Julian and Gregorian Calendars

[kbs666]

Originally Posted by Viking2054

Does it really make that big a difference to you? Will your players even care?

I don't think any of my players could be bothered to look it up. I'm sure they would just accept whatever I or the DM of the session decided and go with it. I'd be willing to wager "one dolla" that 80+ percent of players wouldn't care either.

'Trading Places' reference there...

I could easily envision a setup not unlike the one that existed in Europe around the defeat of the Spanish Armada as an interesting setting for an RPG. Having the calendars be almost the same but offset by 2 weeks would be an interesting way to establish which side of the border the PC's were on.

[Mystic Lemur]

Thanks guys. I've just spent two hours reading about the differences between Julian, Gregorian, solar, lunar, and the Persian calendars, as well as Atomic time and UT1. Interesting, but not useful to my current game. :P

[kbs666]

Originally Posted by Mystic Lemur

Thanks guys. I've just spent two hours reading about the differences between Julian, Gregorian, solar, lunar, and the Persian calendars, as well as Atomic time and UT1. Interesting, but not useful to my current game. :P

I made the mistake of saying something bad about C++'s time and date handling during class in college. I found myself writing a paper and accompanying program to convert time and date between any time and date between any of about a dozen calendars. I learned way more about calendar systems than I ever wanted to.

[Greebo]

Originally Posted by kbs666

I could easily envision a setup not unlike the one that existed in Europe around the defeat of the Spanish Armada as an interesting setting for an RPG. Having the calendars be almost the same but offset by 2 weeks would be an interesting way to establish which side of the border the PC's were on.

Setups like this were extremely common. E.g. the city states of Renaissance Italy used to start their years on different days while using the same calendar.

So, confusing / conflicting calendars can come in quite handy in a variety of plots. I have used it successfully in murder mystery and politcal intrigue.