A new calender

On Sun, 12 December 1999, "Robert A. Howard" wrote:

> 
> I'm thinking of creating a new calendar for the world my new group is going through, and thought I'd ask the advice of the Masters :) on what they'd do to make it different.

The world that I actually created a calendar for only had 300 days (5-day week, 60 weeks), and because of the dozens of religions, practically every day was a holy day for somebody. Keeping the number of days divisible by some die roll is pretty handy.

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A new calender

> I'm thinking of creating a new calendar for the world my new group is going 
> through, and thought I'd ask the advice of the Masters :) on what they'd do 
> to make it different.
>  
>  I don't need to have a 365 day year, for one thing. :) I was thinking of 8 
> holy days, for the Solstices and the mid-points between the Solstices (for 
> instance, Halloween).

364 days is nice, as you can easily split it up into 52 7-day weeks without 
the messiness of the Gregorian calendar.  I'd also suggest more holy 
days...somewhere around 20, of varying importance.  For example, in the 
Christian Church, you've got significant holy days like Christmas and Easter, 
where preparations for and the conducting of the holy day are extremely 
significant affairs.  Then you've got things like St. Valentine's and St. 
Patrick's Day, which have lost their original (yes, I know, these holiday's 
developed from pagan holidays, but I mean "original" as far as Christianity 
is concerned) meaning in our modern world, and are celebrated with little 
more than wearing a certain color or giving a colored piece of paper poorly 
shaped like a major organ.

Lucifer >:}

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Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n" --Milton, Paradise Lost, Bk. 1

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A new calender

Take this sugestion... 
8 months of 4 weeks each
each week being of 11 days with the holidays being extra days not
belonging to any month...

It would have 360 days (pretty close to ours...) and 90 days quarters...
that mean you would have 2 month seasons... 

take a look

1..11 Week 1, Month 1
12..22 Week 2, Month 1
23..33 Week 3, Month 1
34..44 Week 4, Month 1
45 Holyday 1
46..56 Week 1, Month 2
57..67 Week 2, Month 2
68..78 Week 3, Month 2
79..89 Week 4, Month 2
90 Holyday 2
91..101 Week 1, Month 3
102..112 Week 2, Month 3
113..123 Week 3, Month 3
124..134 Week 4, Month 3
135 Holyday 3
136..146 Week 1, Month 4
147..157 Week 2, Month 4
158..168 Week 3, Month 4
169..179 Week 4, Month 4
180 Holyday 4
181..191 Week 1, Month 5
192..202 Week 2, Month 5
203..213 Week 3, Month 5
214..224 Week 4, Month 5
225 Holyday 5
226..236 Week 1, Month 6
237..247 Week 2, Month 6
248..258 Week 3, Month 6
259..269 Week 4, Month 6
270 Holyday 6
271..281 Week 1, Month 7
282..292 Week 2, Month 7
293..303 Week 3, Month 7
304..314 Week 4, Month 7
315 Holyday 7
316..326 Week 1, Month 8
327..337 Week 2, Month 8
338..348 Week 3, Month 8
349..359 Week 4, Month 8
360 Holyday 8

On Sun, 12 Dec 1999, Robert A. Howard wrote:

> I'm thinking of creating a new calendar for the world my new group is going through, and thought I'd ask the advice of the Masters :) on what they'd do to make it different.
> 
> I don't need to have a 365 day year, for one thing. :) I was thinking of 8 holy days, for the Solstices and the mid-points between the Solstices (for instance, Halloween).
> 
> What would you do for such a calendar, and how many days would you chose?
> 
> Rob
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> GMAST Home Page:  http://www.phoenyx.net/gmast/
> Tech support questions go to support@phoenyx.net.
> 

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A new calender

My favorite regular calendar is 12 months of 4 weeks each.  Each week has 7
days like our own.  The part that helps me the most is that between each
season of 3 months, there is a festival of 1 week.  Each month in winter
starts with a new moon.  During the festival at the end of winter, the moon
shifts from new to cresent.  Therefore each spring month starts with a
cresent moon.  Summer starts will a full moon and fall with the other
cresent.  Each year has 52 weeks, 364 days, no complicated math and it is
easy to tell time by the phase of the moon if the season is known.

