How do you make a timeline for your world(s)? [Survey]

[Kupotepo]

Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and gentle people.

What methods do you use to create a word history timeline? [I see some people here said software and paper notepads]

[If you answered as software, what do you use specific software? Do you like it? I am very interested to do that.]​

I think it is some kind of extension of Best Way for Organizing Writing? thread. [If I am not being unclear, please inform me. Thank you.]


Update: I am interesting on Timetoast and Tiki-Toki
Actually, I use word documents in bundle every Words into Excel with hyperlinks.

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Since it is an extension of the thread ask about how to organize your writing? [Yeah, it is just many to choose from. By the way, I have the structure. I just look for more ways to improvise and improve.]

1. How detail is your structure?
categorical- create different folders, files, programs for people, countries, regions for examples
regional - each regional into separate subject matters.
continental- each continental if you have more than one landmass.

2. Does your world have restrictions on travel?
I see some world where one races just stay in one place

3. Do you real plant or create by yourself?
I see many of use whatever floats your boat method by mix both real and makeup to balance the game's specialty.

4. Do your laws for your regional or local government?
Most likely do not impact the player's interaction unless you do a decision tree game. Do you think about it?

5. Does your world have an incurable disease?
States + remove states = Curable diseases.

6. Do some parts of your world have the class distinction?
Yes, after we have a kingdom. No, zombies eat the government, and people have to protect themselves.

7. How you organize politics?
Political spectrum [Just point in the line.]
The rivalry of political groups [VS.]
Alliance grouping [I guess mind map.]

Thank you for your suggestions. Ultimately, I have to try different methods to see if it works better for me or you. It is hard to just pinpoint things down because it depends on personalities.

 

[fluffymonster]

I have a program I use called Campfire, but most of the timeline notes (at this time) are scattered in my many notebooks. I'll come to an idea and later decide something else is better and write it in a recent notebook or make a note in the game itself.

 

[Kupotepo]

@fluffymonster, thank you for your tips.
Do you refer to here, correct?
Campfire
Sorry to bother you that I am doing. Please help me recap what you are saying.
1. you write down just any ideas that come to your mind in your notebooks.
2. if you decide later, that the ideas are worthwhile, then you write those ideas on another notebook.
3. Some of those notes, you put in the game because you instead mention in the game [the earthquake or wars in the past ].

I see you do put your writing into the campfire software. Those ideas must be burned by the software. That why I cannot see it. My bad joke, oh gosh.

 

[fluffymonster]

Mhm, that's what I was referring to. I caved recently and bought it. I mainly wanted it for relationship webs and character details, but it does have a lot of helpful features.

I do try to transfer ideas to notebooks (otherwise I'll forget them), otherwise I'll put them in Campfire or I'll put it in RPG Maker MV (in the note tag on the characters, if it's character-related). While I was fleshing out ideas, I also wrote comments to go along with the events I was doing, though that was only recent. I will also tell a family member or a friend to see what they think of the idea, too.

Most of the time if I go through the effort of writing it down, it's because I like the idea or think it's better.

I have most of my character information in the notes of my game (in the actor tab). I put basic stuff like animal (I have them all connected to spirit animals to make for easier grouping), trade, fear, and favorite colors. Favorite color is mostly for color scheme, as a reminder. I may eventually add needs and wants, but I have that on Campfire, so it isn't really necessary.

If you don't want to buy a program, there are free ones on your phone and you could also make different folders on your computer to make everything easier to sift through. It just depends on what you want.

 

[Kupotepo]

@fluffymonster, thank you for understanding and different ways of doing. I have no problem with the plots and I just write simple plots. I am more concerned about with organization of fantasy world history timeline. I am more concerned about the events in the past. [I do not think I could just write not was happen in the past since the hero was born.] I am just exaggerating.

[Not yell at you; I just think to myself.] It is a big task and I can easily get lost from what happened in the past.

 

[fluffymonster]

If you can afford it, I would definitely recommend picking up Campfire. It has some nice features in regards to timeline and world. I'm not sure if it has any languages other than English, though. I tried looking and couldn't find any option to change language, though I could just be missing it. Otherwise you can use folders to separate different time periods. You can set it up in word, excel, or free versions (open office). If you did word, I believe you can title the page(s) and pull up a side panel to help you easily and quickly find things. I believe you just need to make headlines and so on.

 

[Kupotepo]

@fluffymonster, ok. I will do free trail to see how I like it. Because look can be deceptive. Thank you for your suggestion.

 

[fluffymonster]

@fluffymonster, ok. I will do free trail to see how I like it. Because look can be deceptive. Thank you for your suggestion.

No problem!

