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Aircraft Design Company- Matsura's Planes Are Always Fastest!

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Character Sheet
  • Informational


    • ​
    Stress
    0​
    Office Stress
    0​
    XP
    5​

    Matsura Asuka
    Head Designer for Ohara Airworks
    Age 24 (Legally 25)
    Year 12 AF (After Flight)

    Design Stats
    Aerodynamics Engineering - +2
    Structural Engineering - +2
    Chemical Engineering - +1
    Mechanical Engineering - +1
    Ballistics Engineering - +1
    Electrical Engineering - 0

    Personal/Political Stats
    Social Skills - 0
    Politics Skills - 0
    Importance - 2
    Income - 1
    Investments - Ohara

    Resources
    Power - 0
    Wealth - 2

    Designs
    Type 1 Series - Military Variation (Designated T1M1)
    Type 2 Racer (World Speed Record October 1910-April 1911, 180kph)
    Model 2 Scout (Designated T1M2)
    Navy Scout Prototype (Drowned Rat)
    Dive Bomber B1M1 "Duck"
    Machine Gun Carrier R1A "Dragonfly" (World Speed Record May-July 1911, 200kph)
    Naval Rescue Water-Landing Supply Plane NR1M0 "Dolphin" (World speed record 240kph)
    Rhino Demon Train Hunter
    The world's first airliner
    The world's first pulsejet airplane

    Assets
    Slide Rule
    Computator (1 Reroll per Routine)

    Languages
    Albian
    Gallian

    Familiar Vices
    Drinking
    Prostitutes
    Dancing

    Family Life
    - Engaged to Arita Yachi, formerly the leading Ace in the Imperial Army. Designated #1 Cutest Army Boy, he's having some serious problems with PTSD right now.
    - Taking a second try at dating Mikami Kiho, ex-dockerwork from the south.

    Upgrades
    - 3 XP to upgrade a stat.

    Ohara Airworks
    Start Up, Imperial Capital, Akitsukuni

    Owner
    - Mr. Ohara, Rich. Aircraft Enthusiast. Business guy.

    Engineers

    Kibe Koume, 26, Office Manager
    Tiny & angry, Kibe went to school in Albia, picking up the language, the religion, and a fuckload of swear words. Speaks Albian.
    Mechanical +2, Ballistics +1
    Office Manager: If Kibe is not assigned to a team, the Office Stress is reduced by 1.

    Sakane Jun, 26, Second Team Leader
    A soured patriot, Sakane is married and has a young child being raised gender-neutrally. His two brothers who fought in the war.
    Structural +2, Aerodynamics +1
    Team Leader: If there are any additional projects, Sakane will lead them.
    Joinery: Sakane has training in the traditional Akitsukuni carpentry art of joinery, creating complex self-supporting joints with no fasteners or glue. When working with non-monocoque wooden spars or ribs, +1 Structural.

    Tezuka Kenji, ???
    A stoner with occasional flashes of insight. Nobody really knows what he does, but he's probably useful?
    Aerodynamics +2, Chemical +1
    Flashes of Brilliance: Each natural 10 rolled by any team Tezuka is assigned to gives +1 forward to the next research roll.

    Hasegawa Morio, 26
    A hopeless nerd with a photography habit, mostly on account of developing his own film, Hasegawa seems to do nothing but work and stack card houses, but somehow has an incredible attractive boyfriend. Speaks Gallian.
    Chemical +2, Ballistic +1
    Silent Workhorse: Hasegawa can work on two different projects at once for no cost to Office Stress, providing they use different stats.

    Kawamura Yosai, 25.
    Serially successful womanizer and incredibly attractive, Kawamura doesn't seem to have much of a personality outside of seducing women. Well, except for that time he seduced Asuka, which nobody talks about. Speaks Dyske.
    Structural +2, Electrical +1, Social +1
    Easily Distracted: If Kawamura is working on the same team as a female or non-binary employee, the team is at -1d10.

