How do dates work in the 41st millenium? I've only just realised that i don't actuall know :-[
Please could you enlighten me
Dates are taken from standard terran years, and are split into 1000 segments (I can't remember the precise names). They then append the millennium to the end of that date.
So, the year might be 40995 for example. That'd be written as 995.M41. If you were being precise, you'd write it out as 000995.M41 (new years day, 40995)
Thanks :)
I also keep hearing people say about getting the present date by adding a certain amount of years to the present day. How does that work
Thanks again
We're currently in 010.M3 -- to get what seems to be called 'Clave Time from that, just change that to M42 (or M41 if you really don't like 42nd Millennium shenanigans, but that sorta means that most recent events haven't happened yet)
Thanks again you guys never fail to help
There's a little more to it than that - there's also a check number at the start which denotes how reliable the date is.
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_dating_system
For most campaign purposes on player-made worlds, though, the check number is pretty well near arbitrary.
True, but it can be used to good effect if you want to add a bit of ambiguity and confusion into your character's timeline.
This is very interesting, and not something I had ever thought over previously. Will be using it in future character backgrounds I think, seems to add a greater degree of solidity to a person, rather than vague 'and then this happened sometime when he/she was x years old'
Cheers!
Rob
This may be more DH than Inquisitor - but you could use the date check to subtly give information, such as what sort of world it is. The date check tells you if its a central administrative centre, a well connected subsidary world, or out in the dark and shadow...
Quote from: Shannow on August 29, 2010, 02:38:40 AM
Will be using it in future character backgrounds I think, seems to add a greater degree of solidity to a person, rather than vague 'and then this happened sometime when he/she was x years old'
At first I used to give dates for when things happened in my character's lives, but then realised it was more trouble than it was worth because keeping things consistent was a load of hassle - and then you get more hassle when writing up stories of when your characters interact with those of other people and the dates don't match at all.
Quote from: Kaled on August 29, 2010, 10:25:16 AM
Quote from: Shannow on August 29, 2010, 02:38:40 AM
Will be using it in future character backgrounds I think, seems to add a greater degree of solidity to a person, rather than vague 'and then this happened sometime when he/she was x years old'
At first I used to give dates for when things happened in my character's lives, but then realised it was more trouble than it was worth because keeping things consistent was a load of hassle - and then you get more hassle when writing up stories of when your characters interact with those of other people and the dates don't match at all.
Hence the check/accuracy digit... no date, save those determined on Terra itself, is 100% accurate anyway...
True, but it only gets you so far - the more detail you add about dates the more likely you are to end up with contradictions. A certain amount of inconsistency is good, but given that not everyone has their characters in the same millenium it can stretch credulity a little too far.
I still like the depth it would add, when playing games I don't think the fact that my character is placed in a different year would matter muchly as its something that could be glossed over and an assumption of them being in the same timeline could be made. I do like the idea of using them in background though, along the lines of 'captains log, stardate xxxx' sort of idea :P