Lineage (itch) (Tim Carroll)

This is a play-test draft of Lineage provided free of charge in return for your help in making this a better game. Feedback links can be found below. When the play-test is over, Lineage will no longer be free, so get it while it's hot.

Lineage is a game about telling the story of a Royal family through the ages. It’s a vehicle for intrigue and dastardly plots, for love and romance, for petty spite and for bitter rivalry. In short, this is a game about high drama. Up to six players act as historians studying and reconstructing the record of several generations of a great and powerful family. Starting with just a few characters, you will piece together the story of their time as rulers and the history of the realm.

Gameplay is simple and intuitive but yields complicated, political results. You and your friends take turns adding characters and relationships to a family tree. Using dice, you will randomly select familial events (births, deaths, marriages, revolts, etc.) which provide you with storytelling prompts. Each turn will add a small piece of information to the larger story, eventually building into a large web of interconnected personal and political history.  

Lineage is a cooperative storytelling game for 1-6 players. A typical game usually takes 1-3 hours but you can play as long as you like. All you need to play is paper, pencils, and a set of gaming dice.

Lineage is also a handy world building tool for game masters, authors, and admirers of the sorts of diagrams that lurk in the appendices of thick fantasy novels.

The Artifacts of Play

You will document the story of your royal family on a family tree and a timeline - artifacts of your shared story that will remain after you are finished playing.

The Family Tree will be where you document your characters and map their relationships. Here you will also record important titles, information about neighboring political powers, brief notes about the characters, and most importantly, the transfer of regnal power through the ages. 

The Timeline will be where you record great events in the history of the realm and the lives of the characters. While playing you will be telling chapters in the story of your realm in any order you choose. As a result, it can become difficult to remember the order of events over a play session. Use the timeline to record the story in chronological order, giving everyone a frame of reference for the order of events over time. While historians occasionally, cordially disagree about specific dates, the timeline should be a useful tool to minimize confusion.

What is included in the play-test packet?

The full game is included in the play-test as my gift to everyone who's been stuck at home for months during the global pandemic. All that I ask in return is that you send me your feedback on the game so that together we can make it better. The game is provided as a 48 page, black and white PDF that can be printed as a double-sided booklet. A double-sided player reference sheet is also included.

(48 pages, that's a lot to print! You don't actually need to print the booklet out in order to play. You can get along just fine with a digital copy. Just be aware that every player needs to have access to the booklet on their turn).

Feedback

Thanks for checking out Lineage! I want to make this game amazing so you folks can have the best version to play out your fantastic political and personal dramas. This game feels like it has real potential but I need your help to get it polished up.

If you get the chance to play Lineage, or even just read through the rules, I'd love to hear your feedback. I've set up a short Survey where you can tell me how you liked the game and how you think it can be better.

Also, if you're able, I would be forever grateful if you send in any recording (audio or video) of your first play session. Getting to see how you all learn and use Lineage, and what troubles you encounter really is the best kind of feedback I can get.  You can upload your recordings directly to the Lineage Dropbox or send a link via email.

If you would like to get in contact about play session recordings or anything else related to the game you can contact me at Lineagestorygame -at- gmail.com