Best way to Create an In-game Timeline?

[GM Rob]

I'd like to be able to quickly create an in-game timeline from the Pages and Logs in Campaign Logger. I don't know if the way I'm going about it is the best, so I thought I'd see if y'all could point out the obvious oversight in my thinking!

I currently have a "session" page for each session (*Snn), a "date" page for each day that something significant happens in-game (%mm/dd/yyy), and then session log entries with the session (*Snn) and in-game date (%mm/dd/yyy) in the suffix field. Examples follow...

What I want to be able to do is quickly see a timeline of events. I know I can filter all the "%" pages from the Pages view (but doesn't include Log entries), or search for a particular date in the Logs view (but doesn't get Pages), but I seem to be missing something obvious. I'm not even sure I have a clear idea of what I mean by a "timeline."

• Perhaps something like what I get when I click on one of the log suffix tags (it opens the Page, and all of the Log entries tagged with that page)?
• Do I need both "session" and "date" pages as I've done?
• Am I cross-referencing things in an inefficient way?

Any and all advice would be appreciated!

 

[JochenL]

I have kept my timelines solely to logs. One idea would be to have a dedicated Timeline Log. But this would require separate maintenance. And this, IMO, contra-productive.

Some time ago, Johnn and I discussed a distilled Campaign view where all relevant information is gathered in a table. This could easily be the foundation of custom "reporting."

The relevant story is getting pushed into the future as the current focus is more on collaboration with your players. But this doesn't mean that we cannot brainstorm a solution now.

Do I need both "session" and "date" pages as I've done?

That's your decision. I usually don't create pages for sessions and dates.

I tag log entries with session numbers and real-world dates in my games in the prefix section.
I use in-game dates in the log entry itself.
I usually use one log entry per scene nowadays.
If it gets hectic at the table, I use one entry per "thought" that struck me. But this needs cleaning up afterward.
With Ctrl+S, I can save the currently open entry without closing the editor. So, I create a new entry at the beginning of a new scene and immediately open it in edit mode, continuing to write and pressing Ctrl+S now and then until the end of the scene.

With a future reporting solution, I can imagine fetching paragraphs containing %date tags and listing them in a timeline with the option to expand the paragraph to the full entry.

 

[BlueJaye]

@JochenL Is there any kind of public API for CL that could be used to poll info and build a custom timeline view?

 

[JochenL]

Yes: https://logger.campaign-logger.com/swagger/index.html

Take a look at the tokens page, too: https://app.campaign-logger.com/token