I WILL NOT TAKE IT ANYMORE

Common mistake. In D&D Hempen is a type of metal, not a plant.

(I made this up, and is exactly the kind of shit I'd off-the-cuff at my players when stuff like this came up ).

Looking at the strength of climbing gear this source indicates a modern climbing rope holds around 5500lbf.

From The Engineering Toolbox , manila hemp rope that can hold around that weight should be between 3/4 in and 13/16 in, or for the other europeans between 18 and 20mm.

This corresponds to a weight between 0.159 and 0.186 lbm/ft. For 50ft that is between 8lb and 9.3lb.

I say that 10lb is close enough.

Adventurer peers over the edge of the cliff, rope in hand, anchor tied. As he turns to descend, an OSHA inspector springs from the nearby brush:
"Good morning traveler, I trust that rope you are about to use for life safety has a 20:1 safety factor."
- Begone, Inspector; you have no power here! For I am an independent contractor!
- I don't play or understand the rules but can't you just get a ball of twine enchanted to be strong as spider silk?
Europeans, Asians, Africans, Australooceanians, South Americans and many North Americans
Especially if it has become wet. Hemp rope is a bugger in rain.

In the 2024 rules, rope:

weighs just 5lb.,
weirdly does not specify a length (so you always have enough??),
and is a bit harder to burst (dc20 vs dc17), but you can now use Athletics instead of pure strength

oh, and the fancy Silk rope is no longer in stock.

Glad I'm not the only one who finds it odd that no length of rope is specified any more. Chains are the same way, you either have it or you don't apparently.
- Had not looked at Chain yet. It requires the same dc20 check to break as you would need to break rope. wtf?
So I'm forced to use normal rope like some peasant?!??
Man, the 2024 rules seem stupid. It's streamlined to the point of absurdity. Rope doesn't have length? What?
I don't know why people play D&D anymore. There are so many better systems now that aren't owned by the friends of the Pinkertons, WOTC. Pathfinder 2e seems like it'd be easy for most players to move to easily. Everything is better defined, so you don't have to memorize a ton of exceptions like 5e.

Wait, you guys keep track of your carry weight?

No. It's too fiddly. If I wanted to play with spreadsheets I'd go back to work.
- There's apps that keep track of inventory weight automatically
Until theres bags of holding, yes and then if something is significantly heavy still yes.
I suddenly care as soon as a player character falls off the boat. 😈
Some people would rather play Campaign for North Africa than a roleplaying game.
It feels like playing Stalker.
Everyone gets mad at me for it, but yes, I have calculations both minor and major to make during our Dungeons & Dragons sessions.

It's how much weight it can hold, not how much it weighs..

Edit: oh, maybe I'm missing the DnD joke

I'm still missing it
- The item in-game weighs 10lb, IRL less than 1. They're stealing our inventory space.

It's heavy duty rope, maybe?

Makes me want to weigh the tow rope I used to use for off road recoveries. I don't think it was 10 lbs, and I can't imagine needing heavier duty rope for much of anything in DND.
- Dragon rodeos?
- That rope is probably not made of hemp. One of the top comments does out the math for hemp rope thick enough to be rated similar to modern climbing gear, and it came to around 9 lbs.

That's dry hemp rope, it won't have that strength if it ever gets wet.

I wouldn't call that rope to begin with. It's practically string. It may be strong, but I'd like to see someone try to climb it.

In DnD, if you're carrying rope, it's something you're expected to be able to use for something like climbing. Probably at least 3 or 4 times the diameter of that.

Idk man I've used that rope before for other stuff and it's kinda strong af
- Yeah I meant climbing the rope itself. I know it's strong, but climbing a rope that thin is extremely hard, if not impossible, at least without tools.
a length of strong cord made by twisting together strands of natural fibers such as hemp or artificial fibers such as polypropylene.
Ropes have existed for like 5000+ years and I can assure you many cliffs have been scaled with less than what's pictured
Does REI exist in your campaign? Like can you get mass-manufactured products?
- I'm talking about climbing the rope itself, not using it for safety. Like grappling to a roof or across a chasm.
  It would be plenty strong, but you can't really grip something like that.
- A D&D REI where everything is magical, awesome, and expensive would be a pretty fun store to put in a campaign.
Huh?
https://www.rei.com/c/climbing-ropes
- What's in the picture isn't climbing rope.. Climbing rope is rated for decent sized falls though, so it has a much higher weight rating than just the mass of the human climbing it (e.g. commonly 2.2+ tonnes)

OMW to annoy my DM with this information.

There are 16 ounces in a pound… I am not surprised americans choose to measure in anything but the measurement system no one else uses…

There are two kinds of people in this world;
Those that use metric
Those that landed people on the moon
- Careful bragging about that though...
- …by using the metric?
  But I would would like to congratulate your scientist who did that! I mean, nothing was achieved by that aside from litting billions on fire but that does kinda sound cool!
I always wonder what empire people think the Imperial System of measurement was named after. Cause it wasn't America. We are certainly stuck using an antiquated measuring system but it's not like we invented it.
- That kinda makes it worse you know? That the creators of the system dropped it for being worse yet you cling to it?
Good job! There are also 10 pounds in 10 pounds
- …ok? I know your education system is inferior, do you not underestand the concept of multiple units of measurements?