    Koide Hatsu, 24.
    One of the few female graduates of an Akitsukuni engineering school, Koide is brilliant and incredibly driven, but her first job at Akibara was both humiliating and exposed her to an abusive coworker. Her father is a rich businessman with factories in Joseon, and she's engaged to Ken from Castles of Steel. Speaks Joseon.
    Mechanical +2, Structural +1
    No Sleep: If you let her, Koide will work herself to death. She can work a second project for no Office Stress, but all her stats will be reduced to 1 for the routine.

    Kobayashi Ayao, ???
    Disowned heiress of the Kobayashi family, all Kobayashi wanted was a career and to be a modern woman. For her trouble, a cousin threw acid on her, scarring her face, neck, much of her torso, and her left arm. Despite appearing serene and above it all, she's actually an avowed communist activist and baseball player.
    Aerodynamics +2, Social +2

    Adachi Ren, 24
    Adachi learned chemistry from her father, one of the most famous chemical engineers in the country, rather than through formal schooling. She's married, has a kid, and takes spirituality very seriously. Yes, you did the math right, she had Yuki when she was 17. It's 1912, folks.
    Chemical +2, Electrical +1
    Young Mother: Adachi will cause double Office Stress if she has to work multiple tasks.

    Uyeno Sei, Ballistics Engineer, 31.
    The oldest member of the crew, this is Uyeno's second career. Her first was as an officer in the Imperial Navy with specialized technical training: her very promising career was cut short by her transition. Her work in a naval arsenal on machine-guns landed her the job here. Briefly dated Satomi (the age range is a bit creepy but again, 1912), she's missing a piece of her ear and is deaf on that side, from an exploding cannon. Recently returned from Varnmark from experimental surgery, she's known for her skill navigating gendered bureaucracy.
    Ballistic +3

    Mi Kyung-Jae, 23
    A recent graduate of the Imperial College of Heijo, Mi is from the recently annexed territory of Joseon. For those keeping track at home, that means he's a Korean national living in Imperial Japan in 1912. We haven't seen much of his personality because he's rightfully terrified of everything around him. He has a specialty in endurance engine design and modification. Speaks Joseon.
    Mechanical +1, Chemical +1
    Endurance Engines: Mi has an excellent understanding of metallurgy and tolerances. Any engine he works on gains +1 Reliability if a 16+ is rolled.
    Pulsejet Wizard: Mi is now one of the world's leading experts on the pulsejet engine. He can be given his own project to custom-craft pulsejet engines, and he gives +1 to any pulsejet-related project.
    Joseon National: Mi does not have security clearance to work on any top-secret projects.

    Miyoshi Shigeri, 23.
    A non-binary person and admirer of Asuka's work, they were in an support role in the Army before joining the company.
    Structural +1, Mechanical +1, Aerodynamic +1
    Mechanic: Miyoshi has some experience repairing and refurbishing aircraft. They get +1 if assigned on the clean-up phase.


    Other Employees
    - Ohara Satomi, 22, Mr. Ohara's niece and the company test pilot, Ohara is a general lesbian disaster. She's good at flying planes, driving cars, and kissing girls. She's bad at being patient, being respectable, and sticking to literally anyones conceptions of gender roles. Deeply in lesbians with Coralie D'Amboise.
    - Fujkikawa Sotatsu, old, modelmaker. He's an old man and toymaker and we don't see much of him because he locks himself in his workshop a lot. He's friends with Kawamura?

    Assets
    - Engine Test Rig (Allows engine tweaking and optimization.
    - Wind Tunnel (+1 Aerodynamics)
    - Rapid Prototype Lab (+1 Clean Up)
    Expanded Cast

    Akitsukuni Industry
    - Homura Mohoko: Head Engine Designer for Kobayashi. First female engineer in the country. A lot of sex appeal.
    - Okumura: Head of Akibara aircraft design.
    - Yamanaka Hajime: Kobayashi engineer. Young and eager.
    - Igarashi Masazumi: Kobayashi engineer. Reserved and experienced.
    - Admiral Akibara Toru: Imperial Navy Admiral. Maximum nepotism. Maximum douchebag.
    - Lt.Cmnd Akibara Shinzo: The above's son. A hottie but very forward.



