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Mind Maps

Mind maps are a free-form canvas for visualising how people, places, factions, and ideas relate to each other. Where a family tree is structured by generation, a mind map is entirely freehand — useful for intrigue webs, political relationships, faction alliances, mystery boards, and anything else that doesn't fit neatly into a hierarchy.

Creating a mind map​

From the Worldbuilding section, open the Mind Maps tab and click New Mind Map. Name it and you'll land on the canvas editor.

Adding nodes​

Click anywhere on the empty canvas to create a new node. Each node has:

  • Label — the name of the person, place, faction, or concept
  • Colour — a colour to categorise the node visually (useful for distinguishing character nodes from faction nodes from location nodes, for example)

You can create as many nodes as you need. Drag them anywhere on the canvas to arrange them however makes sense for your layout.

Drawing connections​

To connect two nodes, hover over one until the connection handle appears on its edge, then drag across to the target node. Each connection can have:

  • Label — a short description of the relationship (e.g. "owes a debt", "secretly allied", "blood rivals")

Connections can be deleted or relabelled at any time.

Canvas navigation​

The mind map canvas supports:

  • Zoom — scroll to zoom in or out
  • Pan — click and drag the background to move around
  • Node drag — click and drag individual nodes to reposition them

There's no size limit on the canvas, so even very large webs of relationships are manageable.

Exporting​

You can export any mind map as an image to share outside of Loreden — useful as a player handout, a reference document, or a discussion starter.

Ideas for how to use mind maps​

  • Intrigue webs — show who knows what, who's loyal to whom, and where the leverage lies
  • Political maps — faction alliances, rivalries, and neutral parties
  • Mystery boards — suspects, clues, and connections while investigating a crime or conspiracy
  • Session planning — map out the NPCs relevant to an upcoming session and how they're connected
  • character networks — show how your character is connected to the world around them