The_Great_Lestrade wrote:

By my reading of the luna calendar this puts 1 full moon during the game period, Phobos on the 25th of VII, or day 4 of the game (which is ideal). Selene does not appear to have many full moons, is this correct?

Right! The festival happen at those rare times (4/year) when both moons are full on the same night (month VII, day 18 for Bealtainn). Phobos is full every week--every Wednesday! (OK, OK, Moon day.) So there would be another full small moon on VII/25 and VIII/4--two in your ten days, though, not just one.

The_Great_Lestrade wrote:

When i first read the Refs manual I never thought i'd plumb its depths like this. It's great!

Right? It's awesome.

Have you checked out this little gem?

http://www.swordsmen-and-sorcerers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Campaign-Calendar.pdf

Really helps with the calendar. In the Refs Manual for the game, the two times listed for each year in table VI.3 on p. 186 show the hours of daylight (or, really, the delta hours of daylight) for the first and second halves of that year. So in year of the Wolf (year 3), you would get 12 hours of daylight about 3/4 of the way through (month IX-X), and then again in year of the Aurochs about 1/4 of the way through (month III-IV)--basically, the equivalents of the spring and fall equinoxes.

See this note on p. 186: "The indicated periods specify for how many hours per day the sun is visible throughout the course of the year. The fields are subdivided to give an idea of six-month periods; e.g., the first day of Wolf has but 8 hours, 40 minutes of daylight, but by halfway through the year this increases to 10 hours, 50 minutes, and by year’s end a full 13 hours of light."

Bealtainn would, of course, come in month VII of both of those years. I don't think there's any reason, for the sake of an adventure, that you couldn't posit a freak (edit: not even "freak"; Hyperborea is cold) snow storm during that time. What makes me a little nervous--for an adventure for public consumption--is specifying which years in the cycle are possible for it--only because I assume that we all begin our campaigns in some year we chose for whatever reasons. I'd hate to get your adventure and realize it's six years, e.g., until I could run it for my players because it depends on the twelve hours of daylight! I find it safer to base things around months--and festivals, certainly--than years in the cycle. If that makes any difference.

The way I look at things, "For many men, the passage of days is lost in a blur as the swollen crimson sun wheels perpetually just above the horizon, which for some is nearly as taxing as a year without light."

You know?

 

Last edited by Handy Haversack (12/19/2014 12:14 am)

Handy Haversack wrote:

What makes me a little nervous--for an adventure for public consumption--is specifying which years in the cycle are possible for it--only because I assume that we all begin our campaigns in some year we chose for whatever reasons. I'd hate to get your adventure and realize it's six years, e.g., until I could run it for my players because it depends on the twelve hours of daylight!

I agree with you.  I probably wouldn't write an adventure for other people that relied heavily on hours of daylight, phases of the moons, festivals, weather, or anything else that limited its immediate usefulness to a particular referee.  The recommended levels are restrictive enough already.

Although... maybe a collection of short adventures/encounters revolving around the festivals, moon phases, and seasons?  Maybe thirteen brief adventures, one set in each year of the calendar?  That would have the advantage of tons of flavor, while still being more generally useful.  Hmmm...

Last edited by Blackadder23 (12/19/2014 10:48 am)

That's exactly so, BA23. With the help of my mathemetician friend Antonio, I hope to eventually put together a 13-year chart that shows hours of daylight for every day. There is a minor error with the chart on p. 186 of the Referee's Manual. The first day of Genesis should have the first tiny bit of light, not 0:00 light, and the last day Coda should have a tiny bit of light remaining, so that the first day of Nightfall is 0:00 light. This will be corrected in future printings.