Topic: Metric or Imperial System for RM Revised

[szaki2]

Hm I think in metric system, then translating to imperial, but if u say 5'6" i need calculator Use metric and i can sold my calc.

[Gege]

For all of you that think the books can include both systems, here are some extracts from the french translation of Spell Law (RM2) (retranslated to english here):

"The caster can increase of decrease the speed of the wind by 1.6km/h. So, if the speed of the wind is 32km/h, a 15th level spell caster can vary the speed between 8 and 56km/h".

"...but for 94cm3 of metal per level."

".. but freeze all solid matter to -17C."

"...and it can reach 90cm x 1.8m with a depth of 30cm/lvl in stone and 7.5cm/lvl in other materials."

I don't think it helped the reputation of RM as being a difficult system...

So please, one system, either metric (I voted for that) or imperial, but with spells and rules that are adapted so that base units are easy to count with.

[Marc R]

That's CLASSIC. . .oh, I laughed loud enough to have co-workers come poking into what was up. . . . .

Ah, never thought of how crazy all those imperial measures, translated metric must look. 94cm³ / Level HAHAHahahahahaha . . . ..

worth a laugh point, and an idea point. . . . .

"Note to ICE, overseas compatability is going to be a mess due to our holding religiously to an archaic system of measures. . . . . .heheheheh"

Then again, I should be laughing at myself. . . .I buy paper for magazines, in the US it's sold in all sorts of arbitrary "basis weight sizes" that I'm convinced were established by papermaking guilds in some obscure time just to make my life difficult. . . . .meanwhile all overseas paper is purchased in Grams per square meter. . . . .

Sigh. . .who'd ever think that feet and pounds would complicate things so?

[mocking bird]

Gege - that is funny.  You would think that for the ease of conversion some rounding would have helped.

I think that in medieval settings measurements should be in rods, chains, stones, leagues & drams.

I could go with metric if absolutely necessary (I don't think hectare would appear in any spell list) - but only if you leave out the superfluous 'u' in armor, color, etc. in the actual books.  Think of the ink you would save.

Hm I think in metric system, then translating to imperial, but if u say 5'6" i need calculator Use metric and i can sold my calc.

A yardstick would work better for figuring 5'6".

[smug]

OK, crunches knuckles.......

In the UK, this is a touchy subject, as our imperial system is slowly being eroded away, and it has to some become a symbol of national pride.

My preference is to use metric for smaller measurments mm, cm and even m, but for larger ones and some more traditional things such as hight i prefer feet and inches, and miles.

Americans use just pounds for wieght, we use stones (14lb) and pounds to describe wieght, though Kg is becoming more common, (spit)

So perhaps both should be used, though I'd run with imperial with a table to convert to metric.

The Imperial/Metric issue in the UK is somewhat unfortunate, as we have  a part of our National Pride on the use of a system than logic dictates is highly inferior to the alternative. Myself, I think in Imperial although for my job I use metric and it's far better for doing calculations, particularly in your head. I wish that we had picked a better pole to hang our standard from than the Imperial measurements system, though.

Incidentally, we do use some metric, as do the Americans. Joules and Watts are a metric-based measurement, as are, in fact, calories.

[Marc R]

Soda, we buy soda in liters. . . . . .beer in Ozs. . . hehehe. . .

[Thom @ ICE]

Incidentally, we do use some metric, as do the Americans. Joules and Watts are a metric-based measurement, as are, in fact, calories.

Have you taken a look at most Americans (myself included)... we don't bother with calories (if we acknowledge they exist then we can't eat as much!) 

[Gege]

Gege - that is funny.  You would think that for the ease of conversion some rounding would have helped.

But the problem is that if you do some rounding, you modify the power of the spells  I don't think the translators wanted to get into spell list balancing troubles on top of the rest...

Adding: Actually, by my own argument, changing to metric would be a mess since you would want to redesign the power of every spells based on length, area or volume to work at a given level for a simple base unit (not 27dm3!). Whereas keeping imperial units would allow to adjust a bit the existing spells and live with them

[Sorloc]

for volume, you'd use litres, not m3.  It's not too bad, since 1 liter is 1000cm3 (10cmx10cmx10cm).

so, for a 3m x 3m x 3m room  (10'x10'x10') holds
300cm x 300cm x 300cm = 27,000,000 litres.

[smug]

The meter cubed is a useful unit for many things, but it's a lot of whatever you're measuring. A meter cubed of water weighs a tonne (which is close to the same as an Imperial ton, of course). I tend to use meters cubed, although the liter is also useful (because a liter of water has mass of one kilogramme and I know how a lot of materials compare to water in density).

[pastaav]

The most cool would of course be setting specific units...but all units based on metric units to ease the magic system.

[Akai]

Here's an American who prefers the metric system    It's just cleaner and more internally consistent than Imperial. And who's to say that a fantasy culture can't have a universal base ten system of measurement?

[Sorloc]

cubic meters would be better for expressing in smaller numbers... 9 cu meters vs 27 million litres
The metric system is simple and elegant.  It amazes me that in light of this, it has actually been adopted :/

As for setting, you can use any measurement system you like for flavor, but system stuff should be expressed in units the GM and players can understand, meaning either Imperial or Metric (SI).  Of the two, SI is clearly better.  For flavor, each culture in your world might have a different system, and some beings might use base-8 as they have three fingers and a thumb, or, as in my world, the ancient stuff in Shadow World uses a base-12  number system, as the K'Ta'Viir has 12 fingers, and also because base-12 is simply better (12 has more factorials than 10, meaning you can divide it more easily, and you run into repeating decimals far less often when doing math.  Also, you can express greater quantities with fewer digits - one of the reasons the Arabic system supplanted the Roman system).

[smug]

cubic meters would be better for expressing in smaller numbers... 9 cu meters vs 27 million litres
The metric system is simple and elegant.  It amazes me that in light of this, it has actually been adopted :/

27 million liters is 27 thousand cubic meters. But yet, it makes more sense for anything large. And then there's always cubic kilometers, of course, for when cubic meters just won't do.

[Turambar]

Archaic or not, Imperial is the standard in the U.S. and ICE is a U.S. company. In these days and times, with the limited print runs, I don't see why ICE just doesn't just run off both domestic and export versions. Then you silly European's, and Euro-wanna-bes, can have your silly metric system, and the rest of us (the 'evil' Imperialists, I guess  ) can play with our feet...and inches.

Jason

btw: I think in imperial, but work primarily in metric and have little trouble switching between the two. I would be completely comfortable with using metric in a SF setting, but find it completely anachronistic in a fantasy setting.

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Jason, the problem with running off both versions is that you then require 2 different UPC codes, and distributors tend to look very disfavorably upon multiple versions of the same products...

[ictus]

maybe ICE should invent it's own universal measurements for Fantasy and Sci Fi, they did it with curency after all

[Turambar]

Tim...fair enough.

How about a website-only 'backassward' Special Edition for those of us that would prefer to be stuck in the middle ages  .

Or, somewhat as Ictus suggests...just replace all units with variables that will be defined by some table in the front of the book. So a spell range could be listed as d/rnd in which the d would be defined in the beginning of the book as being either 1 foot or .3 meters, etc and so on.

Jason

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Jason, please note that ICE was not the one who started this poll. 

[ictus]

So what do ICE want to do 

and I still prefer Imperial...