Unpopular opinions go here

[DammitVictor]

Anyway, D&D Bards are the only D&D class with absolutely no meaningful tie to its inspiration at all, and that’s a problem.

You glean some very interesting worldbuilding insights by playing a game I like to call "what two concepts are virtually identical in real folklore, and completely unrelated in D&D?" And then just... make them related.

For instance, wandering priest-judge-poets with supernatural powers of persuasion?

Of course, forty-some years of D&D history have taught us this is the Celtic Bard, thought "priest" and "judge" have fallen off along the way. It's a good archetype.

In Arabic, I would have just described the sha'ir. And what does it tell you about your world, if you take the D&D version of the Celtic Bard and the D&D version of Arabic Sha'ir and you decide they've really been the same thing all along?

D&D is better when it doesn't try to place itself in any recognizable historical time or place, thematically: it benefits from mixing and matching elements from the ancient world through the near-modern period, from battleaxes to bifocals.

Yessssssss. Since D&D has been homogenized fantasyloaf since its inception, how better to enjoy it than dipped in a hearty anachronism stew?

 

[nevin]

Thank you for your service.

Apparently unpopular opinion, I really like a lot of 1e Lankhmar.

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wow they used the lich kings of Oool cover for that that with a different color border.

 

[overgeeked]

Off the top of my head

Teaspoons to Tablespoons - do not know. 4?

Close. It's 3.

Tablespoons to cup - do not know.

Cups to a gallon - do not know.

Both are 16. I only know that because I have a little conversion chart fridge magnet that I used to reference while cooking. I switched to metric and haven't looked back. So much easier.

Ounces to a pound - 16.

Pounds to a ton - depends on the type of ton but 2,000 is one type.

Exactly.

Inches to a foot - 12.

Feet to a mile - 5,280. 1760 yards.

Most imperial conversion units going up to a different size are based around fours and sometimes both fours and threes so that you can use the smaller measurements to do halves or thirds or quarters or eighths easily.

For recipes and such this can be functionally useful.

There are uses for it, sure. But you can also just as easily do the same with metric. Half, third, quarter, and eighth are simple to do with regular numbers...especially with something like grams. The hardest of those would be the 1/3. At worst you'd need a calculator instead of looking up a conversion chart for cups to tbsp to tsp to do the maths.

 

[CleverNickName]

+1 vote for SI units.

I say this as a gamer, sure, but also as a civil engineer. Unit conversions are unnecessary and dumb, and create a margin for error where none needs to be. Just learn the system already, geez, it's not that hard. How many spacecraft need to crash before we finally catch up with the rest of the world?

 

[Willie the Duck]

a dwarf's +2 CON doesn't mean that they've been raised on a healthy hearty diet their whole life(that's the point of assigning your point buy/array/stat rolls), it means the inherent immune system of your bog-standard dwarf is on average across the board stronger than the immune system of any other given species (that doen't also have a + to CON), the sickliest possible dwarf is still '+2 points' more hardy than the sickliest possible elf.

The average, across the board part deserves mention. IMO, RPG character creation systems should not be demographic emulators. What an average dwarf looks like shouldn't play into it. That's why I'd be much more comfortable with species informing Maximums (and maybe minimums) to stats*, rather than a simple plus.
*especially strength, or certainly max lift and other quantifiable things of which a giant genuinely should be better at than a pixie.

There are uses for it, sure. But you can also just as easily do the same with metric. Half, third, quarter, and eighth are simple to do with regular numbers...especially with something like grams. The hardest of those would be the 1/3. At worst you'd need a calculator instead of looking up a conversion chart for cups to tbsp to tsp to do the maths.

SI/base 10 units tend to work best when one needs to add totals together frequently; whereas Imperial tends to find advantage when you need to divide a full unit into portions. I think that's why there was a real push for decimalization of currency in the UK right around when splitting a pound between 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 recipients became less important/common than going into a store and buying multiple items for a total which exceed a pound.

How many spacecraft need to crash before we finally catch up with the rest of the world?

Okay, but recognize that this is an argument for consistent use of one system, not the inherent superiority of one system over another.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

+1 vote for SI units.

I say this as a gamer, sure, but also as a civil engineer. Unit conversions are unnecessary and dumb, and create a margin for error where none needs to be. Just learn the system already, geez, it's not that hard. How many spacecraft need to crash before we finally catch up with the rest of the world?

I think all RPGs should use antiquated measurements:
Chains, furlongs, stones, leagues, oxgangs, rods, horsepower, pounds...

wait...hmmm...

 

[CleverNickName]

Okay, but recognize that this is an argument for consistent use of one system, not the inherent superiority of one system over another.

Good point. I'll add to my previous statement:
Us being consistent with the rest of the world is superior to forcing the entire world to be consistent with us.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Us being consistent with the rest of the world is superior to forcing the entire world to be consistent with us.

I'm revoking your 'Murikan card.

 

[darjr]

The 5e release schedule was already too fast and “monetizing” the brand meant mostly non game things and would have been good to help keep the release schedule slower.

 

[Ulfgeir]

I think all RPGs should use antiquated measurements:
Chains, furlongs, stones, leagues, oxgangs, rods, horsepower, pounds...

wait...hmmm...

You mean like this? That is just the weird things for measuring distance. I "need" a similar one for weights and volume...