Succession Games

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

I was first introduced to this concept back in the hey-day 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 up for the next person to do their base prep and mission. 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)
3. Rakuno
4. MagiWasTaken (aka Dan)
5. Rambling Redshirt
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 Sentinel¹ — Naithin loses a few civilians but manages to push back a retaliatory strike against a resistance base.
• Mission 10: ??? — Mr Peril 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. 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.