TTRPG Timelined Citation Network

This in-browser script retrieves and displays on a timeline all the backward citation network of a starting tabletop role-playing game element. By default, discover how Apocalypse World 1st edition by Vincent Baker is acknowledging inspirations, tributes, hommages, etc. within its rules.

Choose a Wikidata Property for relations (default: P2860 "cites work") Instance of (P31) entity types to include as QIDs separated by comma, space, or line breaks (default : TTRPG, TTRPG systems, TTRPG theory).
(Root of the network to build)
Root Node
Low Citations (1-2)
Medium Citations (3-5)
High Citations (6+)
Error/No Date
Total Nodes: 0
Max Depth: 0
Most Cited: -
Date Range: -

The data is retrieved from Wikidata using customizable properties and entity types. Use the presets for common configurations or customize your own. Toggle between Timeline Layout (chronological positioning) and Force Layout (network physics).
Citations flowing backwards in time are highlighted in orange. Citations flowing onward are colored grey and they are a bug in the data. Indeed, some TTRPGs list citations for all their editions combined, while others only include citations for specific editions (which can sometimes lead to references pointing to works published later). Contributions to improve this data on Wikidata are always welcome. Ideally, citations should be indexed at the edition level rather than merging all citations under a single element—a mistake I made early in the project and have been working to correct ever since. Single edition games are the easiest to index since I consider them as one element only.

This tool is based on CitationTree by Nicolas Loizeau, and EntiTree by Orlando Groppo & Martin Schibel.
The JavaScript code can be (quite) easily adapted to other needs. If you do so, thank you for citing with something like this : Martinolli, Pascal. 2025. TTRPG Timelined Citation Network ». JavaScript and Wikidata. Part of On the Shoulders of Cloud Giants project.