Quote:
Originally Posted by Žorkell
Considering that most/many/all US cities have at least some grid system where the streets run North-South and East-West I don't see how the above task would be a Navigation roll.
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Speaking as someone who grew up with towns that use actual grids (complete with numbers for streets and addresses that are actually coordinates), not really.
US cities usually have a grid (or several conflicting grids) built in at some level, but they suffer from a few problems that make them less useful than you would expect:
1) They aren't named in a predictable order. There are exceptions, of course, but they are exceptions. I don't know if Gilmer street is 10 turns away or 2. I don't know if its running north-south or east-west, or if its cutting across diagonally.
2) Its very rare for the major arteries to be built in a grid. It takes a certain type of aggressive foresight in the city fathers, and the power to make it happen. Even then, it may not stick, as it takes discipline to maintain. Often, the exceptions to the grid are the most important roads. You can cut across them, using the grid system, but this generally involves hitting traffic lights with 4:1 ratios against your favor, residential roads, and the occasional dead end. An if you're in a big enough city, you'll start hitting one ways roads.
3) Old city boundaries and Geography can mess with the grid, misaligning it or messing up the system because 100 years ago the two seed grids were different towns.
So it really isn't that simple.