The relationship map

Relationships draws your chronicle's people as a web, with a line for every bond between them: who sired whom, who's sleeping with whom, who'd stake whom on sight. The storyteller draws the bonds. Players see the ones they've been shown and can suggest new ones.

It's in the World group. A storyteller can switch it off. Everyone on the map is a player's character or an NPC, so a person has to exist on one of those pages before you can tie them to anyone.

Adding a bond

Press New Bond at the top. On a computer you can also drag from one person to another on the map and the bond opens with both ends filled in.

Pick who it runs From and To. Swap turns it around if you got them the wrong way. Then choose the Bond Type. Show arrow draws the line as an arrow from the first person to the second. A short label helps, like "Sired in 1892".

There are two kinds of notes. Private notes are yours and never reach players, even when they can see the bond itself. Public notes are what players read about it. Leave them empty and players see only the line.

Players may see this bond starts ticked, so a new bond is visible to the table. Untick it before you press Bind if it's a secret. Once the bond exists the same row lets you show it to everyone, to no one or to a few players you pick.

More at the bottom opens the Bond strength, from 1 (Faint) to 5 (Unbreakable). To change a bond later press its line on the map. The editor opens again with Save and Delete.

Bond types

There are a lot: Sire, Ghoul, Domitor, Patron, Ally, Friend, Pack, Gang, Touchstone, Coterie, Mentor, Lover, Romantic, Broodmate, Blood Bound, Diablerie, Fealty Oath, Rival, Enemy, Distrust, Contact, Retainer, Related To and Custom.

The other end gets its own name, so a sire's childe reads as Childe, a mentor's student as Student and a blood bond's other side as Regnant.

The list changes with the people you picked and the edition. Sire, Broodmate and Diablerie only work between vampires. Pick one of them and only vampires are offered for either end. Put a ghoul or a revenant on either end and Sire and Broodmate leave the list. A ghoul or a revenant can't be a Domitor. Fealty Oath only shows in a Dark Ages chronicle and asks for the oath's details.

Touchstone is for V5. It joins a V5 vampire to a living person and asks for the Conviction the Touchstone stands for. Saving it also fills an empty Touchstone on the vampire's sheet. You can only pick it when you make a new bond. An existing bond can't be turned into one later.

Reading the web

The bar at the top starts with the layout. Network shows everyone and their bonds. Factions groups people by faction and Lineage lines up sires and childer. Next to it Cards and Constellation change how people are drawn and you can show them with portraits or with clan icons.

Filters holds the rest. Pick one bond type to see only those lines, draw a shape around each group or show people who have no bond yet. The button shows a count while any filter is on. The search box finds a person by name.

Drag the empty canvas to move around and scroll to zoom. A storyteller can drag people into place and the map remembers where you put them. Reset Layout throws those positions away and lays everything out again. It asks first.

Hover a person or a line to read a short card about them. Press a person to open their sheet or NPC page.

Export PNG saves a picture of the map. The storyteller chooses whose view it shows: As players see it, As one player sees it or Storyteller view, which includes everything hidden. A player always gets their own view. The last button puts the map in fullscreen.

Checking what players see

As storyteller press See as a player. The map then hides every bond and every NPC players aren't allowed to see. Press it again to go back to your own view.

When a bond loses its other end

If a character leaves the chronicle or gets deleted their bonds have nothing to point at. The storyteller then sees Broken bonds with a count. It lists each one and says what happened: the character isn't in this chronicle, the owner deleted it or it moved to another chronicle. Bind the character again or restore it and the bond comes back by itself.

Remove gets rid of a bond for good along with its notes. A bond that a character's or an NPC's history depends on can't be removed here. Undo that history first. Esc closes the list.

Players suggesting ties

Players can propose a bond between their own character and someone else. This lives inside Our theories, so it only works while the storyteller has theories turned on (see Player theories).

Open Propose a tie, pick who it's To, choose the Kind of tie and say Why. If you play more than one character, pick which one first. Then press Send to the storyteller.

Players can suggest Ally, Friend, Contact, Lover, Romantic, Rival, Enemy, Distrust or Related To. A V5 character can also suggest a Touchstone and a Dark Ages character a Fealty Oath.

The storyteller finds these under Tie proposals and can Approve, Edit and approve or Decline them. An approved tie becomes a bond players can see. Touchstones and Fealty Oaths always open the bond editor first, because they need more than two names.