D&D 5e Product Review: Theros – The Meletian Calendar

This review is sponsored by the author, Nicholas McDermott. The product can be found at the Dungeon Master’s Guild by clicking this link: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/328186?affiliate_id=1395702

In my experience as both a Player and Dungeon Master, calendars are the simultaneously the most meticulously crafted and readily abandoned aspects of world building. The former is understandable; so much of our real lives revolve around events and work deadlines that would absolutely fall apart without a precise and reliable means to track time. So we try to mirror this in our games: when the cult’s evil plan will be enacted on the next full moon, how long do our heroes have to devise a means of stopping it?

To answer this question, we build these extensive (and often obtuse) calendars with an unusual number of months and days so as to appear more fantastic than the typical Gregorian system. Surely, 15 months comprised of 27, 29, or 34 days each must make my astronomer Wizard squeal with delight, no? In practice, it all falls apart the moment you, the DM, start hand-waving the passage of time during travel or other occassions. Any time you say, “it takes you nine days to reach the ruined temple,” are you remembering to mark that off in your special calendar? For many of us, the answer is no.

Well, what makes Theros – The Meletian Calendar different? Is this worth my time and money, and what’s so special about it? Let’s find out!

Familiar, Yet Fantastic

Before I bury the lede here, I think this product is incredible. Emily Pearson, the artist, did a phenomenal job capturing the cosmic beauty so prevalent in the Greco-Roman works of which Theros is clearly influenced. The layout is easy to read and the page backgrounds whimsically capture the Theros tones.

As I mentioned in the introduction, DMs (myself included) often feel the need to create these incredibly complicated calendars to make their world feel special. This backfires because said calendar becomes too unwieldy to use in a moments notice.

The Meletian Calendar uses the 12-month (13 every 3 years) system presented on page 85 of the official Mystic Odysseys of Theros book as a framework, and then expounds upon it exponentially. What’s originally provided as a three paragraph summary has been explored in more than 30 pages of content. McDermott does a great job of providing a brief explanation of the Athenian calendar, which the Meletian calendar is based on, and then explains how he returned to the source material for further inspiration.

This enhanced calendar is actually quite simple; each month is broken in to three main phases (based on whether the moon is waxing, full, or waning) with the first day of each month dedicated to the new moon. McDermott then fills in the framework by detailing how Meletians would usually act (or celebrate) during each phase and the special festivals found in each month. In the first month of Lyokymion, the people of Meletis celebrate the new year with the Feast of Melting Swell, which involves the sacrificing of seaborne goods (pearls, salt, and fish), prayers at high and low tide, and performances by aquatic animals at the Meletis harbor.

These week-long festivals, as well as special one-day events, are covered in enough detail to spark your imagination without telling you exactly how they must be run. The Meletian Calendar anchors these months to the setting with 26 unique events that are begging to be explored by your Players. To put your own mark on Theros, each day of the calendar is an editable text box where you can include yearly festivals of your own!

The Meletian Calendar does what the calendar provided in Mystic Odysseys did not; provides context for what the people of Theros are doing on any given day. You no longer need to scratch your head and say “they’re milling about the marketplace;” you can look at The Meletian Calendar, note it’s the 14th day of Protokynion and describe how everyone is getting ready to celebrate The Eye of Mogis tomorrow. Or that, being the 9th day of the month, the people are getting ready to harvest medicinal plants tonight in reverence to Pharika.

What Could Improve?

My biggest advice would be for McDermott or someone on his team to go through this once again for spelling and grammar checks. For example, Meletian is misspelled Meletin in multiple places. For an enhanced calendar, The Meletian Calendar already goes above and beyond what I would have expected, and I look forward to seeing more RPG calendar systems covered in this great of depth. It’s astonishing how details like a simple, realized calendar can instill a belief in your setting.

Conclusion

If you’re planning to run a Theros or Theros-inspired campaign, do yourself a huge favor and pick up The Meletian Calendar. It’s currently Pay What You Want with a suggested price of $10.00 USD. It’s a beautifully designed product filled with so many fascinating ways to amazing and entertain your Players. When they’re not out slaying a Fleecemane Lion, perhaps they’re regaling the villagers with their deeds at the Xenoysia Festival!

Until next time,

Matthew Wulf

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