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Steel and Ambition: No SV, Just Building the Guns Won't Make for a Successful Business. You Need More!

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Wait, I think we should do the Sakamoto option instead of investors. We got the money, we need to get the tools and methods now.
 
[X] Plan Out of the Pan, Into the Fire
-[X]Buying Time: You will show them the pistol you made, and than ask them for more time, to get more resources and equipment.
-[X]The Sisters Who Work: You need to teach them how to forge. Failing that will lead to even worse things for you… and them.
-[X]The Enigma of Sakamoto Ryōma: He came back with something… and that is this. "I believe I have made contact with people who can help you with producing even more."
-[X]Upgrading the Workshop: You need a way to mass produce weapons. And to design them more quickly. (Begin a workshop upgrading turn.)
-[X]Study Mass Production techniques: Exploring options to make more weapons in a way that is not going to sacrafice the quality of the weapon.

Edit: For approval voting
[X] Plan: Nose to the Grindstone
 
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[X]Plan: Light the Fires of Industry
-[X]Buying Time: You will show them the pistol you made, and than ask them for more time, to get more resources and equipment.
-[X]Hiring Hands: You want to find out if you can hire any blacksmiths or apprentices that you have met and turn them into master weapons makers.
-[X]The Enigma of Sakamoto Ryōma: He came back with something… and that is this. "I believe I have made contact with people who can help you with producing even more."
-[X]Upgrading the Workshop: You need a way to mass produce weapons. And to design them more quickly. (Begin a workshop upgrading turn.)
-[X]Study Mass Production techniques: Exploring options to make more weapons in a way that is not going to sacrafice the quality of the weapon.
 
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Eh, I like investing more occasional actions into the sisters. They're awesome and adorable, and need all the love. With Makoto apparently being a 'Steel-Singer,' Miriko making paper rounds, and our own abilities, we can have a straight-up Master Inventor Family! I want to write Omake about future American Firearms dorks losing their minds when they read some of this backstory.

[X] Plan Out of the Pan, Into the Fire
-[X]Buying Time: You will show them the pistol you made, and than ask them for more time, to get more resources and equipment.
-[X]The Sisters Who Work: You need to teach them how to forge. Failing that will lead to even worse things for you… and them.
-[X]The Enigma of Sakamoto Ryōma: He came back with something… and that is this. "I believe I have made contact with people who can help you with producing even more."
-[X]Upgrading the Workshop: You need a way to mass produce weapons. And to design them more quickly. (Begin a workshop upgrading turn.)
-[X]Study Mass Production techniques: Exploring options to make more weapons in a way that is not going to sacrifice the quality of the weapon.
 
I don't think I want to use an action for "buying time" until I *know* that we need it. Let's give it a shot first!

[X] Plan: Nose to the Grindstone
-[X]Hiring Hands: You want to find out if you can hire any blacksmiths or apprentices that you have met and turn them into master weapons makers.
-[X]The Sisters Who Work: You need to teach them how to forge. Failing that will lead to even worse things for you… and them.
-[X]The Enigma of Sakamoto Ryōma: He came back with something… and that is this. "I believe I have made contact with people who can help you with producing even more."
-[X]Upgrading the Workshop: You need a way to mass produce weapons. And to design them more quickly. (Begin a workshop upgrading turn.)
-[X]Study Mass Production techniques: Exploring options to make more weapons in a way that is not going to sacrifice the quality of the weapon.

@Magoose, a question for next turn: Can we buy materials and use them in the same turn?
 
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[X] Plan Fruitful
-[x] Hiring Hands
-[x] The Sisters Who Work
-[x] The Sisters You Love
-[x] Workshop Upgrade
-[x] Study Mass Production

Sisters make more ammo, everything else focused on getting mass production started.
 
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Alright, I want to calculate this. Going with the numbers given by Magoose in the design turn, we can make 5 revolvers per action per turn. Right now, our investors want us to make 1000 revolvers in 4 turns. At our current rate, we can only make 20 revolvers before our investors come knocking.

A single action of crafting we need 10 wood, 2 steel, and 1 HQ steel to make 5 revolvers. To make 1000 revolvers, in terms of material cost, we'll need 2000 wood, 400 steel, and 200 HQ steel. If we buy all of those materials, it would cost 160,000 Mons. That is a shit-ton of money, money that we don't have enough of. Especially if we're going to spend some upgrading our workshop. And we absolutely need to upgrade our workshop because we only produce 5 revolvers every turn.

