In reply to steelsmiter (msg # 15):

Gotcha, sorry.

Yeah, I can do caliber conversions mostly in my head, and there's a lot of 1.1s and 2.2s floating around. it's funny, I know a lot of people who can convert from metric to standard, but don't know the numbers for standard to metric. I know that I figured out a mile was 1760 yards because of knowing it's 1.609km. That's really close to a 1.1 approximation.


it's cool

Aww... I was going to work out the speed of light in furlongs/fortnight, but it's already been done.

Google spoils .02% of everything. pout

(1.8026175×10¹², apparently, if anybody is curious.)

I'm used to imperial measurements, but metric doesn't "confuse" me.  If you're GMing, I would say use what you are comfortable with.  Or, for a more serious take on BBR's suggestion, dig back for some of the archaic units and use those for `feel'; some of them (measuring height by "Hands" and weight by "Stones", for example) can give people a perfectly good feel for roughly what-it-means without having to be precise.  And it breaks up that assumption that the party wizard has laser-measuring-eyes and can tell to within a quarter inch (.635cm) where the edge of her fireball will be.

If you don't have a preference of your own -- poll the players :)

As Gaffer says, paces are good for flavour, though I use Byzantine measurement, not Roman, so 2 paces = 5 feet.  For those who are interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pace_%28unit%29

Thus a 100' stretch becomes "forty paces".

I tend to bypass the problem all together by simply saying "he is x number of hexes away". For those that play dnd this removes the issue of feet or meters.

I really don't understand how inches can be added together to form feet. I play D&D and I use the metric system for my character's height and weight. In the map I know that 5ft is one square, but I always have a website where I can convert units at hand.

It's no different from adding centimetres together to get decimetres, or metres, or kilometres.  If it's what you grew up with, then it seems entirely natural.

Me, I'm happy to use either system, as required by the game.

A meter and a yard are only 10% off, and that's more than accurate enough for 99% of RP needs. Mental image >> topographical accuracy.

Even if it does make a diff, such as in a range penalty or a limit to whether something can/not be thrown that far, IC few PC's have a laser rangefinder HUD system built in, so all they ~should~ know is a close estimate.

I only give precise measurements if the character in question is actually using surveying tools. Otherwise I give abstracts, or at best, "paces".

According to this website
http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/ccftins.htm
Ten inches does not make a foot.

I never claimed it did.

My point was that, to somebody who grew up with them, there is no difference between 12 inches = 1 foot and ten centimetres = 1 decimetre (apart from the actual size of the measurements themselves).

There is nothing special about the number ten in regards to measurements. The only neat thing about ten is when used as a threshold value at every step, it is easy to teach the conversions. However, for someone who is familiar with a set of measures, it is no easier to use than any other set.

Really, the only thing that makes any kind of difference is size relative to measured object when estimated (as it is easier to estimate when the unit of measure is between 1 and 5, and the more units needed, regardless of the size of those units, the more difficult it is to estimate.) and familiarity with the measures being used (not only because familiar things feel less awkward but also because one has more experience with more familiar things.).

If it helps a yard is close enough to a meter to not matter.

Yes, you did.




Your point has nothing to do with my original post, only states a very obvious fact.
      

No, I didn't.  If you believe I did, then show me where.


My point has everything to do with your post, where you said:

How about this? Get back on topic. I looked at BBR's posts and fail to see where he claimed 10 inches is a foot. He has a good point. It is important what we grew up with. More importantly is what we are willing to learn and work with. Ask your players to become familiar with the system of choice, or teach them how to google for conversion. Problem solved.

Kark2:

12 inches go into a foot the same way 60 minutes go into an hour and 24 hours go into a day. Base 12 is convenient because it's got more factors than base 10; 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, vs 1, 2, 5, 10. It works the same way.

Metric time exists; you could measure your life in kiloseconds rather than minutes, but it's really inconvenient, and nobody outside the scientific community ever uses it for anything.

But yes. Add inches to get feet the same way you add minutes to get hours. Inches/12 = feet; minutes/60 = hours; centimeters/100 = meters.

In reply to Merevel (msg # 33):

Exactly.  I grew up with yards, feet, inches, furlongs, miles, acres, pounds, ounces, and an Imperial bucket-load of other old measurements, so they seemed natural to me.  Now I live in a place where everything is metric*, and can switch between the two quickly and easily.

*Except TV screens and computer monitors which are, for some reason, measured in inches even though everything else is measured in cm.

I always have a problem explain distance to people. For some reason saying that the sun is 1 AU away from us confuses people. They them ask silly questions like "is that metric?" Even in something rather universal like D&D I have a problem of distances. I eventually gave up on most measurements and said "It's 5 hexes away" but then I end up with people complaining because I'm using hexes instead of square and they can't handle it. I have also tried alternatives such as in a cyber punk game having things be measured in hexadecimal, binary, and oct(base 8) because I knew it would force players to think. In the end I discovered a lot of players don't actually want to think.

The thing is, I know there's this thing amongst some circles of RPers, that there is a greater ratio of intelligent people RPing. But there's really not, and there is certainly a lot who don't like maths. In fact, whilst a lot of my RP friends are quite good with the arts; with writing etc, I know a lot of them who absolutely despise having to use maths.

Here:



It has nothing to do with my post as it doesn't explain how they add up to form a new unit. You only say that people who are familiar with a certain system understand it. Which I could already imagine it myself.


Hey, that is good to know! Thank you!

There are lots of measure converters in the internet. I find them all handy, particularly when I had to roleplay a scientist.

Okay, I think I see where you misunderstood.

You thought that my mentioning centimetres and decimetres in the same sentence meant that I said there are ten inches to a foot.

I mentioned centimetres and decimetres, yes, but I never said that there are ten inches to a foot, any more than mentioning metres and kilometres (later in that same sentence) means that I was saying that there are 100 inches to a foot, or 100,000 inches to a foot.

You clearly said that it was not different from adding centimeters to get decimeter, or to get meters or kilometers. And the metric system is in base 10.

I didn't misunderstood. If anything, you didn't explain properly.

I grew up in Canada where I was taught metric system, but my parents were taught Imperial system. So I always end up mixing my system. for distance I tend to used kilometer. for height and weight, I'll use feet and pounds.

So I have my benchmark:

1 inch = 2.5 centimeters
12 inches = 1 foot = 30 centimeters
3.3 feet = 1 meter
5 feet = 1.5 meter
10 feet = 3 meters
2.2 pounds = 1 kilo
1 mile = 1.6 kilometer
1 km = 0.6 mile
454 grams = 1 pound
28 grams/30 mililiter = 1 ounce
1 gallon is either 3.8L(US Gal) or 4.5L (UK Gal)

and we can go from there and we pretty much end up using the system provided in the game system

But, it's really easy to convert into something you are more familiar to thank to the internet.