Speaking of worldbuilding...

[moldymaltquaffer]

I'm currently futzing around with a calandar for a fantasy world.
To keep things somewhat familiar, I've based it on our world's cycles, but eliminated the fractions, just because I'm lazy like that.

So the solar year is 365 days long. And the lunar cycle is 28 days long.

Once again, to keep things simple, 7 days to a week. 4 weeks to a month (coinciding with the lunar cycle). 13 months to a year.
With one extra day left over.

Which I don't necessarily see to be a bad thing. The year's end (and other major holidays) can be solar rather than lunar, and the months can slowly rotate around them.
(Which will cause predictable confusion when paired with regnal and papal years tied to the lunar calander coinciding with long-lived demi-human races.)

The trick is coming up with an interesting motif for naming the months. Anyone up for some brainstorming?

[balzacq]

Originally Posted by moldymaltquaffer

The trick is coming up with an interesting motif for naming the months. Anyone up for some brainstorming?

I've tried this in the past and had troubles getting anyone -- myself included -- to remember that, for instance, "Thesvar"* equals "September".

The familiar months of the common calendar are named after gods (January, March, June), festival days (February, April), famous people (July, August), or numbers (September, October, November, December**). That's already an arbitrary enough system that in my experience there's not much point trying to invent a new arbitrary system.

If you're always going to have to say things like "On the 12th of Thesvar (that's September)" to avoid blank looks, why bother?


* "Harvest" spelled sideways.

** from when the Roman calendar only had ten months.

[Anaraxes]

I, too, have always had a hard time with alternate calendars. Alternate money systems, no problem. Alternate calendars have just never really jelled with our group. It's even worse if you have to keep defining it by analogy ("it's like mid-September") all the time.

[moldymaltquaffer]

I evidently should have spelled it out a bit more clearly.

The month has only a casual relationship with what time of the year it is. With the solar year one day longer than the lunar "year", the months will not remain at a set time of year. Over the course of 183 years, the month that held the winter solstice shall come to hold the summer solstice.

;) I'm making things familiar, but am also subversively cutting the players loose from their moorings.
"Early Fall" would have meaning. "Mid-September" wouldn't (beyond the presence of certain lunar holidays). Guess which one the choniclers note?

I thought about attaching 8 of the months to the gods commonly worshiped, but was still turning over ideas about what to do with the five remaining.

[Jovus]

Originally Posted by moldymaltquaffer

I thought about attaching 8 of the months to the gods commonly worshiped, but was still turning over ideas about what to do with the five remaining.

If there are any strong world-spanning empires, either historically or presently, name them after rulers.

If not, name them after events-that-happened-in-them, or numbers.

[Johnny Angel]

Some cultures may not use the terms we do. A month might be a 'moon cycle.' Months might have similar names based off of that idea... New Cycle, Mid Cycle, End Cycle...

[Cyratos]

I had a calendar for a world on my own. Quite simple. From January to December: Frostwind (January), Coldbreeze, Sunsickle, Earthgreen, Rosebloom, Skyocean, Goldwhisper, Heartgrowth, Redleaf, Rainmaker, Icetooth, Whitestorm (December). During 366-day year, Coldbreeze is called Shiverbreeze.

I usually just brainstorm them. You can always try exotic names, like Shelabeh, Tristahein, Hallemone, etc...

[sgtcallistan]

I have used an modified older Chinese lunar system, influenced by the 'seven directional (east, west, north, south, far east, far west, centreward) and elemental (earth, air, fire, water, metal, wood, void)' system from my constructed world.

Thirteen lunar months in a year (twelve the same, one smaller), divided into 'ascending and descending dragon halves' (windy and rainy seasons), each month divided into two ascendin.. you get the idea.. 'fortnights'.
Which can be named for events or ceremonies: 'blue horses', 'little heat', 'fisher and weaver' (for marriages), 'rice home' (first rice harvest), etc.
A dozen is thirteen. A dozen dozens is the size of an army unit.

Years are part of a seven cycle, with a greater cycle of seven of those (a lifetime). Seven of these form an age.
Many ages are listed in history books; but legend says the world has been in existence for seven hundred thousand ages. The universe has also been re-created seven times (at least).

Families are organised as eight fields around a well (one remaining fallow, or on military service), with all held responsible for the actions of any.

On the mundane level, the loose days between fortnights (and the days used to adjust the months) are special ceremonies in the palace, but religious holidays for the ordinary folks. One day smack in the centre of the year is for taxes and debts to be paid (all legal revenges must be fulfilled by this date).
One locally-chosen day is free for remembering 'local heroes and rebels', and any day that is a multiple of eight is lucky.

Magicians can use day, season, moon phase, holiday, stars, direction of wind, local land features, etc. as boosters for magical ceremonies, according to their auspiciousness.

[The Colonel]

Of course, depending on the period the month may not be so important - medieval peasants were quite prone to tracking their year from one saint's feast day to the next, in between festivals of the Church (St. Whatsisname's, second Sunday after Candelmas) with reference to events such as harvest and sowing, which may move depending on the weather, but are generally cyclical - rotating the fields, ploughing, sowing, the wool clip etc. etc.
The Islamic year (and, I think, the Oriental year) are entirely lunar, which explains why their new year looks mobile from our perspective and I think there are, or have been, cultures that use an astrological year, but I'm not sure what that corresponds to.
Festivals generally are a good way of reconciling calendars - if you generally work by a lunar calendar (336 days), reconciling it with the 356.25 day solar year is probably best done with 20.25 days of festivals that are their own months.

[Rendu]

Originally Posted by moldymaltquaffer

I thought about attaching 8 of the months to the gods commonly worshiped, but was still turning over ideas about what to do with the five remaining.

Make more gods?

Seriously, what about the four classical elements or cardinal directions? You could even cycle them into quarters:
Firemonth, <God1>month,<God2>month,
Airmonth, <God3>month, <God4month>,
etc.
The thirteenth month then becomes a mysterious time of transition, when the boundaries between planes/realities/whatever become thin and permeable. Ooh, even better- it's not a thirteenth month- there's a two-week wind-down (think Mardi Gras or Carneval), New Year's Day, which is an extracalary day (it doesn't count in the cycle of days of the week (and, incidentally, keeps all your dates on the same day of the week.)), then a two-week gearing-up period where everyone buckles down and dedicates themselves to making themselves and the world better (sort of a blend of Yom Kippur, Lenten fasting, and taking New Year's resolutions seriously).

Better yet, don't do this- I'm going to use this in my next fantasy world. See what you get for making me think!?