Rick

----- Original Message -----
From: Nuno Silva 
To: 
Sent: Monday, December 13, 1999 6:37 AM
Subject: Re: GM: A new calender


> Take this sugestion...
> 8 months of 4 weeks each
> each week being of 11 days with the holidays being extra days not
> belonging to any month...
>
> It would have 360 days (pretty close to ours...) and 90 days quarters...
> that mean you would have 2 month seasons...
>
> take a look
>
> 1..11 Week 1, Month 1
> 12..22 Week 2, Month 1
> 23..33 Week 3, Month 1
> 34..44 Week 4, Month 1
> 45 Holyday 1
> 46..56 Week 1, Month 2
> 57..67 Week 2, Month 2
> 68..78 Week 3, Month 2
> 79..89 Week 4, Month 2
> 90 Holyday 2
> 91..101 Week 1, Month 3
> 102..112 Week 2, Month 3
> 113..123 Week 3, Month 3
> 124..134 Week 4, Month 3
> 135 Holyday 3
> 136..146 Week 1, Month 4
> 147..157 Week 2, Month 4
> 158..168 Week 3, Month 4
> 169..179 Week 4, Month 4
> 180 Holyday 4
> 181..191 Week 1, Month 5
> 192..202 Week 2, Month 5
> 203..213 Week 3, Month 5
> 214..224 Week 4, Month 5
> 225 Holyday 5
> 226..236 Week 1, Month 6
> 237..247 Week 2, Month 6
> 248..258 Week 3, Month 6
> 259..269 Week 4, Month 6
> 270 Holyday 6
> 271..281 Week 1, Month 7
> 282..292 Week 2, Month 7
> 293..303 Week 3, Month 7
> 304..314 Week 4, Month 7
> 315 Holyday 7
> 316..326 Week 1, Month 8
> 327..337 Week 2, Month 8
> 338..348 Week 3, Month 8
> 349..359 Week 4, Month 8
> 360 Holyday 8
>
> On Sun, 12 Dec 1999, Robert A. Howard wrote:
>
> > I'm thinking of creating a new calendar for the world my new group is
going through, and thought I'd ask the advice of the Masters :) on what
they'd do to make it different.
> >
> > I don't need to have a 365 day year, for one thing. :) I was thinking of
8 holy days, for the Solstices and the mid-points between the Solstices (for
instance, Halloween).
> >
> > What would you do for such a calendar, and how many days would you
chose?
> >
> > Rob
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > GMAST Home Page:  http://www.phoenyx.net/gmast/
> > Tech support questions go to support@phoenyx.net.
> >
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> GMAST Home Page:  http://www.phoenyx.net/gmast/
> Tech support questions go to support@phoenyx.net.

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A new calender

At 03:38 PM 12/13/99 -0600, Ricky Hunt wrote:
>My favorite regular calendar is 12 months of 4 weeks each.  Each week has 7
>days like our own.  The part that helps me the most is that between each
>season of 3 months, there is a festival of 1 week.  Each month in winter
>starts with a new moon.  During the festival at the end of winter, the moon
>shifts from new to cresent.  Therefore each spring month starts with a
>cresent moon.  Summer starts will a full moon and fall with the other
>cresent.  Each year has 52 weeks, 364 days, no complicated math and it is
>easy to tell time by the phase of the moon if the season is known.
>
This is exactly the sort of calendar I developed for Elendar (my home grown
world) years and years ago, when I first started to work on the world.  Its
been posted at various times on ADND-L and is now on my website as part of
the background info for Between the Lines (a PBEM I run).  Its fun
developing the holidays to fit with the theme of the season, and in a world
where the gods do meddle, developing the theme for the seasons was just as
fun.  When they say it is the time for fertility, they *mean* it!

D.
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|         http://www.albany.net/~d-singer         |
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A new calender

--- "Robert A. Howard"  wrote:
> I'm thinking of creating a new calendar for the
> world my new group is going through, and thought I'd
> ask the advice of the Masters :) on what they'd do
> to make it different.
> 
> I don't need to have a 365 day year, for one thing.
> :) I was thinking of 8 holy days, for the Solstices
> and the mid-points between the Solstices (for
> instance, Halloween).
> 
> What would you do for such a calendar, and how many
> days would you chose?

As an example of one 'GM-created' calendar look in the
back of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings book 3 "Return of
the King" it has a calendar used by the hobbits,
including thier holy days and such...  Hobbits being a
practical people developed a calendar that is the same
each year.... easy to recycle... ::)

-- Chris J. Whitcomb

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A new calender

> For example, in the 
> Christian Church, you've got significant holy days
> like Christmas and Easter, 
> where preparations for and the conducting of the
> holy day are extremely 
> significant affairs.  Then you've got things like
> St. Valentine's and St. 
> Patrick's Day, which have lost their original (yes,
> I know, these holiday's 
> developed from pagan holidays, but I mean "original"
> as far as Christianity 
> is concerned) 

Actually, both Christmas and Easter were originally
pagan holidays that the Catholic church co-opted and
re-formated to represent major events in the life of
Christ (namely is birth and death).  

-- Chris J. Whitcomb
p.s. I still believe it was the Catholics and not the
Christians who were responsible for the mess called
the crusades....
p.p.s. btw, I still believe that Catholics aren't
Christians... but then I belong to neither group...

