Relationships and graphs

A relation is a directed score from one entity to another. Bondsmith keeps relations separate from reputation: reputation is how an actor or faction stands with the party, while a relation is how one tracked entity feels about a specific other entity. You set relations from an entity’s detail view and visualize them in graphs.

Relation types

Bondsmith stores six relation buckets, each directed from a source to a target.

Individual relations run actor to actor.
Faction relations run faction to actor.
Actor-faction relations run actor to faction.
Faction-to-faction relations run faction to faction.
Faction-to-location relations run faction to location.
Actor-to-location relations run actor to location.

Each relation is a single number toward one target. A relation from A to B is independent of the relation from B to A.

Location relations feed the control model. A faction or actor with a positive relation toward a location counts as a controller of that location, ranked by relation strength. See locations and control.

Setting a relation

In an entity’s detail view, each relation appears as a row with the target’s name, a tier pip, a slider, and a number input. Drag the slider or type into the number field to set the value; the two stay in sync. The value is clamped to the configured range, and the tier pip recolors to the band the value falls into. Configure the range and the tiers on the settings page.

Changing a relation records a change-log entry on the source faction or actor and emits a notification. Location relations skip the change log. A chat message can also post, depending on the chat-notification setting.

A player who owns an actor can edit that actor’s outgoing relations. The GM edits any relation. Whether a player sees a relation’s number, its tier name, or nothing at all is governed by the relation’s visibility state. See visibility and players.

Mirror relations

Faction-to-faction rows carry a mirror toggle. When a pair is linked, editing one direction writes the matching value to the other direction. Click the toggle to unlink, and edits then affect only the direction you changed. Mirroring applies to faction-to-faction relations only.

Derived faction relations

A faction-to-faction relation with no stored value of its own derives from the factions’ children. Bondsmith averages the stored relations between the leaf descendants of the two factions. A value from a faction with a different range is rescaled to the source faction’s range. A derived row shows a hierarchy icon in the detail view. Editing a derived row pins the value. A pinned value overrides the derived one. On a pinned row that could still derive, the remove button reverts the relation to the derived value instead of clearing it.

Graphs

A graph is a saved view of nodes and links. Bondsmith renders four graph types.

Force-Directed lays out actors, factions, and locations as a network you can drag to explore connections.
Genealogy Tree lays out actors hierarchically for lineage or rank, with parent, child, partner, and sibling links.
Geographic Map pins actors, factions, and locations onto a background image and marks territory with drawn shapes.
Timeline plots change-log events and history over time.

Each graph stores its own nodes, links, settings, and permissions independently of the live reputation data.

The dashboard

The Graph Dashboard lists every graph the current user may view. You pick a type, optionally name the graph, and create it; an unnamed graph takes an auto-generated name from its type. Each entry shows its type and the time since it last changed. Opening an entry launches the viewer. The GM can delete a graph from the dashboard after confirming.

Players see only graphs shared with them. A graph the player cannot view never appears in their dashboard.

The viewer

The viewer renders the graph and exposes its controls in the window header. Which controls appear depends on the graph type and on whether you can edit.

Populate from Data fills the graph from tracked entities and their relations. The set of nodes and links it adds depends on the graph type.
Save Graph writes the current layout and edits.
Export PNG saves the current view as an image.
Set Map Image picks a background image, and is available on map graphs only.
Link Creation Mode lets you draw a link between two nodes, and is available on force, map, and genealogy graphs.
Show Links and Hide Links toggle link visibility.
Cycle Link Label Mode rotates link labels through default, hidden, on hover, and always visible, on force and map graphs.

Force, genealogy, and map graphs add zoom in, zoom out, and reset controls. On map graphs you can draw polygons, polylines, rectangles, circles, and freehand regions, and switch to a select tool to edit vertices.

Right-clicking a node, link, or shape opens an edit menu. From a node you can open the underlying actor, faction, location, or journal entry, change its label, recolor it, or remove it. A node label can carry a player-facing mask that hides the real label from players. From a link you can edit its label, color, and width, override its label-visibility mode, or remove it. Genealogy graphs add menu items for editing connections and resetting the family-tree layout.

Drawing a relation link between two reputation-bearing nodes opens a value dialog with a slider and number input, and writes a real relation through the same buckets as the detail view. Linking two actors on a genealogy graph instead asks for the family relationship.

The viewer reconciles itself against live data. When a faction, location, or tracked actor is deleted, or a backing membership or control link is removed, the matching nodes and links drop out of the graph.

Graphs are GM-only until you share them. From the viewer, the GM opens Graph Permissions, which lists every non-GM player with a View and an Edit checkbox each. View lets a player open the graph from the dashboard. Edit lets that player change the graph’s nodes, links, and layout.

A header badge shows the graph’s current sharing state and reads as shared when any player has View. Clicking the badge opens the permissions window. Permission changes broadcast to connected clients so a player’s dashboard updates without a reload.