Fantasy calendars vs. Gregorian calendar
- Thread starter Quasqueton
- Start date
The Forgotten Realms calendar solves this problem by having 10 days in a week (called a "ride" or a "tenday" in Faerunian parlance.) There are 3 tendays in a month, making a total of twelve 30-day months, and 5 festival days interspersed throughout the year that fall inbetween the months on or around the equinoxes and solstices. And once every 4 years they add an extra day called shieldmeet which acts as a leapday.
During the French Revolution they introduced a "scientific" calendar that had 13 months. But it was quickly trashed in favor of the old one.
I have to agree with the poster above though, there is no reason why a fantasy world should have the same number of days in the year as Earth. Nor even to assume that a day would have 24 hours.
I once created a fantasy world for my game that had a little brighter sun and was consequently a little farther away in its orbit than earth would be. This made for a longer year.
The day was a little longer too. It had less of a tilt to its axis too which made for milder seasons.
I wanted 2 moons--one of them really big and one really tiny. I picked the relative sizes in degrees of the sky (compared to Earth's moon) and a little trigonometry told me the actual diameter of the moon and how far away it had to be. A little orbital mechanics told me how long it would take to orbit and I was able to pin down the length of the month for both moons. I had fun putting together a calendar for that world!
The math for doing the above is fairly simple (I am not a mathematician or even particularly good at math but I was able to figure it out from a science book) and should not scare anyone. If you are really in to world building you should take great pride and have a lot of fun figuring out all those kinds of little details.
During the French Revolution they introduced a "scientific" calendar that had 13 months. But it was quickly trashed in favor of the old one.
I have to agree with the poster above though, there is no reason why a fantasy world should have the same number of days in the year as Earth. Nor even to assume that a day would have 24 hours.
I once created a fantasy world for my game that had a little brighter sun and was consequently a little farther away in its orbit than earth would be. This made for a longer year.
The day was a little longer too. It had less of a tilt to its axis too which made for milder seasons.
I wanted 2 moons--one of them really big and one really tiny. I picked the relative sizes in degrees of the sky (compared to Earth's moon) and a little trigonometry told me the actual diameter of the moon and how far away it had to be. A little orbital mechanics told me how long it would take to orbit and I was able to pin down the length of the month for both moons. I had fun putting together a calendar for that world!
The math for doing the above is fairly simple (I am not a mathematician or even particularly good at math but I was able to figure it out from a science book) and should not scare anyone. If you are really in to world building you should take great pride and have a lot of fun figuring out all those kinds of little details.
cybertalus
First Post
The best resource I've ever seen for real world calendar information is this FAQ. Been a while since I last read it, but as I recall it explains every kind of calendar there is (solar, lunar, and hybrid) in more detail than most people could ever want.
As far fantasy calendars, my experiences pretty much match Joshua Dyal's. Even as a DM I have a difficult time keeping fantasy Calendars straight in my head. Last time I ran FR I swore I was gonna sit down and do a day-by-day conversion chart from Gregorian to Harptos. Luckily the game ended before I had to that.
As far fantasy calendars, my experiences pretty much match Joshua Dyal's. Even as a DM I have a difficult time keeping fantasy Calendars straight in my head. Last time I ran FR I swore I was gonna sit down and do a day-by-day conversion chart from Gregorian to Harptos. Luckily the game ended before I had to that.
Desdichado
Legend
Where's theJ_D said:
when you need it? No, I mean the calendar doesn't really enhance the fun of the game for most players. Roleplaying is a hobby, not a school assignment. If my players don't think learning how a new calendar works is fun, I'm hardly about to tell them they need to, even if as a DM I think it's fun to create one. (Incidently, I'm not entirely sure I do; I prefer calendars to have ease of use rather than silly fantasy flavor.)I mean, here's another example. I'm a bit of an amateur linguist. I'd like to really complicate the rules for linguistics and language aquisition and use. Frankly, though, I doubt any of my players would appreciate or enjoy it if I did; quite likely, in fact, they'd find the whole thing frustrating and annoying. So I find a middle ground; I do something that balances ease of use with a bit of flavor, and in general everybody's happy.
In my experience calendars are the same way. Even Tolkien converted his Middle-earth calendar into Gregorian.
