Castles of Steel - Lesbians Good, Imperialism Bad

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Through study, politics, and more than a little nepotism, Princess Arisukawa Haruna becomes the first woman in the Imperial Navy of Akitsukuni, a rapidly modernizing nation in an age of turmoil and inequality, poised on the precipice of war.
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Lieutenant Arisukawa Haruna

Balance Stats
❁ • ❁ Work / Life ❁ • ❁
❁ • ❁ Warrior / Princess ❁ • ❁
❁ • ❁ Radical / Respectable ❁ • ❁

Tactical Stats
Gunnery 0, Navigation +2, Command +2, Technology -4, Personal -2, Strategy +3

Stress: 3​


Click here for the winter version!

PLEASE READ THE QUEST RULES BELOW

You collectively vote on the actions of Arisukawa Haruna, the first woman to serve openly in the Imperial Akitsukuni Navy.

This quest is set in a universe which is much like our own circa 1910, but with different politics, cultural norms, and ideas about gender and sexuality, as well as some unusual and advanced technology in places.

We are using this quest to explore themes like breaking the glass ceiling, divergent outlooks on gender and sexuality, colonialism and imperialism, and the place of royalty.

Content Warning
This quest goes some dark places.

There is violence, often explicit, often unfair, often against undeserving targets.

There are not always good options forward. The protagonist is not necessarily a good person.

There is implied content and discussion of sexual harassment and assault.

This is a world where people are often racist, sexist, queerphobic bigots. Sometimes, even the PC and the people they are friends with.

Voting Rules

We will tell you if write-in votes are allowed. If we do not say that write-ins are allowed, they are not. This is to prevent people from unrealistically hedging their bets.

You may proposal other options in a non-vote format, subject to approval, on non write-in votes.

We will tell you when a vote allows approved voting. If we don't say the answer is no, pick an option. We like making people commit.

Discussions makes the GM feel fuzzy.

Game Rules
When we ask you for a roll, roll 3d6. You are aiming to roll equal or under the value of your stat. If you succeed, Haruna gets through the situation with no real difficulties. If you roll above the target value, Haruna will still succeed, but this success will cost her something or add a complication.

Whenever Haruna loses something or faces hardship from a botched roll, she takes Stress. The more Stress Haruna has, the more the job and the circumstances she's in will get to her, and it'll be reflected in the narrative. Haruna must be kept under 10 Stress: if she reaches 10 Stress, she will suffer a breakdown and the results will not be great for her.

Haruna loses stress by taking time for herself, by making meaningful progress on her dreams, and by kissing tall, beautiful women.

Meta Rules
Author commentary is in italics so you know it's not story stuff.

Please don't complain about the system or the fact we have to roll dice. We've heard it before, we've heard it a thousand times across multiple quests. We're not going to change it, and it wears at our fucking souls.

Just going "oh noooo" or "Fish RNGesus Why!" is fun and fine. Complaining at length because you didn't get what you want less so.

If you have a question, tag both @open_sketchbook and @Artificial Girl. If you only tag one of us, you will be ignored. Seriously, we both write this quest.

And yes this is an alt-history type setting with openly gay and trans people, ahistoric medicine, and weird politics. Just... deal, please?

This quest employs a special system called Snippet Votes. Please read this post for more information.
 
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1-1
  • Informational
    • open_sketch

    open_sketch

    #1 Transgender Pansexual Witch Bandit Wolf Girl
    BEST SELLING AUTHOR
    Commission Artist
    Location
    Ottawa
    Pronouns
    She/Her/Whatever
    Akitsukuni: A proud and ancient land balancing on the edge. Between modernity and antiquity, between democracy and authoritarianism, between traditional and foreign ways. Ruled from time immemorial by the Empress, descendant of the Sun, who would guide and protect her people, and a warrior class that ruled the waves, the tiny nation was shocked rudely into the modern world towards the end of the last century. Akitsusuni has made great strides in catching up to the West, which stands poised try to plunder Akitsusuni of its wealth and traditions, as it has many other parts of the world. With a modern Navy, a modern Army, and an expanding economy Akitsusuni now faces the challenge of maintaining its tenuous position in the world against the powers that would see the Land of the Sun fail.

    That's where you come in as an officer of Her Majesty's Imperial Navy. A rather special officer, actually. You're the first woman to graduate from the Imperial Naval Academy and given a commission, a consequence of politics local and international. Akitsukuni society has long been stratified by gender, with men in positions of power and authority and women doing what they can in the space allotted to them. But this, like many things, is changing. The men of the old nobility (rather, the continuing nobility even if wasn't official anymore) have decided that it would be better to allow women of the "proper" class into the Navy's officer academy before they allowed commoners, or horror of horrors, untouchables into the Imperial Naval Academy. It was thought that even if they were women, they had the proper warrior caste breeding and could be relied upon to do the jobs they were given, limited as they would be by the frailty of their gender.

    So, you are of good breeding, responsible, dutiful, and can be relied on. But beside that, who are you?

