Why is everything twice as big?

[Yunru]

In DnD, a door is 5 feet wide, a double door 10 feet.
A bed is 10 feet long, and 5 feet wide.

For comparison, the average european male is around 5 feet tall.
A double door is DnD is wider than your average ceiling is high.

Why is this?

 

[Mercurius]

It really comes down to playability and, well, graph paper. Don't over-think it.

 

[Ovarwa]

Hi,

Because a) history and b) math hard and c) most of us have ten fingers.

Corridors in D&D are historically 10' wide. This is big, but 10 is the best number because we have ten fingers. If we want something smaller, we certainly cannot go with numbers other than 1, 2 or 5, because fractions make people fractious.

So, a bed must be 10' long, because 5' is clearly too short.

Anyway,

Ken

 

[MarkB]

When you're likely to have half-orcs, goliaths, firbolgs and dragonborn visiting, you build to a generous scale.

 

[sim-h]

Everything in the OP is wrong.

A door or bed is exactly the size the DM says it is.

Average European male height is 5' 8" - 5' 11" depending upon country.

This thread enrages me. We had enough fake news in 2018, don't start the New Year like this!

 

[Iry]

Anything between 6-10 rounds up to 10. So the door is not actually 10 feet wide, it just takes up 10 feet of conceptual space.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Everything in the OP is wrong.

A door or bed is exactly the size the DM says it is.

Average European male height is 5' 8" - 5' 11" depending upon country.

This thread enrages me. We had enough fake news in 2018, don't start the New Year like this!

And the average male Netherlander is over 6'1" I don't know of any nation so short as to bring the average down to 5' taking all that into account.

 

[Yunru]

And the average male Netherlander is over 6'1" I don't know of any nation so short as to bring the average down to 5' taking all that into account.

I use "around" for a reason. 6' is still closer to 5' than 10' or even 7'6"

 

[BookBarbarian]

I use "around" for a reason. 6' is still closer to 5' than 10' or even 7'6"

If an innkeeper shows me a 5' bed because that's "about" 6' I'll take my patronage elsewhere including bivouac.

 

[Yunru]

If an innkeeper shows me a 5' bed because that's "about" 6' I'll take my patronage elsewhere including bivouac.

Yeah but we still have to fit things to a grid.