Metric & Markets

[Kask]

Unfortunately, the english / imperial system is not duodecimal. ...

Irrelevant to my point that it is easier to use for carpenters, than metric.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Local editions of D&D are in Metric here.

Out of curiosity, Klaus, what language are the local editions printed in?

 

[Klaus]

Out of curiosity, Klaus, what language are the local editions printed in?

Why, Portuguese, of course. But they just released KotS, and I haven't checked it out (I strongly dislike a lot of their translations). But 3.0/3.5 used 1 square = 1.5 meters. That's how we adjudicate it quickly at the table: 5 feet = 1.5 m.

 

[catsclaw227]

More on topic, IMC, Rana, we use a vigesimal calendar:

<snip>
We also use a vigesimal currency system with 3 naming schemes:

OMG....

I am glad I don't have to memorize all that for my game.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Why, Portuguese, of course.

That's what I thought, but I didn't want to assume.

Obviously, it makes perfect sense that they'd go ahead and switch to the local units of measurement when going through all the trouble of a translation. But--back to the OP--I can't imagine it ever being worth the cost and trouble to print multiple versions in the same language with different measurements.

 

[Krensky]

Unfortunately, the english / imperial system is not duodecimal. It's a hodgepodge of all kinds of different bases across its base dimensions; They didn't even manage to stick to a single numeric base for a single dimension: while the smaller units of length fractions can be excused as divisors of 12, someone made a major booboo when they defined the rod as 11 cubits, the furlong as 10 chains, and the mile as 8 furlongs. Similarly, units of volume seem to have a binary thing going on, except for the vigesimal relation between pints and fluid ounces. Last, but not least, the units of weight are all over the place, with 16ths, 20ths, and even 14ths (gods forbid).

Just because you don't understand why or where those come from doesn't mean they aren't logical. They have to do with farming or measurements that are easy to make with no equpiment. A rod was standardized to 11 cubits long after it entered common usage, but it's that size because that was the typical length of a plowman's goad with was used for laying out fields in addition to poking oxen. A furlong is the distance one man and one oxen could plow in a straight line without resting, and was set to 40 rods. The chain's size was determined later so that an area one chain by 10 chains was one acre, and had a long dimension of one furlong.

 

[Aexalon]

OMG....

I am glad I don't have to memorize all that for my game.

What's to memorize? "It takes you two hours to reach the abandoned ruins", "Last month's profits were down, m'lord!", "you find a treasure chest filled with silver". If you care enough to dig deeper than that, the detail's available. If you don't, it doesn't matter either way.

"I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs that’s your own lookout. Energise the demolition beams." — Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz

Just because you don't understand why or where those come from doesn't mean they aren't logical. They have to do with farming or measurements that are easy to make with no equpiment. A rod was standardized to 11 cubits long after it entered common usage, but it's that size because that was the typical length of a plowman's goad with was used for laying out fields in addition to poking oxen. A furlong is the distance one man and one oxen could plow in a straight line without resting, and was set to 40 rods. The chain's size was determined later so that an area one chain by 10 chains was one acre, and had a long dimension of one furlong.

Pardon me, but I know perfectly well where those units came from. I —and with me a small majority of the world's population— however, see no point in continuing their employ, either in 21st century reality (where we have since benefitted from a little thing called the industrial revolution), or —more relevantly to the topic— in generalised fantasy settings (where ploughs are as likely to be pulled by giant ants as they are by the exact species of bovine that appeared in medieval western europe, and where the area one man can successfully keep under cultivation is more influenced by how much of it he can defend from the terrors of the wilderness than how much of it he can work on a day).

"[Thank you for] hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society! If there's ever going to be any progress..." — Dennis, the constitutional peasant.

 

[Morrus]

Pardon me, but I know perfectly well where those units came from. I —and with me a small majority of the world's population— however, see no point in continuing their employ,

My scales (stones and pounds), car (miles per gallon), road signs (miles), speed (miles per hour), weight (stones and pounds), ruler (inches), height (feet and inches), football pitch (yards), beer glass (pints), and many other things say that that map on Wikipedia is a load of nonesense. Along with the EU which has given up on trying to get Britain to go metric.

Whoever drew that map has never been here.

 

[Aexalon]

My scales (stones and pounds), car (miles per gallon), road signs (miles), speed (miles per hour), weight (stones and pounds), ruler (inches), height (feet and inches), football pitch (yards), beer glass (pints), and many other things say that that map on Wikipedia is a load of nonesense. Along with the EU which has given up on trying to get Britain to go metric.

Whoever drew that map has never been here.

Which is exactly why I said "a small majority", and not 94%. Which I might have had to correct to 93%, if the UK were to be pointed out to use purely imperial units (which it does not).

As for EU/UK matters, I cannot respond without violating —in spirit or otherwise— the "no politics" rules which you yourself have set for this board.

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

My scales (stones and pounds), car (miles per gallon), road signs (miles), speed (miles per hour), weight (stones and pounds), ruler (inches), height (feet and inches), football pitch (yards), beer glass (pints), and many other things say that that map on Wikipedia is a load of nonesense. Along with the EU which has given up on trying to get Britain to go metric.

Whoever drew that map has never been here.

and being from the same country, I'll see your imperialism and...

My bathroom scales are in Kg, I purchase fuel by the litre, my passport reports my height in metres and I have to purchase food at the supermarket by weight in metric - by Law. It is illegal in the UK to sell food using imperial measurements.

So a mix, heading towards metric.