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Heirs

Nothing in this family is given. The seal goes out at dinner and comes back by morning.

Wrenmouth is a harbor city where it rains most of the year, and the family that owns the port also owns the paper that reports on it. Ambrose Merrick is eighty-two and still sits at the head of the table. He built all four of his children's names out of the old word for an inheritance, and never let one of them inherit anything. The company seal is lent, not given: hold it and you sign in his name, and you put it back before dawn. Dinner is the first Sunday of every month, and if you don't come they lay your place anyway. You left sixteen years ago. This year he calls you home without saying why, and at your first dinner he moves your older brother down a chair so you can sit at his right hand. Who you were out there is yours to write. In this house you are only ever Four, the number he gave you — and you came back owing somebody something, which is the one problem this table can solve. Settle one thing here and another lands on the table. No coronation, no last chapter, just the next dinner.

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How to play

  1. You open at the monthly family dinner as Four, home after sixteen years, and your first move is whether to take the chair your father has just made your older brother give up.
  2. Type what you say or do in your own words and the storyteller writes the table's answer back in a few paragraphs, with three suggested openings under the box for the turns when you would rather not think of one.
  3. Keep writing as long as you like: the book chapters itself as the story builds, and an Advance button hands the next beat back to the table when you would rather watch than write.

What makes it different

Nobody in this house says what they want. A question about a lease is a question about who is still trusted, and the hardest thing anyone does all evening is turn a phone face down on the table. Your turns go into reading people rather than picking options, and nothing tells you afterwards whether you read them right.

There is no coronation waiting for you. The old man does not fall, and the seal you sign with goes back on his desk by morning. Everything else can settle for real: someone leaves and stays gone, someone finally gets the one thing they have been asking for. Then the next unfinished thing lands on the table.

The sixteen years you spent away are yours to write, a name and a debt and a person who gets into Wrenmouth tomorrow. Say it and it is true, and somebody uses it before the plates are cleared. Sit still and the house keeps moving without you, because dinner is the first Sunday of every month whether you come or not.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to pay to play Heirs?
You get 100 free credits when you sign up, and credits never expire. The game spends credits only when it generates new AI content, based on actual usage — there's no fixed per-round fee and no subscription required to start.
What kind of game is this?
An open-ended novel you write with an AI. You play the youngest Merrick child, type freely each turn, and the storyteller writes the scene back. There are no multiple-choice branches, no stats and no combat; the whole thing happens in rooms, at tables, in hallways.
What can I type?
Anything you would actually say or do: a line of dialogue, a move at the table, a person or an old debt you are bringing back from your years away. The box has two destinations. Add to story puts it in the book as something you really said, and Give to AI is a private note to the storyteller about pace or focus that never appears on the page.
How long can I keep playing?
As long as you keep writing. There is no last chapter and no final ruling; chapters keep opening, and every matter you settle puts a new one on the table. Your place is kept between sessions, so it is built to be picked up again and again rather than finished in one sitting.
Is there an ending?
No. Who inherits never settles, which is the rule the house runs on. What changes is the relationships: someone stops talking to you in private, or starts talking only to you.
What happens if I stop mid-scene?
Nothing is lost. The story is saved as you go, earlier chapters stay in the directory to reread, and coming back opens with a short recap of what happened last so you can pick the thread up.
Is there a Chinese version?
Yes. The Chinese edition is its own book, not a translation of this one: a different harbor city, a different family, the same house rules.