    Character Families
    - Matsura(?) Mizuko: Asuka's sister. Was paralyzed in an accident in Asuka's first flight. Lives Elsewhere and is married now. Can't forgive Asuka, even though she's tried.
    - Adachi Motoki: Adachi's husband, an accountant. Legally blind.
    - Adachi Yuki: Adachi's 7 year old daughter and wannabe pilot. Very adorable.
    - Yachi's Brother: Exists.
    - Sakane's Wife: Exists. Drives him a bit crazy, but he loves her.
    - Yachi's Brother's Wife: Exists. Is statistically likely to be pregnant.
    - Lt. Coralie D'Amboise: Gallian pilot in exile. Satomi's girlfriend. 25. Accomplished bisexual duelist. She flew in the war for a single day, and for her troubles got a hole blown in her cheek and had her left arm paralyzed.

    Akisukuni Army & Ex-Army
    - Lt. Torio Tanaka: Yachi's former observer as an enlisted man. Was jumped up to fly Ducks and lost a leg on his first mission. A trained painter, married to Torio Saya.
    - Captain Amari Shiro: A Dragonfly pilot who ended up flying as Yachi's partner. Kind of delightfully twinky. They sorta slept together at one point, which wasn't great. He lost his previous boyfriend in the April Offensive and turned his plane into a shrine. He was shot in the gut and is still recovering.
    - Major Izuhara: Logistics officer, Imperial Army, this bespectled officer stood up to the Caspian Crown Prince and accidentally kicked off the Akitsikuni-Caspian War. The guilt was so much that, after almost a year of running Army procurement, he shot himself in a phone both.
    - Captain Nakai Sekien: Army scout pilot. First person to drop a bomb from an airplane, later head of the Duck Squadrons.
    - Captain Teshima: A Desk pilot that fought with Yachi. Lost an arm in the process, took over for Major Izuhara after his death. Seems cheery despite it all.
    - Captain Nashio: A real piece of shit dude and probably a rapist, he's also a war hero as the second-highest scoring ace on the Akitsukuni side. He was a young shitty kid in way over his head but it's no excuse.
    - Lt. Kinjo: Kind of a dumb lump and Nashio's friend, one of the desk pilots. Dead at 19.
    - Lt. Okazaki: Yachi's friend from before the war and pilot, he died in a spin in his dragonfly. His death probably hit Yachi the hardest.

    Westerners
    - Rose & Antoinette Sears: Pioneers of flight. Sisters. Black in 1910s not!America. Yikes.
    - Timina Guasti: Famous aircraft designer from Otrusia. Likes big planes and green.
    - Prince Protasov Vasilyevich: Crown Prince of Great Caspia. Real dick. You gotta hand it to him though, a decent flier.
    - Count von Zeppelin: Invented rigid airships. Runs a successful airline business. Damned impressive.
    - Bennhold: Aircraft Engineer. Experimenting with metal aircraft.
    - Aileen Middlemiss: Albian reporter for the Artimis Times. Well meaning and oblivious.
    Available Tech
    • Materials: Wood, Duralumin, Molded Wood, Wood & Silk Composite, etc
    • All engine mounts
    • All wing types
    • Basic reinforcement
    • Wing warping and ailerons
    • Basic water radiators
    • Flying Wings
    • Semi-Monocoque design (requires at least half the slots have frame pieces)
    • Valved pulsejets
    • Basic weapon mounts and turrets
    Tech not Yet Developed
    • Custom engines
    • Monocoque construction
    • Cantilever Wings and associated tech
    • V and T tails
    • Tailless designs
    • Aluminum and titanium
    • Cellulose surfacing
    • Any kind of radar
    • Weapon accessability mods
    • Interruptor gear
    • Geared propellers
    • And Maybe Other Stuff
    Akitsukuni
    Island Nation

    Government
    Constitutional Monarchy
    - The democratic portions of the government are dubiously legitimate.
    - The head of state is the Empress of Akitsukuni. She gives her blessing to newly formed governments.
    - The Navy and a small number of families have undue influence on politics.

