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A character relationship map that changes as the story does

Most relationship charts show one moment. Storymapper’s shows the whole story: draw who is related to whom, who leads whom and who is against whom, give each tie a moment to begin and end, and press play.

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Free forever for the core features. No card needed.

Relationships: family trees, chains of command and rivalries that change as the story plays.

Family trees, hierarchies and alliances on one chart

A box can be a person, a house, a guild or a whole kingdom. Join two boxes as parent and child, as partners, as leader and led, or with words of your own, such as “sworn to” or “wants dead”.

Relationships that start and end

Give a person or a tie a moment in the story to begin and a moment to end. Press play and the chart moves through your chapters: the king fades, the heir takes his place, an alliance breaks and a traitor appears.

Tidy in one click

Drag boxes wherever you like, and they snap into line with their neighbours. Or press “Tidy into a tree” and the chart arranges itself, with parents and leaders above and partners side by side.

The same story as your timeline and map

The chart plays along the same acts, chapters and dates as your timeline, and uses the same colour-coded labels. Save it as a picture at any moment, or share a read-only link to the whole project.

How it works

  1. Open a project and choose Relationships in the sidebar.
  2. Add a box for each person, house or group, and give each a colour.
  3. Drag from a dot on one box to another box, then choose the kind of tie or write your own words.
  4. Give people and ties a start or an end in the story, then press play.
Start your first project

Questions and answers

Is the relationship map free?
Yes. The Free plan includes one relationships chart in each project, with playback, for up to four projects, and no card is needed. Storymapper Plus lifts the limit, so one project can hold a chart for each family, court or faction.
Can I use it as a family tree maker for a novel?
Yes. Join parents to children and partners to each other, and “Tidy into a tree” lays the generations out in rows. A fictional family can be as tangled as you like: the chart does not insist on two parents or one partner.
Can it show an organisation chart or a chain of command?
Yes. Use the “leads” tie from each leader to those under them. It works for armies, guilds, courts, crews and companies.
Does it work out ages or dates of birth?
No. Story time in Storymapper is the order of your chapters and acts, not a calendar, so the chart shows when a tie begins and ends in the story and does not calculate ages.

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