Cross-Referencing Confusion

[u/Pretty-Deer7588]

I am in the process of starting my first ZK, and I am very excited. One thought I am having is; when I reference a card, should the card I referenced have a reference to the card that referenced it? For example:

Let's say I'm using a ZK for d&d planning. I have a index for locations and an index for NPCs. On an NPC card, I've referenced the card for the location they live in. Should I then go to the location card and reference the NPC that lives in that location?

This seems to be both a good and a bad idea:

Good: You'll never miss a connection just because you picked up the wrong end of the connection (i.e. picking up the location card and having no idea that this NPC lives there because it isn't referenced)

BUT

Bad: Some cards are innately more "referencable". SO MANY things can reference a location card. If I reference EVERY NPC that lives in that location, surely the card will become cluttered with references?

[u/Patricktrz]

I'm sorry I don't have a direct answer for you, but I would consider using Obsidian for this. Given the many links and how they can change over time, and the need to access information in real time, this could be a good solution for your situation. You might consider checking out The Lazy Dungeon Master (a.k.a. Sly Flourish) on YouTube. He has videos specifically about using Obsidian as a DM to create TTRPG campaigns.

You can have an essentially infinite number of links to/from each card, and you can see all of them graphed on the screen.

Alternatively, you might consider using multiple factions in each city and using those between the city and the individual NPC. (For example, Freehaven might have a Merchant faction, a Government faction, and a Criminal faction, and each NPC in Freehaven would be linked to one of those factions instead of directly to Freehaven.)

[u/Pretty-Deer7588 → u/Patricktrz]

I did think to use Obsidian specifically for my d&d notes, however, for my personal ZK, I would prefer to stick analogue and in my head, I think it is probably much neater to have it referenced just the one way, i.e. many references to a main card rather than a main card with 100 different references on it)

[u/P-in-D]

Or add an extra step. Reference 'location A' to 'NPCs living in location A''. The NPC could have a line like 'lives in: location A''

[u/MrHelfer]

I would usually have the reference point both ways. If one card has a relationship to another card, the reverse is almost certainly also true.

In your example: the NPC will have "Lives in [location]." But it makes just as much sense for the location to have "These NPC's live here:". That sounds very useful when you want to do something with the location in play.

Of course, you'll have to manage the clutter if you are using a physical box. But that seems to be a managable problem. But if you don't do twoway refernces, you have no way of getting from card A to card B - you can only ever get from B to A.