Linking events

A timeline event can link to almost anything else in your world: a wiki page, an entity, an actor, a scene, a session, a board, a card, an asset, the world itself, or another event. The link carries a relationship type so Postroll knows what the connection means.

These links are what power the Mystery view (clue links), Cause & effect chains (causal links), the Relationship Timeline view (involvement links), the per-entity Timeline tab (entity links), and the eventual map slider (location / pin links).

How linking works

Every link records three things:

What it points at — the kind of thing: an entity, wiki page, actor, scene, session, board, family-tree node, map pin, card, asset, the world, another event, or a custom label.
Which specific thing — the exact wiki page, entity, event, and so on. (Custom links are the exception — instead of pointing at a real item, they carry a freeform label you type.)
What the connection means — its relationship type (see below).

The link is saved on the event you’re editing, and Postroll looks up the reverse direction whenever it’s needed — the Inspector’s Cause & effect chain, for example, shows both directions.

Relationship types

Type	Meaning
Involved (default)	The event involves this thing — the most generic link. Use for entities present at a battle, actors playing a role, factions party to a treaty.
Location	The event happened at this place — a wiki page, a scene, a map pin, an entity (when entities represent locations).
Caused by	This event was caused by another event. The forward direction of the causal chain.
Consequence of	The mirror image of caused by — either works, and the Cause & effect chain treats both the same.
Discovered in	The event was discovered in this session. Set automatically by the Reveal-in-session button.
Revealed in	The event was revealed to players in this session — different from “discovered” when GMs reveal foreshadowing.
Clue for	This event is a clue for another event (the mystery). Powers the Mystery tab.
Owned by	The event resulted in this thing being owned by an entity (e.g. an artifact passing to a new wielder).
Destroyed	The event destroyed the linked thing. Reserved for future map / artifact removal.
Created	The event created the linked thing.
Travelled to	The event involved travel to a place.
Custom	Freeform — add your own label to describe the connection.

Where authoring happens

A single link picker for every relationship type isn’t in the Event Inspector yet — for now, you create links from the places that use them:

Cause & effect — the Inspector’s Cause & effect subsection has + Add cause / + Add effect pickers for causal links.
Reveal in session… — sets the session link for you.
Map features — pins, regions, and paths on a world map have a Linked timeline events section in their tool panels, with a relationship picker.
Entity events — events created from an entity’s Timeline tab attach to that entity automatically.

Other link types (like clue for) can’t be added from the workspace yet — a full link picker is on the roadmap.

When linked things are deleted

When you delete one of the linked things — an entity is deleted, a wiki page is archived, a session is removed — Postroll automatically clears the links that pointed at it. The event itself is untouched, and this holds for every kind of thing an event can link to.

What linking gets you

A few examples of links unlocking views:

Entity timeline — an event shows on an entity’s Timeline tab when it’s tied to that entity, or carries an involved or location link to it.
Mystery view — any event that another event points to with a clue for link appears as a mystery card.
Cause & effect chain — caused by / consequence of links appear as a chain in the Inspector.
Relationship view — events tied to (or involved with) all the entities you pick show in the cross-section.
Map slider (in progress) — the slider filters map pins, regions, and paths by date.