{{#pagetitle: Navigation}}
=Skill Scale Down 2021=
This skill has been impacted by the Skill Scale Down. The impact of this for this skill is as follows:
* This skill remains.
* All knowledge is left as is.
* For how to deal with XP, please see the page [[:Category:Skills Scale Down 2021 |Skill Scale Down 2021]] for links, information, and a player guide.
* The scope of this skill has not changed. Please ensure that you take this into account going forward.
=Overview=
Navigation as a skill determines how well an individual may find their way in and around an area, with a sense of where they are, where they're going, and the best way to get there. Regardless of the tools and wisdom one utilizes to facilitate finding one's way through the world with accuracy and precision, there's an underlying skill to navigation. Whether a person possesses an innate great sense of direction, benefits from the best maps and compasses, or is a living catalogue of astrological knowledge leading to knowing their way around the land and seas, all of these things will not avail them of a good outcome without at least some skill in Navigation. Indeed, the use of some of these things are part and parcel of navigational knowledge and skill.
=Related Skills=
Athletics/Mount/Seafaring/Swimming/Flying: Movement skills are of obvious interest to the seasoned navigator, as one can hardly expect to find their way through a path without having mobility around it. While these skills avail one of a mode of conveyance and can do so with speed and safety, navigation skill can inform them on their way, and prevent them from missing a clue to where they're going, preventing a circular journey.
Cartography: Cartography is a skill that determines the accuracy and precision of maps drawn by the individual drafting them. While there may be synergy between the two disciplines, cartography merely determines how well one can convey their navigational knowledge through a physical medium, in a map for others to read and understand. In itself, a map may not be very accurate even if the cartographer is quite good, if they lack the knowledge of an area that comes with navigational skill or familiarity. Cartography is the ability to convey one's knowledge of an area to a map, and have those maps as readable as they are capable of making them. Navigation is the ability to interpret signals and signs (which could very well include well-drawn maps, as a tool) in order to move on the way to a destination.
Field Craft: Knowledge of Field Craft is valuable to be sure, in that the practice thereof allows one to survive in the wilderness environments of a number of biomes. While it can inform one's safe and productive travel through an area, and make it with some level of comfort according to their Field Craft skill, overall it doesn't directly inform one of where one is within an environment. While they can follow signs and environmental signals to find water, food, and shelter with Field Craft, finding their way to a specific known locale will be beyond their reach without an appropriate amount of navigational skill.
Intelligence: Intelligence grants one a good deal of information through various methods, not limited to osmosis, direct information gathering, or word of mouth. They can learn a good deal about a location this way, but the world being a big place, finding one's way from their current location to the place of interest will still require navigational skill of appropriate level, whether finding their way through a civilized area or a wilderness.
Logistics: Not directly related to navigation but possibly useful to it, logistics can allow one to be well prepared for a journey, with ample supplies and provisions. But even the most well supplied expedition can go astray without a properly skilled navigator leading it, and getting lost has been the downfall of even expeditions that have a castle's worth of provisions stored in their caravans.
=Tools of the Trade=
Aside from maps, which serve as a vital reference when navigating by land or sea, around various landmarks and geographical features, there are other tools that may be used. Such as a sextant, which measures the angle of the horizon vs various celestial bodies that may give a hint to one's location in the world, or the direction they're facing. Compasses can be useful to tell the direction one is facing, when celestial bodies are unavailable for consultation in cloudy weather or when the sky is otherwise obscured.
Many navigators come up with their own tricks of the trade even, sometimes. Such as clues of thread to guide them through a maze, or marking various landmarks to determine if they've been someplace before. The environment itself can be rearranged by clever navigators, in order to conceal their markers in ways only they'd understand or recognize.
=Skill Ranks=
==Novice (0-25)==
At this stage, the navigator might be between one who has a complete lack of sense of direction, to one that requires a lot of extra help, equipment, and maps in order to facilitate their journey. They'll be able to find their way around familiar landscapes and points of interest that they are familiar with. However the unknown and unfamiliar will tend to elude their grasp, even if they have an idea of which direction their destination lay. They may have a basic grasp of astrological information, such as the sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. Yet, without a solid aid in the form of compasses, maps, and other navigational aides, they'll have their hands full finding their way around, and may well find themselves going in circles a few times before finding their way to the right path.
Navigation by sea is very difficult at this stage. Often sailors navigating the oceans of Idalos will find themselves hugging the shore as they go along, or keeping landmasses well in view so they do not find themselves stranded without any way to find land again.
Urban navigation at this level will tend to be touch and go, requiring some social graces to find directions from the locals, presuming those directions aren't poor in quality (whether intentional or no). Finding one's way in an enclosed space may give the novice navigator the vibration of being a tourist, or out of place as their furtive glances to and fro betray their lost status.
