I would think navigation also include enough reading skill to be read maps and sea charts. Skills in wfrp are quite wide so dont be afraid to let them cover their area fully. You will also find other skills where it makes sense that to assume you can at least read ( spellbooks or prayer texts ).

Education dont just gives you good skill reading and writing but also cover your whole classic education.

Also while navigation allow you to read charts and maps and do some calculations. It might still be a challenge to read or write a book.

Looks like he can navigate like you said by the stars and landmarks, but can't read maps, maybe you could let them redo a point or two so they can train education.

One would assume he can use observation and intuition to read star signs and use other information to intuite the direction they are headed.

So perhaps use a collection of both as part of an extended check.

Say he's a navigator, not a map artist. He doesn't even need to read to be able to look at a map, being honest. "Follow the wiggley line" probably doesn't need all that much reading.

Remember that "reading" and "reading maps" is not the same. Maps is basically just drawings of the landscape. WFRP is a system that fudges a lot of mechanics for story telling. This is one of those cases. Reading the description of the class on the back of the sheet, it seems like most navigators are just people who have learned routes from other navigators. For example, knowing the ins and outs of a stretch of coast or a set of rivers.

From the description I would say the career would have benefitted by being called "Guide" and then having an Intermediate called "Navigator" and then maybe an Advanced called "Cartographer".

But as it is, I would say the skills made available to the career gives you enough for a "Guide". If you want to make a more scholarly character I would say to either start as a Student or spend early XP to buy out of career skills like Folklore or Education.

Edite: Oh, and greetings from Oslo

Also, look at that skill set. This guy is not an academic, he's more than likely a more skilled member of a boat or barge crew or maybe a wagon train.

In all of those cases, I think a navigator would by relying more on good instincts and their wits rather that what's written on a sheet of paper that's over a hundred years old...

Thanks for all the good answars I think i have an idea now how to do the best out of the navigator, so it will be fun to play him for my player
(Greetings back Ralzar from Haugesund

Thanks for all the good answars I think i have an idea now how to do the best out of the navigator, so it will be fun to play him for my player

(Greetings back Ralzar from Haugesund

Your home kinda sounds like you live in the Old World...

Have you ever seen a zoat?

It strikes me that the most misleading thing about the career is the artwork. It gives the impression of an educated man with scientific tools. If the artwork had depicted someone a bit rougher around the edges, the skills would probably not look so odd.

I'd see no problem with a navigator reading maps. In fact, I'd assume most of the ones in a beginning characters were his own or compared against his own. Any of the short comments could also be notes made, or might be images, or in the characters very basic "writing". I agree that the rules are left fairly wide open in regards to most skills for this reason. Also, I've read more people could read back then, than could write. They may not have read well or may have had a very basic reading vocabulary but in your case, for example, I'd allow that most of what is needed on the maps is legible. Maybe when reading *is* acquired previously hidden information is revealed leading to treasure or doom...

OIn the back of the Navigator career sheet it says that some learn the art of navigating at universities while others learn it by adventuring and traveling. A navigator who learned by doing might not be that good at reading maps, but might have a good practical understanding of the lay of the land. And might have a keen eye and intuition for traveling, even if they go places they have never been before.

So it is worth to consider that the character could move into Scribe, Student or some other scholarly type of career after the Navigator career. And in that way gaining access to Education, That would create a navigator who learned the craft at a university. Or even better might be that the character starts out as a student (studying cartography, navigation etc) and adventuring to get some real world experience of the craft, then move into Navigator as the second career.

For a Navigator that is more like a road guide and more rough feel the Scout career might be a great second career.

In WFRP I've found that combining two (or more) careers together sometimes makes more sense and gives more depth to the first career. The character can feel flat at the start, when you only have one career, so often players have ideas about their second career and feel that their character will be more right once they have reached it. So as a GM I try to be open to allowing a players second career to influence the game, even if the player have not reached the second career yet.

For example my wizard player wanted to have a background as a noble, so I allowed her to take a noble career as a second career to reflect that she grew up in a noble family so she would have training in noble type skills, talents and actions. As I knew that from the start I could incorporate that in the game. Another player was planning on becoming a knight, so the character was knighted in the game before the second career.