I wish I’d taken better notes about this one. What software was I using? Who made the original G+ post? No idea.
Recovered: RPG Cladogram
Someone on G+ made the comparison between the proliferation of retroclones and the many distributions of Linux. Inspired by the GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline, I started one for gaming:
You may have to view the image itself to get anything useful here, sorry.
It has a couple of problems: one, it’s horribly incomplete, and two, it doesn’t handle child nodes born after the parent’s death very well at all. I think it’s a solid idea, and if anyone wants the sources I can send those along (it’s just a csv file), but I think I’ll let it go until I can work out the child nodes thing.
There is some precedent for this in An RPG Lineage Chart beginning with H.G.Wells’ Little Wars and ending with Dragon Age.
2023 Update
I no longer have the sources for this, but there have been many similar projects since, I am sure. One that I came across recently is the Timeline Tree of Tabletop Role-Playing Games, which goes from 1974 to 2020.
This post was first shared on March 12, 2013.