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Though I too am pretty new to Succession games, I will attempt to answer this....
First of all, you are right, they are very similar.
"Succession games" started as a number of players agreeing to play a game in "succession" (or as you say, they "take turns and give their savegame to the next ruler") usually with the players agreeing beforehand to some rule restrictions, or special win conditions. Basically the players who played in the first round of the game (at 10-20 turns per player) continued playing in approximetely the same sequence until the game is complete (and seldom do players join in a game in progress).
One of the main problems with this type of game is the decreasing number of players means that the same players are playing in the various games being played at one time, therefore at any one time a player could be up in multiple games and hold them all up until they play, or if they are unable to play for an extended period, all games are on hold until they return (or to use the Lazy Days of Summer Game as an example, various players could drop out, leaving the remaining group playing it out very small.....4 players IIRC).
Problems of this type led to the "free for all"....
The fundamental difference in the "free for all" format is that the players turn order is not fixed, and the players who play in the first round don't necessarily play again. Similarly a player who has not played in the early rounds can easily join in late.
What has been the early format in the free for all games so far is that you cannot play again if you are in the most recent 4 players to play. Aside from that restriction, any player can play at any time. In this manner the game can be picked up by anyone (who has not played in the last four) and the game doesn't get held up as often as a regular succession game.
Hopefully this answers your question!
/me
First of all, you are right, they are very similar.
"Succession games" started as a number of players agreeing to play a game in "succession" (or as you say, they "take turns and give their savegame to the next ruler") usually with the players agreeing beforehand to some rule restrictions, or special win conditions. Basically the players who played in the first round of the game (at 10-20 turns per player) continued playing in approximetely the same sequence until the game is complete (and seldom do players join in a game in progress).
One of the main problems with this type of game is the decreasing number of players means that the same players are playing in the various games being played at one time, therefore at any one time a player could be up in multiple games and hold them all up until they play, or if they are unable to play for an extended period, all games are on hold until they return (or to use the Lazy Days of Summer Game as an example, various players could drop out, leaving the remaining group playing it out very small.....4 players IIRC).
Problems of this type led to the "free for all"....
The fundamental difference in the "free for all" format is that the players turn order is not fixed, and the players who play in the first round don't necessarily play again. Similarly a player who has not played in the early rounds can easily join in late.
What has been the early format in the free for all games so far is that you cannot play again if you are in the most recent 4 players to play. Aside from that restriction, any player can play at any time. In this manner the game can be picked up by anyone (who has not played in the last four) and the game doesn't get held up as often as a regular succession game.
Hopefully this answers your question!
/me
)
....it must be true 
I'm going to have to start collecting all these quotes.
...actually, haven't civved in ages. I think about it sometimes, tho.
Atomant sighting!!! 
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