Just
Making Time
No two calendars (like worlds) need be alike
by Roger E. Moore

Establishing a consistent fantasy calendar
is not usually a high priority when
creating a campaign game world. Everyone
(including the Dungeon Master) tends
to make the assumption that the game
world is Earthlike in all respects, with one
large moon, a year of 12 months (365.25
days, each 24 hours long), and so on.
However, the previous article by Lisa
Cabala has demonstrated that a calendar
can be useful, workable, and original, as
long as it is carefully created. But not all
calendars are alike. What if the worlds
year isn’t 365.25 days long? And there?s no
law that says a year has to have 12
months. In fact, of the various fantasy
campaign calendars produced by TSR,
Inc., no two are alike. However, the same
principles governing the layout and design
of timekeeping record sheets, as in the
previous article, can be applied to these
calendars as well. The Wilderness Survival
Guide (page 107) makes this same point
about variable calendars, though it is
assumed that most calendars produced
would still resemble the one with which
we are familiar -- e.g., a year with 365
days, or a year with 360 days and 12
months, each with 30 days.
The WORLD OF GREYHAWK Fantasy
Setting has a well-defined calendar that
falls together rather neatly. Greyhawk?s
world of Oerth is an Earth-sized planet
with a 24-hour day, and it makes one
revolution around its sun every 364 days,
exactly. Oerth is gifted with two natural
satellites: the Great Moon (also known as
Luna), which has an orbital period of
exactly 28 days; and the Handmaiden
(Celene), which is small and has an orbital
period of 91 days.

As with our own Earth, the year?s division
into 12 months has nothing to do with
the Great Moon?s cycles. Instead, the passage
of the local sun through Oerth?s zodiac
(which has the ?standard? 12
constellations) determines the months.
Some groups on Oerth might use a lunarbased
yearly calendar of 13 months of 28
days each; the rest of the planet, however,
probably divides the 12 months into eight

months of 30 days and four months of 31
days. Each season (marked out by the
phases of Celene) would have two months
of 30 days and one month of 31 days. Just
which month has how many days is not
noted in the Glossography booklet for the
WORLD OF GREYHAWK? Fantasy Setting
boxed set (pages 18-20) or in the Guide
booklet in the same set (page 4).
The FORGOTTEN REALMS? Fantasy
Setting has another calendar system, first
outlined by Ed Greenwood in "The Merry
Month of . . . Myrtul?" (DRAGON® issue
#47, reprinted in the Best of DRAGON®
Magazine Anthology, vol. 5). The world of
the Realms, like Oerth and Earth, has a
giant natural satellite with a 30-day period.
The year is 365 days long, and a lunarcycle
system is used for month-marking,
so there are 12 months, each with three
10-day weeks. The five additional days
given are ?monthless,? serving as special
occasions (Midwinter, Greengrass, Midsummer,
etc.). Because of these five days,
the phases of the moon of the Realms fall
progressively further out of cycle with the
months as the year advances.
However, the Realms were not blessed
with a clockwork-perfect calendar as were
the lands of Greyhawk. Every fourth year
in the Realms is a leap year, at which time
an extra day is added to straighten out the
fractional remainders in the calendar.
Kara-Tur, on the other side of the world
from the Realms, has a calendar of its
own, as shown on page 107 of Oriental
Adventures. Eight months of 30 days and
four months of 29 days make up the year.
The monthly cycles were created by the
local inhabitants from a 12-part zodiac (as
revealed in conversation with David ?Zeb?
Cook, the designer). The number of days
only totals to 356, but a nine-day festival,
held after the last day of the month of Tu
and prior to the first day of Tsou,
accounts for the rest. By imperial decree,
this festival time can be extended by one
day every four years (i.e., for leap year).
The festival is even accounted for in the
zodiac; the Kara-Tur system of astronomy
leaves an unclaimed space between two of
the constellations on the zodiac, which
legend says is jointly owned by all other
constellations and celestial powers.
The world of Krynn, from the

DRAGONLANCE® saga, has a zodiac of 12
constellations, so its year (which is 365.25
days long, necessitating the use of a leap
year day) has 12 months with either 30 or
31 days apiece. However, Krynn also has
three moons: white Solinari (which governs
the use of good magic), red Lunitari
(governing neutral magical effects), and
black ? hence, generally invisible ?
Nuitari (governing evil magicks). The orbital
periods of these satellites are not listed
in any of the modules, but it is assumed
that astrologers, sages, and wizards monitor
the progress and cycles of these
moons, since the very nature of magic on
Krynn depends so heavily upon their
movements.
The Known World of the D&D® game is,
in fact, a prehistoric parallel Earth. The
DM’s Guide to Immortals (page 5) notes
that the continental positions on the
Known World maps were meant to be
similar to the broken-up land masses of
Pangea. But the Known World has a year
of only 336 days, as revealed in GAZ 1,
The Grand Duchy of Karameikos (page
33). The months are based on a lunar
cycle of 28 days each (again, the major
visible satellite is an analog of the Earths
Moon). Magical and Immortal-caused phenomena
are common in the astronomical
and astrological records of the Known
World, as they are on Krynn and Oerth
(and possibly the Forgotten Realms? as
well), but the calendar is quite consistent
despite them.
If all of this seems very confusing, consider
the real-life horrors of our own
calendar system and the process through
which it developed. The 1987 editions of
the Information Please Almanac and World
Almanac and Book of Facts are sufficient
to send even the hoariest Dungeon Master
into a fit with their comments on local civil
time, Julian vs. Gregorian calendars, past
and future attempts at calendar reform,
Caesar?s 445-day year, and so on. The
effects of natural satellites on the tides and
harvesting seasons, of the campaign
worlds solar orbit on its year and climate,
of axial tilt upon seasonal variations ? this
is stuff for only the strongest and most
obsessive stomachs.

The March Hare



Calendar building, in short, can be as
simple or complicated as the DM wishes it
to be. Simple calendars are usually the
best if accurate and easy timekeeping is
desired, and most players (sadly enough)
don?t care if the campaign world has one
moon; nine moons, or no moons at all. A
creative Dungeon Master with a pocket
computer and some astronomical references
could create a work of art guaranteed
to dazzle even the most jaded
dragonslayer ? but how easy is the calendar
to use in game-related timekeeping?
Playability will eventually win out over
originality and complexity for gaming
purposes. Thus, the simpler calendars are
indeed best ? and the basics of Ms. Cabala
?s system should serve everyone?s
needs.