Intergalactic Time?

[Plastickrakpimp]

Hi Folks, newbie to Traveller here...

I'm going to be starting to run Traveller, and have a few questions.

I am familiar with Seths youtube video series and have greatly been enjoying that.
I have got core 2e rule book 2022, have ordered High Guard and equipment book and spinward marches campaign book inc 'High & Dry", those yet to arrive, though i have the pdfs..., no prizes for guessing where I am starting

My current query is , how do manage time in Traveller...?
Things take time to do, Jumps etc and time on a mission , and then the bills fall due... ship mortgage payments , maintenace, loans etc...

Obviously our calendar is based on Earth (Terra) , but I wondered is there some standardised 'intergalactic calendar', that everyone uses,that covers all places?

Or do you just work off a standard terran calender , just dated in the future?

On a related question... how do you know what season a world youre visiting, is currently in winter or summer assuming they have them?

Ive done Fantasy rpg before and some 40k based sci-fi rpg , but nothing like Traveller before. Im just wanting to get things 'right'?

Thanks for any advice or input.

regards
S

 

[LangyMD]

I mostly use the Imperial Calendar, which is dated from year 0 as the year the Third Imperium was officially established. This is also equivalent to the year 4518 of the Common Era (also known as 4518 AD). Solomani probably still use the CE dating scheme that we currently use in real life.

The Imperial Calendar has years of 13 months with 4 weeks of 7 days each (28 days per month) and a supernumerary day (a day outside of any week or month) as the very first day of the year. That results in 365 days per year. No leap years, so over the course of almost 1500 years the Imperial Calendar will become off by one year from the modern Terran calendar.

As far as how do I know what season a world is: I don't think about it and just assign whatever feels right for the feeling I want to evoke. My players are unlikely to track seasons - or the length of a year - on a particular planet, and their current home planet features only one city and that city is a floating palace that moves to whatever location has the best weather given the current date, so it's not something I need to track on that one either. Unlike most people I have every important world the players are likely to interact with fully detailed and written into a Trojan Reach Atlas complete with system diagrams and a bunch of other information, and even I'm not willing to track seasons on a dozen different worlds.

I also recommend ignoring the concept of time dilation unless it's a big feature of an adventure you want to run. If anyone questions how every world has consistent timekeeping, just say it's by tracking the world's velocity around the galaxy's center and the pulsing of certain pulsars or as part of the normal mail drops or something like that, but it's likely players won't even notice that's something to question.

 

[Condottiere]

The Imperial calendar is easier to place dates in Traveller.

The Confederation would stick to the Gregorian calendar.

 

[Plastickrakpimp]

I mostly use the Imperial Calendar, which is dated from year 0 as the year the Third Imperium was officially established. This is also equivalent to the year 4518 of the Common Era (also known as 4518 AD). Solomani probably still use the CE dating scheme that we currently use in real life.

The Imperial Calendar has years of 13 months with 4 weeks of 7 days each (28 days per month) and a supernumerary day (a day outside of any week or month) as the very first day of the year. That results in 365 days per year. No leap years, so over the course of almost 1500 years the Imperial Calendar will become off by one year from the modern Terran calendar.

As far as how do I know what season a world is: I don't think about it and just assign whatever feels right for the feeling I want to evoke. My players are unlikely to track seasons - or the length of a year - on a particular planet, and their current home planet features only one city and that city is a floating palace that moves to whatever location has the best weather given the current date, so it's not something I need to track on that one either. Unlike most people I have every important world the players are likely to interact with fully detailed and written into a Trojan Reach Atlas complete with system diagrams and a bunch of other information, and even I'm not willing to track seasons on a dozen different worlds.

I also recommend ignoring the concept of time dilation unless it's a big feature of an adventure you want to run. If anyone questions how every world has consistent timekeeping, just say it's by tracking the world's velocity around the galaxy's center and the pulsing of certain pulsars or as part of the normal mail drops or something like that, but it's likely players won't even notice that's something to question.

Many thanks for detailed reply.

 

[WHULorigan]

My current query is , how do manage time in Traveller...?
Things take time to do, Jumps etc and time on a mission , and then the bills fall due... ship mortgage payments , maintenace, loans etc...

Obviously our calendar is based on Earth (Terra) , but I wondered is there some standardised 'intergalactic calendar', that everyone uses,that covers all places?

Or do you just work off a standard terran calender , just dated in the future?

