D&D 5E Creating a Calendar

[Trit One-Ear]

Hey all,

So I'm getting obnoxiously into world building for my home-brew campaign. Most of it is based off preexisting D&D mythos (Gods, races, monsters etc. generally follow Grayhawk/Eberron roles/relationships with some minor tweaks), but has a unique history and geography.

I've decided I want to create a unique calendar for the world, just so I can talk about times and dates without having to say Wednesday, April 5th. To keep it simple, however, I've just renamed our months and days, keeping the rest similar to our Gregorian calendar. Below is a list of all the renaming I did.

However, I want to play with the year system. I've mentioned this is other threads, but the central kingdom was founded ~150 years ago by a king who has (mysteriously) lived up to current date. At this point is he ~175 years old. There is a sense to using a year system based on the creation of the kingdom, but then it would be specific to this kingdom, and not universally used in the neighboring kingdoms (that is, unless I justify that the creation of this kingdom heralded the dawn of a new "age").
I've also considered using the King's age as a system, effectively rewriting history so that his birth year is year 1. We'd then be in year ~175 now. Similar problems to those above, however, as it's entirely specific to this kingdom.

I could also just pick a random year, have it be universal, and create an ages system that justifies the year any way I want.

Do you all have thoughts/opinions?



MONTHS:
Jan - Month of the Hare
Feb - Month of the Snake
March - Month of the Bear
April - Month of the Fox
May - Month of the Unicorn
June - Month of the Raven
July - Month of the Horse
Aug - Month of the Dragon
Sept - Month of the Owl
Oct- Month of the Griffen
Nov - Month of the Wolf/Hound
Dec - Month of the Hawk

DAYS:
Mon - Day of the Moon
Tues - Day of Glory
Wed - Day of Hunt
Thurs - Day of the Storm
Fri - Day of the Mother
Sat - Day of the Father
Sun - Day of the Sun

Happy Day of the Sun, 1st of the Bear everyone!

Trit

 

[Kikuras]

Hey all,

So I'm getting obnoxiously into world building for my home-brew campaign. Most of it is based off preexisting D&D mythos (Gods, races, monsters etc. generally follow Grayhawk/Eberron roles/relationships with some minor tweaks), but has a unique history and geography.

I've decided I want to create a unique calendar for the world, just so I can talk about times and dates without having to say Wednesday, April 5th. To keep it simple, however, I've just renamed our months and days, keeping the rest similar to our Gregorian calendar. Below is a list of all the renaming I did.

However, I want to play with the year system. I've mentioned this is other threads, but the central kingdom was founded ~150 years ago by a king who has (mysteriously) lived up to current date. At this point is he ~175 years old. There is a sense to using a year system based on the creation of the kingdom, but then it would be specific to this kingdom, and not universally used in the neighboring kingdoms (that is, unless I justify that the creation of this kingdom heralded the dawn of a new "age").
I've also considered using the King's age as a system, effectively rewriting history so that his birth year is year 1. We'd then be in year ~175 now. Similar problems to those above, however, as it's entirely specific to this kingdom.

I could also just pick a random year, have it be universal, and create an ages system that justifies the year any way I want.

Do you all have thoughts/opinions?



MONTHS:
Jan - Month of the Hare
Feb - Month of the Snake
March - Month of the Bear
April - Month of the Fox
May - Month of the Unicorn
June - Month of the Raven
July - Month of the Horse
Aug - Month of the Dragon
Sept - Month of the Owl
Oct- Month of the Griffen
Nov - Month of the Wolf/Hound
Dec - Month of the Hawk

DAYS:
Mon - Day of the Moon
Tues - Day of Glory
Wed - Day of Hunt
Thurs - Day of the Storm
Fri - Day of the Mother
Sat - Day of the Father
Sun - Day of the Sun

Happy Day of the Sun, 1st of the Bear everyone!

Trit

When I did this with my group, we were huge on simple, easy numbers. We went with a 6-day week, 30-day month, and 12-month year. We did name the days of the week, but generally they didn't mean anything to us as we kept track of the day of the month, '12th day of Foaling, 6th day of Dawning' and such.

As for the year system, we chose a system based off of an ancient prophecy that spoke of a world-changing cataclysmic event. We had Before the Prophecy (the years before the grand prophecy), and Before the Reckoning, the countdown of years (established by the prophecy) until the grand event. Because of the important events surrounding the prophecy, as well as the implications of a vast reckoning, most nations in the 'civilized' lands share this system of time-keeping.

Depending on the kingdom you describe, it may not be unreasonable for that nation to adopt a new year-tracking system based on the age of the kingdom, or even the king, and political, and economic pressures might encourage other nations to adopt it as well. Or perhaps multiple nations might keep track of years since the fall of an old empire that they were all subjects of. There's really no reason the years can't be tracked from one point or another so long as there's enough reasonable cultural significance.

 

[Warbringer]

I'm a big fan on the middle earth calendars, and the fact there are several calendars across the races

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth_calendar

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I like to keep things simple. A 13 month year of 28 day months, made up of four 7 day weeks. 364 days, and the lunar cycles follow the month. (The four phases of the moon all fall on... Moonday!)

As for what year it is, I'd advise sticking to a universal dating system using whatever rational you like. Simple is your friend!

 

[Redthistle]

1) You've already developed the base of your calendar (number and names of the months, determined that it's a solar calendar, the number of days in a year, a month, and a week).

