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Time and the Calendar
http://greymalkindesigns.com/phpbb4/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=156
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Author:  JohnK [ Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Time and the Calendar

Hullo, folks, Stephen, Jamie & Matt,

I am curious to know something specific... What is the calendar of the world like? How many months in a year? How many days per month? How many days are there in a week? How many hours in a day? How many days in a year? All that good stuff. What game year is it? 1 ANoF (1 After the Night of Fire)?

Author:  Stephen [ Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:51 am ]
Post subject: 

The game implies that there are 12 months in a year, and 24 hours in a day. We don't go into specifics regarding names of days or months. There are the regular seasons (as indicated by the Long Winter, etc) and so on. The implication is that it's pretty much the same as Earth.

We had discussions regarding a unique calendar, but decided that we didn't want people having to memorize whole new month and day names. It's purposefully kept hazy in that regard.

As for a timeline, there are two trains of thought - first, one night argue that there's really only one date that matters anymore, and that's the Night of Fire. I like your 1 ANoF measurement (really it's closer to 2 ANoF at the end of the Long Winter), and many folk might really measure time based upon that, if they are able to keep track of time at all. Another date they may measure upon is the Long Night in the middle of the Long Winter, when the sun stopped coming up. When the sun came back, it was really (literally?) a new dawn. That would have been about nine months ago.

It might need a sidebar to deal with in the game...

Author:  JohnK [ Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:11 am ]
Post subject: 

Hullo, Steve,

Stephen wrote:
The game implies that there are 12 months in a year, and 24 hours in a day. We don't go into specifics regarding names of days or months. There are the regular seasons (as indicated by the Long Winter, etc) and so on. The implication is that it's pretty much the same as Earth.


Okay, this is fine as it goes, but I had rather thought that with some of the unique elements to the game that are already in place, having exotic month names might be approrpriate. On the other hand, in the aftermath of the NoF and all that, I could see months being something simple - Sand, Fire, Snow, Harvest, that sort of thing (which is what I've been using in my own game).

Stephen wrote:
We had discussions regarding a unique calendar, but decided that we didn't want people having to memorize whole new month and day names. It's purposefully kept hazy in that regard.


Okay, but then how do people in the game world keep track of seasons and time and the like?

Stephen wrote:
As for a timeline, there are two trains of thought - first, one night argue that there's really only one date that matters anymore, and that's the Night of Fire. I like your 1 ANoF measurement (really it's closer to 2 ANoF at the end of the Long Winter), and many folk might really measure time based upon that, if they are able to keep track of time at all. Another date they may measure upon is the Long Night in the middle of the Long Winter, when the sun stopped coming up. When the sun came back, it was really (literally?) a new dawn. That would have been about nine months ago.


Hmm, I will continue to use my notation of ANoF (or maybe just ANF) for the dating of time, since that made sense to me when I started to run the game in the post-Apocalyptic world. That raises the question of how we will be able to play games set in the Before, with no info on calendars and the like.

Stephen wrote:
It might need a sidebar to deal with in the game...


This is something that really does need a Sidebar in the main rulebook, and perhaps the whole Calendar issue could be addressed there, and later fleshed out as a free PDF? :)

Oh, and btw, how many suns and moons does this world have? :)

Author:  Stephen [ Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:21 am ]
Post subject: 

Right now, it's all a matter of available space ;-) We'll see what we can fit in. At some later stage, a fully-fledged calendar would be nice. I did one before for a D&D game I ran, and I actually had the players mark off days on it.

Author:  JohnK [ Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:52 am ]
Post subject: 

Hullo, Steve,

Stephen wrote:
Right now, it's all a matter of available space ;-) We'll see what we can fit in. At some later stage, a fully-fledged calendar would be nice. I did one before for a D&D game I ran, and I actually had the players mark off days on it.


Hey, that's all I can hope for, right? :)

Still, I can't wait to get my hands on this game, to be honest, even though I am running the game right now anyway using the playtest materials as the basis for my campaign. Gotta start somewhere, right? :)

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