So yeah, we got a lot to do.

-[]Wood (10 Mon)
-[]Iron (50 Mon)
-[]Steel (100 Mon)
-[]High Grade Steel (500 Mon)


Magoose said:
Daybreak Attempt 1

-[X]What do you make it out of (Must be either iron or steel or high-grade steel) Steel

You didn't have much to work with, your supply of materials was thin, and every piece of steel you owned was precious and you were unable to get more easily, because of course, steel was hard to make. But it was enough. Enough to build something that mattered.

You needed this weapon to be of real quality, not just something that could fire once or twice before breaking apart, but a firearm that could survive repeated use, endure the elements, and prove itself to skeptics and enemies alike.


It wasn't just about survival; it was about making a statement. This weapon had to turn heads. It had to make powerful men take notice, to show them that Japan didn't need to rely forever on foreign arms. That innovation could be born here, in their own soil, by their own hands.

This was the beginning, or it could be the end.

Either this would be the weapon that lit the spark for Japan's domestic arms industry… Or it would be the flawed prototype that got you and Ryoma killed before you could even dream of a second chance.

No pressure at all.

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-[X]Standard Barrel: Balanced performance for most combat situations. (Cost 1 Steel)
-[X] Rifled Barrel: A more advanced option. Rifling improves both accuracy and effective range, making it the standard for most modern firearms. However, crafting a rifled barrel requires higher-quality materials and greater precision. (Cost: 1 High-Grade Steel)

You had seen enough papers and sketches in foreign magazines to know the average dimensions of a proper revolver, and enough crude, half-hearted attempts by local blacksmiths to know what not to do.

They would carve rough wooden replicas, exaggerate the silhouettes, and pass them off as genuine designs to customers who didn't know any better.

It was a scam, one designed to prey on ignorance, to keep their businesses afloat with lies and false promises. But you weren't just another customer. You could see through it all. And you intended to expose their tricks the best way possible: by building something real.

You would make the barrel rifled, no cheap smoothbore imitations. No corners cut. You wanted accuracy, precision, and power. But that decision came at a cost. High-carbon steel wasn't something you could summon from thin air. It took weeks of careful preparation, and you didn't have weeks. You barely had days.

Fortunately, you had Makoto.

For reasons you didn't fully understand, Makoto had a gift when it came to cut rifling. She treated the barrel like it was alive, humming quiet songs under her breath as she worked, her hands moving with a strange kind of grace. When you asked her about it, she simply smiled and said, "You have to feel the steel sing."

When she finished, the barrel gleamed under the lantern light, the rifling sharp and clean, the spin true.

She had her first real piece of craftsmanship. And it was beautiful.

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-[X] Paper Cartridges:A lightweight, pre-packaged load combining powder and ball, wrapped in treated paper that burns away when fired. This system dramatically speeds up loading times compared to loose powder and ball, making it excellent for combat situations where every second counts.
-[X]Write in. 45 caliber
-[X] Six Rounds: The standard for most modern revolvers in the West. Six shots provide a perfect balance between firepower and reliability without compromising too much on size or weight. (Cost 1 Steel)

You had never made a revolver before, so you were going to stay and try to replicate what you knew worked form foreign designs. So you're stuck with the classic six-round design. It was simple, proven, and reliable enough for your purposes. But a revolver was nothing without ammunition. At first, you had intended to use a basic cap-and-ball system: loose powder, ball, and a percussion cap to fire. Crude, messy, and slow, but it was all you knew.

Then Miriko, bless her ingenuity and lack of sleep, changed everything.

One evening, as she sat nearby fiddling with scraps, she started carefully rolling paper cartridges, tight little packages of powder and ball wrapped neatly in thin, treated paper. She had seen something similar used for rifles once, hell you think you even taught her how to roll them.. And then, with a cheeky grin, she asked, "Can't you make them small enough to fit in the revolver's cylinder?"

It was something you hadn't even considered. Hell, you didn't even think it was possible.

But you tried it anyway.

And against all expectations, it worked. The powder load was clean and consistent, wrapped tight enough to prevent spillage. When you tested a few shots, the paper cartridges burned beautifully, leaving almost no residue, and the shots fired crisp and true.

