[MUD-Dev] Metric vs. English System of Measurement in Games

[Eric Random]

--- Michael Hartman <michael at thresholdrpg.com> wrote:

> In a game world where the unit of measurement matters, what
> happens when the system used is not the same as the one most of
> your players are familiar with (English for US players, metric for
> everyone else). Are they uncomfortable? Does this make them less
> likely to play/stay?

Design the measurement system from the perspective of the perceptual
experience of the character and map it onto the perceptual
experience of the player.

Players have dimensions in reality, like hands, feet, height, stride
length, fingers, etc, as would characters. If one attempts to
imagine life without any particular standard of measurement system,
we would think largely in these terms. Concerning our own primitive
perceptions of our spaces, we actually do, except that we've
converted such models into standard systems (strides in a meter,
actual foot length for a foot). These formal systems arose more out
of the limitations of measurement beyond our local perceptual
capabilities, like turn a bushel into 1000 bushels, or dividing a
bushel into 100 units, then standardized to aid in communication and
commerce.

When describing a perceptual experience in terms of a character's
action, describe it more in these terms which are mappable to our
own experiences. This allows the player to better peceive the
reality of the character. For example, a human walking into a room
would note that the seat of a chair rises to his knee, whereas a
halfing may enter the same room, and find the seat of the chair
rising to his beltline, immediately understanding it may be quite
difficult to sit upon. If both were told that actually the seat is
1.5' high, or 18in., or 43 cm., it doesn't aid in determining how
that measurement may affect the character. Swords are measured by
arm or leg length, daggers height by arm, elbow and hand, dagger
width by fingers, distance by paces, etc.

As another example, people don't normally saunter into a room and
immediately notice that it's dimensions are numerically 20' x 30' x
8'.  They may not really even take in it's actual dimensions, but
moreso the relative relation and placement of objects within the
room, including themselves.  If the room is empty, distance may be
more judged from the perception of paces. If they stretch their arms
up, it will touch the ceiling, or be just beyond their grasp, or be
two and three times their height above them. If I enter a church,
and find 30 rows of chairs, I can well perceive the length of the
room that it is long without requiring that it is 170' deep.

Concerning weights, it's either light or heavy depending on the
character's strength. Would the character grow tired if they walked
around with it in their hand, or on their back? Do they need two
hands to lift it? Do they strain their backs? Do they need help from
others to lift it? Characters can also roughly compare objects as
heavier, lighter, or roughly equal in weight. For more precise
measurements, such as a fantasy world, use comparison tools, like a
simple 2-sided balance. With this, characters can determine if
objects are heavier, lighter, or equal in
comparison. Standardization can come in the form of standardized
weights, like 1 gold coin, perhaps abbreviated as 1g or any such
object which can be weighed. This allows different standardizations
for different geographies, as well as even allowing player culture
to create their own standardization.

For fluids, use containers and perceptual experience. For example, a
cup may contain 20 gulps, whereas a small vial would contain a sip.
Both players and characters can easily understand gulps. These too
can be scaled to characters perceptions. For example, a mug for a
human may contain 20 gulps, whereas for the halfing it is 40, but it
is still one human mug. When looking into a cup, our perceptual
limitations on quick glances tend to be with fractions as small as
1/4, so less than 1/4, 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, almost full,
etc.. So instead of a human looking into a mug and finding 10 gulps,
or a halfling 20, they both simply find it is half full (of half
empty for that matter). As far as potion or medicinal use, a
prescription of a sip or a gulp are entirely different amounts of
fluid for a human and a halfling. A halfling sip may be the same as
a human sip, but a halfling gulp is half that of a human. Therefore,
a cup of medicine may contain twice as many doses for a halfing than
for a human if prescriptions are in gulps. A barrel contains 2000
mugs, a mug contains 40 human gulps, a human gulp is roughly 20
sips, 3 pinches equal a sip, and so on. Again, because characters
are tuned into the measurements, standardization can be guided by
culture.

For numbers of objects, we tend to accurately perceive assymetrical
items around 6 or 7 on first glance, beyond that it's several, tens,
hundreds, thousands. Symmetrical items we tend to perceive in
groups, and count groups and then items within the groups, so 4
groups of 3 items we can quickly sort out to 12, but twelve objects
scattered randomly around a room looks like several.

Base time on obvious positions of celestial objects or repetitive
NPC activities. For example, mid-trel is when the sun (or any other
term which is obviously analogous) is at it's highest, rising
quatrel is when the sun first rises above our heads, setting quatrel
is when it drops below again, or bidtime is when the (NPC) guards
change shifts in the tower, or when the jackalopes start their
howl. Change time into occurrences of temporal landmarks. Provide
simple time measurement tools, like sand clocks (hourglasses) and
sun clocks or even moon clocks. Players may even begin to create
their own standardizations of time.

I find non-perceptual measurements are potentially immersion
breaking.  I mainly think in Imperial standard, but tell me
something is 23oz., and I have no idea perceptively what that
means. Tell me it's the weight of about 2 bottles of beer and I have
an idea. I would not get tired carrying that around.

I would not use real world standards of measurement unless my
setting required it in some way. For example, setting in 1860's New
York City, or Singapore in 2172. Even then, I would still continue
to allow characters to sample the measurements perceptively.

Just some thoughts...

- Eric Random
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