Variable calendars... and time tracking in general.

[AEIOU]

It's prudent to start with calendars for us humans and halflings. Our lives are short and we need everything NOW. The elves and dorfs can wait a few hundred years for this functionality and not miss a heartbeat....

Fantasy histories take place over periods of thousands of years.

[ruhar]

I've been working on entering Time Period information of what the PCs have done since the start of when they met so I can better track time. I was told that the calendar system would have the ability to repeat events like certain holidays, festivals and the phase of the moon. I'll soon need to track the phase of the moon when the PCs have to deal with werewolves. Is this feature still going to occur? If so, will it occur by the release date?

[lifer4700]

Will there be any provision for importing 'events' into said calendar system?

I ask this because I 'cheated' for my Runelords campaign where weather and phases of the moon are concerned.

I decided that the geography of the Sandpoint are is reasonably consistent with that of a certain major real-world city.

Since the Golarian calendar (AR) is nothing more than the common real-world calendar with funny month names and + 2,700 years. I simply looked up the phases of the moon for 2007, and I have been using that for my world (4707ar).

I also found a web site that shows the historical weather down to the hour in the aforementioned city, and that gives me my storms, cloud cover, temperature, relative humidity... everything.


Obviously, there would be no need to use the site for moon phases anymore because once entered, it's a simple cycle, and the to-the-hour minor weather details I would likely have to give up, but the daily summary and the major weather events would be something that I might want to keep, and import.

[Nikmal]

Lifer... actually the major weather reports from real world events is an awesome idea. I always wrestled with how to tie it in to the real world weather and thought much like you in the hour to hour and such type of weather tracking but thought it non-feasable so to speak because days fly by so fast in a campaign.. but real world weather with major events only.. now that is a great idea!!

[lifer4700]

It has worked well so far.

Each morning, and sometimes around midday, I'll give a quick snippet about the weather, is it cloudy, rainy, sunny, I know when sunrise is, when sunset is, etc. Other than that, I don't purposely mention it much unless a storm comes around.

HOWEVER, when a player asks what the weather is currently like, I have a very detailed, consistent answer ready without any delay.


Someone performs a divination? I can say what the weather is going to be like.

Ask that old elf what happened during the autumn festival 150 years ago? He can remember the exact temperature.

[Dracarius]

Sweet! I never thought of this idea. I've been on the player side of the table for years and am just starting in as a DM. This has not crossed my mind.

What website are you using for the historical information?

[lifer4700]

It would depend on which real world city you chose to represent your in-game city.

I happened to find a small web site with 'historical weather data' hosted by a newspaper local to that area.

Google was my friend.

[Aleslosh]

This is a great idea! Definitely usable as is. I've done something similar for current and future weather.

I use an IPhone app (WeatherBug) to give me current and projected weather. I just choose a location that is similar to the location in my world and I have a current description of the weather plus a general description of what the weather looks like for the rest of the day and for the next 10 days.

[lifer4700]

Originally Posted by Aleslosh

This is a great idea! Definitely usable as is. I've done something similar for current and future weather.

I use an IPhone app (WeatherBug) to give me current and projected weather. I just choose a location that is similar to the location in my world and I have a current description of the weather plus a general description of what the weather looks like for the rest of the day and for the next 10 days.

Of course, the only problem with using weather forecasts is their accuracy - or complete lack of it in any case.

[Aleslosh]

Originally Posted by lifer4700

Of course, the only problem with using weather forecasts is their accuracy - or complete lack of it in any case.

Lol, very true... very true! Still, there's nothing to prevent us more devious GMs from spontaneously writing in a freak storm just to shake things up a bit. Not that I've done this bit of chicanery.*cough, cough*

But you could randomize the weather events and then add them to the calendar as needed. In my campaign, I've done this "blind" so that it adds a little bit of a twist to an otherwise straightforward stroll through the countryside between towns... "a huge bank of dark clouds is approaching from the south. As it gets nearer your position, you notice that the storm contains fist size hail stones!" ...or even a typical dungeon crawl can be made more interesting with the aftershocks of an earthquake that happened 10 miles away.