What's a Succession Game?

[Davidizer13]

Call me an idiot, but I have no clue what a succession game is! Is it sorta like the Post Wars, which I am a member of Episode 2? If so, maybe you should start a league and rate players! I'd always win, of course!

 

[microbe]

It's ok you don't know what an SG is, but you should know to read the sticky threads before you pos tin a new forum. Yep, there is one with the exact same title.

 

[viper275]

The sticky thread says:

Succession Game (SG)
A succession game is a Single Player (SP) game played by a group of people.
While playing the person must keep a timeline of the most important events that occur during his reign. When finished, he passes on a saved game to the next player (either by uploading it on the site or by mail) and posts the timeline in the game's thread so that other players are informed of what happened.

It generally works like this. One player (the moderator) opens a thread and post the first timeline log and the first game file. Then other players sign to the game (until the limit set by the game moderator), and the succession begins. Each player plays fixed number of turns (usually 20 turns). The moderator may also add extra rules (usually in the first post).

This can get really interesting as everybody has a different way of playing Civ, and all strategies are tried out in one same game.
Here's an example.

Rules normally used:
- 5 players.
- 20 turns.
- 24h confirmation period (you have to say you’re playing; otherwise you’re skipped).
- 48h to 72h (since the saved game was passed) to play the game.

Open Succession Game (OSG)
An open succession doesn’t have a fixed number of players. After one player posts a game file, the next player in the succession will be the first person to post and say he is playing.

OSGs are faster games because the player has a short period of time to play his turn (4h since the person said he was playing, this period gets higher as the late game is a bit slow). That way, every time you get to the forums, there’s a good possibility that you'll find an OSG in which you can play. Another attribute of OSGs is the fact that they hardly stall.
Here's an OSG example.

Training Day Games (TDG)
A game where an expert of that level trains newer players. The expert may or may not start off the first 20 turns, after that, the player (trainees) play 10 turns, and post a detailed log for each turn. Play does not resume until the expert has reviewed and commented on the save.
Here's a TDG example

If there’s something I forgot to say, or something hard to understand, please post here and I’ll edit this post to make things clear.

Pretty well-explained IMO. Edit: I should note, though, that now it's usually 20 turns for the first player, 10 afterward, and 5 in sometime in the Industrial/Modern Age. Also, it's not too common for the thread starter to play the game before everyone else has joined so that other players can voice opinions on the first turns.