Castles of Steel - Lesbians Good, Imperialism Bad

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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​


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

TBH I'm mostly here for explosions. I do like the idea of having political connections out the wazoo though.
 
For the quest mistresses argumentative pleasure -
I question the wisdom of going for a choice like the masculine daughter for a couple of reasons - First, because as is stated in the description, it will undoubtably cause even more social and political issues for us than we would face otherwise, but it doesn't give us the tools we need to deal with them effectively. We might have prowess on the battlefield but that wasn't enough to stop many politically unpopular commanders from being removed - we're also (probably, correct me if I'm wrong @open_sketchbook ) going to be starting at peace, which means that we'll have less opportunity to prove ourselves before our inevitable political and social enemies can make a move.

Second, no amount of prowess or tactics could have saved Japan from the mistakes it made in WW2 - even with skill in battle, the sheer industrial might of the US and Russia would have been too much to overcome. I'd argue that one of the most important things we can do to ensure our and our nation's survival is to be politically active in making sure the extremists don't drag us into stupid fights. Both Subterfuge and Diplomacy will be crucial for this, and I'd say that Subterfuge in particular will be key in uncovering any plots or coups being organized in the military, both of which were common concerns for Japan at the time.
 
You will fortunately be entering WW1, not WW2.

Well, first, you'll be entering a much sillier version of the war with Russia. And by sillier I mean way worse.
 
A point: This is more akin to Imperial Japan right before the Russo-Japanese War, not Japan before WW2.

EDIT: I see I have been ninja'd.
 
[x] The daughter of an ancient noble family, whose unwillingness to give up masculine ambitions after her transition has become socially difficult
 
open_sketchbook said:
You will fortunately be entering WW1, not WW2.

Well, first, you'll be entering a much sillier version of the war with Russia. And by sillier I mean way worse.
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Artificial Girl said:
A point: This is more akin to Imperial Japan right before the Russo-Japanese War, not Japan before WW2.

EDIT: I see I have been ninja'd.
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My apologies, I made some incorrect assumptions from the existence of the Aircraft Designer quest - Speaking of, does that mean aircraft were invented earlier than OTL or are we just playing a "prequel" of sorts to that quest?
 
[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)

Mainly because Navy Procurement Be Fucked, and I want to shamelessly throw contracts towards Ohara Airworks.

And to be fair, Grand Caspia started the war. With sort of a flimsy Causus Belli, but enough of one that the rest of the world is hanging back and letting us sort it out. Now, how did that tagline for Rule The Waves go? "Fifty percent designing ships that are obsolete before they leave drydock, 40% jingoistic warmongering, and 10% fighting pixel battles where there is Something Wrong With Your Bloody Ships Today"

Shebe Zuu said:
My apologies, I made some incorrect assumptions from the existence of the Aircraft Designer quest - Speaking of, does that mean aircraft were invented earlier than OTL or are we just playing a "prequel" of sorts to that quest?
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We are, as far as I can tell, contemporary. Also this version of the Russo-Japanese war didn't kick off until late 1910-ish. (no idea what the actual year is in the local calendar, probably 25XX.)
 
Shebe Zuu said:
My apologies, I made some incorrect assumptions from the existence of the Aircraft Designer quest - Speaking of, does that mean aircraft were invented earlier than OTL or are we just playing a "prequel" of sorts to that quest?
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Aircraft have been developed a bit earlier than in OTL, though it's not quite comparable to OTL bc, different world. Kinda. Basically AIrcraft Designer quest is us messing around trying to build pre-WW1 and WW1 era aircraft. High lights include a sea plane that fell apart on landing and a dive bomber with canards instead of a traditional tail structure because it's a pusher-engine.

And this is technically a prequel. I believe @open_sketchbook's idea was that this one starts about a year or so before the beginning of Aircraft Design Quest.

samdamandias said:
[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)

Mainly because Navy Procurement Be Fucked, and I want to shamelessly throw contracts towards Ohara Airworks.

And to be fair, Grand Caspia started the war. With sort of a flimsy Causus Belli, but enough of one that the rest of the world is hanging back and letting us sort it out. Now, how did that tagline for Rule The Waves go? "Fifty percent designing ships that are obsolete before they leave drydock, 40% jingoistic warmongering, and 10% fighting pixel battles where there is Something Wrong With Your Bloody Ships Today"


We are, as far as I can tell, contemporary. Also this version of the Russo-Japanese war didn't kick off until late 1910-ish. (no idea what the actual year is in the local calendar, probably 25XX.)
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It is the year 2535 of Imperial rule. Glory to the Empress, may she live 10,000 years.
 
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Naval procurement IS fucked, but it's not the realm that lowly lieutenants fresh from the Naval Academy deal with, usually.
 
Shebe Zuu said:
So we're at the absolute earliest days of aircraft development then?

Also @samdamandias makes a good point about naval procurement.
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It's early, but being adopted faster than IRL. So that, you know, Asuka has somebody to buy their planes.

The Navy currently has a fleet of about 30 various light single and two seater floatplanes for scouting.
 
I'm really just trying to figure out how far away we are from carrier aviation here, and it sounds like we're still fairly far off.

As for naval procurement, we might not deal with it personally but if we go with the connections option we might get some unofficial input.
 
[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 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] The daughter of an ancient noble family, whose unwillingness to give up masculine ambitions after her transition has become socially difficult. (+Prowess & Tactics)

I would rather not be here primarily as a matter of connections, even if it is both realistic and damn useful as protection against all the shit everyone will otherwise give us at every opportunity, but things will be hard enough without going hard mode.
 
Contemplating hard mode on the basis of "We'll be season 1 Leslie Knope, which means we might be able to become later seasons Leslie Knope."
 
open_sketchbook said:
It's early, but being adopted faster than IRL. So that, you know, Asuka has somebody to buy their planes.

The Navy currently has a fleet of about 30 various light single and two seater floatplanes for scouting.
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One fortunate or unfortunate effect of our poor relations with the navy in the other quest:
There's less chance that our fate here will be decided by Asuka's work.
 
Shebe Zuu said:
I'm really just trying to figure out how far away we are from carrier aviation here, and it sounds like we're still fairly far off.
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We're not even to the point of catapult launching those planes yet. If we're very lucky, the idea of a seaplane tender has occurred to someone by now. If not, then no one has really thought of what to do with them other than operate them out of bases, or perhaps stick one on any old ship with the room to spare and lower it to the water with a crane.
 
[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 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)

Let's play "Japan does it right this time", guys.
 
[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

Clueless Navy Lady sounds fun, but going in with no experience and no assistance sounds like a nightmare.
 
[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)

Winning friends and coming up with good plans are important. Also, if we can increase representation of the New Independents (the mainstream liberal pro-democracy party, with roughly 20-25% support compared to 55% for the conservatives and 20% for the far right)... Well, if we increase New Independents support in the Navy, we may be able to partially short-circuit the 'fated' outcome of Japanese politics OTL, wherein the very conservative-aligned armed forces backed repeated coups that took down the democratic government and installed the ultra-militant-nationalist government that got Japan into its unwinnable wars.

Alternatively, we may be able to pull off the same strategy with our political leverage as a member of the (extended) imperial family.

samdamandias said:
And to be fair, Grand Caspia started the war. With sort of a flimsy Causus Belli, but enough of one that the rest of the world is hanging back and letting us sort it out.
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To be fair, we did kiiiiinda dismember the Caspian crown prince a little in the other quest.

It's his fault for being a bad sport about coming in third in the Great Race, though! :p
 
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