Relation properties

As the cast grows, remembering “who was this person tangled up with again?” means rereading character write-ups one by one. A relation property links nodes as values — a faction, a family tie, a rival — so the ties show at a glance in the character's table and the graph draws them as lines, giving you the whole picture without drawing a character map yourself.

Say you put Raon in Vincent's “Older brother” property. Raon shows right there in Vincent's table, and a line appears between the two in the graph.

Writing a relation

A relation property is a property whose value type is Node relation. How to add one is in Node types & slots.

1. Press a relation property, like Vincent's “Older brother”.
2. Pick another node as its value, and the two are joined. Typing just two letters narrows the candidates.

The name in a filled-in value links to that node.

Recording both sides

For a tie that comes in pairs, like older and younger brother, set it up so writing one side fills in the other. No writing it twice, no forgetting one side.

1. Under Reverse sync on the relation property, pick the matching property on the other node.
2. Now a relation written on one side is recorded in that property on the other node too: put Raon in Vincent's “Older brother” and Vincent goes into Raon's “Younger brother”.

Narrowing what it points to

Use Restrict to type to narrow which types the relation can point to. Point “Faction” at the faction type only, and characters and places stay out of the list you pick from.

Keeping a relation that changes

When someone changes sides or a tie breaks partway through, give the relation value a property start and end too. You don't have to delete the relation from earlier chapters.