Metric

[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

I did settle on imperial for the new edition, yes. I think in imperial and that ended up overriding some good arguments for leaving it metric.

No flames, please - we had those already.

No Earth shattering Kaboom? Darn it...

Kidding aside, using the same units as GURPS will allow interoperability with GURPS data. Anything that can shorten the time required to get TFT supplements out is probably a Good Thing. In fact, I wouldn’t be bothered if the new TFT went with a 1 yard per hex scale, though I wouldn’t duplicate the GURPS system of 3 hex horses and pole weapons with 3 hex ranges. I’d stay with the TFT sizes.

Interestingly, a TFT megahex is 4m wide. 2 megahexes are 8m wide (8.75 y@rds). Currently, missile weapon DX adjustments occur in 2 megahex bands. If you convert to 1 hex = 1 yard scale, 2 old TFT megahexes will be 8.75 yds wide. So you could quite easily change the missile weapons DX adjustments to occur every 3 megahexes instead of every 2.

Or ignore the difference and keep the 2 megahex range bands.

[Chris Rice]

I'd have preferred the Mnoren "double cubit" myself, but I can live with Imperial.

[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by Chris Rice

I'd have preferred the Mnoren "double cubit" myself, but I can live with Imperial.

Well, as long as the monetary system is in Quatloos, I can live with any system of measurement.

[ak_aramis]

I'm disappointed in the change to imperial... but it makes little difference in play.

It does put off a portion of the audience.

[KevinJ]

In the game I am currently running I changed all the measurements and use gibberish names. The reason for this is to obfuscate the fact that the characters are not human. All ranges are in Hexes, the characters average 4 Els tall and weigh 36 Pems. Because of the nature of the game they have only just learned that Stone Folk call themselves Dwarfs and White Devils call themselves Elfs. When the players meet the Dwarfs they are going to be shocked that the dwarfs are about the same height as the characters. This may or may not lead to some interesting questions.

The secret is that they are actually Kobolds (1E AD&D kobolds, to be precise.)

While moving to Imperial may be difficult for some less educated people (I've been converting back and forth for about 40 years) so those who only know the metric system can learn to do the same. The actual scale really doesn't matter so long as it's consistant within all game material.

[Steve Jackson]

Els and Pems - I like that. And a campaign where the PCs don't know "what they are." Nice.

No comments on education, please - that inches up toward the territory where we have to close the thread.

[Chris Rice]

In the UK we've had a very mixed transition to Metric. I remember when I started school 1970/71, we had just changed to metric (decimal) currency. That has stuck, but the transition to metric weights and measures took a lot longer and most of us still think in stones and pounds, pints and gallons. Metric distances just never caught on. I have no problem with either. A hex is a hex after all. It's just a long step.

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

Els and Pems - I like that. And a campaign where the PCs don't know "what they are." Nice.

No comments on education, please - that inches up toward the territory where we have to close the thread.

As to my assorted units of measure, I wanted it to be realistic, but foreign. The players do not always know what the characters know.

Here is the conversion chart, such as it is. Still quite incomplete, since I never settled on a value of silver coin to bushel of wheat.

All referenses to the character race are The People. They have no contact with any other race, and only have very old records from the last time The People interacted with anyone.

*****
Measurements:
Length:
El: the basic unit of measurement for short distances. There are 13 Ecks in an El and Ecks are divided into fractions for even smaller measurements.
Pace: 2 Els.
Farthing: 300 Els. This is an intermediate measurement used in agriculture and urban planning. This is also a typical bow range and a bow shot is often used for rough measurement.
March: 28,000 Els. This measurement is used for long distances. (one square on the map it 1 March.
(1 El is 1ft)

Mass:
The People only have one measure for mass that is used for common goods and precious metals and gemstones.

Pem: the basic unit of mass for commercial measurement. The pem is broken down into Lems (32 per Pem) and Kems (128 per Pem).
Kar: the measurement for valuable items like gemstones and medicines. There are 1000 Kar in a Pem.
Corns are the smallest weight measurement. 1 Corn is the weight of a seasoned barley corn. There are 14,000 Corns in a Pem, 437.5 Corns in a Lem, 109.4 Corns in a Kem, and 14 Corns in a Kar.
Grand Pem: a bulk measurement equaling 100 Pems.
Tak: a gross measurement, there are 1000 Pems in a Tak.
(1 Pem is 2lbs; 1 Lem is 1oz, 1 Kem is 1/4oz, Kars and adjacent to grams, and Corns are Grains.)

Volume:
Dry and Liquid measures in volume are different. The mass of flour, which acts like a liquid, you could hold in a Pusha par is greater than the mass of grain that the same jar will hold.

Pusha: the standard volumetric measure of grain. Baskets, and ceramic pots and clay jars, are made in 1 Pusha sizes for storage and transport of goods. Grains are generally sold by the Pusha, though they can also be sold by the Pem. A pusha of grain weighs 45-60Pems, depending on the grain.

Gek: the standard volumetric measure of liquids. Ceramic, glass, and clay jars are common forms of Gek containers, while copper and bronze are less common.
Tek: ½ Gek
Kek: ¼ Gek
Rill: ⅛ Gek
Till: 1/16 Gek. Smaller units of volume are measured in fractions of a Till.
(1 Gek is 1 Gallon)

Conversions:
1 Gek of ‘water’ weighs 4 Pems.
1 Gek of grain weights 1 Pem.
*****