They weren't perfect, they couldn't survive being submerged; if the paper got too wet, it would fall apart. But a little rain? A splash of seawater? It would still fire.

A Success.

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-[X] Carved Hardwood (Premium): Using a dense hardwood like oak, walnut, or rosewood, you can craft a grip that is not only tougher but also beautiful, giving the weapon an air of craftsmanship and prestige. Slightly heavier but more durable. (Cost: 10 Wood)

The final piece, the handle, was made from solid oak. You didn't even remember exactly where you had gotten the wood. Maybe you had stolen it, maybe you had traded for it without thinking, or maybe it had simply been sitting in the workshop, forgotten by someone who didn't realize its worth.

Carving and shaping the oak was slow, careful work. Oak was stubborn; it fought against your tools, resisting every cut, but that only made fitting it to the revolver's frame even more satisfying.

You sanded it smooth, polished it with a cloth until the grain shone under the lamplight, warm and rich like honeyed amber. It fit your hand like it had been made for you alone.

When you finally pressed it into place, anchoring it against the cold steel frame of the revolver, a quiet sense of completion washed over you.

It was perfect.
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-[X] Reliability: Your priority is making a weapon that can fire under any conditions: rain, dirt, rough handling by untrained or unskilled operators. Even if it isn't the most accurate or powerful, it will shoot when you pull the trigger.

Bonus Reliability Roll:D20 => 13

The weapon would fire, reliably enough, at least under the right conditions.


The ammunition needed to stay dry, or at worst, only slightly damp. Using paper cartridges was a clever innovation, but it came at a cost: you had sacrificed the watertight security that metal cartridges offered, if you could make them work. If the paper became soaked, the powder would be ruined, rendering the weapon little more than an expensive club.

The steel frame, though sturdy, demanded respect. Like any weapon, it needed constant maintenance; exposed to water and neglect, it would rust and corrode with frightening speed. You had built the mechanism to be simple, rugged, but simplicity did not mean it could be ignored. Every moving part, every spring and pivot, would need regular cleaning and oiling to keep the revolver working under pressure.

You thought ahead to the kinds of situations you might find yourself in: firefights in rain-slick streets, muddy fields, sudden ambushes where the weapon might be dropped, kicked, or splattered with dirt.
Dust, mud, water, any of them could foul the ammunition, clog the mechanism, or jam the hammer at the worst possible moment.

In the end, you had built a weapon that could kill, but it would survive only as well as you treated it. Like any tool worth trusting, it demanded care, discipline, and a little luck.

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-[X]Write in Name: 黎明 夜明け "dawn/daybreak"

"This weapon is the dawn of a New Japan." You stated as you looked at Ryoma, as you presented it to him. Hopefully a better one.

"We can only hope." He said.
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Accuracy:D20 => 13

It could reliably strike a man-sized target at 50 paces, an incredible achievement for any pistol, let alone one built under such rough conditions. It spoke of the careful rifling, the balanced weight, the precision of the mechanism.

But there was a catch.

Accuracy like that depended on everything going right: a clean barrel, dry powder, a steady hand, and no unexpected gusts of wind or fouling of the mechanism. In ideal conditions, it was a deadly, elegant weapon. In the chaos of real combat, that precision became a fragile thing, easily lost.

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Reliability:D20 => 12 (Lower Roll, use the Bonus Roll)
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Ease of Production:D20 => 18

But the true brilliance of this weapon wasn't just in its performance, it was in its simplicity of construction. It could be made from a single large block of steel. Quite literally.

Every ounce of material had a purpose. Nothing was wasted. The steel was carved out when rifling the barrel? It wasn't discarded, it was reforged into pieces of the cylinder. The scraps trimmed from shaping the frame? They found new life in the hammer, the trigger, the minor inner workings that made the weapon function.

It was a design born from necessity: efficient, practical, and ruthless in its refusal to waste. You didn't have a choice. Even more importantly, the way you shaped the weapon meant that it didn't require specialized gunsmith tools to replicate. All you had were hand tools. With enough raw material, basic forges, and steady hands, even a novice craftsman could reproduce it, provided they had the instructions you wrote down.

