Alternate Calendars for Edge of the Empire

Introduction This post is going to deal with calendars and time systems in the Star Wars universe; why you should keep track of time; and why I don't think BBY/ABY is a good in-universe calendar for most RPGs or Star Wars stories. However, before I get going, I want to give reddit user The_Trekspert huge credit here, as my calendar is heavily derived from their own very well thought out New Galactic Calendar. Hopefully my changes serve to clarify and improve upon it.

So, first off, why should you, the game master, even bother with a calendar? In my opinion, one of the game master's biggest jobs (perhaps only second to making sure players have fun) is to cultivate a sense of immersion. And one of the easiest, and most overlooked ways to do that is the tracking of time. What the passage of time does, is give weight to things. Deciding to go to a place that takes months of travel is a big commitment. Having fought along your fellow party members for years will certainly grow a strong bond between your characters. And defeating an enemy after months of effort is a large accomplishment. So ask yourself, how long have your players know each other? It might seem like a long time, as your group has played countless hours over many months, or even years - but if you review the time spent in game, you might find its only been weeks, days, maybe even just hours. How strong could the bonds between your characters really grown, how great must their achievements really have been, if they've been accomplished in such a short period of time? Keeping track of time also can create urgency, and introduce more player choice - the party has to get somewhere, or find someone, fast: do they take the slow, safe route, or the quick and dangerous one? It's another layer of player agency, another dimension that they have some control over.

If you're interested in more ways to use time, Matt Coville, who has his own YouTube channel that focuses on tabletop RPG topics, mostly of the D&D variety, has a lot of really great stuff to say. His video, Time and Calendars, is particularly relevant.

The Calendar

Note: the following has been written from an in-universe point of view, so it can be presented as content in-game. As it was originally written for my own campaign, which takes place just before The Empire Strikes Back, I inserted that game's current year as a reference.

Local Systems: In Star Wars, there are a lot of calendars. Almost every planet in every star system where life developed or civilizations arose has its own local time and local calendar, typically with: days, based on the time it takes for the world to make a full rotation; months, based on local seasons, natural satellites, or historical precedent; and years, based on the length of its orbital period. In the corners of the galaxy where outside interaction is infrequent, many worlds still prefer their localized dating methods. The Galactic Standard Calendar: However, in societies that are more active on the galactic stage, these local time and calendar systems take a backseat to the Galactic Standard Calendar. The Galactic Standard Calendar, or GSC, was first established with the creation of the Galactic Republic just over a millennium ago. Replacing the numerous, outdated, pseudo-standardized systems implemented by the Old Republic, the GSC saw rapid, widespread adoption across the newly reunified worlds, and has been the backbone of intergalactic timekeeping ever since. The length of the hours, days, weeks, months, and years of the GSC were derived from the local luno-solar calendar system of the new Republic's reestablished capital planet, Coruscant. This resulted in the following units of measurement: 60 Seconds = 1 Minute 60 Minutes = 1 Hour 24 Hours = 1 Day 7 Days = 1 Week (168 Hours) 5 Weeks = 1 Month (35 Days) 10 Months = 1 Year (50 Weeks, 350 Days) Dates were written in ascending order of accuracy, typically in the format YYYY:MM:DD (Year, Month, Day). Times were typically written in the same fashion, displayed as HH:mm:SS (Hour, minute, Second). Together, you could create a completely numerical time-stamp, with the format YYYY:MM:DD:HH:mm:SS - though context typically renders such a long and precise date unnecessary. An example of a time of day might be 13:25:03 -the 3rd second of the 25th minute of the 13th hour. Like many local systems, the days of the week and months of the year in the GSC are given unique names. The days of the week were directly taken from the antiquated local Coruscant calendar's nomenclature, pulling words from an older Galactic Basic dialect, and meaning from ancient human mythology. In order, the GSC days are: Söndé - Sön (Sun's) Day Mortdé - Mort (Mortis's) Day [Alternatively, Death's Day] Tusdé - Tus (Daughter's) Day Unedé - Une (The One's) Day Fursdé - Furs (The Force's) Day Brendé - Bren (Brother's) Day Sabredé - Sabr (Mortis's Dagger's) Day [Alternatively, Death's Dagger's Day] However, many minute variations on the pronunciation of days of the week have developed over the past millennium, and can often be used by a traveler with an acute ear to infer the exact region of the space they are in. One notable variant, often spoken among deep spacer truckers and other such vagrants with no formal education, includes several severely bastardized versions of the official days of the week, such as Monday for Mortdé, Wednesday for Unedé, and Friday for Brendé, and Saturday for Sabredé. This bizarre dialect has become the point of study for many linguists, sociologists, and historians, as well as the source of many jokes on late night Holovision. In contrast to the days of the week, which come from ancient human history, it was decided that the months would be renamed to celebrate the planets and systems that were the first to join the reborn Galactic Republic. Their pronunciation has varied over the past thousand years, but not enough to entirely obscure their origin to those paying attention. They are: Month 1 - Corusan Month 2 - Aldera Month 3 - Chandril Month 4 - Duro Month 5 - Coral Month 6 - Cato Month 7 - Bouth Month 8 - Kuwat Month 9 - Onder Month 10 - Deva This unified system facilitates precise interactions between worlds, which in turn creates easily coordinated commerce, communications and trade on a galactic scale that no localized system can provide. This is not to say localized systems have completely disappeared. Most people still follow a sleep schedule that correlates to their world's day-night cycle, and those who work for the few select industries that exclusively use local systems to keep better track of local phenomena often prefer their worlds calendar's to the GSC. However, most people are accustomed to thinking of time in the units outlined by the GSC. Era Conventions: While the units of time under the GSC have barely changed since its creation, the conventions for naming eras have. When the GSC was first put in place, the founding the of Galactic Republic was chosen as year zero for the new calendar. This year, and all following years, were to be denoted by the prefix RY, for Republic Year. The years prior were denoted by the prefix BR, for Before Republic. Using the GSC units and the Republic Year baseline, we can start to represent some dates as years. For instance, under the Republic Year convention some important galactic dates would be written as; -The Galactic Republic was founded in the year RY0. -The Trade Federation is created to regulate Outer Rim commerce in RY807. -The Clone Wars begin with the Battle of Geonosis in RY1135. -The Galactic Republic is reorganized into the Galactic Empire in RY1138. -The Battle of Yavin occurs, resulting in the destruction of the Death Star in RY1157. -The current year is RY1159. However, with its Decoration of a New Order in RY1138, the emergent Galactic Empire decided to christened the coming Imperial Era with a new convention, and a new Year Zero. This convention redefines Republic Year 1138 as Empire Year 0, with the new suffix, EY. Not unlike the Republic Year system, years predating the founding of the Empire were denoted by the suffix, BE, or Before Empire. Under this system, the dates of the aforementioned important events would be as follows: -The Galactic Republic is founded in the year 1138 BE. -The Trade Federation is created to regulate Outer Rim commerce in 331 BE. -The Clone Wars begin with the Battle of Geonosis in 3 BE. -The Galactic Republic is reorganized into the Galactic Empire in 0 EY. -The Battle of Yavin Occurs, resulting in the destruction of the Death Star in 19 EY. -The current year is 21 EY. These are the two most common conventions found across the Galaxy. In the Empire's direct sphere of influence, or anywhere they garner support, the new convention is generally well accepted, while the Republic Year denotation still finds common use in the Outer Rim territories, independent systems, and by those who aim to defy the Empire in any way they can.

