Tell me about your calendar

[D+1]

So tell me about your calendar and how/if you use it:

• Does it have 365 days? More/less? Why that many?
• Does it have 12 months, more, less, or does it even USE months?
• Does it have 7-day weeks?
• Do you use a 28-day lunar cycle or something else? Do you bother to TRACK the lunar cycle?
• Is there more than 1 moon and does it affect anything calendar-wise?
• Do you use new and different names for the months and weekdays? Do your PLAYERS use these names or do they just translate and use that instead?
• Do you use "off-calendar" festival days, weeks, or leap-days? Is it in order to make the number of days come out right or because you just want major festivals on those days?
• Or do you just use the real-world Gregorian calendar? Or maybe base it on some other real-world calendar?
• What year do you use at the start of the campaign? Do you start at year 1? Year 256? Or year 14,597?
• What events do you include on your calendar that are unique? That is, things that are not just a litany of "Festival of deity X/deity Y" but, say, a day in Gondor celebrating the Return of the King every year, or the one day when all the migratory birds leave at once called "Eagle Day"...
• When is New Years for the calendar - mid-winter like the Gregorian calendar or the start of spring?

The reason I ask is I've been debating with myself lately about what kind of campaign calendar to use and why. The campaign looks like it's going to be a cross between a number of influences. It's primarily Wilderlands from JG and Arcana Unearthed, plus other sources (possibly including a lot of Eberron squeezed in as it arrives).

So the Wilderlands calendar is fairly odd-ball - 18 months of 20 days plus a 5-day festival-week addition to make 365 days. Now I've held the opinion for quite some time now that a wierd campaign calendar is sorta pointless. My thinking was nobody ends up using it (including the DM) because you lose reference to what it means in terms of the real Gregorian calendar. Saying to your players, "It's Gurbzef in the second mark of Balorcim," is just nonsense babbling, whereas, "It's Tuesday in the second week of July," tells them exactly what time it is. But I'm wondering if you encourage the use of the odd names and time-keeping periods if you get more out of it in the long run by reinforcing the idea that this is NOT the same world as uses the Gregorian calendar. Other comments?

 

[Kavon]

Let's see...

My years have 366 days, which are twenty hours long.
Six months which are all divided into two sub-months and one Holyday in the middle of these two (haven't really decided on a definate name for all of them). Four of these months consist of six weeks, and the other two consist of eight weeks.
Weeks consist of nine days (haven't named them yet..they'll probably have different names depending on what part of the world you're at).
My world has nine moons, with two of which that are like.. twin moons, so to speak. They have the exact same orbit, except they are on opposite ends. Their orbit takes one whole year to complete, while the other seven range from 16 to 33 days.
Only the twin moons affect the calendar, really. One is currently dubbed the 'white moon', and the other the 'black moon'. One has a very high albedo, and the other actually absorbs light around it, so it has a negative albedo.
The year starts on the first Holyday, when all moons except the Black all full (the Black Moon is in the 'new moon' phase then). This coincides with the Summer Solstace, or at least, that's where I have it now (might also make it Winter Solstace...not sure yet). Mid-year would be when all moons except the Black are in the 'new moon' phase, with the Black being full (this results in pretty much complete darkness at night).
The year is shorter since the planet orbits closer to its sun, which is smaller than our sun (and thus lives longer, about 2-3 times longer IIRC). The days are shorter since the thing spins faster (duh ).
I'm currently not running a campaign, since I'm working on things, but when I did had stuff for my players last year and the years before, the year tended to be rather variable, depending on the thing I made up.
As for special days, like christmas and all that in the 'real world'... I haven't bothered with that yet.

But yeah, when I'm done with it, I'll have "nonesense" names for weekdays, months, and "special days". If I need to give my players an idea of what time of year they're playing in, I'll tell them which season it is, and how far allong they are in it. That'll give them enough to work with.

 

[Galethorn]

I go by what we've got in modern times; 365 days a year, 12 months, 52 7-day weeks, etc., and the days of those months and days of the week are the same.

My reasoning is that the characters aren't actually speaking english, but something represented by english, so it would be out of place for them to be talking about 'the third flarn of unglist'. Also, above all, I'm too lazy to come up with an entirely new cosmological cycle. Besides, things like that are more of a gimick than something that actually helps the setting.

Now, as for holidays...well, I guess the only thing I've thought of so far is the fall equinox tourney in the small town where the players are at the moment.

 

[Crothian]

12 months of 30 days a piece. There are 5 weeks of 6 days a piece. The year starts after the Winter Solstace. There are 5 days outside the calendar, the solstaces and the equanoxes with an extra day for the summer solstace. The lunar cycle is different. It waxes over 24 days and wanes over the last 6 days of the month. The 12 months each have names after the twelve gods. The weeks are named after the lements and the days are not named.

 

[Vlos]

One of the ones I adopted from a friend GM is:

12 months (28 days each)
4 seasonal weeks (7 days each)

Each season had a week named after it which was a week of festival to celebrate the season. These were then followed by 3 months until the next seasonal week.

It emphised the seasons and the players would know when they festivals came up. Many plot ideas rolled out during those seasonal weeks. Farmers woudl bring their crops to town for sale, lords would pull out all the coffers to pay for the festival, lots of fun...

 

[Ibram]

my campaign has 365 days in a year, and has months (though the names of those months has never come up) as well as weeks.

The yearly calander is based around the solar cycle, with the new year starting on the day of the Spring Equinox. Festivals are bases largely on the religion being followed:

Church of the Nine (largest religion) places the Sun god Solaris at the to of the panthion, so the solar cycle defines the major holidays as well.

Summer Solstice: major holiday, continent wide celebrations.
Fall Equinox: minor holiday, usualy supplanted by local harvest festivals, the date of which varries by region.
Winter Solstice: major holiday, a somber one where people pray that Solaris will not abandon them to the cold.
Spring Equinox: minor holiday, though more popular then the Fall one. its a large feast to clear out the storerooms. this is also the day of the new year.

 

[Tonguez]

30 day lunar cycle and 12 months with 5 intercalary Feast days (365 days), no weeks but the nights of the Full Moon are Holy Day (which could be interpreted as a 15 day week:O).

My year starts on the first new moon after the Winter Solstice (When the Sun god turns in the heavens from his winter bride to return his summer bride and the seeds in the ground begin to germinate). The Winter Solstice is thus the major 'new years' festival holy day. The next major holy day is the Autumn Harvest festival with various minor holy days throughout the year (things like first planting, first flower, day of the shining cuckoo (first day of spring), first fruit, the Equinoxes and Summer solstice etc)

 

[Ferret]

The only thing I have though up now is that it would be cool if the world was a moon. I still need to find out details like tides and day length, but that doesn't belong in here.

 

[Evilhalfling]

378 days/per yr. 9 months of 42 days, 21 day lunar cycle
it is nice to be able to calculate the phase of the moon for night battles, by keeping track of the date, as the months are perfectly lunar.
each month is named for a god and most have a holiday -
God of War - memorial Day
God Lies - feast of fools
God of Magic and monsters - masked carnival
God of Trade - 15% off sale
and three saints days,
one celebrated in ritual and prayer, one in a fast/feast, and the last in a monster menaigurie or monster hunt.
Holiday observance depends on the patron god or saint of the area.

weeks and days don't have particular names -

 

[Album Cover X]

Although I need to flesh it out some more one of these days...

I do have a calendar that has 360 days divided up into 12 months of 30 days apiece... Three weeks a month - tenday long. A full moon always on the 15th... probably not the most realistic calendar system but its worked for me and my players.