D&D 5E How much is a ton in Ghosts of Saltmarsh?

[Ovinomancer]

A ton would be 2,000 lbs. A tonne would be 1,000 kgs. It would also just be a measure of weight, not volume. Volume is a consideration, but weight is the important thing. You don't care about the displacement of cargo because it's not floating on it's own (yet). It's the ship's displacement that matters. If you add weight to the ship, it's volume is fixed, so you alter the ship's displacement. Exceed the equivalent displacement of water and you sink. Your cargo may then float, but it's not the concern. So, weight of cargo is the more important value.

This is why ships that took on lighter, more voluminous cargo would also take on additional ballast -- to keep tge ship's displacement within operational limits. Too light and you easily capsize; too heavy and you swamp.

 

[77IM]

A ton of ghosts is about 40,000 cubic feet of ghosts because ectoplasm has extremely low density.

 

[77IM]

Srsly, as a rule of thumb:

• Creatures are about as dense as water.
• Wood is about 1/2 as dense as water. (Also works for leather, fabric, rope, and other "dry" organic matter.)
• Stone is about 3x as dense as water. (A PC who gets petrified should have their weight roughly tripled.)
• Metal is about 10x as dense as water. (It varies wildly by metal but this is an easy number to remember.)

These are obviously approximations but they are easy numbers to remember.



Here is a table of more detailed table of densities which I made a very long time ago. Numbers are rounded to make RPG math easier.

Material Density (pounds per cubic foot)
Sawdust 15
Fabrics 30
Fruits, vegetables, grains 30
Soft wood 30
Hard wood 45
Water, oil, most liquids 60
Plastics 60
Creatures 60
Heavily armored creatures 75
Rubber 90
Soil, loose gravel 90
Sand, packed gravel 120
Brick, ceramics 120
Rock 180
Heavy rock, metal ore 240
Brass, bronze, copper, iron, steel 400
Lead, silver 600
Gold, platinum 1200

 

[NotAYakk]

Why would you make a lbs per cubic foot table when 1 cubic cm is 1 ml is 1 gram of water. 1 kg is 10 cm cube. 1 tonne is 1 meter cube.

Specific gravity is the ratio of density to water.

Flosting thungs are 1/2.
Organic things are 1ish
Stone/Gems is 3ish (including many raw ores)
Most pure metals 10ish (copper, iron, nickle, lead)
Gold/Plat/Plutonium/etc 20.

"Gravel" of uniform size (apples, pebbles) loses 1/2 density. Add "sand" (order of magnitude smaller filler) and it only loses 1/3.

Barrels lose only 20%ish (plus any access routes), as circle-packing is 90% efficient (I am assuming another 10% loss as rooms are not evdn multiples of barrel size, and barrels are imperfect cylendars, and have tickness). A room of barrels of apples are 80% of 50%, so 40% density of water.

If you pick your tonnage as a tonne of water volume, that is a cubic yard or so.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

For D&D and Warhammer (or any game that doesn't use the metric system), I default to "2,000 pounds". I don't even care what the actual game system says it is...I re-jigger it to be 2k pounds. Two is a great number to use in game systems, just like the number four ('same but different' ).

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Ancalagon]

To make the math easier go with either 2,500 or 3,000 pound. Tons are generally 2,800 pds.

Erm, what?

A metric ton is 1000 kg. A short ton is 2000 pounds. That is much easier on the math and a lot more general than this "general" value you speak of - where is that from anyway?