The following is Setting Canon (with a few extrapolations):

When the Third Imperium was founded, the first Emperor, Cleon I declared that year to be the "Holiday Year" and foundation of a new Calendar reckoning, the "Year 000" of the Imperial Calendar. As the Imperium expanded and inducted new member worlds, they were required to comply with usage of this new Imperial Calendar for all official transactions and correspondence at the interstellar and Imperial Level. Compliance with this directive (and compliance with other Imperial Standard metrics, measures and units) is overseen and mandated throughout Imperial territory by the Imperial Office of Calendar Compliance.

Since the local "year" on Capital was also almost exactly 365 days of 24 standard hours length, the Imperial Calendar consists of 365 days, divided into 52 weeks of 7 days each (a total of exactly 364 days), with the remaining day of each year (Day 001 - New Year's Day) as an intercalary day officially named "Holiday" not belonging to any 'week" (i.e. the reckoning of weeks end and resume on either side of Holiday). The year is divided into four fiscal quarters of 13 weeks each. There is no "Leap Year".

Dates are of the format DDD-YYYY.

Though there are no official "Months" in the proper named sense, the year will often be divided into 13 4-week subdivisions refered to as months, which round out the 364 days.

For mortgage payments on starships (which are 12 monthly per year), the 13th month is generally the time when the ship is down for annual overhaul, during which time there is loan repayment forgiveness for the month.

7 Days = 1 Week
4 Weeks = 1 Month

91 Days (13 Weeks) = 1 Fiscal Quarter

13 Months (4 Quarters or 52 Weeks) = 1 Year (364 days + Holiday)

On a related question... how do you know what season a world youre visiting, is currently in winter or summer assuming they have them?

Referee fiat. And the local climatology could be much simpler or more complex.

On Earth seasons are due to axial tilt relative to the ecliptic plane; the hemisphere tilted toward the Sun at any given time will be in Summer, the opposite hemisphere in Winter at the same time.

A world with a normal roughly circular orbit and no tilt will not experience a change of seasons. One with a radical tilt could be quite dramatic. General overall average world temperature will depend largely on where the world lies orbitally relative to the local habitable zone - whether or not the world lies inward toward the Hot Zone, or outward from it in the Cold to Frigid Zone, or in the middle in the Habitable Zone.

Also, the local orbital mechanics can make for some interesting situations. For example, a habitable Gas Giant moon, in addition to having a sky-dominating view of the gas giant, will regularly go into a period of "eclipse-night" when it passes behind the gas giant, independent of its rotational day-night cycle.

Mercury has an 88 day revolution-period about Sol and a 59.5 day rotational-period about its axis. When you combine these two factors together, as seen from the surface, one "local day" (or "sol") on Mercury lasts 176 standard days. And because Mercury has a fairly high eccentricity to its orbit, it has a "double-sunrise": Sol rises above the horizon, "thinks twice and goes back down", and then rises again a second time for good for the rest of the "day".

Many worlds that orbit close to their primaries (such as cool red dwarf worlds) will become tidally locked to their star with one hemisphere always facing the star. That side will always be day (and probably become hot) and the outward face will always experience night (and probably get quite cold). Habitation might be along the circumpolar circumference in the twilight zone.

 

[Starglim]

Many worlds that orbit close to their primaries (such as cool red dwarf worlds) will become tidally locked to their star with one hemisphere always facing the star. That side will always be day (and probably become hot) and the outward face will always experience night (and probably get quite cold). Habitation might be along the circumpolar circumference in the twilight zone.

Perhaps the latter - it depends on temperatures. The most habitable region is likely to be a roundish strip (it can bulge to one side considerably) but might be some distance into the bright side, a distance into the dark side if anywhere in direct starlight is too hot (either way, less than a full polar circumference) or if further out or the star is not very bright, a circle directly under the closest point (an eyeball world).

 

[hopsnbaer]

My issue is primarily with the planetary time and the length of the day. I usually have stations follow a 24-hour schedule and have been wondering if it is really worth bothering with figuring out the length of a planetary day versus the 24-hour schedule.

What do other folks do?

 

[Condottiere]

Most humans tend to adapt to planetary rotations, at least according to most science fiction novels.

Militaries probably adhere to Zulu Time; at least, the Confederation ones do.

Odds are, the Imperium organizations would use whatever the clock is at the Capital Palace.

The way I would play the Confederation Navy, would be that they have a primary time, which would be Zulu, and what's the time at the capital of the planet they are orbitting.

 

[hopsnbaer]

Right, ship time vs planet time. Humans evolved for a 24-hour day. How are you handling a 15-hour day or a 35-hour day on the planet? I generally just handwave it as unimportant to the story.

 

[Galadrion]

How are you handling a 15-hour day or a 35-hour day on the planet?

Blackout curtains.