    [ ] The rebellious daughter of a noble-turned-capitalist family, escaping a suitor after her for her wealth. (+Strategy & Subterfuge)
    [ ] The dutiful child of a New Independent representative in the upper house of the Diet, who pushed the idea. (+Diplomacy & Strategies)
    [ ] The daughter of an ancient noble family, whose unwillingness to give up masculine ambitions after her transition has become socially difficult. (+Prowess & Tactics)
    [ ] A daughter from a cadet branch of the Imperial Family, who brought up the idea with her cousin and, thus, was put to the front of the line. (+Subterfuge, plus great political connections)
    [ ] An enthusiastic but less than competent officer, chosen by the Admirality with the hopes that her failure will end such talk permanently. (Hard Mode)

    New quest by @Artificial Girl and I!!!! Set in the same world as Aircraft Design Quest, and the same time, we're gonna be doing politics, cool ships, and explosions! EXPLOSIONS!​
     
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  • Informational
    • [X] An enthusiastic but less than competent officer, chosen by the Admirality with the hopes that her failure will end such talk permanently. (Hard Mode)

    I may be swayed to other options later.
     
    [X] The rebellious daughter of a noble-turned-capitalist family, escaping a suitor after her for her wealth. (+Strategy & Subterfuge)
     
    [X] The rebellious daughter of a noble-turned-capitalist family, escaping a suitor after her for her wealth. (+Strategy & Subterfuge)
     
    [X] A daughter from a cadet branch of the Imperial Family, who brought up the idea with her cousin and, thus, was put to the front of the line. (+Subterfuge, plus great political connections)
     
    [X] The rebellious daughter of a noble-turned-capitalist family, escaping a suitor after her for her wealth. (+Strategy & Subterfuge)
     
    [X] A daughter from a cadet branch of the Imperial Family, who brought up the idea with her cousin and, thus, was put to the front of the line. (+Subterfuge, plus great political connections)
     
    [X] A daughter from a cadet branch of the Imperial Family, who brought up the idea with her cousin and, thus, was put to the front of the line. (+Subterfuge, plus great political connections)
     
    [X] The daughter of an ancient noble family, whose unwillingness to give up masculine ambitions after her transition has become socially difficult. (+Prowess & Tactics)

    Wait nevermind, I am fickle
     
    [X] An enthusiastic but less than competent officer, chosen by the Admirality with the hopes that her failure will end such talk permanently. (Hard Mode)
     
    [X] The daughter of an ancient noble family, whose unwillingness to give up masculine ambitions after her transition has become socially difficult. (+Prowess & Tactics)

    What you gonna do about it, boys?
     
    [X] The dutiful child of a New Independent representative in the upper house of the Diet, who pushed the idea. (+Diplomacy & Strategies)

    [X] The daughter of an ancient noble family, whose unwillingness to give up masculine ambitions after her transition has become socially difficult. (+Prowess & Tactics)

    [X] An enthusiastic but less than competent officer, chosen by the Admirality with the hopes that her failure will end such talk permanently. (Hard Mode)

    EDIT: Approval vote is go.
     
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    [X] The rebellious daughter of a noble-turned-capitalist family, escaping a suitor after her for her wealth. (+Strategy & Subterfuge)

    [X] A daughter from a cadet branch of the Imperial Family, who brought up the idea with her cousin and, thus, was put to the front of the line. (+Subterfuge, plus great political connections)

    Operation: Steampunk Anime Princess is a go, I repeat, Steampunk Anime Princess is a go.

    Actually @open_sketchbook are we allowed to do multi choice voting like this?
     
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    [X] The dutiful child of a New Independent representative in the upper house of the Diet, who pushed the idea. (+Diplomacy & Strategies)
     
    Well, in that case...

    [X] The rebellious daughter of a noble-turned-capitalist family, escaping a suitor after her for her wealth. (+Strategy & Subterfuge)
    [X] The dutiful child of a New Independent representative in the upper house of the Diet, who pushed the idea. (+Diplomacy & Strategies)
    [X] A daughter from a cadet branch of the Imperial Family, who brought up the idea with her cousin and, thus, was put to the front of the line. (+Subterfuge, plus great political connections)

    I'd really be fine with any of these - also I may be making some assumptions but if this is anything like otl Japan then Subterfuge and Diplomacy will be vital to making sure we don't get taken out by backroom backstabbing.
     
    Shebe Zuu said:
    Well, in that case...

    [X] The rebellious daughter of a noble-turned-capitalist family, escaping a suitor after her for her wealth. (+Strategy & Subterfuge)
    [X] The dutiful child of a New Independent representative in the upper house of the Diet, who pushed the idea. (+Diplomacy & Strategies)
    [X] A daughter from a cadet branch of the Imperial Family, who brought up the idea with her cousin and, thus, was put to the front of the line. (+Subterfuge, plus great political connections)

    I'd really be fine with any of these - also I may be making some assumptions but if this is anything like otl Japan then Subterfuge and Diplomacy will be vital to making sure we don't get taken out by backroom backstabbing.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Possibly literal backstabbing.

    Yes... that's probably going to be a problem. Also racism, sexism, classism... and all the other "fun" aspects of being underdeveloped.
     
    Karlito said:
    Let's just go for hard mode. How long do we really expect this quest to last anyway?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    We're Imperial Japan. Again, if IRL is anything to go by, we're already in hard mode.
    Edit: and I'm not just talking about discrimination either - Imperial Japan was in no way capable of taking on the enemies it made in WW2 but did it anyway. We're going to need every advantage we can get.
     
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    Shebe Zuu said:
    We're Imperial Japan. Again, if IRL is anything to go by, we're already in hard mode.
    Edit: and I'm not just talking about discrimination either - Imperial Japan was in no way capable of taking on the enemies it made in WW2 but did it anyway. We're going to need every advantage we can get.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    If you haven't, you should check out the second post in Aircraft Design Company Quest and also this post for some setting information.
     
    [X] The daughter of an ancient noble family, whose unwillingness to give up masculine ambitions after her transition has become socially difficult. (+Prowess & Tactics)​
     
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