It's all Relative! (Relationships question)

[Venger]

Hello
So we are playing TOR (The One Ring) and I'm starting to ramp-up usage of RW, gathering my archived scenario notes, and adding new scenarios.

So far so good.
Also I'm gathering names and places of Middle Earth, and there is a lot.

As I collect names it occurs to me, and to anyone familiar with Lord of the Rings, lineage is a big deal, and I'm contemplating the RP value of tracking those relationships.

I'm focusing on dwarves at the moment, building a cast of living dwarves for future game play, though I may expand the list to those fallen in ME history for the sake of role-play interest and reference.

It's not a complication when it comes to typical parent-child relationships, but I'm curious as to how an experienced Realm-builder might handle the following relationships;

* Ori, Dori, and Nori are half-siblings, the same mother but three different fathers (I'm not going to address the whys or wherefores on THAT one)

* In the case of a character with a First Cousin, Once or Twice Removed on their Mother's (or Father's) side. (There's a lot of that going on too)

So who says RPG's are not fun? In Middle Earth... they be gittin it!!

[Parody]

Ideally I'd map out the parent/child relationships and let the others be shown by the resulting family tree. If a specific distant relationship is important to a character then a Snippet might be the best choice.

Unfortunately, Realm Works doesn't make the greatest diagrams from Relationships. Something better at diagramming and/or family trees might be a better choice for that level of overview.

[Vargr]

I am not sure - but perhaps the Story Board could be used in lack of better alternatives?

I myself are considering using MyHeritage (a free genealogy program - unless you want the pro features) for complex lineage - say, the imperial family through the last 500 years.

It uses the Gregorian calendar, but does allow the input of off dates, such as the 33rd of February.

[Venger]

Hey

So yeah, storyboard is a good way to make a family tree.
No need to complicate it, since notes can be added to distinguish different characteristics of a relationship.

Just thought I would ask jic there was a trick I didn't know about

Thanks for the replies

[Pollution]

Another idea, is that you could set something up where father/mother/son/daughter is set "Related to" and distant cousin, or son-in-law, or whatever is set "Member Of".

This way, you'd have the relationship in the relationship area, but you'd also have a clear difference between blood and marriage.

[rob]

There is already a distinction within Realm Works between lineage and general family if you want to go to that length. The "Immediate Ancestor" and "Offspring" relationships indicate lineage. The "Parent" and "Child" relationships would indicate the more general family relationship, supporting adoption, step-parents, and the like. The "Union" relationship is to indicate the genetic pairings from which offspring arise (i.e. genetic father and mother). For a truly general family relationship, such as the favorite third cousin once removed, there's the "Other Family" relationship.

Our diagramming of this stuff is not where we want it. That's something on the long todo list. However, we've designed the ability to model the relationships into the product pretty well (or so I believe). We just don't display them well yet.

Hope this helps...