Game: Time

Original Calendar

Originally, game play was set in Noberg, which had it's own calendar. Early adventures have game dates that refer to this calendar. Over time, this calendar proved to be more trouble than it was worth, so a system of "Game Weeks" was created.

Game Weeks

Each game week has seven game days. These week days probably have names, but I never bothered to specify them. When it is necessary to specify a particular day within a week, a dot notation is used. Thus, the third day of GW-100 is GW-100.3.

Day Time

In Norberg, each day is divided into eight watches. These are:

Given that each watch has a number, it is possible to specify a rough time of day as GW-100.3.5 - perhaps the time of a late lunch date.

Game Years

Finally, there are game years. Game years start in GY-0, which is when Lavessi declared the foundation of the Mernian Empire. Naturally, there are years before this, which are negative numbers going backwards in time. These are written as BME-100, or 100 years Before Mernian Empire (BME).

Each Nolarian Game Year has 48 weeks in it, and thus 336 days. Where it is necessary to specify a particular week, two forms of notation are used. If a year is given with a decimal point in it, the number after the point is the week in the year. Alternatively, weeks may be specified in terms of Game Weeks. So called Modern Game Weeks are indicated by the prefix "GW-". Modern Game weeks started in GY-1654. Game play in Iscontium was set in the past (year 1500). Game weeks in the Iscontium campaign and time following up to the start of modern weeks are specified by the "IGW-" prefix. New players don't need to worry about this.

Seasons

The Nolarian year starts in the ninth week of of winter. The day that marks the end of one year and the start of the next is called Yule and is the shortest day of the year (the winter solstice).

Starting with the first week of a new year, the seasons are defined as:

Four important holidays generally celebrated (in various ways) throughout Nolaria:

• • Yule - winter solstice

  • Planting - spring equinox

  • Midsummer - summer solstice

  • Harvest - autumn equinox