I'll stand by what I said, and elaborate (ahem, more detail! No groans from the audience!) on why I have that opinion.Joshua Dyal said:Where's the
I mean, here's another example. I'm a bit of an amateur linguist. I'd like to really complicate the rules for linguistics and language aquisition and use. Frankly, though, I doubt any of my players would appreciate or enjoy it if I did; quite likely, in fact, they'd find the whole thing frustrating and annoying. So I find a middle ground; I do something that balances ease of use with a bit of flavor, and in general everybody's happy.
In my experience calendars are the same way. Even Tolkien converted his Middle-earth calendar into Gregorian.
Perhaps I'm not like most players, because I do find world-setting details like calendars to be fun. As I said, I'm a setting-whore. Fully half the fun for me as a player is learning about and playing in worlds different than our own, and by that I mean all the details — geography, culture, history, philosophy, etc. As a DM, half the fun for me is creating or modifying such detail. I'm the sort of person who will want to know all the names of the streets on a city map, or want to know all the details of a country's armed forces, or sit down with a map and try to figure out latitudes and longitudes of places using map projection formulae, or compile a list of every single noble family mentioned in a kingdom... or figuring out details of astronomy and cosmology from calendars! Go ahead, bring on calendars with different month names and based on two moons and a slightly different year length! I'm the sort of person who would enjoy your rules for lingusitics and language acquisition. Now, as a DM, if I get all this fun out of creating or presenting setting details as an integral part of the adventure, and I go through all the work of doing it, then if I have a group of players none of which who care about it or get fun out of experiencing it — or at least acknowledge and appreciate it — then they're urinating in my breakfast cereal. Not everybody in the group has to share what I get fun out of, but at least some do or gaming's just no fun to me.
To me, an RPG is at least as much an intellectual exercise in worldbuilding as it is a vehicle for storytelling — that's what makes it fun for me. Storytelling by itself bores me. A generic-type adventure which is solely focused on the events of the adventure itself in which no setting details were involved and nothing beyond the core rulebooks were needed — an adventure that's just characters going on a quest for gadget X without any real broader context or setting in which the adventure takes place and the charcters can interact with beyond the narrow confines of the adventure — would bore me to tears.
I have the same preference for fiction (written or film) in general. This love of setting and worldbuilding detail is why I like science fiction and technothrillers as well as fantasy, and why conventional mainstream stories that are solely about people and events they go through (and could easily be real people in the real world) bore me to tears. When I watch Star Trek, or Babylon 5, I get as much fun out of what details are revealed of the greater universe as I do the actual drama of the story. If I watch an episode that gives lots of little details about history, culture technology or other worlds, then to me it's a great episode even if the plot was mediocre or even poor. Likewise, a decent story that is entirely character-based and doesn't reveal anything about the greater world or universe about them (in other words, the sci-fi or fantasy setting is pointless and the same story and dialogue could just as easily happen in the real world) is going to get a "sucks" rating from me. It takes an exceptionally outstanding story to survive a lack of setting detail in my mind. What can I say, I'm a setting-whore!
[And yes, as you might gather the uber-Storyteller "gamers" who put Story above all else annoy me too.]Roleplaying is just a hobby, not a school assignment? Not to me! If you're not going to exercise your brain, give it a workout, what's the point? People who say "lighten up; it's just a game" irritate me. If it's worth doing, it's worth taking seriously. If it's not worth taking seriously, then it's not worth doing at all. When I'm at work I take my work seriously, and when I play I play seriously. Anything else is a slacker mentality and no way to live life. That's the way I like to approach RPG's and the attention to world detail therein!
If I had a group of players none of which appreciated or enjoyed a richly detailed setting and all of which whom would find dealing with such detail frustrating and annoying, then I'd just rather not DM them at all. I'd rather not play than play in a game with little to no attention to the greater world setting around the characters. Go ahead and roll your eyes if you must, but I stand by my criticism and general disregard for people who don't appreciate setting detail or are annoyed by it when I go through the effort of presenting it. If you enjoy your detailed work in languages, I'd at least think you'd understand my perspective even if you don't necessarily agree.
So bring on the alternative calendars for the gaming world! They're fun! Players who can't be bothered to deal with them are lightweights!
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Echohawk
Shirokinukatsukami fan
For anyone interested in the history of the many different calendars still in use on Earth today, I'd like to punt: http://webexhibits.org/calendars.
The site also contains info on historic calendars. The Roman calendar, for example, is a great alternative model if you want something slightly different, without weeks.
The site also contains info on historic calendars. The Roman calendar, for example, is a great alternative model if you want something slightly different, without weeks.
the Jester
Legend
My campaign has 12 months of 30 days, so I'd have an excuse to break out my d30s once in a while (for random birthday generation and similar things).