    Economy
    Developing Mixed Market
    - Most industry is controlled by a small number of wealthy, family-owned companies.
    - The state provides most contracts to industry. Consumer good market is anemic.
    - Exports are few, mostly cultural.
    - Imports are raw minerals, food, oil, and expertise.
    - Currently suffering an economic crash after the last war.

    Politics
    The Diet is currently ruled by a Constitutional Nationalist government. It has a system of nonlocal proportional representation, with representatives appointed by the party in accordance to their share of the vote.
    - Constitutional Nationalists: 50%
    - Purity Club: 9%
    - New Independents: 26%
    - Fairness Association: 11%
    - United Communist League: 2%
    - Monarchists: 1%
    - Assorted Fringe Parties: 5%

    Demographics
    Akitsukuni is mostly very ethnically homogeneous. Around 5% of the population are various minorities, most from nearby countries. Roughly .1% are westerners here for business or in advisory positions.
    - Population: 55 Million
    - Religion: Mostly Kodo. Roughly 2% of the population follows western religions.
    - Wealth: Most wealth is concentrated in the top 5% of the country. Nearly 20% of the population lives in conditions indistinguishable from peasantry.
    - Urbanization: Heavily urbanized for a small economy: 35% and rapidly growing.

    Military
    At Peace
    - Imperial Akitsukuni Navy (IAN): The 6th largest in the world, and the most experienced.
    - Imperial Akitsukuni Army (IAA): 150,000 highly experienced soldiers, and a considerable reserve.

    Aspects
    - Poor Resources: Aluminum costs +1.
    - Damn Akitsukuni Engines!: Engines have -1 Reliability.



    The Main Character Of This Quest Is Nonbinary And Uses They/Them Pronouns.

    I Am Putting This Here Because The Next Person To Misgender Them Is Getting Yeeted Into The Trash

    Also here's the Gayaverse TV Tropes page, because why not.​
     
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  • Informational
    • [X] Confront or upset local authority.

    Complain to the Yakuza about the quality of beer they permit to be sold in their establishments. It's an absolute disgrace.

    Nothing could possibly go wrong.
     
    Crasian01 said:
    So real talk though, if we got the Yakuza to smuggle us some high tech from somewhere with more money and resources than Akitsukuni, what would be on the table?

    Also, foreign beer?
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    Tech would be pretty hard to explain. Western technology doesn't just fall out of the sky, and soon army and navy procurement would put two and two together and work out that we had something going on under the table.
     
    Crasian01 said:
    So real talk though, if we got the Yakuza to smuggle us some high tech from somewhere with more money and resources than Akitsukuni, what would be on the table?

    Also, foreign beer?
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    You can import foreign beer just fine, and legally.

    The yakuza don't really have international reach so they probably can't get you tech or do espionage outside of the immediate geographical region, but they certainly capable of, for instance, getting you parts, knowledge, or people from, say, the air designers in Cathay, or the zeppelin yard managers in the nearby colonies.

    You'll just... you know, be in with the yakuza.

    cB557 said:
    Does "do something financially irresponsible" scale up to the funds one has access to?
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    Yes. But do note you are not especially cash rich right now; most of your funds is invested in the company or in shipping stocks right now.
     
    CthuluWasRight said:
    Tech would be pretty hard to explain. Western technology doesn't just fall out of the sky, and soon army and navy procurement would put two and two together and work out that we had something going on under the table.
    Click to expand...
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    I mean, if it's helping the war effort, I doubt they'd be that angry. The main issue I'd think is how some random Yakuzas would beat what one would presume Akitsukuni Intelligence are trying to do already. Although technological espionage probably is still in its infancy right now...
     
