Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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[Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
Navigation is the IQ/A TL skill of finding out where you are and plotting a course to get somewhere else. Specialisation in a kind of environment is required: (Air), (Land) and (Sea) default to each other at -2; (Space) and (Hyperspace) default to each other at -5, with no defaults between the two groups. If there are several forms of faster-than-light travel in a game, they may have different forms of (Hyperspace), aka Astrogation. The skill covers careful observation of your surroundings and the use of instruments, of any degree of sophistication appropriate to the TL. Cartography and Mathematics (Surveying) have defaults to Navigation, and Shiphandling has a prerequisite of an appropriate Navigation specialty.
The GURPS history of the skill is somewhat complicated: it appeared at 1e, assuming navigation by the stars, and working on land or sea, but not considering air or space. 3e added Astrogation, and Special Ops added Orienteering, which used maps, landmarks, and compass or GPS, but not the stars. G:WWII allowed Navigation to work in the air, but kept Orienteering, and 4e combined and generalised all these skills. However, historical compatibility has made the defaults for Navigations specialisations a bit complicated: (Space) and (Hyperspace) both default to Astronomy-4 or Mathematics (Applied-4); (Sea) defaults to Seamanship-5 or Astronomy -5; (Air) only defaults to Astronomy-5 and (Land) defaults to IQ-5, Cartography-4 or Mathematics (Surveying)-4.
The modifiers are also a bit complicated: the space-based specialties get +2 from 3D Spatial Sense, and the planet-side ones get +3 from Absolute Direction, or a substitute, such as GPS. (Air) and (Sea) are at -5 if the stars are obscured and you don't have a high-tech substitute. Normal modifiers for equipment quality apply, along with penalties up to -10 for an unfamiliar environment; a different planet is at least -5. A magnetic compass gives +1, but I doubt that's cumulative with Absolute Direction.
Navigation is a vital skill for going to obscure and unfashionable places, and shows up on a great many published templates. It's also worthwhile being reasonably skilled at it: Navigation-9 will get you into a lot of trouble. Action 4: Specialists and DF3: The Next Level all provide a lot of packages with Navigation. High-Tech points put that an accurate map is basic equipment for Navigation, an inaccurate map can easily be -5, and no map at all is -10. Infinite Worlds has high-tech navigation equipment that doesn't require external signals like GPS or LORAN, and some discussion of navigation in time travel. Low-Tech expands on the process of navigation, on doing without it via Area Knowledge, and supplies navigational equipment; LTC1 requires Navigation (or Astronomy) to operate an orrery or similar machine. Power-Ups volumes 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 have examples for this skill and Powers: Enhanced Senses has several abilities that will boost it. Powers: The Weird has a lot on Navigation (Hyperspace), and Space covers getting lost, and recovering from that. Spaceships covers day-to-day navigation in more detail, and volumes 5, 6 and 7 have more tasks. Tales of the Solar Patrol has its own spin, naturally, and Thaumatology: Chinese Elemental Powers has its own helpful abilities. Ultra-Tech has inertial navigators small and rugged enough for personal use. Underground Adventures has the (Underground) specialisation, which defaults to and from (Land) at -2, and gets +2 from 3D Spatial Sense.
Navigation presents a chance for optimisation in much the same way as Guns. As an Average skill with defaults of -2 between the three planet-side specialisations, it's cost-effective to buy the specialisation where you face the biggest challenges at IQ+1 [4], giving you the other two at IQ-1.
In the groups I play in, every character with Navigation tends to roll, as insurance. Yes, critical failures cause confusion, but we have a horrible example from a 3e steampunk campaign that we don't want to repeat. The Maxim Steam Flyer, with one navigator who was also busy minding the boiler and engine, set off from Hamburg in north-west Germany, aiming for Frankfurt in south-west Germany. A critical failure of navigation, misapplying wind corrections, led them to Berlin. Realising the error and critically failing again, with an 18, put them over Prague. Ever since, "Prague!" has been shorthand for "I am not convinced by your navigation."
How have you lost - or found - your way in a game?
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