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A new calender

> Actually, both Christmas and Easter were originally
> pagan holidays that the Catholic church co-opted and
> re-formated to represent major events in the life of
> Christ (namely is birth and death).
>
> -- Chris J. Whitcomb

The celebration of Ister, a fertility goddess & the origin of the eggs and
bunnies.

Have fun,
Tom
Temorris@pacbell.net

When branding irons were first invented
     the cattle were really impressed.


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A new calender

At 16:02 on 14 Dec 99,, Chris Whitcomb   wrote:

> 
> > For example, in the 
> > Christian Church, you've got significant holy days
> > like Christmas and Easter, 
> > where preparations for and the conducting of the
> > holy day are extremely 
> > significant affairs.  Then you've got things like
> > St. Valentine's and St. 
> > Patrick's Day, which have lost their original (yes,
> > I know, these holiday's 
> > developed from pagan holidays, but I mean "original"
> > as far as Christianity 
> > is concerned) 
> 
> Actually, both Christmas and Easter were originally
> pagan holidays that the Catholic church co-opted and
> re-formated to represent major events in the life of
> Christ (namely is birth and death).  
> 
> -- Chris J. Whitcomb
> p.s. I still believe it was the Catholics and not the
> Christians who were responsible for the mess called
> the crusades....
> p.p.s. btw, I still believe that Catholics aren't
> Christians... but then I belong to neither group...

	Howdy, I'm neither Catholic or Christian, but is this really the place
to go around making accusations of this sort? Anyways. I was also 
going to suggest the Irony Games calender maker, but someone beat
me to it. In terms of recording time (and this will vary between cultures, 
especially between longer lived creatures like elves and shorter lived creatures
like humans) you may want to consider if there is some dividing of periods of the 
BC / AD type used in Western countries, or like the Pre and Post Cataclysm 
reckoning used in the Dragonlance milleu. Some sort of major event like the birth
of your local messiah or a near apocalypse can add flavour to the campaign world.

Oh, and for an example of a calender
created with the Irony Games device, check out my website. And yes, I know I'm 
waaaaay behind in updates

Adam Collinge: acolinge@uvic.ca          
Dreams Afoot: Aralon Online.                
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A new calender

> Anyways. I was also 
> going to suggest the Irony Games calender maker, but
> someone beat
> me to it. In terms of recording time (and this will
> vary between cultures, 
> especially between longer lived creatures like elves
> and shorter lived creatures
> like humans) you may want to consider if there is
> some dividing of periods of the 
> BC / AD type used in Western countries, or like the
> Pre and Post Cataclysm 
> reckoning used in the Dragonlance milleu. Some sort
> of major event like the birth
> of your local messiah or a near apocalypse can add
> flavour to the campaign world.

For those masochists out there... you could develop a
calendar that marks its years based on when the
lastest king was crowned.... for example...

"The Great Locust Relocation occured during the 14th
year of the reign of King Whodat who was crowned in
the 21st year of the reign of King Whatchamacallim who
was crowned in the 2nd year of King Flabberghasted..."

-- Chris J. Whitcomb
"There is no spoon."

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A new calender

From: Chris Whitcomb 
>"The Great Locust Relocation occured during the 14th
>year of the reign of King Whodat who was crowned in
>the 21st year of the reign of King Whatchamacallim who
>was crowned in the 2nd year of King Flabberghasted..."
>
Similarly entertaining to those cultures that don't bother with calendars.

"... and when did the castle fall?"
"Now that was in me father's time.  Just after the tavern was built."
"But you said that this pub had been here for three hundred years"
"Arr.  That be right."
"So the castle fell three hundred years ago."
"Nope.  It was late in the shadow wars and old Edna was blinded by a kobold
defending her home after the last rout so it can't have been more than sixty
year."
"You SAID that it fell just after this pub was built."
"Eh? Oh.  Not the inn, the _tavern_.  Just after the tavern was built.
Beside the old bridge."
"There isn't any tavern beside the bridge."
"Well no, it burnt down last summer when Tom's hay caught an ember."

I probably enjoy conversations like this far more than my player's patience
can manage but I feel that it's important to remember that while a historian
in some central city might mark days off against a calendar that most people
settle into the turning of the seasons without worrying (or knowing) what
year it is.

This extends to the fact that the structure and content of the calendar will
have a lot to do with who created it, when and why.  Most long-lived
calenders are retrospective, in that they usually mark time from some
significant ancient event.  This means that even if events are recorded
against a calendar that records a thousand years of history that the actual
dates those events occurred could largely be guesswork.  More significantly
for adventurers, the dates could be different depending on who's calendar
you look at.

If the party is trying to relate a set of events in time to trace the route
some ancient treasure took this sort of detail is the meat of the scenario.

Which also leads to the question "what do you want to use your campaign
calendar for?".

Chris "more questions than answers" Tutty.


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