A Survey agent is what the average Homeliner thinks of when someone mentions the Time Scouts, using drones to check a world's status, like atmosphere, star patterns, and other measurements. Sending in drones allows one to determine the local year of a world like Taft-7 without risking agents.
The Usual Process[]
- Atmospherics -- Drop a small floating drone in the mid-Atlantic to check atmosphere, radiation, gravity, ocean salinity, plankton count, etcetera.
- Radio and Soil -- Drop a larger, landed drone (usually on a mountaintop) to survey the night sky, determining the local year, as well as pick up radio signals, to determine the world's approximate TL. It can also take soil samples, and detect pollutants and complex chemicals.
- Spyplanes -- On worldlines below TL7, stealthed recon drones can take aerial photos for several hundred miles around. These drones are often equipped to self-destruct if tampered with, to avoid altering a worldline's technological level and/or endanger The Secret.
- In some instances, the Patrol may even place satellites around a world for monitoring communications and keeping up with world events... although a few timelines make this rather dangerous, such as the spacefaring Cyrano!
Gameplay Notes[]
The Survey Division is often the group that the PCs get their intel from, telling them if there's any major timeline changes they should be aware of. While the Surveyors seldom go on adventures like other Scouts, they can easily count as a Session 0 adventure, letting the PCs figure out a worldline's quirks before heading into the world in earnest.
References[]
- GURPS Infinite Worlds
- mainly p.17