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Vaevictis Asmadi · 10-23-2018, 11:22 AM

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?

10-23-2018, 11:22 AM	#28
Vaevictis Asmadi Join Date: May 2007 Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota, U.S.A.	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? __________________ 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...)