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

[JiffyPopTart]

Maybe but gold is a unit of currency in a lot of video games, so players have a fairly easy time imagining things in terms of how much gold something costs relative to how much they have. It also helps that gold is typically in units of 10 or 100 when it comes to copper and silver, which is fairly "metric."

However, it's easier for me to ask my German partner and Austrian game group to imagine distances or heights in metric than it is in for them to imagine these things in British or American imperial units.

At my boardgame table ALL boardgame currency is called gold. Space game = gold. Post Apocalypse = gold. Pre Historic Dinosaurs = gold.

 

[MNblockhead]

Well, most other countries around the world think metrics (formally SI, "international system"). In this regard, USA is exception, not rule

Said that, here in Brazil we do both. Many people use the original books (in English) and learned to use feet, miles and pounds (most of time stopping to do mental conversions). People that use the translated versions use SI units, which are very more intuitive for us. The translation uses 5 ft. = 1.5 meters, which is very near anyway. And 1 lb = 0.5 kg, which is not very the mark, but does a good work most of time. But once we hit ounces, acres or gallons, well, chaos is assured.

Do the translated versions also convert the measures? Do they even have Portuguese translations of any of the books?

 

[aco175]

I use feet, miles and pounds even if I don't know exactly what they mean. I know inches are very small, 1ft is about the size of a 30 cm ruler, a mile is more than a kilometre and 10 pounds is the average weight of a cat, and that's all I need to know. It's like B/X, that used "coins" as a weight unit.

My cat breaks the average then, he is more like 2 stone, more than 10 kilos.

 

[MNblockhead]

Behind the screen I use miles, pounds, etc. But in fantasy games, especially with groups that have people from multiple countries, I like to try to explain in ways that I feel would make more sense to how most people would have expressed distance in medieval times. How far is it to city? 2.5 to three days, but you can make it in 2 days if you ride hard. For temperature, how does it feel? Who cares about the exact temperature. In combat, it is hard to get away from measurements, but usually you are just counting squares. Doesn't really matter if a square is 5' or 1.5 meters. When it comes to ranged attacks. This is one thing that VTTs and battle maps kinda ruin. In ToTM, I just say the enemy is outside of your range or they are with in range but it'll be a long shot, etc.

Anyway, it is too bad Thomas Jefferson got cold feet. The U.S. was close to becoming the 2nd country in the world to adopt the metric system, but there were fears it wouldn't catch on in other countries. At least we were sensible enough to learn to drive on the right side of the road. ;-)

 

[schneeland]

When I started playing D&D, using imperial units was common. Mostly because it is the unit in which the battle maps and distances in the rule books have been specified. But there is indeed a flavour part to it, so while, for the most part, we use metric distances these days, I am contemplating using historic German measurements from time to time (if only they were not so terribly unwieldy! ).

 

[Blairrows]

No, I still reference measurements with the imperial system. Most of my players are American, so they often have a better grasp on it than I do. I only occasionally have to rephrase my descriptions when they seem confounded by a strange distance or volume.

I try to stay away from exact measurements in general nowadays, though. I just prefer "short, medium, long, or extreme range" or comparing the size of something to an evocative object. It's one thing to say a jar is 8" tall, but it's another thing to say it's the size of a halfling's skull.

 

[Bohandas]

I use feet, miles and pounds even if I don't know exactly what they mean.

I'm from america and even I can't remember the conversion between feet and miles. Except that it's between 5000 and 6000, and that it's one less than a prime number (which I'm sure must have been the number the original creator actually wanted because not being able to divide it would have made the number even more useless)

No, I still reference measurements with the imperial system. Most of my players are American, so they often have a better grasp on it than I do. I only occasionally have to rephrase my descriptions when they seem confounded by a strange distance or volume.

Note that you can use liters with americans because that's just one half a bottle of soda and so people have a refrence for it

 

[John Lloyd1]

No, I still reference measurements with the imperial system. Most of my players are American, so they often have a better grasp on it than I do. I only occasionally have to rephrase my descriptions when they seem confounded by a strange distance or volume.

I try to stay away from exact measurements in general nowadays, though. I just prefer "short, medium, long, or extreme range" or comparing the size of something to an evocative object. It's one thing to say a jar is 8" tall, but it's another thing to say it's the size of a halfling's skull.

Mind you, I read that as 8 feet tall. Big halfling.

 

[dragoner]

I can do both customary and si.

 

[John Lloyd1]

The bit which trips me up are weight triggered traps. Will this to kobold adventurer trigger a pressure plate that triggers at 50 pounds. I have to figure out if kilos are twice pounds or the other way round.