And that was the key. You wrote everything down. You made exhaustive, detailed instructions on how to replicate this firearm…

So anyone with the know-how can reproduce it.

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Final Result:D20 - 3 => 11

The Weapon is a stellar first attempt at a handgun, especially a revolver. While it is not the most high quality of weapons, it can be a weapon that can serve as a bentchmark for future weapons designs.

Laying the groundwork for the future production, and its own use.

Reward:

黎明 夜明け "dawn/daybreak" Created.

Due to the Reliability Roll focus, and the use of paper cartridges, it will have a +2 to it's combat rolls. Except in rain, or snow where it suffers automatic failures.

Due to the Ease of Production Roll: It only requires 2 steel to make, rather than the 5, when wanting to reproduce it in regular turns. And 5 can be made per turn per action.

You can now attempt to streamline the design for... mass production.
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AN: Yeah. as you can see...

Things did not go well.
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Amerigo Vespucci said:
Il was important because he supported the opening of the ports to Westerners. IOTL, his death encouraged the violent opposition movement, which supported the emperor.
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In addition, out of the various Western Powers, Ii favored the United States to make deals with and so on.

After his death, American Influence in Japan waned and the British took their place, later throwing their support behind the Emperor.

Ii surviving means that the USA will play a much bigger role in Japan in the coming years, for better or for worse.
 
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Amerigo Vespucci said:
@Magoose, a question for next turn: Can we buy materials and use them in the same turn?
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Yes

Alexander Sturnn said:
In addition, out of the various Western Powers, Ii favored the United States to make deals with and so on.

After his death, American Influence in Japan waned and the British took their place, later throwing their support behind the Emperor.

Ii surviving means that the USA will play a much bigger role in Japan in the coming years, for better or for worse.
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But one of the things about the us that should be noted is that while the us did have and do things that were part of imperialist power plays and forcing open the country, as well as force Japan to be…

Well a pawn in their pacific games… especially since they got coaling stations for their steamers that were traveling to China for trade.

America never really asked for too many things from Japan like treaty ports and territories… only that ports open up to American merchants.

Though they managed to swindle the Japanese of extra territoriality for their citizens.

America never really asked for crazy things… partially because unlike Britian it had no need for that stuff.
 
Magoose said:
But one of the things about the us that should be noted is that while the us did have and do things that were part of imperialist power plays and forcing open the country, as well as force Japan to be…

Well a pawn in their pacific games… especially since they got coaling stations for their steamers that were traveling to China for trade.

America never really asked for too many things from Japan like treaty ports and territories… only that ports open up to American merchants.

Though they managed to swindle the Japanese of extra territoriality for their citizens.

America never really asked for crazy things… partially because unlike Britian it had no need for that stuff.
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Hence why I said 'for better or for worse'. This could benefit Japan in the long run.
 
Restestsest said:
REPUBLIC OF JAPAN!

REPUBLIC OF JAPAN!

REPUBLIC OF JAPAN!

DOWN WITH THE EMPEROR! DOWN WITH THE SHOGUN! LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE!
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Again: We're not getting rid of the Emperor entirely.

No way. No chance. Way too much religious and cultural significance. We'd be crucified by even the most radical Pro-Democracy Japanese if we tried.

But hey, the Shogunate already has a blueprint of the Big E as a powerless figurehead. Just need to copy that for a Democratic Government.
 
Alexander Sturnn said:
But hey, the Shogunate already has a blueprint of the Big E as a powerless figurehead. Just need to copy that for a Democratic Government.
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The Problem now lies in the reality of the situation.

How does form a Democratic Government in a rapidly industrializing Political Society without blowing it up too badly?

We could ask the American's for-

*See's Civil War burning in the background.*

I mean there could be worse systems to copy.

*See's rapidly collapsing Japanese Political Sitaution*

Where the hell is our Washington. :V
 
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Cyberphilosipher said:
The Problem now lies in the reality of the situation.

How does form a Democratic Government in a rapidly industrializing Political Society without blowing it up too badly?

We could ask the American's for-

*See's Civil War burning in the background.*

I mean there could be worse systems to copy.

*See's rapidly collapsing Japanese Political Sitaution*

Where the hell is our Washington. :V
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*Everyone turns around to look at Miki Hideaki*

Miki Hideaki: "choto matte"

HUZZAH! Another Renaissance quest! :V
 
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