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Old 09-28-2009, 05:39 AM
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Targan Targan is offline
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Location: Perth, Western Australia
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Because the system I use for my T2King is derived from a low-fantasy, high realism mediaeval RPG there are a number of different skills characters in my campaign can use to navigate at sea. The obvious choice for most military characters is Navigation using modern (although not necessarily very high tech) techniques.The other is to use the original Harnmaster skill of Piloting which uses methods of navigation from before the time when you had accurate sea-borne clocks (and therefore couldn't accurately determine longitude).

Piloting uses techniques such as the use of rutters, books that professional pilots built up over their careers that contained all the sea lore, maps and navigational instructions that they had collected during their careers. It also involves the use of the sun, the stars, possibly a lodestone and/or compass to determine direction and also knowing the patterns of winds, waves and clouds to determine distance from land and underlying seabed features.

My brother's character in my campaign was a young US marine who was originally from American Samoa. His char gen was a blast because before he joined the USMC he led a fairly traditional Samoan lifestyle and was a very proficient sailor (using primative dugout canoes) and fisherman. He was also a reasonably successful smuggler as a teenager. He was easily the equal of the USN characters in my campaign when it came to getting around on the ocean.
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Last edited by Targan; 09-28-2009 at 05:48 AM.
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