Units of Measurement

[James Maliszewski]

If this has already been covered, my apologies: is it for compatibility with LL and MF (not to mention S&S 1e) that 2e continues to use US customary measurements rather than metric ones? It's not a huge point, admittedly, and classic Star Trek was very inconsistent on this point, but I tend to prefer metric measurements in science fiction unless there's a specific reason not to do so.

[Goblinoid Games]

If this has already been covered, my apologies: is it for compatibility with LL and MF (not to mention S&S 1e) that 2e continues to use US customary measurements rather than metric ones? It's not a huge point, admittedly, and classic Star Trek was very inconsistent on this point, but I tend to prefer metric measurements in science fiction unless there's a specific reason not to do so.

It's primarily for compatibility. Even though there are a lot of non-US gamers interested in S&S, most of them are probably familiar with dealing with LL/BX units of feet etc. That was actually one of the things that annoyed me about Gamma World 1e--they did metric, but it was kind of goofy like they just converted a lot of things from D&D and the measurements were weird. In S&S I want a 10' radius area of effect, for example, to be directly translatable.

[James Maliszewski]

Fair enough. I have a strange hang-up about using metric for sci-fi, so I thought I ought to ask