Wilderness navigation at this level will depend upon the distance to be traveled more than the complexity of the path to find one's way to their destination. Following signs that nature gives up, as well as astrological information may inform them to a point, but they'll be much better served having guides with them or at least a map.
==Competent (26-75)==
At this level, the navigator is well-fledged enough to find their own way from here to there independently. While they still get lost upon occasion, and have need of equipment or abilities for the purposes of determining their current location, repeat trips through the same path will become much easier the more they undertake these specific journeys, until they become second nature. It's mostly the unfamiliar and untraveled paths and unknown locales that will elude them at this level.
Seaborn navigation at this level becomes much more accomplishable. With a full compliment of tools, sextants, maps, and compasses, a navigator may make their way by sea fairly reliably, unless they get thrown off course by a particularly hazardous storm or other event. They're not optimal when navigating by sea, but are competent enough to find their way eventually.
Urban navigation becomes less onerous at this level, and provided one can read signs, they'll be able to easily reference their way around the streets of a city or town with ease upon a few trials familiarizing themselves with a location.
Wilderness navigation at this level will be easier so long as the navigator follows their landmarks and astrological data that they've already familiarized themselves with. Unknown and untraveled paths will still be difficult to navigate successfully, and perhaps lead to a few circular journeys or instances of getting lost.
==Expert (76-150)==
An expert navigator is fully fledged and capable of navigating even less known paths and locales, and to even do so independently of maps, abilities, and equipment. Afterall, even equipment and abilities and maps may lie, or give faulty information. The expert has learned to trust their judgment and follow their own nose or instincts, which lead them well enough on their way more often than not.
Navigating by sea at Expert becomes as easy as an ocean breeze. Here they've gone a step beyond ordinary competence, and can do without several vital tools, having several points of special knowledge such as the direction of the winds, or the way the coral in a particular stretch of ocean grows close to shore. They might be able to do without their tools, but with them their navigation is nearly impeccable.
Urban navigation becomes fairly trivial, as the city layouts begin to bleed into familiar patterns across the civilized world, unless a city is truly alien in layout. Rarely will a navigator get lost in a city at expert.
Wilderness navigation at this level will become very reliable at this skill level. The expert will find their way to well-described locales, following patterns and astrological data, as well as their own instincts to figure out the best way to make it to their destination. Only mystery locations that have eluded other travelers or are actively hidden may still elude them.
==Master (151-250)==
At mastery, the world is the navigator's oyster. Their mind acts in itself as a map of the world, and they will have undoubtedly been so well traveled as to know many paths to different locations. So much so, that they require few paths, but can find their way purely by instinctive recognition of signs and signals in their environment in order to inform their already impeccable sense of direction. Only places that have been deliberately hidden with great skill may still elude them, but eventually even a Master may find their destination, given enough time and opportunity.
At sea, a Master Navigator is worth their weight in gold to any crew trying to find their way to their destination in a timely fashion. At this stage, he becomes a living toolbox of navigational capability, and barely needs the sextant, the compass, or the map to find their way around a place they're familiar with. Even in places with which they're unfamiliar, they can seem to find their way around the ocean with preternatural skill and foreknowledge.
Urban navigation is entirely trivial at master, and they'll be able to find their way in enclosed spaces and in repetitive environments even without prior knowledge, as if they have a sixth sense.
Wilderness navigation becomes mostly trivial at this level of navigation. Given the ability to survive in the wilds, they can find their way from any one point, to any other point as long as they have vague knowledge of the location they seek. Even hidden locales may give up their secrets, so long as the navigator follows their nose and trusts their instincts.
=Progressing Navigation=
* [[:Category: Navigation Capstones |Capstones]]
* [[:Category: Navigation Grandmaster |Grandmasters]]
* [[:Category: Navigation Tier 2 | Tier 2 PCs]]
= Navigation Knowledge =
The collapsible below has examples of [[Skill Knowledge]] for this skill. If you are unsure of what Knowledge is, please check the [[:Category: Knowledge | Knowledge Primer]] for details. Please remember that our Peer Reviewers will be checking to make sure that your Knowledge claim is appropriate to what you have learned in the thread and ensuring that you are not duplicating knowledge.
<br><br>
A guide to knowledge can be found [viewtopic.php?f=242&t=7463 here] (this link takes you to the site) and the person reviewing your thread will do so following the steps laid out in the [[Peer Reviewer Guide]]. If you wish to use one of these knowledge in your request, please ensure that it is appropriate to your thread.
<br>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="max-width:90%; overflow:auto;">
'''Navigation'''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
* Navigation: How to find the north star
* Navigation: How to read a compass
* Navigation: Calculating Wind Speed
* Navigation: Working from map to land
* Navigation: Plotting a course over land
</div></div>
[[Category:Skills]]
