10-11-2018, 11:40 AM | #21 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
I think you can shorten that to "biggest cause of error is fatigue" and be at least in the right ballpark.
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10-11-2018, 01:55 PM | #22 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
Where are the rules for this?
... badum-tsh |
10-23-2018, 09:47 AM | #23 |
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota, U.S.A.
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
There seems to be a lot of familiarity with this skill on this thread, so I'll ask:
Why is is there no default from land Navigation to Astronomy? In low-tech, Astronomy is useful for Sea and Air Navigation, so why not for land? Also, on a flat world with no curvature nor horizon, would any of the defaults between specialties and other skills change? In particular, how would that affect defaults from Navigation to Astronomy?
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I have Confused and Clueless. Sometimes I miss sarcasm and humor, or critically fail my Savoir-Faire roll. None of it is intentional. Published GURPS Settings (as of 4/2013 -- I hope to update it someday...) |
10-23-2018, 09:58 AM | #24 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
Quote:
Presuming the stars are fixed in the sky, the cardinal directions would be easy enough though- just walk toward a particular constellation. A possible variation is that the sky is just a low ceiling, so travelling far enough in one direction will have the constellations over your head change, though I wouldn't imagine Astronomy as a skill would be necessary to follow that.
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10-23-2018, 10:05 AM | #25 |
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota, U.S.A.
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
What about on a flat but finite world (with edges and a center-point) and constellations that orbit the world and remain fixed only relative to each other? The same stars would be visible from all locations at any given night and time, right?
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I have Confused and Clueless. Sometimes I miss sarcasm and humor, or critically fail my Savoir-Faire roll. None of it is intentional. Published GURPS Settings (as of 4/2013 -- I hope to update it someday...) |
10-23-2018, 11:02 AM | #26 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Meifumado
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
Quote:
Also, if your disk is spinning around its centre, then I think observing where the sun or moon rises (both in the close and distant cases) and which way it moves through the sky could tell you where on the disk's clock dial you are.
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Collaborative Settings: Cyberpunk: Duopoly Nation Space Opera: Behind the King's Eclipse And heaps of forum collabs, 30+ and counting! |
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10-23-2018, 11:07 AM | #27 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
Quote:
Looking only at sea versus land, at sea there are often no landmarks to rely on. There usually are on land. I think it may be kind of rare that figuring your location purely from the sun and stars is your primary recourse on land.
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10-23-2018, 11:22 AM | #28 |
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota, U.S.A.
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
Er, right. No low-tech air Navigation (except for flyers and magical flying ships).
But what if you've got no map, and no recognizeable landmarks, and your TL is too low for a magnetic compass? You might even be in a large flat expanse of grassland, tundra, or desert, with no bodies of water nearby. Especially if there's a horizon, there may be no landmarks visible at all. The same might even be true if people are travelling atop the canopy of a huge, closed forest, or at least peeking above the canopy once in a while to try to tell where they are. Or if nobody in the party knows Navigation at all, but somebody knows Astronomy. Conversely, on a flat world, how would people navigate at sea without the aid of the stars? What kind of instruments or methods would people invent at low tech levels? Would open-ocean navigation be impossible? Or would using the sun and moon as Daigoro describes give enough info?
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I have Confused and Clueless. Sometimes I miss sarcasm and humor, or critically fail my Savoir-Faire roll. None of it is intentional. Published GURPS Settings (as of 4/2013 -- I hope to update it someday...) |
10-23-2018, 01:27 PM | #29 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
Quote:
On the other hand there is a lot you need to know for Navigating that Astronomy won't cover at all, the biggest being how to stay on course while detouring. Knowing where the North Star is or how the Sun traverses the sky won't help a whole lot there (I mean it helps, but not as much as knowing pacing or bearings). |
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10-23-2018, 07:11 PM | #30 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Navigation
The Pundits (spies for the Indian Political Service) were trained to count standardized paces for cartographic purposes. Basically an adaptation of a military cadence. How much can be done with this?
A foot column can by this means means measure it's progress down a route in precise terms. A vehicle can have a device to count wheel rotations. I haven't the foggiest idea how one will do this with animals especially if they are in harness. If they are pulling a vehicle though, rotations of the wheel can be counted in the summer. There is probably some ingenious device that can be rigged for a sleigh. These are rather primitive methods but useful. Is there a dead reckoning app that will render this obsolete?
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Tags |
basic, navigation, orienteering, skill of the week, world building |
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