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PostRoll Help

Building a cycle

Cycles are built in Settings → Cycles. Like calendars, they’re edited via one form with a row-based phases table.

  1. Open Settings → Cycles in the timeline workspace and click +.

  2. Pick a template: Standard Moon, Twice-Daily Tide, Four Seasons, 12-Month Festival Ring.

  3. Name it. Click Create.

  4. The new cycle appears in the left sidebar; click to open the editor.

Top-level fields

Section titled “Top-level fields”
Field Notes
Name Display name. “Sister Moon Lunar”, “Vael Tidal Cycle”.
Kind moon / tide / season / festival / custom. Sets the kind chip and default icon.
Period (minutes) Cycle length in minutes. 28 days = 40320; 12 hours = 720.
Visibility World (default) or GM only. See Cycles overview.
Anchor point The master timeline position the cycle is pinned to. See Anchoring cycles to real events.
Phase index Which phase the cycle sits at, at its anchor point. Defaults to 0.
Description Free text. Shown on Cycles tab cards.
Display format Optional template like {phaseName} of the {cycleName}.

The phases table

Section titled “The phases table”

Each row is a phase. Columns:

  • # — ordinal (read-only, derived from row order).
  • name — display name. “Full Moon”, “Low Tide”, “Spring”.
  • short — abbreviation for the phase ring.
  • fraction — what proportion of the cycle this phase takes (0 < fraction ≤ 1).
  • icon — emoji or symbol. Appears on the phase ring center, Calendar day chips, and Cycles dashboard.
  • color — hex. Used as the phase’s segment colour on the ring.

Click + Add phase to append; trash icon to remove. Reordering isn’t drag-based today — change the order by editing the rows directly.

The fractions-sum constraint

Section titled “The fractions-sum constraint”

The phases must add up to ≈1.0 (PostRoll allows ±0.001 wiggle). The editor shows a live indicator below the phase table: fractions sum: 1.0000 ✓ when valid, or fractions sum: 0.9 (must be 1.0) in red when not.

The Save changes button stays disabled until the sum is valid.

The asymmetric phase example: tides feel right with low (0.15) / rising (0.35) / high (0.15) / falling (0.35) — quick high/low peaks, longer rising/falling slopes.

Anchoring

Section titled “Anchoring”

The anchor point and phase index together specify “at this master timeline position, the cycle was at this phase”. Adjusting them shifts the entire cycle without changing its period or phases.

Common patterns:

  • Anchor to today: set the anchor point to today’s master timeline position and pick whichever phase index matches today’s reality. Today is the moon’s reference; everything else extrapolates from there.
  • Anchor to a known in-world event: find that event’s master timeline position and pin the phase you want at that moment. See Anchoring cycles to real events for the workflow.

The anchor is set with plain number inputs today — a date picker that works out the anchor for you is on the polish list.

Archiving

Section titled “Archiving”

Click Archive in the editor header to retire a cycle. It disappears from the Cycles tab and the Calendar phase chips, but it’s kept behind the scenes in case you need to restore it.

Section titled “Related”