loops needed.

Once Denizens and Royalty are defeated, you have won. Of course through all of this, the Space Player must have bred the Genesis Tadpole. Now with the Battlefield safe and not bombarded by meteors, you must use a Drill Device you can deploy onto the Battlefield, and dig into its core. Then, deploy the Grist Rigs on the fully built-up houses, and the Grist Hoards will transform Skaia into a proper host for the Genesis Tadpole. Finally, you need to toss the Queen’s Ring into the Forge, to send the Tadpole into Skaia.

And that’s about it! That’s the only things required by SBURB, everything else is optional.