    Yeah my theory here is just that this kind of espionage isn't super well developed as a thing. This being said, it's no surprising that the reach isn't that great, so probably not super worth it.

    Then again, contacts with zeppelin yard people or maybe finding a way to steal those Cathay jet engine blueprints....
     
    [X] Reveal a dark secret about your character to a comrade.
    [X] Show a comrade what you really think of them.
    [X] Make a romantic or sexual connection.
     
    plotvitalnpc said:
    Come to think of it, I seem to recall hearing that a problem with early airborn warfare was that money was poured into that field of military operations without actual consideration for how it would help win battles on the ground or at sea.
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    The problem with early (as in stick and string planes, tin need not apply) is that the vehicles were so limited in what they could do. For a lot of the planes, recon was pushing their envelope nearly a bridge too far because the mechanical reliability of the systems were so low and the systems themselves so fragile. Photoreconnaissance was revolutionary when it came out, because holy shit we can actually trust the plane with systems that double the effective unit operational cost. We're still at the plate photography stage most likely (this being the Ruso-Japanese war equivalency) - a camera could take a decent picture could weigh upwards of ten kilograms, and another twenty for plates and sixty for the operator!
     
    Yes. On the other hand this was still enough to be revolutionary, because it meant your aerial scouts could locate a marching enemy column forty miles- that is, two days' walk- from your position, and report back reliably, even if the enemy's cavalry would normally stop any land-based scouting you tried.

    It's like, there's a reason early twentieth century people geeked the hell out over how the airplane and the automobile were "annihilating distance." And why people in the century before them did the same over the locomotive and the steamship. And it's not easy for us today to fully appreciate, living as we do in a world where "travel a hundred miles" just isn't a big deal. It's hard to grasp just how massive a distance like "fifty miles" or "a hundred miles" felt to someone whose options for transportation would usually reduce to "walk, or sit on an animal while it walks that distance for you."

    But to an airplane, even an airplane that crashes one time in ten or twenty? Suddenly it's not a big deal anymore. Suddenly distances that were huge obstacles of uncertainty and the fog of war to Ramesses the Great or Julius Caesar or Richard the Lionheart or Napoleon, whose troops moved at roughly the same speed despite millennia between them... Well, they're just an hour away.
     
    open_sketchbook said:
    The yakuza don't really have international reach so they probably can't get you tech or do espionage outside of the immediate geographical region, but they certainly capable of, for instance, getting you parts, knowledge, or people from, say, the air designers in Cathay, or the zeppelin yard managers in the nearby colonies.

    You'll just... you know, be in with the yakuza.
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    So, what I'm hearing is that we can get jet engines if we let the Yakuza get their hooks into us.

    I'm not really seeing a downside here.
    Simon_Jester said:
    And it's not easy for us today to fully appreciate, living as we do in a world where "travel a hundred miles" just isn't a big deal.
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    I have quite literally driven further than that for lunch, on special occasions. Sixteen hours in a car can take you a decent chunk of the way across a continent. Sixteen hours in a modern airliner can take you most of the way around the world.
     
    Oksbad said:
    I am loving this quest, but I have to admit the engineering/mechanics side of things are very opaque to me.

    I don't mean to spoil the fun of the people immersed in the system, but it might benefit to either have the nity gritty mechanics obscured (similar to Small Arms Commission Quest). Or do something like To Boldly Go, where designs are made by people immersed in the system but separate from mainline voting, then the QM can present the strengths/weaknesses of each of the options in plain English.

    Just my 2 cents.
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    I mean... I just completely ignore half the mechanics and assume that magic happens. Whereas in TBG, when I looked at research votes, I ignored the mechanics and assumed that Nix did the math correctly. (Granted, I was part of the SDB-SIG, so I was a lot more involved than I am here. Still, it is entirely possible to do the same thing.)

