Do the Non-US Players and DMs use the metric system?

[Conaill]

Aw come on, it's just a game!

Not as if anyone actually uses this crap in real life, right?

 

[Kemrain]

(hijack)

Celsius at least makes sense. Having freezing point be at 0 just makes intuitive sense, as does boiling point be at 100.

Really? I find a measurement based on the states of water to be fairly arbitrary. Kelven is based around absolute zero, right? I think that's more intuitive than a water based system.

(/hijack)

- Kemrain the Very, Very Cold.

 

[Turjan]

Really? I find a measurement based on the states of water to be fairly arbitrary. Kelven is based around absolute zero, right? I think that's more intuitive than a water based system.

I suppose this was meant to be a joke . What's intuitive about absolute zero? At least that would be a one time experience !

Ice on the roads and the temperature needed to brew your coffee is a little bit more part of human everyday hassles.

Edit: On a more serious note, the imperial system in the U.S. is practically used aside the metric system, anyway. Whatever you buy, you can be sure, you have to have a full set of metric and imperial sized tools at home. As most of the stuff you buy in the US (furniture, lamps, other electrical gadgets) comes from abroad, and as the rest of the world uses the metric system, you are forced to be able to cope with it, whether you like it or not.

 

[Seule]

Really? I find a measurement based on the states of water to be fairly arbitrary. Kelven is based around absolute zero, right? I think that's more intuitive than a water based system.

And Kelvin takes the size of the degrees from Celsius, thus proving it to be the superior system... it's got subsystems (Kelvin)!

Anyway. This is all very far from game.
We use degrees F in D&D, but it's the one Imperialism that isn't at all intuitive. I can estimate about what a distance might be in miles if I have to, but I have to calculate what degrees F are... unless it's -40. Then it's easy.

--Seule

 

[Gez]

The French translation of the D&D books convert them to metrics.

And I use metrics in game too.

After all, it's a fantasy world, where every one knows a "common" tongue, and use a common decimal currency system (platinum/gold/silver/copper). It can also handle a common, decimal, metric system.

And it's clearer for everyone. 3 meters is tall. 10 feet is multilimbed.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

I do find Fahrenheit amusing... basically, it's two arbitrary numbers, and an arbitrary scale between them.
My understanding is that 0 fahrenheit is the coldest the inventor could get ice to go by adding salt, and 100 was Mrs. Fahrenheit's body temperature (seems she was hot-blooded). Celsius at least makes sense. Having freezing point be at 0 just makes intuitive sense, as does boiling point be at 100.

100 being human body temp, to my mind, makes sense. Fahrenheit temperature is the one area where I find Imperial better than metric, though being an American I pretty much always use Imperial (except when dealing with sciences, where everyone uses metric).

Really, Celsius is just as arbitrary as Fahrenheit. Celsius is the one part of the metric system that is scientifically not worth a damn, where all the real nerds use Kelvins. (They did make a degree Kelvin equal to a degree Celsius, but again, that's an arbitrary deal. They could have made absolute zero 0 and the boiling point of water 1000, which SOUNDS hot, and is just as arbitrary, or used degrees Fahrenheit.) I'd think a pot of boiling water should be hotter than 100, which sounds like such a normed number. To each his own, I guess ... it's a little like dating Anno Domini or Ab Urbe Condita. Both are purely arbitrary (and wrong), but we use the former due to social convention.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

German D&D books use meters. But I don't use German D&D books (the translations ara a crime against both the English and German languages).

When gaming (especially in combat), we most often use "squares", although the 5-foot-step is sometimes called the "one-fifty-step" (Eins-Fünfzig-Schritt). In the character data lines, I sometimes use metric, sometimes imperial.

 

[Gez]

German D&D books use meters. But I don't use German D&D books (the translations are a crime against both the English and German languages).

It seems a common problem in the little RPG industry.

If I could, I would change about 75% of the words chosen to translate D&D terms in French.

 

[s/LaSH]

I'm in New Zealand. When playing D&D, I don't use standard international units, I use the supplied Imperials instead (it's just easier to go without conversion, it's all abstract really). Anywhere else, I'll be using standard metric. Which means I'm going to go back through Twilight and change all the references to 5' squares to 2m squares, which is annoying, but I use the excuse that I was brainwashed at the time. Metric makes everything easier to calculate, anyway - when computing how easy it would be to breach the crust of a world I just designed, I just go, "Hm, x with a couple extra zeroes, yada yada, answer".

(Yes, answering that question is important, even if the answer is "you can never do it".)

 

[Agback]

G'day

I am luckily old enough to remember what a mile, a pound, and a yard are. I translate US gibberish units into metric for my players.

By the way, it is the "US Customary System", not the "Imperial System". The only units properly called 'Imperial' are the Imperial pint (20 fluid ounces) and Imperial gallon (160 fluid ounces), and they were never used in the USA.

Regards,


Agback