I picture the Horizonscope to be analous to the Star Trek “tricorder”. It would allow a PC to turn it on and gain some useful hints/information about a certain item, organism, or environment.
I would like to create a set of tables or a computer program that would allow us to give a player a coded message that they could translate into a set of descriptors to report back to the other PCs. That way, it is the players describing what they scan and making assumptions on the results rather than the GM. Toward this end, I would like to create a master list of possible descriptive messages that the tricorder could reveal along with their appropriate three-character Horizonscope code.
I would also like to use a computer for this campaign to simulate the PCs research “at the lab”. What we would do is allow the player to type in several keywords into a computer program and have it return information that may or may not be particular to the plot. We may have to pass out tiny cards with the appropriate spelling of items, compounds, elements, or information that might reveal information at “the lab”. That way players could come back from “the lab” and give their report of what they find, and potentially return to “the lab” once they might have some new information to research.
descriptors:
one few many lots swarm
liquid solid gaseous
organic inorganic
mobile closing from North closing from South closing from East closing from West fleeing to North fleeing to South fleeing to East fleeing to West immobile positioned to North positioned to South positioned to East positioned to West
slowly medium pace quickly fast speedy hastily supersonic
nearby close medium long distant far
chemical analysis: ?% carbon chemical analysis: ?% oxygen chemical analysis: ?% hydrogen chemical analysis: ?% ...
energy reading high energy reading low energy reading trace energy reading none energy type paranormal energy type chemical energy type electrical energy type atomic
analysis:sentient analysis:semi-sentient analysis:unthinking
tiny small human sized large gigantic massive super massive