Julian and Gregorian Calendars

[Teresa]

I have been looking, but I couldn't find this piece of information in the forum (probably missed it).

I've been using the calendar feature in RW as my base for dates: but is it a proleptic Gregorian calendar before 15th October 1582 (going back to 14th of October) or is it Julian (skipping back straight to 4th of October)?

 

[Parody]

It lets you pick dates between 1582-10-05 and 1582-10-14 (inclusive). Does that help?

 

[kbs666]

Proleptic. It literally runs straight from 1 AD to the maximum and minimum dates possible.

Keep in mind that the switch from Gregorian to Julian happened at different times in different places. For instance that gap in October 1582 occurred in mainland Europe. The switch to Gregorian in the UK happened in 1752 and skipped September 3 through 13. In Japan the switch occurred in, IIRC, 1912 and you'd need to look up which dates were skipped.

 

[Teresa]

Keep in mind that the switch from Gregorian to Julian happened at different times in different places.

*groan* I'm using astronomy software to get the precise dates for equinoxes and solstices all the way since about 10k BCE - and those always switch to Julian at the date the Pope ordered the calendars change.

Now I just need to know whether RW follows the usual algorithm so that I can articulate everything:

if (year is not divisible by 4) then (it is a common year)
else if (year is not divisible by 100) then (it is a leap year)
else if (year is not divisible by 400) then (it is a common year)
else (it is a leap year)​

or if it also adds the

if (year is not divisible by 3200) then (it is a leap year)​

Thanks for your help!

 

[davidp]

or if it also adds the

if (year is not divisible by 3200) then (it is a leap year)​

It does not add this rule. Only the previous common ones you mentioned.

 

[kbs666]

This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder about the viability of a flexible custom calendar system. I can certainly code such a thing but have no idea how to produce a UI to allow it to be manipulated in any sort of useful manner to produce all the calendars present on Earth much less the existing fantasy calendars.

 

[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...

 

[Aaron]

Proleptic. It literally runs straight from 1 AD to the maximum and minimum dates possible.

Keep in mind that the switch from Gregorian to Julian happened at different times in different places. For instance that gap in October 1582 occurred in mainland Europe. The switch to Gregorian in the UK happened in 1752 and skipped September 3 through 13. In Japan the switch occurred in, IIRC, 1912 and you'd need to look up which dates were skipped.

Neato! Never heard of that before.

 

[Teresa]

@davidp Thanks, that helps a lot.

@Viking2054 This is important to me from a worldbuilding perspective for writing: the story is set in the real world, so I need to correlate real events, both historical and astronomical (the equinox marks the beginning of the new year in my alternate solar calendar, ie), with my fictional events. Like I said, astronomical events follow the Julian + Gregorian calendar, and a lot of historical events also do the same (I just have to check the source I'm using really does do that, though).

@Aaron and kbs666 I think the Sweden Calendar is top at the calendar mess between 1699 and 1753. They even managed to have a 30-day February in 1712. This is a lot of fun when you pull it right in novels, as it gives them a lot of realism.

 

[AEIOU]

Thank you for the algorithm. That may resolve a real-world problem for me.

I love gamers. They have the most esoteric and random interests. It's always fun applying what I learn from them to life in interesting ways.

 

[kbs666]

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.

 

[kbs666]

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.

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]

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.