Political campaigns fail on bookkeeping. Three factions, two secret backers and a leader who owes someone a favour is four sessions of brilliant tension — or a muddle, depending entirely on whether you can still remember who owes what to whom. Put it on a map instead.
Leaders are separate nodes linked to their faction, so when your players assassinate General Morreth the Iron Circle doesn't vanish from your notes — it acquires a succession crisis. Swap the leader node, keep every faction-level relationship intact.
Directional edges record asymmetry: who has leverage over whom, who is funding a faction that doesn't know it, who thinks they're the senior partner. Bidirectional edges are for the open war everyone can see.
Every relationship has a 0–100 strength. Revise it after the session where the party humiliates an ambassador, and the map starts telling you what happens next instead of just recording what happened.
Hidden edges and hidden nodes never reach a player share link. The conspiracy can be fully mapped from session one and still land as a surprise in session twelve.
In the map above, the Iron Circle and the Silver Court are at open war over a contested city — a bidirectional Enemy edge at strength 85, the thing every NPC in the city will talk about. Their leaders, General Morreth and Lady Voss, carry a personal Rival edge of their own, which is why a ceasefire brokered by your players will still be fragile.
Then there are two lines your table cannot see: the Ash Brotherhood funds the Iron Circle, and the Ash Brotherhood advises the Silver Court. Both directional, both marked secret. Neither faction knows. Every time the war escalates for no visible reason, you know why — and so does your map, six months later, when you've forgotten.
The map above opens as a real campaign in one click — three factions, two leaders, a hidden agent, the contested city, and two quest goals to pull on. Rename the houses to fit your setting and you're running.
Tracking people rather than power blocs? Use the NPC relationship map. Running court politics specifically? The Royal Court template is built for succession drama.
The Spider's Web combines an NPC relationship mapper, session planner, initiative tracker, dice roller, and generators into one campaign manager for any tabletop RPG — in person or online. Free, no login required. Your data stays in your browser.
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