Civilisation: Succession (Game) Planning
Sidebar: Civilisation or Civilization? I mean… Being in a country that spells via British English, Civilisation is right. But then, this is in reference to a particular game which is called Civilization. So would the latter be more correct? Perhaps… Oh well.
Back on topic — with Paeroka, Tessa, Krikket and myself all highlighting Civilisation as sitting amongst our top five game series; I got to thinking about whether we might have enough interest in setting up a blogger community Civilisation Succession Game.
When I raised it in the Blaugust Discord, it was met with interest by Rakuno as well. So here we are! :D
What on Earth is a ‘Succession Game’?
So glad you asked!
It is where you play within a single game save, as a single Civilisation, but as a group — in turns.
So I might start, and have a rule of 10 (or 20, or whatever we decide) turns. I would then put up a post outlining what I did and what happened over the course of my play.
Attached to that post in some way, would be the save game itself.
Then next in line would succeed me, taking over the save game, playing out their turns, and in turn doing their post.
That’s the basic idea — then there are any number of rule variations we might decide to play with. For instance, in some succession games you are not allowed to directly instruct the person following you on what your future plans are. Under such a rule, you might be allowed to write why you did a certain thing in your post, but while carefully constraining yourself to talking about your present why’s. ;)
Any Current Thinking for This Round?
Some, but nothing too much is locked in stone yet!
It’s very likely to be in Civilisation VI — and it seems all interested parties so far have the complete pack (both expansions and the DLC Civilisations).
It’s also very likely we’ll keep it to a pretty low difficulty, if not right on Settler difficulty. I’m actually OK with this, given going to be incredibly rusty and there are a lot of changes with the DLCs that I haven’t explored too deeply yet.
Religious victory might be turned off — unsure if it has been rebalanced since Civ VI’s launch; but it used to be a ridiculously easy win avenue.
No determination on the map type or Civilisation yet either. Although I might suggest the ‘real’ Asia or Europe starting maps, depending on which Civ we have a preference for? I also wouldn’t be completely opposed to going with a Random selection. Hah.
In terms of length of reign; I’m thinking 10 or 20 turns. With a slight lean toward 10 turns, I think. That is a fairly short reign in the early game, I will admit. But when we start getting to the mid- to late-game, with more cities to manage and more units on the map — 10 turns might be about all we want to outline in a post.
Not that every single minute detail needs to be covered, mind you! Just the highlights is perfectly acceptable!
I also wouldn’t expect a particularly arduous schedule to be kept. Perhaps one player / post per week, or there about.
So!
If You’re Interested…
Just drop a comment below if you’re interested in playing.
And if you have any preferences on any of the settings, Civilisation we play, or anything else, discuss!
Even the selection of Civ 6 I wouldn’t say is locked in stone. We have at least one that would prefer Civ 5, but equally we have at least two that would rather Civ 6 thus my current leaning.
This post, very much preliminary though — getting some people together and locking some ideas down.
Also, there is nothing to say this would be our last game of this type. If there is enough interest, heck, we could even do multiple Civilisations in parallel!
This was a post for Blapril 2020, the annual blogging event (albeit usually as Blaugust), brought forward to help bring a sense of community during the challenging time of COVID-19. Blaugust is an event aiming to welcome new blogger blood into the fold and revitalise those who’ve been at it a little longer.
The Blaugust Discord is still available to join in, year round!
