IC Dates and Timelines

The timeline package puts every scene on the game’s IC calendar and lists each character’s scenes in story order:

• A scene gets the IC date when it starts.
• +scene/date gives a flashback the date it really happens on.
• +timeline lists a character’s finished scenes in IC order, earliest first.
• The portal shows the same list on a character’s scenes page, under Timeline.

It needs the Scene plugin, the scene package and the time package, whose Clock keeps the IC calendar. See Time and Time Zones for setting the calendar up.

You are	You want to	Read
A player	see when a scene takes place	A scene’s IC date
A player	date a flashback	Dating a scene
A player	see a character’s story in order	The timeline
Staff	install it, or stop scenes being dated on their own	Installing and settings
A coder	read IC dates in your own code	For coders

In the game, +help timeline and +help scene date have the same commands in short form.

A scene’s IC date

When a scene starts, it takes the IC date the Clock shows at that moment. Pausing and resuming a scene keeps the date it had.

+scene/date shows the date of the scene you are in, and +scene/date <id> the date of any scene you can see:

> +scene/date 1
[SCENE] Scene 1 takes place on Saturday, 14 March 2026, 19:30.

The date is a scene detail, so it shows with the others in +scene <id>:

> +scene 1
========================< Scene 1: Storm at the Docks >=======================
Status:    finished
Owner:     Ilsa
Where:     Room Zero
Created:   Oct 15 06:47AM
Scheduled: -
Watchers:  Anyone
===================================< Pitch >==================================
-
==================================< Details >=================================
IC date  Saturday, 14 March 2026, 19:30
==================================< Players >=================================
Status  Name                                                             Poses
Owner   Ilsa                                                                 0
==============================================================================

The portal shows it on the scene’s page, as it does every scene detail.

Dating a scene

A scene’s owner, or staff, can change its date. Write the date year first, as the IC calendar shows it, with an optional time:

• +scene/date <date> dates the scene you are in.
• +scene/date <id>=<date> dates any scene you own.
• +scene/date/clear [<id>] takes the date off.

2026-03-14 is midnight on that day; 2026-03-14 19:30 adds the time. now is the IC date now.

> +scene/date 2026-03-14 19:30
[SCENE] Done: Scene 1 takes place on Saturday, 14 March 2026, 19:30.
> +scene/date/clear
[SCENE] Done: Scene 3 has no IC date now. +scene/date 3=<date> gives it one.

A date the calendar does not have, or one written another way, is refused:

> +scene/date 4=2026-02-30
[SCENE] Warning: '2026-02-30' is not a date in the IC calendar.
> +scene/date 4=next tuesday
[SCENE] Warning: Write the IC date year first, as the calendar shows it: 2026-03-14, or 2026-03-14 19:30. +scene/date now gives the IC date now.

The year is the IC year. A game whose calendar is set 300 years ahead writes 2326-03-14, and the scene is placed by that date.

Words instead of a date

+scene/set icdate=<words> changes only the words a scene shows, such as The night of the storm. The scene keeps its place on the timeline, so a vague date still sorts where it happens:

> +scene/set 2/icdate=The night of the storm
[SCENE] Done: Scene 2: IC date is now The night of the storm.

+scene/date writes both the words and the place again.

The timeline

+timeline lists your finished scenes in IC order, earliest first. +timeline <name> lists another character’s: only the scenes you can see, so a private scene shows only to the people in it.

> +timeline Ilsa
==============================< Timeline: Ilsa >==============================
IC date                         Scene                                Where
Sunday, 2 November 2025, 06:15  Before the War                       Room Zero
Saturday, 14 March 2026, 19:30  Storm at the Docks                   Room Zero
Thursday, 30 April 2026, 21:00  Lanterns on the Water                Room Zero
not dated                       Old Business                         Room Zero
==============================================================================
+scene <id> opens a scene
==============================================================================

Before the War was played after Storm at the Docks, and comes first because it is dated earlier. Scenes with no date come last, marked not dated.

A page holds as many scenes as fit your screen. +timeline/2 [<name>] shows the second page, and each page but the last ends with the command for the next. Past the last page:

> +timeline/3 Ilsa
[TIMELINE] Warning: There is one page - you asked for page 3.

In the portal

A character’s scenes page, Scenes with <name>, gains a Timeline chip when the timeline package is installed. It lists the same finished scenes in the same order, each under its IC date:

The search box narrows the timeline too. On a phone the dates sit above full-width cards:

Installing and settings

The timeline package ships with the server but is not installed at first boot. Install it from the portal’s Packages page, or tick it in the setup wizard. It needs scene 1.6 or later, time 1.1 or later, plus-config and the event handler chosen in first-run setup, and installs only while the Scene plugin runs.

Scenes played before it was installed have no date. They show as not dated until their owners date them.

+config timeline shows its one setting:

> +config timeline
+===========================< Settings: timeline >===========================+
| IC dates on scenes and the +timeline list.                                 |
|                                                                            |
| Setting  Value  Allowed    What it does                                    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| stamp    yes    Yes or no  Give a scene the IC date when it starts, unless |
|                            it has one.                                     |
+============================================================================+
| +config timeline/<setting>=<value> changes one.                            |
+============================================================================+

Turn stamp off when your game’s scenes rarely happen “now”, so each owner dates their own:

> +config timeline/stamp=no
[CONFIG] Done: timeline/stamp is now no, was yes.

How the date is written, the months’ and weekdays’ names, and the year the calendar adds are the time package’s settings: +config time. A change to how dates are written applies to dates given after it; dates already given keep their words.

For coders

A scene’s date is two scene details:

Detail	Holds
icdate	The words shown, as the Clock writes the date
icsecs	The IC moment in seconds, before the calendar’s years are added; hidden, and what the timeline sorts by

> think scene(1,icsecs)
1773516600
> think scenedetail(icdate,sort)
icsecs
> think scenedetail(icsecs,hidden)
1

icdate names icsecs as its sort, so the portal and api/scenes?sort=icdate order scenes by the number while showing the words. icsecs is hidden: it never shows in +scene, on a card, or in a search. Any package can use the same two fields for a detail of its own; see Listing details.

scenelist(mine,,,<player>) lists another player’s scenes that you can see, as the timeline does.

Acting when a scene starts

The package dates a scene by hearing the SCENE`STATUS event, which the Scene plugin raises when a scene is made or its status changes. %<scene> is the scene’s id, %<status> its status now and %<previous> the one before, empty for a new scene. The package’s attribute on the Event Handler:

- ref: event
  target: "{{$event_handler}}"
  attributes:
    SCENE`STATUS`TIMELINE: |-
      @assert strmatch(%<status>,active); @trigger {{timeline}}/TRIG`STAMP=%<scene>

Note

A scene starts active when it is made, and becomes active again when it resumes from a pause, so the event fires for both. The timeline package keeps a date a scene already has.

See Events for hearing events from your own package.