 

[Cythera]

I'm old school; pen and paper. On notebook #3 with notes, timelines, and to-do lists.
I find using different coloured pens for different things is handy, especially on my timeline. Purple for in-game political events, red for character-related events, green for world events, etc etc.
Always pen and paper. I'm the person who stops in the middle of a shopping mall to write down my latest idea - sorry to be 'that' person.

 

[fluffymonster]

I'm old school; pen and paper. On notebook #3 with notes, timelines, and to-do lists.
I find using different coloured pens for different things is handy, especially on my timeline. Purple for in-game political events, red for character-related events, green for world events, etc etc.
Always pen and paper. I'm the person who stops in the middle of a shopping mall to write down my latest idea - sorry to be 'that' person.

I'm both in notebooks and on computer when it comes to character information, timeline, story, etc. Sometimes it helps a lot to have it physically in front of me but I typically use the computer to organize and keep track of everything.

 

[hosercanadian]

I am very old school. My latest project is set in the very complete RPG setting I designed for tabletop RPGs. That said, most of the notes live in a 3 ring binder.

I have a collection of key personalities and write-ups (and character sheets). I also have pages and pages of names and vague descriptions. When players interacted I wrote the name of who it was and a brief description. Player interaction determined how important they became and some eventually earned separate entries.

Each region has it’s own separate entry outlining a standardized list of politics, economy, religion, etc. After that any specific area maps, write ups of key events, incidents, etc ended up.

Religion had a separate entry where deities are grouped by pantheon and most pantheons have a write up if world view and how worshippers see themselves and how outsiders see them.

Mythology and history were lumped together and I often wrote each entry as a story to allow me to use snippets or quotes with player interactions. All of these were centred with wide margins to allow adding notes as required.

Finally, any magic items, current events, adventure hooks were a separate section.

This organization meant I would look to a region to see what was there, history (real or perceived) was somewhere else, and all people and names again separate. All of this is pen/pencil/marker on paper or small 3-hole notebooks.

Since my world was so developed, I use it as a reference book and add very little since so much is already there.

 

[Kupotepo]

@Cythera, thank you for your suggestions.
@hosercanadian, thank you for your suggestions.
That is how to protect against technical issues simple pens and paper.

@Zliuka, thank you for your suggestions.
Do I have to people in my world panic about maya doomsday in 2012? Get it.

 

[Zliryu]

Well, I just took a piece of paper, drawn a line on it and added 2 types of numbers. Bottom numbers went from 0 to 6000+ and the upper separately for each era (a major event in that universe) starting from 0 to 1200, then 0 to 1400 and so on (meaning 2E100 is the same as year 1300). Then again, in my book/universe the count of time started with the physical death of gods, changing a lot of the social structures. I kinda made it easy for myself to give them a reason to do it at all. If you are looking for something more unique, something of your own, look into aztec and mayan calendars and adapt it somehow.

 

[Kupotepo]

@Zliryu, sorry. What calendars do refer to lunar calendar or solar calendar?
I believe Mayan used a moon and Aztect used a sun to count times.

 

[Zliryu]

@Zliryu, sorry. What calendars do refer to lunar calendar or solar calendar?
I believe Mayan used a moon and Aztect used a sun to count times.

Exactly xD that's why I didn't use them, as the solar system is way different in my world. Depends on what you prefer and if you made your own planets and moons like I did.

 

[Kupotepo]

@Zliryu, thank you. I forget to think about how gravity affects time and the planet's rotation.
@fluffymonster, I forget to ask you which one you are recommended Pro + Worldbuilding Pack or Pro. Yeah, it is a sharply different price tag.

 

[fluffymonster]

It depends on what you need it for or if you can get by without what The Worldbuilding Pack has. It comes with Species, Cultures, Languages, Religions, Philosophies, Systems, Magic, and Items. The base program comes with Timeline, World, and Encyclopedia, which can be used for general entries.

 

[Kupotepo]

@fluffymonster, I appreciate all of your help. Thank you very much. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

 

[fluffymonster]

No problemI I help where I can.

 

[slimmmeiske2]

As I mentioned in the other thread I use Trello for several things including a timeline. I found it when I was looking for something to help me organize my work tasks IRL. Since it was free and had an online version (so not having to ask IT if they would allow me to DL the program was a big plus), I picked this one over other software. It's very easy to use as well.

I only started using it for game development, because @Kes posted somewhere they used post-its to organize their story and I realized Trello's blocks are a lot like post-its.

To get in a bit more details, I have several Trello boards (one for each game idea, so it's a lot xD), including one that's for worldbuilding. That's where I have lists for the timeline, terms, races and other trivia explained. And then in my timeline list I just started making entries (blocks) for all the (important) events. I actually picked as year 0 the Little Red Riding Hood game I'm currently making, so I actually have -x years in my timeline. Anyway, because of the visual timeline I had, I've been able to connect some events with each other in my worldbuilding that I would have never spotted otherwise.