A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement The Calendar of Zul

The Calendar of Zul by Cliff Dunn is a role playing game supplement published by Zeal Zaddy for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

The supplement is available as a Pay What You Want supplement from DriveThruRPG. There are two PDFs; the first has 14 pages with one being the front cover, one the front matter, one the Contents and one the Open Game License. The second PDF is a single page and duplicates the star chart from the primary PDF.

The first two pages of content are taken up by some links to Free City of Vadashar material, a sidebar, Welcome to the Free City of Vadashar, that is duplicated from other supplements and gives background and history of the city, and The Zodiac of Zul, which explains the role that accurate prediction of the movements of the celestial sphere are important for the inhabitants of the Megacontinent of Zul.

The next two pages are taken up by a star chart with the months, signs, festivals and yearly events written around it.

The Calendar and Zodiac of Zul starts with The Zulean Calendar. The year is 365 days, with 12 months of 30 days and 10-day weeks, with five intercalary days left over. A table has the month, sign and season.

Months and Festivals of the Zulean Calendar completes the supplement, describing 14 different events, with names and other details.

The Calendar of Zul in Review

The PDF is bookmarked but they only link the sidebar material and the OGL. The Contents cover major and minor sections. Navigation is okay. The text follows a two-column format, though column size can vary, and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of illustrations, predominately colour, with some definitely custom. Presentation is decent.

Although this is described as 5th Edition content, it is actually system neutral, as there are no game stats at all. This is essentially a collection of background material for the setting; it might have been interesting to have some sort of game effects for the constellations, making astrology, and astronomy, more important, though the background material is decent. The Calendar of Zul is a nice collection of background for constellations and festivals and it can be found by clicking here.