[@ClocktowerEchos]  I don't know if it's fair to call it a TRPG or not. I've always wanted to try one and never have had the time or the knowledge to do so. I think of this more as a normal RP with a few mechanics involved.  In my opinion, it can add some fun because not -everything- is under the control of the writers.  For example, if your character doesn't gather enough food and eat to sustain health, they can die.

[@Rhymer]  When I ran this game on my own forum, as silly as it sounds, I used Excel to randomly generate most things.  For example, I assigned a number of 1-5 for varying levels of skill, then rolled the generator for each character.  If JANE DOE rolled a 3 for fishing, a 5 for melee fighting, and a 1 for building... then she'd be an average fisher, an excellent melee fighter, and a lousy builder.  Thus, if JANE DOE wanted to fish, she'd gather a normal amount of fish.  If she struck someone with a weapon, she'd do more damage than the normal person (say 1.25 times the damage); and if she wanted to build a shelter she'd require a bit more material or take longer to accomplish the task.  ((Or her shelter simply would have 0.75 times the average shelter lifespan.  Since time keeping might be an inconvenience, I'll probably adopt the idea of an exhaustion meter instead of monitoring time.  If there's enough interest, I'll propose some ideas and go with the one people think will work the best.))

As for hunger and thirst meters, they would diminish by a certain amount each day.  Previously, a fully healthy adult would start with 100% on each meter, and lose 5% for each day they didn't eat or drink.  (So no eating or drinking in 20 days = a dead character.)  Eating or drinking replenishes any loss, but the food and water has to be gathered and available, obviously.

Health meters can be diminished by random events generated (again, through Excel) or through attacks carried out by other characters.

Finally, character inventories would be kept up to date on character sheets.  (This is why I'm hoping any players would keep track of their own numbers and be honest about it. The more people that join, the harder it is to update every day since I'm typically busy in real life.)  Items can be acquired and lost through gathering, trading, gifting, using, building, etc etc.

[And for the random event generator, I have a huge list of things that can happen and their likelihoods of happening.  Others can offer things to add to the list so that more fun and variety can ensue.]

Does this help?

The bulk of the game would be actual role playing.  For example, a day between multiple players might look like this (a very very simplified summary of the day):

JANE DOE walks up and talks to JOHN SMITH and GRANNY APPLE.  They discuss how crazy the waves have been, then settle on the decision that food for the town is running low.  They glare at MACK JACK who keeps his own stash and refuses to share.  They plot a way to lock him up.  JANE DOE gets to work on creating a fish net and does this and that and bla bla bla. JOHN SMITH and GRANNY APPLE go into the trees and gather wood to create a jail.  After role playing the creation and gathering in as much detail as the writers desire.. presto(!), a net is added to JANE DOE's inventory at the end of the day, and wood is added to the other two schemers' inventories.  JANE DOE and JOHN SMITH ate, so their hunger meters look great, but GRANNY SMITH and MACK JACK did not eat, so their meters look a little worse off. The sun sets and a new day begins for more role playing, with all character sheets updated.