D&D 4E Should 4e convert to metric?

[Xorn]

3/8" is almost 1.5 cm on the button. A 15 mm wrench will work on a 3/8" nut unless it was tightened with an air-wrench.

A meter (iirc) is 39 1/4 inches, while a yard is 36 inches. That is a disparaging difference in distance very quickly.

And I'm voting Imperial. When I buy a game from Games Workshop, armor and color have this extra "u" in them. I just accept that and get on with my life.

 

[lukelightning]

Its strange. People are ok with squares as primary measurements and very abstract combat but using grams instead of pounds for weights is too much?

I'd say that it's because it's easier to get a feel for distance than weight in an unfamiliar measurement system. Something is 30 meters away? I know that's 95ish feet away. Something is 70 kilograms? Ummmm.... double it... 140, then um, oh 154 lbs!

This made me think of how everything in AD&D was weighed in gold pieces. Sounds ridiculous, but it has a certain poetic truth to it... D&D characters evaluate everything in terms of loot. Should I take that statuette? It weighs 200gp... hopefully it's worth more than that otherwise it's a waste of space...

 

[Patlin]

A switch to metric removes "gear-shifting" from metric users but adds it to imperial users..

If they had made squares 1 meter x 1 meter, those more attached to the imperial system could have substituted the word 'yard' for 'meter' with relative ease. Or vice versa.

 

[keterys]

I hear 1 imperial square converts to 1 metric square pretty well.

Thereby I suggest we do equipment weights in 'stuffs'.

Backpacks can hold twenty stuffs. If anyone objects, we can tell 'em to stuff it, etc

 

[arscott]

Beer, drugs and guns. America rocks.

No, no, no.

Beer is still in imperial (mostly)

Wine and liquor in metric.

 

[simply not edible]

I say light-nanoseconds, broken down into handy attoparsecs.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Beer is still in imperial (mostly)

Yep. Drinking a 40 of malt liquor sounds much cooler hipper than drinking a liter of malt liquor

 

[Revinor]

Both imperial and metric systems are completely arbitrary. Real heroes use Planck units.

For example, 4th ed D&D lava has Planck temperature of 1.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

You are aware that the US officially uses the metric system?

We do? So when I drove 16 miles at the posted speed limit of 65 miles per hour, stopped to puchase 12 gallons of gas, then stopped at the deli to and picked up a foot long sub and a 12 ounce cup of coffee while I was there because the temperature outside was 35 degree Fahrenheit, I was using the metric system the whole time?

In all seriousness, I would prefer to see the metric system in much greater use here in the United States, but I don't care what system my RPGs use. I deal in metric every day at work, so quick and dirty conversion from one to the other isn't a problem for me.

Oh, and I refused to vote because France doesn't rock and the Queen is a representative of that regime we broke away from a couple of hundred years ago.

[threadjack] I recall hearing about a teacher who told her students that the U.S. was converting to metric time - 100 seconds per minute, 100 minutes per hour, 10 hours per day, 10 days per week etc. The reason was she wanted her students to use their own logic and challenge authority figures when they think something is wrong.

The exercise completely failed and the school was flooded with calls from parents wanting to know when metric time was supposed to begin.
[threadjack]

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Oh, and I refused to vote because France doesn't rock and the Queen is a representative of that regime we broke away from a couple of hundred years ago.

Yeah and we still haven't forgotten 1812, down with the Queen. While we're at it down with the French for instigating that whole impressment fiasco that kicked it off.

[threadjack] I recall hearing about a teacher who told her students that the U.S. was converting to metric time - 100 seconds per minute, 100 minutes per hour, 10 hours per day, 10 days per week etc. The reason was she wanted her students to use their own logic and challenge authority figures when they think something is wrong......The exercise completely failed and the school was flooded with calls from parents wanting to know when metric time was supposed to begin.[threadjack]

Ouch, she should have known how that would go over in our public school system.