 

[bartlebyfosco]

Right, ship time vs planet time. Humans evolved for a 24-hour day. How are you handling a 15-hour day or a 35-hour day on the planet? I generally just handwave it as unimportant to the story.

That is how I handle it. Until it is important to the story. Gotta mix things up once in a while and remind the players that things can be different. An 18 hour moon where they need to work outside means they only have so much daylight.

In my case, after x amount of local days, when the party leaves you just do the math and pop them back into normal 24-hour time.

Too much work to do for every planet, but it is a nice opportunity to bring out some flavour and alienness from time to time.

 

[Condottiere]

Drugs.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

13 Months (4 Quarters or 52 Weeks) = 1 Year (364 days + Holiday)

If so then mortgages should be calculated by dividing with 260 not 240.

 

[Condottiere]

The financial year may not quite coincide.

 

[LangyMD]

If so then mortgages should be calculated by dividing with 260 not 240.

Why? You pay the mortgage price one per month for 40 years, and yeah, that'll be 520 payments - but why do you think that means the payment should be calculated by dividing by 240 instead? Nothing in the rules seems to explicitly say the interest rate on the mortgage.

 

[WHULorigan]

Why? You pay the mortgage price one per month for 40 years, and yeah, that'll be 520 payments - but why do you think that means the payment should be calculated by dividing by 240 instead? Nothing in the rules seems to explicitly say the interest rate on the mortgage.

As I noted, Month 13 is downtime for annual maintenance. Consider it loan payment forgiveness 1 month per year. It is in the bank's interest to not squeeze payment during times of required maintenance and no revenue, or to encourage skipping maintenance to make payments and risk loss of the vessel and investment.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Why? You pay the mortgage price one per month for 40 years, and yeah, that'll be 520 payments - but why do you think that means the payment should be calculated by dividing by 240 instead? Nothing in the rules seems to explicitly say the interest rate on the mortgage.

Core Rule book hardcover page 149 under Buying a ship. Specifies dividing price by 240, payment is 40 years, with 12 month years that would be 480 payments exactly double the 240. Seems to strongly indicate a 12 month year.

It also indicates that payments are every 4 weeks so given an assumed 7 day week that would work with a 28 day month 12 month year and 336 day year.

13 month years works with 364 day years but then to make the mortgage work for 13 payments a year it really should divide by 260 the number of months in 20 of those years and 1/2 of the 40 years the mortgage runs for

As I noted, Month 13 is downtime for annual maintenance. Consider it loan payment forgiveness 1 month per year. It is in the bank's interest to not squeeze payment during times of required maintenance and no revenue, or to encourage skipping maintenance to make payments and risk loss of the vessel and investment.

Anything in the rules to back that up? History isn't really in tune with banks being nice and saying sure you can skip a mortgage payment once a year just because you have no income that month. Besides the monthly maintenance seems to do away with that yearly down time.

 

[LangyMD]

As I noted, Month 13 is downtime for annual maintenance. Consider it loan payment forgiveness 1 month per year. It is in the bank's interest to not squeeze payment during times of required maintenance and no revenue, or to encourage skipping maintenance to make payments and risk loss of the vessel and investment.

Sure, that's a way of doing it, but that's just something you made up as a house rule as far as I can tell. I've never seen anything in the rules to support the yearly yard maintenance taking a month or not paying the mortgage 1/13 of the time.

 

[LangyMD]

Core Rule book hardcover page 149 under Buying a ship. Specifies dividing price by 240, payment is 40 years, with 12 month years that would be 480 payments exactly double the 240. Seems to strongly indicate a 12 month year.

It also indicates that payments are every 4 weeks so given an assumed 7 day week that would work with a 28 day month 12 month year and 336 day year.

13 month years works with 364 day years but then to make the mortgage work for 13 payments a year it really should divide by 260 the number of months in 20 of those years and 1/2 of the 40 years the mortgage runs for

Why does dividing by 240 imply anything about how many months the mortgage is other than "longer than 240 repayment periods"?

A $400,000 mortgage in the real world at 6.5% APR for a 30 year loan would have a payment about 160th the principal of the loan. Does that mean the real world has 320 months over the course of 30 years?

 

[WHULorigan]

Anything in the rules say that the Imperial Calendar is NOT 364 days plus a New Year's Day named Holiday? Anything say that the Imperial Calendar is NOT divided into 7 day weeks, with days named Wonday, Twoday, Thriday, Forday, Fiday, Sixday, and Senday?

If the months are 12 of 30 days, then what does the Imperial Calendar do with the remaining extraneous four days other than Holiday? What is the Canon answer?

And annual maintenance is mandated, independent of monthly maintenance, going all the way back to Classic Traveller.