- BGG rating
- 8.0
Heredity: Memories
- 1–4 players
- 90–150 min
- Complexity 2.0/5
- 2024
- BGG rank
- BGG #3,007
- BGG rating
- 8.0
Heredity: The Book of Swan
2023
Rules assistance for Heredity: The Book of Swan
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 1–4 players
- 120–180 min
- 14+
- Complexity 2.6/5
For 1 player
Rules assistant for Heredity: The Book of Swan
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Heredity: The Book of Swan is a board game released in 2023 for 1–4 players, 120–180 minutes per game, and ages 14 and up. It was designed by Jerome Cance and Laurent Kobel and its main mechanics are Storytelling, Cooperative Game, and Solo / Solitaire Game.
Expansions
About the game
Heredity: Book of Swan is a co-operative, narrative game in which you play a family in a post-apocalyptic world in a campaign structured in five chapters, for a total playing time of 12-15 hours. You can take any number of references as your starting point: Mad Max, Last of Us, The Walking Dead, etc. All will be revealed as you play! The five chapters of the campaign are grouped into five adventure packs including everything you need to play: terrain that forms the game board, characters to interact with, objects, narrative cards, etc. Some cards describe what is seen, found, and met; symbols indicate how each card is used. Depending on your actions and events in the scenario, you can turn over these cards and change the playing field, situation, objects, and characters as you advance through the story in your adventure. No matter the player count, four player characters are controlled by the players, while Swan, the youngest member of the family, is a non-playable character. Each character has three action tokens, and you collectively decide in which order to use them to make your characters act out the story you're telling. (Some actions may or must be done by multiple characters at once for maximum effect.) By using the tokens on your character's cards (head, torso, legs), you can talk to other characters, look around, move, fight, or get better items. Each card can also be combined with equipment cards, whose location is indicated using a system of matching symbols. Equipment gives you additional actions or helps you do things. You can switch equipment between games or create new items to use. If your character gets hurt, they can't perform certain actions. A "karma" deck is used during checks and combat and can potentially change the outcome of your actions. During the campaign, this deck transforms to match your choices and will influence your morale, actions, story evolution, and ending of the game. The game has no fixed order of moves. Instead players follow the "time line" of cards that controls the game's events. The scenarios are written, but your actions lead to cards moving along the timeline as you explore one part of a scenario or another. This makes it possible to create a deeply narrative game without the need for an app.
Categories
Designers
Publishers
- Pegasus Spiele
- Game Harbor
- Rexhry
- Lucky Duck Games
- GateOnGames
- Fabrika Igr
- Delight
- Darucat
Questions and answers
Heredity: The Book of Swan supports 1–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for Heredity: The Book of Swan is 120–180 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Heredity: The Book of Swan for ages 14 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Heredity: The Book of Swan has a complexity rating of 2.6 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Heredity: The Book of Swan belongs to these categories: Exploration, Adventure, and Science Fiction. Its main mechanics are Storytelling, Cooperative Game, and Solo / Solitaire Game. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Heredity: The Book of Swan are: Jerome Cance and Laurent Kobel. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Heredity: The Book of Swan as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.