    I could reader-mode, but then I'd miss out on the mostly-wholesome discussion.

    [>.<] Big pillow. (I would 100% take Being Sleepy as a Vice. It feels that way to me now...)

    [X] Confront or upset local authority.
     
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    5-19
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Confront or upset local authority.

    You awoke an unknown amount of time later. it was now fully dark outside, with the room illuminated low by a pair of flickering electric lights. You shifted a little to take stock of the room, analyzing the situation around you with the full power of your genius brain. You scanned the room from right to left, taking in everything and rendering bossly judgement upon your servants. They were found wanting.

    To your immediate right, Tezuka was also passed out, lolled over the back of a cushion. He was totally motionless and probably dead. Cool cool cool.

    Next to that, Sakane was currently leaning really close to his unknown female companion, lips grazing her neck. Sure, the man was having a weird home life right now, but you knew enough about him by now to know that if he took this any further, he was going to self-destruct from guilt.

    Then, Kawamura. Who was currently macking furiously on his companion, hand up her kimono and everything. Gross dude. Get a room, or like, I dunno. Somebody throw a blanket on them.

    Then Hasagawa, passed out face first on the table, crushing his glasses with his face.

    Opposite you was Uyeno, in a sort of half-awake state leaning against one of the serving girls and kissing her. The girl's hand was wandering in a way you recognized as less sexy and more trying-to-find-a-coinpurse.

    Kobayashi was next to her, also passed out. Her kimono was loose and open, exposing the horrifying extent of her acid burns. They covered her entire right shoulder, crawling down her arm and chest, a huge discoloured patch. She would be mortified if anyone saw how bad the damage was, and needed to be covered up.

    Then, Koide. Who was completely topless, standing on the table, screaming something to the effect of "HEY AKIBARA, COME FIGHT" while swinging a bottle around. Admirable, but she was shitfaced and besides that weighed maybe a hundred pounds. She was going to get her ass kicked.

    There was a conspicuous Adachi-shaped hole in the lineup beyond her. Anyone know where she was?

    Then, it came around to Kibe, who was currently curled up next to you napping, gripping you the way a child might a stuffed animal. For the first time since you'd seen her, she looked completely calm, like all the anger had finally drained out of her tiny body.

    Finally, yourself. You were... fairly awake now. You could use another beer, and you found yourself wondering where that cute enby went.

    Something had to be done.

    This is a special vote. Write, in order of priority, the things you do to unfuck everyone's situation. One plan per engineer, yourself included. Then, we're going to roll a d10, and see how far down that list you get. Past that, the chips will fall as they will.​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [x] Pull Sakane away from his companion and rope him into rescuing the others
    [x] Arrange Kobayashi more respectably and hope nobody saw the burns too much
    [x] Acquire a Koide and get her to shut up, the team was in no state for a barfight
    [x] Pull Uyeno's serving girl off of her, hand her a reasonable tip, and tell her to go get a pot of tea, and while she's at it to see if she can find Adachi
    [x] Check vital signs on Tezuka and Hasagawa to make sure they're not actually dead. They're probably fine, but paranoia does actually save lives.
    [x] Pat Kibe on the head
     
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    Crasian01 said:
    [x] Pull Sakane away from his companion and rope him into rescuing the others
    [x] Arrange Kobayashi more respectably and hope nobody saw the burns too much
    [x] Acquire a Koide and get her to shut up, the team was in no state for a barfight
    [x] Pull Uyeno's serving girl off of her, hand her a reasonable tip, and tell her to go get a pot of tea, and while she's at it to see if she can find Adachi
    [x] Check vital signs on Tezuka and Hasagawa to make sure they're not actually dead. They're probably fine, but paranoia does actually save lives.
    [x] Pat Kibe on the head
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    This seems like the correct order, not sure how to put it as a vote), with one addition as last step: get some beer. GOOD beer.
     
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