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.

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.

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.

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.