Calendars [Archive] - Wizards Community - Pages Merged by Solauren

Calendars [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Doctor X
08-03-04, 01:00 PM Okay, I'm not sure how Eberron's years work. The book says that there are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 4 weeks in a month, and 12 months in a year. Now, is this supposed to be EXACTLY like this (with 28 days in EVERY month), or is it supposed to be sort of like the calendar in our world, with two or three extra days tacked on to each month (30 or 31 days in most months). And what about leap years?

Normally, I wouldn't worry about something like this too much, but I looked at the math and realized that the extra days we have on our calendar add up to 29 days total-- more than a month, I guess. So if time was measured this way in Eberron, measurements of years would be a bit skewed. 12 years in Eberron would be a little less than 11 years according to our calendar. With records in history dating back to over 900 years ago, this could make a huge difference when it comes to perception of time.

So how is everyone else approaching this?
kildaere007
08-03-04, 03:19 PM I am just going with the way they are presented in the book....yea the preception of time is a bit off, but then again most players don't truely identify elves that are hundres of years old either. So if the calandar is a little bit kooky, it doesn't matter too much.
Bluebrush
08-03-04, 03:57 PM I brought this up before.

Basically, yes, Eberron years are shorter. People grow up faster, and die faster.

But hey, at least your birthday comes faster.
D+1
08-04-04, 12:30 AM Originally posted by Doctor X
Now, is this supposed to be EXACTLY like this (with 28 days in EVERY month), or is it supposed to be sort of like the calendar in our world, with two or three extra days tacked on to each month (30 or 31 days in most months). And what about leap years?Yep, that's the way it's supposed to be, and yes it IS about a month short of the real-world 365-day year. It doesn't matter much though. IME few campaigns of any setting run through enough in-game time to make this even remotely a meaningful problem. If your campaign routinely cranks off game time by the decade then yeah, it might be an issue for play.

For in-game historical perspective look at it this way, for every 1000 years that pass in Eberron you'll be only 80 years shy of 1000 years in the real world. It's not a signficant change in perspective there either. Not like the difference between LIVING for 1000 years vs. 80 years would (regardless of calendar used).

The behind-the-scences problem is that:[list=a]
game world designers often want 7-day weeks
they also want a regular number of weeks in a month, not partial weeks
they generally prefer 12 months in a year
they want a year to be at least close to 365 days like a real-world year
all of that does NOT add up.[/list=a]The real-world Gregorian calendar keeps very accurate measure of the passage of time but is far from a model of regularity and even numbers. Generally with fantasy calendars they make up any differences with lots of festival days, holy days, and holiday weeks; or they play around with the length of the weeks, or the number of months, or... heck, just push on a calendar sytem ANYwhere and you can stretch it out or sqeeze it from several other directions. Then they throw in something like a leap-year effect for no particularly good reason other than the real-world Gregorian calendar NEEDS
to have that to keep accurate time.

But for keeping accurate time records in a game world you don't need ANY of that nonsense. ANY of the calendars I've drawn up at http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/cc2/cc2.htm#calendars will be more than adequate for any game world. Or even the real-world calender specifically could be used rather than anything that's more regularized.So how is everyone else approaching this?Well, as I said it doesn't matter much. Use whatever calendar suits your purposes. If you want to regularly reinforce the religious aspects of your game world use a calendar with lots of extra holidays dedicted to specific deities. If you want the span of years to be slightly stretched or shrunk use a calendar like Eberrons. If you want to emphasize that your game world is NOT Earth then just rename the days and months (and even give new names to the weeks if you like) and Bob's your uncle. If all you need is something easy to remember and record ongoing game events with, again Eberron's calendar or something like it is good, or just grab a cheap, plain, wall calendar or desk-blotter calendar from an office supply store and use that.

I spent weeks wrestling with game calendar issues like this before deciding that for myself and my players it was mostly all a waste of effort. The players never knew or even cared how many days were in the game-year and CERTAINLY were ignorant as to whether it actually had a leap-year. If I was lucky they might actually even care what SEASON of the year it was, much less the date, year, and detailed arrangement of the calendar.

