Goblin Squad Member
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Don't care if it is feet, meters, cubits, leagues, rods, Zogs or purples or anything else.
If my range is 25 [whatever], a magical measuring tape isn't going to come out and zoom out to my target and tell me I'm 27 [whatevers] away. I'm going to have to eyeball it and attack and see if I am in range or not.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm fine with whatever they want to use. I'd view it as pretty much OOC information anyway. I doub't my character would ever say something like, "it's 4 km to the south"....it'd be more like "it's a fair distance, go past the bridge until you see the rotting stump and then you'll know you are close".
It would be cool, if we figured out a themeaticaly appropriate substitute to use IC, if we did have to talk about such stuff... just convert on a 1:1 basis and call it something else.."pace, stone, league"... using the antiquated idioms shouldn't be too confusing for people.
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Goblin Squad Member
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It would be cool, if we figured out a themeaticaly appropriate substitute to use IC, if we did have to talk about such stuff... just convert on a 1:1 basis and call it something else.."pace, stone, league"... using the antiquated idioms shouldn't be too confusing for people.
Yeah, this was where I ended up. I think Pace and League are great, and might actually use those as substitutes for Meters and Kilometers.
I'm fine with whatever they want to use. I'd view it as pretty much OOC information anyway. I doub't my character would ever say something like, "it's 4 km to the south"....it'd be more like "it's a fair distance, go past the bridge until you see the rotting stump and then you'll know you are close".
Wouldn't it be cool if they actually put in odd little clusters of objects like rotting stumps that we could use as landmarks?
Simply because "High Fantasy" has meant something in the past does not mean it must continue to do so now or for every instance. There is no hard and fast rule over what distances should or shouldn't be called. Calling the distance kilometer is going to have more meaning and comprehension to me than calling it a league or whatnot. They use feet in WoW and the Pathfinder RPG and it doesn't break me out of the setting. I hear a unit of measure and think "measurement" not "that's not compatible to this world." It works in this world because the creators choose for it to work. Honestly if they use kilometers that's going to make me as an American think of Europe and foreign lands which fits just perfectly with the game.
I recognize that maybe you and other players will have issues with this taking you out of the world, but I reject your limitations on "High Fantasy."
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Goblin Squad Member
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Honestly if they use kilometers that's going to make me as an American think of Europe and foreign lands which fits just perfectly with the game.
Well, it's been two and a half years since I started this thread, and I've learned to simply accept a lot of things since then. For me, personally, any reference to the Metric System inevitably brings to mind La Terreur. For those who aren't burdened in the same way, I can see why they find my plea foolish.
Well, it's been two and a half years since I started this thread, and I've learned to simply accept a lot of things since then. For me, personally, any reference to the Metric System inevitably brings to mind La Terreur. For those who aren't burdened in the same way, I can see why they find my plea foolish.
Oh. Ha. Didn't know how old this thread was.
I don't think you're foolish for having a personal history that results in immersion breakage. That's a very individualized thing that can't really be judged by other people. My disagreement is over putting certain limitations on what can go into a fantasy genre. If a story or setting has no fantastical elements then clearly it's not fantasy, but I don't think whether they use modern language to describe things is an important concept in fantasy. One of your points I can't debate because it is subject, but the other point I disagree with strongly.
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Goblin Squad Member
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If your gaming group wants to use metric and is comfortable with your NPC's sounding like they're from the BBC, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING STOPPING YOU FROM DOING SO.
On the flip side though, I feel absolutely no obligation to change the way I run my games.
This thread has nothing to do with what players do in tabletop games. Rather, it was a very old request for Pathfinder Online. Apparently, some folks find it an interesting topic.
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This thread is super-interesting to me, as I really like adding flavor through language. Measurements are a great way to do that, but I don't really care what language the game books themselves use, as it's easy enough to translate, often without requiring conversion. Feet become "cubits'. Yards become "strides", etc., as others have mentioned.
True story, in rural Nepal, footpath travel is the norm (no roads), and distances are typically measured in rice, as in "Pokhara is 5 bowls of rice away". If your character asks a peasant for directions in my campaign, they're likely to get such an answer, and translating becomes a job for the character, rather than the player. In that sense, I feel the translation process actually adds verisimilitude and thus aids immersion.
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Goblin Squad Member
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As this is a computer game, I believe we should only use variations on base 2, ie Oct or Hex. We don't even need descriptive unit names at that point.
For example "The settlement is 1FB distance units from town." Hell, as players we can create our own lecixon! DU = Distance Units, IW = Inventory Weight, CV = Currency Value, SS = System Steps (for time!)
Truth be told, I've never had a good grasp on anything imperial except inches, feet and lbs (though only for body weight). I know exactly how walking a KM feels like, a mile is such a foreign concept to me though. And I live 120km from the US border and have driven in the US several times. Still nothin'.
I support Metric for selfish reasons.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm gonna play a video game. They can call the units whatever they want, and as long as the game is fun, I'll be happy. I may type in character sometimes, but I'm making no promises to keep it up 24/7.
Sometimes the emphasis on immersion around here baffles me. I suspect Paizo's choice of units will be much less immersion breaking than the way the video gamers will be talking in world, local, settlement and company chat. If your sense of immersion is so fragile that the wrong unit of measure can throw you out of Golarion, then watch out! Many chat channels and voice comms will be filled with people talking out of character.
So is 5 bowls of rice the time it takes to eat those bowls of rice, which would be how long it takes to walk there? Or laying the grains of rice in five bowls end to end for the distance to there?
Hehe, it's essentially a measure of the amount of fuel required to make the journey, as in a person needs to eat X amount of rice in order to walk a certain distance.
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Goblin Squad Member
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This kind of reminds me of discussions on a particular WWII flight sim forum where people wanted the instrumentation on the German planes changed from metres, kilometres and litres of fuel to Feet, miles and US gallons even though the historical aircraft never used US measurements.
Regardlesss an ex-pilot and having also worked in land survey for 10 years when younger I am more than happy for the game to work in furlongs, leagues, roods, links, chains, quarts, perches, drams and/or nautical miles if people so desire but for a lot of people none of those measurements will make the slightest sense.
Could we also make the basic unit for selling items dozens, bushels and/or one gross, selling ale in hogsheads and wine in Puncheons ?
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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<chuckles>. Whenever I use metric, I can hear Dad's voice in my head muttering about the "insidious French plot."
Your dad would have been great company for the billions of people in the world, thinking that TV shows, rock 'n' roll, rap music, videogames and Hollywood movies are a not so much insidious US plot to force us to speak English and follow the US lifestyle.
I know you are joking, but really, as someone who really doesn't like the English language but is forced to use it in approximately everything, I just can't understand people moaning about the metric system. :p
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Goblin Squad Member
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Bookmarked for inclusion in the soon to be updated EE FAQ thread; and for new people to add new insight to the topic on hand. :)