# Relations - Manage relationships between characters EASILY ![[images/Relations-Manage-relationships-between-characters-EASILY.webp]] [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_8HetP13DI) · 25:46 · Josh Plunkett · 2026-05-24 > Screenshots come from YouTube's low-resolution preview frames, since the full video download was blocked, so they're a bit soft. ## Outline ### 00:00 The need for relationships - For GMs, who is married to, loves, hates, or is the child of whom can drive a whole campaign, and Josh has long felt Obsidian handled this poorly. - Graph view only shows that two notes link, not *how* they relate. - His older relationship graph in the Patreon vault's people template works but is hard-coded (fixed parent/partner/child slots) and painful for new users to configure. - He wanted to just add a property like `parent` to a note, pick the linked notes, and have a plugin figure out the rest. Plugin developers never took the bait, and he doesn't know JavaScript. - Warning that "this video contains AI": he spent about three days in conversation with **Claude.ai** to build the plugin (not to generate content). ### 03:45 Introducing the plugin - Found on the new **community.obsidian.md** plugin portal by searching "Relations"; it scores 93 on the portal's health review, with a few minor review notes. - Purpose: visualize relationships between notes for world-building, fiction, TTRPG campaigns, genealogy, or anything where connections matter. - The AI-written README documents everything; the code is on GitHub and was peer-reviewed by developers in the Discord, plus the official review process. - Supports **ITS** (ITS Theme) infoboxes and has a normal relationship graph mode and a family graph mode. ### 06:07 Installation and setup - He installs it into a real vault he's prepping for a game next weekend, via Settings, Community plugins, Browse, "Relations", Install, Enable (the website "Add to Obsidian" button also works). ### 06:55 Plugin configuration - **Portrait property**: the frontmatter property holding the image used for each node (he sets `NPC image`). - **Folder scope**: limit scanning to a folder (his "Camelot" test folder) for efficiency in big vaults. - **Required tags**: optionally only include notes with a tag such as character. - **Default layout** (force-directed), **local graph depth** (raised from 2 to 4), show **legend**, and **animate layout** (zoom-in animation, can be turned off). - **Relationship types** with behaviours: *symmetric* (declare on one note, shows on both), *pair* (pull spouses close together), *tree* (lay out top-down when dominant), *genealogy* (counts as a bloodline edge in family mode). - Line styles solid, dashed, dotted, or double, for secret, former, or rumored relationships. Add as many custom types as you like with name, color, behaviour, and line. ![[images/Relations-Manage-relationships-between-characters-EASILY-t0700.webp]] ### 11:05 Managing note relationships - An AI-made Arthurian test set (Arthur, Guinevere, Morgana, Mordred, Gawain) shows the output. - Relationships are just properties named after the types: add `lover: Guinevere` to Arthur and the link appears, with dashed lines meaning lover; Arthur and Guinevere are also spouses; Arthur and Morgana have Mordred as a child. - The graph also renders inside an ITS infobox callout; extended web and family bloodline views appear further down. He spots a grey unlabeled line to investigate as a bug. ![[images/Relations-Manage-relationships-between-characters-EASILY-t1140.webp]] - Command palette: "Insert relations code block" (simple) or "with all options" (commented). Depth and zoom are adjustable (e.g. depth 6, zoom 2.0), and nodes are clickable to navigate between notes. ![[images/Relations-Manage-relationships-between-characters-EASILY-t1330.webp]] - Portraits: set the portrait property to any image in the vault using standard Obsidian embed syntax; he turns Arthur into a mummy lord and Guinevere into a bearded devil, and drag-and-drop of images works too. ![[images/Relations-Manage-relationships-between-characters-EASILY-t1600.webp]] ### 16:45 Visuals and custom views - Change a type's line (rival from dashed to double) and refresh to see it. - Code block options: `size` (small, medium, large), `depth`, `scope` (e.g. full), `family graph: true`, generic top-down tree, and the newer `family tree: true` that places parents above children for a family-line look. A true straight-line family tree proved hard, so it stays a flexible graph. ![[images/Relations-Manage-relationships-between-characters-EASILY-t1945.webp]] ### 20:18 AI in plugin development - Fully "vibe coded" with Claude.ai, which also wrote around 360 self-tests run on every release, wrote the README, and taught him GitHub releases. He argues he'd be a bigger risk to the community coding it alone. - He likes it as a learning tool compared with 1990s-style searching forums for example code, while noting it's worrying for people who make plugins for a living. - Plans to replace the old hard-coded relationships in his Patreon vault and templates with Relations. - Sneak peek: a random town generator plugin in progress that builds town notes, buildings, and NPCs (randomized, not AI content), about an eight-day build. Warning that this is expensive and needs more than a basic AI subscription. ## Things mentioned ### Obsidian plugins, themes, and features - **Relations** — Josh's free community plugin for property-driven relationship and family graphs: [Relations on Obsidian Community](https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/relations) - **community.obsidian.md** — Obsidian's new community plugin portal with health scores and review results - **Graph view** — Obsidian's built-in link graph, which he finds limited for relationships - **ITS Theme infoboxes** — wiki-style infobox callouts that Relations can render into - **Properties / frontmatter** — where relationship types and portrait images are stored - **Command palette** and code blocks (`relations`) — how graphs are inserted - Upcoming **random town generator** plugin (the later Town Forge) ### Tools and websites - **Claude.ai** — paid AI assistant used to write the plugin, tests, and README (he warns heavy use costs more than a basic plan) - **GitHub** — hosts the plugin's code and releases - [Obsidian TTRPG Tutorials](https://obsidianttrpgtutorials.com/) — free community hub and Discord - [Josh Plunkett on Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/JPlunkett) — paid TTRPG Foundation Vault, whose people template had the old hard-coded relationship graph ### TTRPG content - Arthurian test characters: King Arthur, Guinevere, Morgana, Mordred, Gawain, and Arthur's parents - Monster tokens used as portraits (mummy lord, bearded devil) from his bestiary images ## Bios - **Josh Plunkett** — Australian dungeon master and creator of Obsidian TTRPG Tutorials, known for teaching Obsidian for running tabletop games and for his Patreon TTRPG Foundation Vault. Relations is his first published Obsidian plugin. - **King Arthur, Guinevere, Morgana, Mordred** — figures of Arthurian legend used as sample NPCs: the king, his queen, his half-sister and rival sorceress, and Mordred, his son in many tellings.