YMMV

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Doctor X 08-03-04, 01:00 PM	Okay, I'm not sure how Eberron's years work. The book says that there are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 4 weeks in a month, and 12 months in a year. Now, is this supposed to be EXACTLY like this (with 28 days in EVERY month), or is it supposed to be sort of like the calendar in our world, with two or three extra days tacked on to each month (30 or 31 days in most months). And what about leap years? Normally, I wouldn't worry about something like this too much, but I looked at the math and realized that the extra days we have on our calendar add up to 29 days total-- more than a month, I guess. So if time was measured this way in Eberron, measurements of years would be a bit skewed. 12 years in Eberron would be a little less than 11 years according to our calendar. With records in history dating back to over 900 years ago, this could make a huge difference when it comes to perception of time. So how is everyone else approaching this?
kildaere007 08-03-04, 03:19 PM	I am just going with the way they are presented in the book....yea the preception of time is a bit off, but then again most players don't truely identify elves that are hundres of years old either. So if the calandar is a little bit kooky, it doesn't matter too much.
Bluebrush 08-03-04, 03:57 PM	I brought this up before. Basically, yes, Eberron years are shorter. People grow up faster, and die faster. But hey, at least your birthday comes faster.
D+1 08-04-04, 12:30 AM	Originally posted by Doctor X Now, is this supposed to be EXACTLY like this (with 28 days in EVERY month), or is it supposed to be sort of like the calendar in our world, with two or three extra days tacked on to each month (30 or 31 days in most months). And what about leap years?Yep, that's the way it's supposed to be, and yes it IS about a month short of the real-world 365-day year. It doesn't matter much though. IME few campaigns of any setting run through enough in-game time to make this even remotely a meaningful problem. If your campaign routinely cranks off game time by the decade then yeah, it might be an issue for play. For in-game historical perspective look at it this way, for every 1000 years that pass in Eberron you'll be only 80 years shy of 1000 years in the real world. It's not a signficant change in perspective there either. Not like the difference between LIVING for 1000 years vs. 80 years would (regardless of calendar used). The behind-the-scences problem is that:[list=a] game world designers often want 7-day weeks they also want a regular number of weeks in a month, not partial weeks they generally prefer 12 months in a year they want a year to be at least close to 365 days like a real-world year all of that does NOT add up.[/list=a]The real-world Gregorian calendar keeps very accurate measure of the passage of time but is far from a model of regularity and even numbers. Generally with fantasy calendars they make up any differences with lots of festival days, holy days, and holiday weeks; or they play around with the length of the weeks, or the number of months, or... heck, just push on a calendar sytem ANYwhere and you can stretch it out or sqeeze it from several other directions. Then they throw in something like a leap-year effect for no particularly good reason other than the real-world Gregorian calendar NEEDS to have that to keep accurate time. But for keeping accurate time records in a game world you don't need ANY of that nonsense. ANY of the calendars I've drawn up at http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/cc2/cc2.htm#calendars will be more than adequate for any game world. Or even the real-world calender specifically could be used rather than anything that's more regularized.So how is everyone else approaching this?Well, as I said it doesn't matter much. Use whatever calendar suits your purposes. If you want to regularly reinforce the religious aspects of your game world use a calendar with lots of extra holidays dedicted to specific deities. If you want the span of years to be slightly stretched or shrunk use a calendar like Eberrons. If you want to emphasize that your game world is NOT Earth then just rename the days and months (and even give new names to the weeks if you like) and Bob's your uncle. If all you need is something easy to remember and record ongoing game events with, again Eberron's calendar or something like it is good, or just grab a cheap, plain, wall calendar or desk-blotter calendar from an office supply store and use that. I spent weeks wrestling with game calendar issues like this before deciding that for myself and my players it was mostly all a waste of effort. The players never knew or even cared how many days were in the game-year and CERTAINLY were ignorant as to whether it actually had a leap-year. If I was lucky they might actually even care what SEASON of the year it was, much less the date, year, and detailed arrangement of the calendar. YMMV