Extra Examples:

So, a few quick dates to see it all working. Example - the third day of any given month is always a Tusdé. So how would you say what day is it, in the current year, on the first Tusdé of Chandril (the third month)? Well, it'd be Tusdé, Chandril 3rd. But you could write that as a numerical time-stamp, in the EY or RY system, too. For the former, it'd be 21EY:03:03, for the later it'd be RY1159:03:03. Another - the 13th of Onder, Year Zero of new Imperial calendar. It's a Brendé, 00EY:09:13, or for those in the outer rim, RY1138:09:13.

End In-Universe Segment

So, why not BBY and ABY? As you may have noticed, I did not include the BBY and ABY denotations in my list of calendar year conventions/conversions. For those unaware, BBY and ABY stand for Before the Battle of Yavin, and After the Battle of Yavin, respectively. The "Battle of Yavin" is the battle at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope where the Death Star is destroyed. This system is certainly convenient from an out of character perspective, because BBY essentially denotes the number of years before Episode IV, and ABY denotes the number of years after Episode IV. My primary problem with using this system for an RPG is that, according to the old canon (now "Legends"), the system wasn't even established until 25 ABY, which is 20 years *after* the original movies. Furthermore, few people at the time knew exactly what went down at Yavin, because the Empire was pretty good suppressing such information. Regardless, even if enough people in the Galaxy knew what happened, there'd be no way that everyone would realize this event was important enough to use as a new Year Zero. So, if your game takes place before the BBY/ABY convention is established (which, in the Star Wars canon, is every movie before the new trilogy), you don't really have a believable in-universe calendar to use. Anyways, as all of the Star Wars fandom keeps track on dates with the BBY/ABY system, for convenience in doing your own conversions, here are the same "given" dates as before, in the BBY/ABY system, with their counterpart Eras from my GSC: -The Galactic Republic is founded in the year 1157 BBY (RY0, 1138 BE). -The Trade Federation is created to regulate Outer Rim commerce in 350 BBY (RY807, 331 BE). -The Clone Wars begin with the Battle of Geonosis in 22 BBY (RY1135, 3 BE). -The Galactic Republic is reorganized into the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY (RY1138, 0 EY). -The Battle of Yavin Occurs, resulting in the destruction of the Death Star in 0 BBY/ABY (RY1157, 19 EY). -The current year is 2 ABY (RY1159, 21 EY).

Conclusion

Time is a powerful tool to the game master. Hopefully this calendar makes time a little easier to wield for those running a game set in the Star Wars universe. And as always, if you have feedback, criticisms, or witty remarks, please send them in an email to the address listed at the bottom of the page.

Till next time,

Lazer

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