A similar series of articles was first published on the web site of Wizards of the Coast, publishers of the fine role-playing game Dungeons&Dragons. However, their way of going metric was, in my opinion, silly and a blind alley, leading to a game where 10' poles are suddenly 4 meter.

Since I prefer my poles to be 3 meter, and I already had a swedish and metric version of the game going, I decided to publish my own way of going metric, which I feel to be more like a five-lane highway.

So turn on your cruise-control and get your kicks on route 66...

Every meter of it.


Going Metric

 
Going Metric, Part 1
Going Metric, Part 2
Going Metric, Part 3
Going Metric, Part 4


Going Metric (Part One)
By Mikael Börjesson


So, you enjoy the D&D game, but you hail from a civilized country where the metric system rules minor little things such as weights and measures. You grew up thinking metric and you'd like to have a better idea of what the game's measurements actually represent. The table below shows some common English units and their metric conversion factors.

Game Measurement Multiply By To Get
Length
Inches 25.4 Millimeter
Inches 2.54 Centimeter
Feet 30.5 Centimeter
Feet 0.305 Meter
Yards 0.914 Meter
Miles 1.61 Kilometer
Leagues[1] 4.83 Kilometer
Area
Square inches 6.45 Square centimeter
Square feet 0.093 Square meter
Square yards 0.836 Square meter
Square miles 2.56 Square kilometer
Acres 0.405 Hectare
Volume
Fluid ounces 29.6 Milliliter
Pints[2] 0.473 Liter
Quarts[2] 0.946 Liter
Gallons[2] 3.79 Liter
Cubic feet 28 Cubic decimeter
Cubic feet 0.028 Cubic meter
Weight[3]
Ounces 28.3 Gram
Pounds[3] 0.454 Kilogram
Tons[3] 0.907 Metric ton

1. One league equals 3 miles
2. US measure
3. Short ton (2,000 pounds)

Converting Tactical Distances

The basic unit of distance for all tactical movement and combat in the D&D game is 5 feet, which is the size of one square. Also, all ranges are given in numbers evenly divisible by 5. The conversion table shows that 5 feet is about 1.525 meters (5x0.305=1.525). The number 1.525 isn't a very practical one for gaming, so let's say that 5 feet equals 1.5 meter for game purposes, and let's always round any distance down to a whole number. Each square is then sized to 1 meter. Why 1 meter? Because a whole number is more convenient to use than something that's closer to the mark, such as 1.5 meters. Trying to count of movement or ranges across squares would be a lot more tedious of each square represented a fractional distance. With squares equalling 1 meter, counting distances on a game board is simplicity itself. Unfortunately, some other d20 game that was designed from the beginning using metric measurements, use 2-meter squares. When using such a game, use 1-meter squares instead.

It's not important to make our distances conform to the same number of squares as long as the distances are (more or less) the same. For example, a character with a speed of 30 (feet) travels 9 squares (9 meter) in the metric game (not 6 squares as in the english game). In either case, the character travels roughly the same distance (9 meter or 9.15 meter) in one move action.

The table below shows common tactical speeds and their metric conversions:

Speed Table (English Units)
Tactical Speed*
Base Speed 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 15 10 5
Encumbered 70 65 60 50 40 35 30 20 15 10 5 5
One Minute (Local)*
Current Speed** 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 15 10 5
Walk 1,000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 150 100 50
Hustle 2,000 1,800 1,600 1,400 1,200 1,000 800 600 400 300 200 100
Run (x3) 3,000 2,700 2,400 2,100 1,800 1,500 1,200 900 600 450 300 150
Run (x4) 4,000 3,600 3,200 2,800 2,400 2,000 1,600 1,200 800 600 400 200
One Hour (Overland)***
Current Speed** 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 15 10 5
Walk 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.5 1 0.5
Hustle 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 3 2 1
One Day (Overland)***
Current Speed* 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 15 10 5
Walk 80 72 64 56 48 40 32 24 16 12 8 4
*Tactical and local speeds are in feet.
**Use normal or encumbered speed, whichever applies to the creature.
***Overland movement is measured in miles.


Speed Table -- English to (Metric Units)
Speed (feet) 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 15 10 5
Speed (meters) 30 27 24 21 18 15 12 9 6 4 3 2
Speed Table (Metric Units)
Tactical Speed*
Base Speed 30 27 24 21 18 15 12 9 6 4 3 2
Encumbered 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 3 2 1
One Minute (Local)*
Current Speed** 30 27 24 21 18 15 12 9 6 4 3 2
Walk 300 270 240 210 180 150 120 90 60 40 30 20
Hustle 600 540 480 420 360 300 240 180 120 80 60 40
Run (x3) 900 810 720 630 540 450 360 270 180 120 90 60
Run (x4) 1 200 1 080 960 840 720 600 480 360 240 160 120 80
One Hour (Overland)***
Current Speed** 30 27 24 21 18 15 12 9 6 4 3 2
Walk 15 13.5 12 10.5 9 7.5 6 4.5 3 2 1.5 1
Hustle 30 27 24 21 18 15 12 9 6 4 3 2
One Day (Overland)***
Current Speed* 30 27 24 21 18 15 12 9 6 4 3 2
Walk 120 108 96 84 72 60 48 36 24 16 12 6
*Tactical and local speeds are in meter.
**Use base or encumbered speed, as applicable.
***Overland speeds are in kilometer.