Detail vs. ease-of-use

[Snargash Moonclaw]

Complexity in a calendar can only become useful when it reflects some integral aspect of the setting which all the players inherently "get" right off the bat - it then helps reinforce and feed back into the pervasive significance of that element. Such constant inter-reminding makes it (relatively) easy (enough) for players to make use of it. Otherwise things really do have to get broken down into very consistent temporal components, *not* like our bloody Gregorian mess! Nomadic and I both are using set 30 day months in 3x10 day weeks. Mine includes a holiday at the end of each month to fill out the year (13 months X 31 days =403 days in a year) with no slippage or precession to ever correct for. Every year begins on the winter solstice and the next winter solstice will occur in another 403 days. Yes, summer solstice and equinoxes occur at odd points of the year, but they aren't really even noted by the populace. Month names reflect and reinforce the fact that there are two growing seasons - spring and fall - with midsummer actually being too hot to grow crops. Mainly tho', characters are simply looking at consistent months of a familiar length of time and weeks which actually correlate to them, i.e. every month begins and ends on the same day of the week and its directly evident from "what day it is today" how long it will be until the next holiday. If it weren't this consistent there is no way in hell I could expect even deep immersion players to use it.

Now, there does exist in the setting a lunar calendar - this fact is explicitly stated in the setting's calendar wiki page. It is used by mariners because it reflects tides (some healers track it because of menstrual cycles as well). However, given 40 day lunar months and a 403 day year, there is a constant 3 day precession involved in attempts to reconcile them. Add to that the fact that the second moon has an orbit of 144 days - making it necessary to track in order to predict the sporadic "superhigh and superlow" tides when both moons are in conjunction (and elven and dwarven menstrual cycles) I will probably never actually create one! Most inhabitants of the world know that some such exists and few, PC and NPC alike, have reason to investigate the matter. A good tracking program would be helpful to me since I do want to be able to describe moon phases, although honestly it isn't overwhelming to do from random start values when campaign begins - it simply gives me consistent data from which to describe what PCs see when they look up at the night sky and determine ambient night time light conditions. Basically this calendar is too complex to bother spelling out unless some players really want it - hence, they'll tell me in advance whether they want the complexity is worth the use.

[Nomadic]

Just a small correction. My calender is composed of 20 day weeks divided into two months which are separated by special days.

[Snargash Moonclaw]

ah - looks like you've amended it some - I'll have to go back and look at where it's at currently, must have missed a post

[Ra-Tiel]

Rise thread, rise! :D

Finally got around fleshing out the calendar and timekeeping of my world a bit more. What do you think?
File: 1216722567_233_FT51363_life_on_aeryl.pdf

[Nomadic]

@teh Ra - Looks very nice Ra-Tiel, best of luck with that.

@snarg - Nope it was always like that.

[Pellanor]

My calendar is going to be interesting to figure out. The world's days are just over 30 times as long as our, with no moons and its rotational axis is nearly perpendicular to its orbit, so there are no seasons outside of day/night. Maybe the calendar will be based on the migratory patterns of birds.

Any suggestions?

[Ra-Tiel]

@Pellanor: Perhaps your world doesn't know the concept of "periodic" timekeeping at all, and instead they just count the days upwards. Perhaps they are currently at "Day 129746". ;)

[Pellanor]

Hmm... that's actually a really good idea. Perhaps it will just be days since the last king was crowned, or something like that, since they need a good reference point to start at.

[Kaptn'Lath]

Maybe the calendar will be based on the migratory patterns of birds.

Any suggestions?

An underestimated suggestion if i ever heard one. Time keeping was tracked using thinks like that. When the sun rises between two rocks at Stonehenge they know its a solstace or something. When the sun went behind a certain tree it was lunch break in the fields untill the sun passed the tree. This was VERY true and common in the "old old old days". however as far as RPGs go this does make a collection of local time keeping systems, that can be over confusing.

[Nomadic]

My calendar is going to be interesting to figure out. The world's days are just over 30 times as long as our, with no moons and its rotational axis is nearly perpendicular to its orbit, so there are no seasons outside of day/night. Maybe the calendar will be based on the migratory patterns of birds.

Any suggestions?

So if I read you correctly your world shares a similar axial tilt with Uranus. If that is the case that opens up a whole can of worms in dealing with weather patterns and livable area but that is something for another thread. However it is something that interests me so if you have a thread on it give me a holler and I will gladly throw in my 2 cents.

[SDragon]

Now, this only applies to settings intended for actual RPG use, but don't complex calendars take more from the game than they give?

If they're used by a given gaming group, then yes, it's possible that the group might be harmed more then helped by the calendar. If that's the case, my question is, why is the group using the calendar at all?

Xiluh has an odd calendar. I'm not sure if I would call it "complex", but it is definitely odd, and eventually matches up perfectly with the Gregorian calendar. I could easily argue that including the calendar increases the verisimilitude of the setting, but I think the main reason I made it was because I had never made my own calendar before. An entirely new world gave me a decent excuse to do so. I know my group would probably care less about the calendar, so I'd probably not include it in my games, simple as that. I do the same thing with some of the details of WoD, for various reasons. Maybe I didn't notice the detail when I started dismissing it, maybe I just didn't care. Either way, details like that can usually be added to a setting without any concern of interfering with ease of play, because if the cons outweigh the pros, the details can be ignored.

[SDragon]

Maybe the calendar will be based on the migratory patterns of birds.

Any suggestions?

Swallows.

... What?

[Acrimone]

You can do whatever you want with calendars, as long as you make "Day Planners" for all of your players.  Complex is fine.

That's right... big calendar books with lots of blank space to write things in, with the holidays ON the days that they occur, and maybe even a list of holidays at the front.  Pretend that you were running a calendar company in real life and just make your product.  In fact, you can give each player a DIFFERENT calendar depending on the culture they are from.  That might be really awesome.  I might consider that.

Here's the template of the DM calendar (I just use a word doc) for my campaign.  It's just a simple affair, modeling the calendar in use by the most powerful political/religious body.


File: 1217961440_794_FT51363_campaign_calendar_template.pdf

[Steel General]

I simplified mine on purpose, so I didn't get bogged down with it. I've actually added a bit since I frst jotted it down. There are now 2 distinct calendars (though they use the same basic system); the Berothian (named after the Goddess whose priests created it), and the Opakan (which are a human racial group).

Similar to Ishmayl's its 12 months comprised of five 6-day weeks with a 'Lunar Festival' day that occurs at the end of every third month.

[Snargash Moonclaw]

Acrimone: I love the idea - surprised I've never encountered it before. Mine's simple/consistent enough that such a planner would likely be enough to get players to think/speak in those terms. Also permits ways of adding in some basic lunar data, alternative festivals/holy days, etc. and the whole thing just begs to be produced as the Poets', Fools' and Madmen's Really All-manac, Daily Meditation/Prayerbook/Hymnal and Garderobe Utility.