Acknowledgment: the source code is an adaptation of the code created by Todd Lehman for his “TeX Family Tree”.

I made a simple template of the code (rendering here). Don’t hesitate to use it for your own project.

Part 1 : Preamble

• Metadata.
• Advices to compile the code.
• Parameters of the graph.

Part 2 : Timeline

• From 1950 to now.

Part 3 : List of TTRPGs

• Grouped by series, by publishers, and by genres.
• Listed elements : year of 1st publication, ID of the item, label (name of the game and edition), immediate link to a previous element in the same series.

{ rank = same; 1977; dndholmes [label=”Basic D&D [Holmes]”]} odnd_whitebox – dndholmes ;

• Options of the label : country or langage of publication (default = English US) : uk, fr, es, dk, it, pt, il, jp, sw, ...
• Options for the tags in #comments.
• #t000 : references (see below).
• #Q1375 : Wikidata id number.

Part 4 : List of innovations in game design

• Each element is described as following : ID of the innovation, label (short summary of the innovation), immediate link with the TTRPG that created this innovation.

{ identicaldices [label = “Sets of identical-dices values in dice pool”]} godlike – identicaldices ;

• Option of the label : start with «1st» if original innovation.

label = “1st critical hit\n[‘lucky hit’]”

List of categories of innovations

Innovations are grouped by categories. Each category is colored differently.

• Miscellaneous historical innovations
• Authority on fiction: gamemaster roles vs players roles
• Campaign, adventure
• Design
• Resolution system
• Critics & level of success
• Dramatic modifiers to resolution
• Saves
• Use points to influence success (aka Meta-currency)
• Health
• Group
• Sheet
• Character generation
• Character advancement
• Magic
• Morality, Alignment, Personality, Sanity
• Literature / Genre Emulation
• Rolls & Randomizers

Part 5 : meta-links between elements

(not released right now)
Basic links already exists between TTRPGs (in part 3) and between TTRPGs and innovations (part 4). In this part, other kind of links are weaven between TTRPGs.

• Same author

eotpt – eotpt83 – eotpt87 – aot1992 – tita2002 – eotpt2005 [headlabel = “M.A.R. Barker”] ;

• Direct citations to another TTRPG

{dnd0 – tnt1} – runequest1 ;

• Same publisher, same rules, same universe, etc.

pathfinder – starfinder ;
{ orientaladventures ; l5r2 } – orientaladventures2 ;
agameofthrones – asongoficenfirerpg ;
tombofhorror – returntombofhorror – tombofannihilation ;

References

References to specific sources are listed in a separate document (source.md). The ID of the references are unique and they are pointing to 3 types of source. Examples :

• #p001 : source no. 001, a primary source
• #s045 : source no. 045, a secondary source
• #t078 : source no. 078, a tertiary source

The general information sources are listed too.