[TSoY] Astronomy

[Miedvied]

Specifically, I never quite grasped what the sky is like in Near. For some reason, I have the feeling that night-time is presided over by the moon, while day-time is always an eclipsed sun, every day.

Now, I get the feeling that's wrong. Granted, I think it's so damn cool that if I ever run a game it's going to be like that anyway, but I'm curious as to just what the solar and lunar cycles are supposed to be like in canonical Near.

[IMAGinES]

Pre-empting any official response, a permanent solar eclipse during the day would mean that the eclipse that accompanies an act of Transcendence couldn't happen.

If/when I would run a campaign, I might try to work a single solar eclipse into the game, if the players wanted a "Somewhere in the world, the story of a great hero has ended..." monent. You know, foreshadowing the Big Moment for all of them in one hit. Other than that, I'd leave the eclipses until someone's SL comes up a 7.

But that's me, and probably not the answer you were after.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

I leave all this sort of stuff super-vague for a reason in the book - I want you to make it up.

Here's what it's like in my games: it's, like Earth, a four-week lunar cycle. Week 1 is a waning moon, near full, and is a crescent moon by the end of the week. Week 2 is the new moon - that is, no moon for a week, and Week 3 begins with the waxing crescent moon, growing to full moon for Week 4 - full moon all night, and eclipse all day.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Clinton's answer is actually canonical, as you can find it mentioned in the game text, too. In the tricorner magic secrets it mentions, I think, that "the next solar eclipse" and "end of the month" are equivalent. So you normally get one eclipse per month.