My week is nine days long for a vaguely-conceptualized astronomical/astrological reason.
Coincidentally, this means that the same day of the week falls on the same day of the year every year. It's not something I'd planned, but I like how it works.
However, in my epic game, something I've been mulling for a long time is going to prolly eventually throw the calendar into total chaos. Yay!!!
My week is nine days long for a vaguely-conceptualized astronomical/astrological reason.
Coincidentally, this means that the same day of the week falls on the same day of the year every year. It's not something I'd planned, but I like how it works.
However, in my epic game, something I've been mulling for a long time is going to prolly eventually throw the calendar into total chaos. Yay!!!
wingsandsword
Legend
I also run Forgotten Realms, and I at least acknowledge it's different calendar. However, I don't expect the PC's to know the names of the different months, or the names of all the years, they at least remember that the current year is 1372, there are 12 months with 3 tendays/weeks of 10 days each, and 5 special holidays around the year, which is enough for our game.
I keep a copy of the calendar I wrote up on the front of my DM screen (yay for Masterscreen!) and cross out the days as they pass to help keep track of campaign time, and remind the PC's of the calendar.
The calendar isn't a crucial part of the setting, and in common practice they'll say, "21st day, 6th month, year 1268" or something like that. For a bit of flavor text I might give a bit of detail of the name of the month or mention the formal name of the year, but that's really just icing on the cake.
I keep a copy of the calendar I wrote up on the front of my DM screen (yay for Masterscreen!) and cross out the days as they pass to help keep track of campaign time, and remind the PC's of the calendar.
The calendar isn't a crucial part of the setting, and in common practice they'll say, "21st day, 6th month, year 1268" or something like that. For a bit of flavor text I might give a bit of detail of the name of the month or mention the formal name of the year, but that's really just icing on the cake.
arscott
First Post
The nice thing about a tenday is that you don't have to do any research to know how long it is. You can still avoid such earth-human constructs as a week while not confusing the hell out of your players. Likewise you could use terminology like 'midmorning' or 'evening', which lacks the modern quality of '9:00 AM' or '6:00 PM' without adding the confusion of 'Terce' or 'Vespers'.
In his Redwall books, Brian Jacques has the each season given a name that indicates some noteworthy event or quality of the season, such as 'the summer of the late rose' or 'the autumn of the boutiful feast'. There's no reason you can't do this with years. IIRC, the Forgotten realms does something similar like that, but the names are already assigned via some astrological means.
Months might work well if each was given some kind of descriptive name. Remember that the names we know correspond to important festivals or gods associated with that particular time of year (or, in the case of the latter months, with simple numbers). Here's an example:
January: Firstmonth
February: Thawmonth
March: Firstrain
April: Newflower
May: Venusmonth
June: Highsummer
July: Firstdry
August: Firemoon
September: Harvestmonth
October: Chillmoon
November: Newsnow
December: Highwinter
P.S.
All those inconsistencies in our modern calendar have concrete historical reasons for existing. And it's foolish to suppose your Campaign's calendar won't have similar inconsitencies, unless you're adventuring on mechalus.
In his Redwall books, Brian Jacques has the each season given a name that indicates some noteworthy event or quality of the season, such as 'the summer of the late rose' or 'the autumn of the boutiful feast'. There's no reason you can't do this with years. IIRC, the Forgotten realms does something similar like that, but the names are already assigned via some astrological means.
Months might work well if each was given some kind of descriptive name. Remember that the names we know correspond to important festivals or gods associated with that particular time of year (or, in the case of the latter months, with simple numbers). Here's an example:
January: Firstmonth
February: Thawmonth
March: Firstrain
April: Newflower
May: Venusmonth
June: Highsummer
July: Firstdry
August: Firemoon
September: Harvestmonth
October: Chillmoon
November: Newsnow
December: Highwinter
P.S.
All those inconsistencies in our modern calendar have concrete historical reasons for existing. And it's foolish to suppose your Campaign's calendar won't have similar inconsitencies, unless you're adventuring on mechalus.
CRGreathouse
Community Supporter
My campaign has a bilunar calendar. Every year, there are 14 cycles of Selene ("months") and 26 cycles of Qamar ("fortnights"). This gives a 364-day year, which is remarkably close to the actual length of the year. It isn't exact, though, and the peculiarities of the calendar make it very hard to adjust -- eventually people will realize that the dates are starting to cycle through the seasons.
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