Traplines is based on a prior design that was the predecessor to Linebreakers, and never released. The design is what was originally intended but deviated from with the introduction of chess pieces in Linebreakers.
Traplines, like Linebreakers, utilizes custodial trapping and delayed capture. In this, two pieces of a player will "bookend" a line of enemy pieces and freeze them so they can't move, but can be captured in a future turn. The origins of the idea came from pondering what would happen if you took Othello/Reversi and moved pieces on the board. From this the custodial trap, with delayed capture, move came about.
In the game, there are a number of starting configurations and multiple variants that involve capturing opponent's pieces or exiting one's own pieces off the board, in order to win the game.