Succession Games

If you’ve not heard the term before, a ‘succession game’ is where you play a single-player game (or game mode) in a single save, but as a cooperative group — in turns.

I was first introduced to this concept back in the heyday of Civilisation IV while perusing the CivFanatics Forums on how to improve my game and push into higher difficulties successfully.

Essentially how it works in the context of Civilisation is that each player controls for a set number of turns. Once their turns are up, their reign is over and they bundle up the save game and package it off to the next player, for their reign.

While I’ve not explicitly heard of this concept being done in other games, I’m sure it has. And there are many where the idea could work. e.g., XCOM 2 — could potentially play such that a player does as much as they want to in the base stage (purchase items, research decisions, etc) and then a single mission. Upon mission completion — save the game and package it up for the next person to do their base prep and mission. The host would likely complete the opening mission and play on their turn from there as if it hadn’t happened.

In any case! This page will hold the details of any such games I host or participate in.

In Progress:

XCOM 2: Blogger Succession Game

The call for players went out for this one on April 23rd 2021, a couple of days shy of a full year since the Civilisation VI game kick-off. As with that game, the player order below (with exception of myself as host) was randomised.

The Participants

1. Naithin (Me!)
2. Mr Peril (aka Roger)¹
3. Rakuno
4. MagiWasTaken (aka Dan)²
5. Rambling Redshirt³
6. Kluwes
7. UnwiseOwl

The Game

• Mission 1: Operation Gatecrasher — Naithin leads a fresh batch of rookies through Alien Resistance 101.
• Mission 2: Operation Bone Shriek — Mr Peril secures the transmitter, although it comes with a cost.
• Mission 3: Operation Foolish Sentinel — Rakuno rescues a VIP scientist, strengthening our research ability.
• Mission 4: Operation Brooding Breath — MagiWasTaken fights a retaliation force from the enemy, saving civilians.
• Mission 5: Operation Perilous Strike — Rambling Redshirt counters a dark event and retrieves data from an ADVENT vault.
• Mission 6: Operation Blood Fist — Kluwes rescues Magi from a perilous situation and captures for the resistance some ADVENT supplies.
• Mission 7: Operation Gasping Shroud — UnwiseOwl successfully extracts an enemy VIP for intel.
• Mission 8: Operation Shattered Anger — Naithin extracts ADVENT data with just a second to spare.
• Mission 9: Operation Outer Sentinel⁴ — Naithin loses a few civilians but manages to push back a retaliatory strike against a resistance base.
• Mission 10: Operation Dawn Fort — Rakuno leads us through a perilous mission into an ADVENT stronghold.
• Mission 11: Operation Ice Tooth — Magi takes on a mission that leaves Ramblin’ Red Dead.
• Mission 12: Operation Purple Fear — Rambling Redshirt leads a successful run on a transportation hub, and brings everyone home alive.
• Mission 13: Operation Wolf Hound — Kluwes gains the benefit of Predator Armor for the team, and extracts a VIP with no casualties. The Avatar project timer is starting to become a concern, however!
• Mission 14: Operation Knife Song Hell Saga — UnwiseOwl’s initial outing ends in Naithin’s demise, so, utilising a muligan, resets into a new run dealing a skulljack blow to an officer at last.
• Mission 15: Operation Furious Gasp — Naithin went and blew up an Avatar Project blacksite. It went well. Really, really well. I’m sure there will be no consequences for this.
• Mission 16: Operation Iron God — Rakuno leads a squad in defense of human resistance base and despite a tough fight, brings everyone back alive.
• Mission 17: Operation Falling Hero — Magi rescues a scientist VIP, but everyone is gravely injured in the process… and coloured like clowns. *sigh*
• Mission 18: Operation Massive Mountain — Kluwes embarks on a mission to recover enemy facility schematics and earns an engineer in the process.
• Mission 19: Operation Bone Father — UnwiseOwl brings home important Advent tech and despite being flanked, shows them who’s boss and brings the whole team home.
• Mission 20: Operation Tomb Valley — Naithin looks to take over a supply depot and sends his own poor, shaken, avatar out into battle to throw off the status. While some people are injured — Naithin isn’t one of them and so both missions are a success.
• Mission 21: Operation Tomb Storm — Rakuno encounters the Andromedons for the first time — a fearsome enemy that lobs acid and has armor that will continue after you even once the creature inside is dead. But everyone comes back alive and the mission is a success!
• Mission 22: Operation Manic Altar — Magi was tasked with securing a disabled ADVENT UFO. Disabled or not, the mission was no joke and the team came out plenty injured. Though fortunately, no casualties.
• Mission 23: Operation Death Slayer — Kluwes takes on a story mission to investigate the ADVENT Forge, and recovers a body in a suit suspiciously similar to the one the Commander was recovered in at the beginning of the game. Also makes valuable discovery: Don’t melee the mutons. They don’t like that, and will let you know in no uncertain terms.
• Mission 24: Operation Swamp Queen — UnwiseOwl encounters the Chryssalids, but brings everyone home safe and sound.
• Mission 25: Operation Sweaty Star — Naithin has a go at blowing up an Avatar Project base in response to a frightening 4-pip rush of progress.
• Mission 26: Operation Night Song — Rakuno suffers through a grounding of the avenger and a relentless assault. However, he takes down 34 of their force and loses no-one.
• Mission 27: Operation Half-Eaten Rose — Kluwes lead the team through a VIP capture or kill mission. Rocket met an unfortunate end on this mission. So did the VIP though.
• Mission 28: Operation Half-Dead Witch — UnwiseOwl worked us toward the Intel required for further expansion but was swept away into a guerilla op to retrieve an important package before being able to expand our network.
• Mission 29: Operation Broken King — Naithin took us out on a major mission to locate exactly the Codex had hidden away at its secret coordinates. Turns out? It was a well-protected Psionic Gate.
• Mission 30: Operation ??? — Kluwes has control.

Archived Games:

Civilisation VI: Long Live the Queen!

This game ran from April 2020 through to April 2021, ultimately ending in a Cultural victory for us after 419 turns. The game information is archived there in the linked post, but there is also the wrap-up post for more of a summary on how it went and how each player approached the game. :)

1. Roger needs some time away from the game, so for the moment is on a break from taking turns.
2. Magi had some technical difficulties and has skipped out for the time being.
3. Rambling Redshirt also needed to step out of the game.
4. I went for a second mission back to back in order to reset how our turns are structured. Rather than mission first then strategy, we flipped to strategy first then mission. This allows players to select a black site or other main story mission without then pushing it onto the next player in the chain.