CREATING CALENDARS

What physical basis do calendars in your setting build from?

Sunrise, sunset, moon phases, and seasons all derive from the physical basis of your game worlds.

Describing this basis of any calendar gives Guides a key starting ingredient to explain local timekeeping to Adventurers.

Beyond the physical realities of the game worlds, the people of those worlds add their own meanings and significance to various times.

Historical calendars, driven by changing of the seasons, included reminders of common activities known as Labors of the Months:

• January (showers) - feasting, repairing structures, early planting, weaving, mending or making tools
• February (showers) - fires/hearth, plowing, carting manure, fertilizing
• March (dry, no hard frosts) - pruning, digging, plowing, fertilizing, spring sowing, harrowing, weeding
• April (sun and showers) - flowers, countryside, spring sowing, harrowing, pruning, weeding, scaring birds
• May (sun and showers) - courting, hawking, hunting, weeding, scaring birds, digging ditches, first fallow plow
• June (dry) - mowing, harvest crops, shear sheep, make hay, second fallow plow
• July (dry early, later showers) - Plowing, gathering, stockpiling, making hay, weeding crops, scything wheat, sharpening sickle
• August (warm dry) - harvesting grain, tying, threshing, winnowing
• September (showers) - hunting, harvesting, tying, winnowing, threshing, fruit picking, milling, pruning fruit trees, treading grapes
• October (dry, no hard frosts) - hunting, sowing, milling, weaving, rope making, last plow of the year, pouring wine into barrels
• November (sun and showers) - collecting acorns for pigs, collect wood, butchering, skinning, salting, smoking
• December (sun and showers) - collecting wood, digging, skinning, hunting, tool mending/making, butchering, weaving, feasting, baking

What holy days do the faiths of your setting observe?

These tend to be tied to meaningful or significant events for members of that faith.

What significant events of history do the people celebrate or take a moment of silence to remember?

Modern era calendars expand beyond the traditional or historical origin of holy days with growing numbers of government-decreed “holidays”, remembering historic events.

These events center around geographic or geopolitical events and may have little or no significance the further away from the affected area. ¹⁾

What social issues do people set aside a day to raise awareness for?

Calendars set aside specific days dedicated to raising awareness, encouraging reflection of, or acting upon social issues.

What days have groups of people created for their own purposes?

Futuristic calendars continue adding, changing, and even forgetting holidays, historic events, and social awareness reminders.

As people in the setting spread from world to world, new calendars begin and old calendar events can fade into memory.

Guides may create calendars for a location given the length of the year, the length of the day, the orbital eccentricity, and moons present.

Calculating calendars for moons themselves, especially tidally-locked moons, takes more creativity but may be based on the calendar of the parent world the moon is in orbit around.

Moons which are not tidally locked may adopt their own calendars.

Are there multiple timekeeping systems within the setting?

Earth, itself, maintains a staggering number of calendars and timekeeping systems.

Different settlements, kingdoms, countries, and all of these on differing worlds may lead to multiple timekeeping systems and calendars in use at once.

To avoid overloading Guides and Adventurers alike with excessive book-keeping, keep to one core calendar system and only occasionally involve other calendars to add contrast, color, and depth to adventures and the setting over time.

Decide how many timekeeping systems are in use at once?

Choose your basis for years, months, weeks, days, and other units for each timekeeping system in use.

How many days long is the calendar year?

Are there divisions by season, by lunar periods, or other means within the year?

Consider creating three (3) to five (5) starting calendar entries for each calendar division, and add more over time as a continuing preparation task as necessary.

What is the purpose of this calendar event? ²⁾

Which season or day of the year does the event occur?

How is this holiday observed?

Salvage Space setting calendar

▲ Chronology :: ◢ References: Timelines