2) The next issue I'd work on is lunar: the number of moons and their respective orbital schedules. Keep that as simple as fits your needs. You can look up actual tidal charts to get an idea of how they are plotted out if you have the time and desire to design tidal tables showing how the varied celestial bodies (local sun and the individual moons around your world) affect the tides. However, I'd just ball-park it: that tide is going to be as high or low as you want it for that moment in your story.

3) Sacred days of the week, the month, the cardinal points (solstices and equinoxes), or the year are the third item to look at. The solstices and equinoxes are likely to be more widely observed due to their global nature. Ordinal dates (such as our Ground Hog's Day, May Day, Lammas Night, and Halloween) fall half-way between the cardinal days.

Create a few other special holidays to begin with that make sense to the starting culture; in the kingdom you've described, dates specific to significant events in the king's life would be likely candidates (his birth, his coronation, big victories, etc.). If you have any religions important either in the kingdom or operating in neighboring and/or rival nations, pick a few for those, too.

Other holidays can then simply be worked into the calendar as they come up.

4) Think about the climate and weather. Is the kingdom in a tropical, temperate, or arctic location? Use the weather table from the DMG p109; it's simple and can be adapted easily on the fly. This can affect a lot of things on the calendar that affect cyclical activities in the community, touching on work, play, and religious activities.

 

[Jester David]

I did a blog series on Worldbuilding a while back and one of the topics briefly touched on was calendars.

One thing I'd look at is making the names a little easier to remember

DAYS:
Mon - Day of the Moon
Tues - Day of Glory
Wed - Day of Hunt
Thurs - Day of the Storm
Fri - Day of the Mother
Sat - Day of the Father
Sun - Day of the Sun

Sunday being "Day of the Sun" is simple as is "Day of the Moon", but Day of the Father could also be Friday allowing both days to have an "F-", helping remind players what day it is. Likewise, Day of the Storm could be Saturday.

However, I want to play with the year system. I've mentioned this is other threads, but the central kingdom was founded ~150 years ago by a king who has (mysteriously) lived up to current date. At this point is he ~175 years old. There is a sense to using a year system based on the creation of the kingdom, but then it would be specific to this kingdom, and not universally used in the neighboring kingdoms (that is, unless I justify that the creation of this kingdom heralded the dawn of a new "age").
I've also considered using the King's age as a system, effectively rewriting history so that his birth year is year 1. We'd then be in year ~175 now. Similar problems to those above, however, as it's entirely specific to this kingdom.

I could also just pick a random year, have it be universal, and create an ages system that justifies the year any way I want.

Do you all have thoughts/opinions?

Year 175 is pretty low. There could be some other key dates as the starting point. The calendar could be religious, dating to a key holy date, such as the manifestation of a god or even the creation of the world. Or it could be based on the founding of a city or other old structure. Or there could be set ages, cycling every century or millennia.

But lots of historical empires and kingdoms dated based on the current ruler. Uniform dates are more of a modern invention, and there are still a good dozen calendars being used worldwide.

 

[Remathilis]

I gave up.

I had a Calendar that was Six days per week, 30 days per month, 12 months and a five-day "new years festival" with very simple names (Sun's Day, Moon's Day, Wind's Day) and each month superficially similar to the real months (Januar, Febron, Marx).

In nearly 10 years, no player has ever described anything in terms of this Calendar. Even giving them a copy of it didn't help. People still said "Saturday, April" and the like.

So I gave up. Julian Calendar it is. I even lifted real non-Christian holidays (Imboloc, Beltane, Llamas) to filter in. And it works a LOT better because everyone instantly knows what "Next Satuday" means, as opposed to "Next Fire's Day"

So I wish you luck, but I found most players aren't invested enough to really notice. If yours are, more power to you. It was good enough for Tolkien, its good enough for me.

 

[Kikuras]

I gave up.

I had a Calendar that was Six days per week, 30 days per month, 12 months and a five-day "new years festival" with very simple names (Sun's Day, Moon's Day, Wind's Day) and each month superficially similar to the real months (Januar, Febron, Marx).

In nearly 10 years, no player has ever described anything in terms of this Calendar. Even giving them a copy of it didn't help. People still said "Saturday, April" and the like.

So I gave up. Julian Calendar it is. I even lifted real non-Christian holidays (Imboloc, Beltane, Llamas) to filter in. And it works a LOT better because everyone instantly knows what "Next Satuday" means, as opposed to "Next Fire's Day"

So I wish you luck, but I found most players aren't invested enough to really notice. If yours are, more power to you. It was good enough for Tolkien, its good enough for me.

That's pretty sad, I feel for you. I've been fortunate enough to play with people who are at least polite enough to try and fake it. It's called good playersmanship, if the DM gives you world details to use, the player should use them.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

In our calendar, the days of the week are named after gods and celestial objects. If you follow the same convention in your world then you can bring attention to the gods of your world.

 

[Remathilis]

That's pretty sad, I feel for you. I've been fortunate enough to play with people who are at least polite enough to try and fake it. It's called good playersmanship, if the DM gives you world details to use, the player should use them.

Its not that they are bad players, either. They follow the plot like glue. But campaign details elude them. I think it reflects the fact they (we) live in the real world and tend to think in those terms. Its easier to reflexively say "Saturday" than try to remember the renamed day standing in for it.

So its not like they are rude about it, they just come to play for a few hours and then go back to the real world. I guess they aren't the type to do homework for the sake of immersion....