Game Calendar. Do you have one?

[The Shaman]

Thirteen-month lunar calendar, four-week months conforming to the phases of the moon, seven-day weeks.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Isn't it kind of weird that there's no software program that allows you to make your own calendars? It doesn't even have to be RPG-based. There's been several occasions at work where I've needed a calendar utility and been forced to adopt Microsoft Outlook to do the job. You'd think some company would have created an easy-to-use calendar program...

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Isn't it kind of weird that there's no software program that allows you to make your own calendars? It doesn't even have to be RPG-based. There's been several occasions at work where I've needed a calendar utility and been forced to adopt Microsoft Outlook to do the job. You'd think some company would have created an easy-to-use calendar program...

I use a program called WeatherMaster. It is a weather generating program (surprise, surprise! ) for fantasy worlds (or any type of world for that matter). As part of the program you can create your own calendar. You can decide how many days, months, etc., there are in the year. You can customise the names of the months and days (and the year, I think) and you can add in special days such as holidays or festivals that may occur outside of the regular calendar. My memory is a little hazy but I'm pretty sure that it includes the phases of the moon (or moons if you have multiple moons) on the calendar. It really is a great program. And that's not even going into detail about the real meat of the program, the weather generator. You can download the complete program (with all the features that you would get if you bought the software) for a free 30 day trial. I recommend that people give it a go. Since it has a free trial period you really don't have anything to lose.

I would also just like to add that I am not connected in any way with the owners/makers of WeatherMaster (I don't even know if it is one person or a whole company). I'm just a happy customer who wants to spread the word so that other people may take advantage of this program and make their games more fun.

Olaf the Stout

 

[kigmatzomat]

I had a custom calendar but gave it up for wasted effort. Every time I used the game calendar I had to convert it. Bah.

Now I use Gregorian. I know it, the players know it.

Of course, now they're in the other hemisphere and we're all confused.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I used to make individualized game world calendars or use the "official" calender from some published world but found them to be consistently unneeded and ignored. The only one who cared what the name of the week was or the name of the month or how many fleegs it would be before the next glorfule was me. Players didn't need to know anything more than that it had been 10 days since they left town, that they had 2 weeks worth of rations left, or that it was 71 years ago that the last King of the Granite Throne had ruled. They don't need to know how or why the moon synchronizes with the calendar, only if the moon is full or not.

It comes down to the fact that it's simply easier to use something very close to the Gregorian calendar because the players are familiar with it, it's easy to track events on it, etc. The benefits of fitting in an exotic custom calendar in reinforcing the uniqueness of the world are simply outweighed (IMO anyway) by the difficulties and annoyances that go along with tracking an unfamiliar time keeping system.

The calendar I use now is a simplified/modified version of the Gregorian calendar that has 364 days, 31 days in Jan, Apr, Jul, and Oct with the rest having 30 days. It allows 7-day weeks and 28 day lunar cycles, starts on Sunday, ends on Saturday, and so forth. While not overly conducive to random generation I find that random generation on a calendar is never needed. For my purposes it's simply a tool for marking the regular passing of time after the campaign begins.

Mind you, if players ever expressed an interest in the game world having an individual calendar I've hot a half dozen varieties ready to go and could easily make a half dozen more in a few minutes.

 

[birdchili]

for my current homebrew (sessions ongoing, and world still very-much under construction) I have a very solar-centric pantheon (sun god (Sol'Mihr), moon god (Lun'Luna), and other gods based on stars and constellations)...

i'm using a 12 month calendar based on the Zodiac (month of the Ram, month of the Twins, etc...) 28-day months, with moons always on Lunday, and highsun/lowsun always on Solday.

7 days of the week: Solday, Lunday, Bloomsday, Watersday, Airsday, Firesday, Starsday

i haven't actully printed it out yet (see first sentence so if anyone knows of some free software that would make it simple to do...

i'm hoping this has both familiarity and foreignness.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

I have a 12 month year. Each month has four weeks of seven days and a precise lunar calendar, so each week begins on Moonday with the new phase of the moon (half, full, half or new) and ends on Sunday.

Holidays I'm still working on. I have a handful. The solstices, the equinoxes, samhain and beltane. Midsummer and Midwinter have weeklong festivals, as does harvestfest. There's also a new years day and a new years eve, right where you'd expect them, at the beginning and end of the months that translate as january and december. I want to work in a few more secular holidays, as well as picking a feastday for each of the 36 gods. It will probably work out that each month a good, nuetral and evil god gets a feastday

I'm trying to keep track of the days in the game im currently running, so i know how much time has passed and can track some off screen events. My players aren't concerned with it, though.

 

[Crothian]

I had a custom calendar but gave it up for wasted effort. Every time I used the game calendar I had to convert it. Bah.

Why did you have to covert it? As long as the players know what months are in what seasons it seems to work great.

I've found that when a DM truely embraces the idea and uses the calendar he creates that after a bit the players start to as well. Constant exposure to something does pay off so I just keep using the names and tsoon the players have it down.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

Why did you have to covert it? As long as the players know what months are in what seasons it seems to work great.

I've found that when a DM truely embraces the idea and uses the calendar he creates that after a bit the players start to as well. Constant exposure to something does pay off so I just keep using the names and tsoon the players have it down.

I think Crothian its right.

Anything utsed contsitstenly enough will eventually be picked up on by the playerts.

If you can manage to avoid tsillinetsts more effectively than I have here, they will jump in, too, and try to reinforce your vitsion, and add to the game-world'ts contsitstency.

I would do well to remember thits and tstart utsing my homebrew calender intsead of giving in to generic,

. . .didn't need to know anything more than that it had been 10 days since they left town, that they had 2 weeks worth of rations left, or that it was 71 years ago that the last King of the Granite Throne had ruled.

 

[Crothian]

If you can manage to avoid tsillinetsts more effectively than I have here, they will jump in, too, and try to reinforce your vitsion, and add to the game-world'ts contsitstency.

the word in bold, what is it supposed to be?