Character Sheet


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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Well, I THOUGHT I was voting to prevent an international incident. That said, I have no complaints; in retrospect, this happening makes perfect sense.

"Heavy Scout" suggest a flying boat, like the H6K but not as advanced at our current tech level. Still, we might have good luck stealing that bomb bay idea, for torpedoes if we have them (but I don't think we do) or just regular (small) gravity bombs.
 
You've really got to hand it to that Caspian prince, he sure knows how to crash a party. He really thinks he's a cut above we puny Akitsuni.


If it's a Navy scout we're going to want extra long range, and some floatation whether by floats or flying boat design would be good for both crew survivability and versatility.

What about some small transport capability for courier services or VIP transit?
 
Hmm, how do these outlines look:

Idea 1
Sesquiplane configuration, with the lower wings also being floats (see: Latécoère 300. Engine in mounted below the upper wing, and above the fuselage, probably in pusher configuration. Pilot sits around where the wings are, observer right at the point of the nose. Add a flexible mount at the observers position for signal light/searchlight/lewis gun.

I think, the lower float/wings would have to be built quite heavily, but you'd avoid lots of drag inducing bracing.

The more conventional idea would be closer to the Curtiss Model F, with a more conventional wing layout. But as the tips of the lower wings now need floats attached, it looks like they have to have all sorts of bracing.
 
Heh. Our protag is getting a bit ahead of herself. Even if air dropped torpedoes would be utterly terrifying if you got them to work in this era... Probably to the same point as the WWI British Navy and their risk aversion to possible Unterseeboots.

Or she could be thinking of air carriers I suppose.
Actually I think she's thinking of dropping bombs. Her boyfriend is in the army after all.

That said, let's go with flying boat for now. It shouldn't be too hard and it would allow for other jobs.
 
Flying boat lets us do heavier planes.

I don't think we can pull off a Big Bastard. Yet.

Whether we do Flying boat or a floatplane depends on how heavy the navy wants their scout
 
Actually I think she's thinking of dropping bombs. Her boyfriend is in the army after all.

That said, let's go with flying boat for now. It shouldn't be too hard and it would allow for other jobs.

I think they're regretting the part their plane had in all this mess, and momentarily considering dropping the plane.
 
Updated Build Rules
Okay let's explain what's changed in aircraft design.

General Changes
Planes are generally heavier and have more drag now. More things cause drag and the drag is typically more. You'll probably end up with twice as much or more Drag and Mass as the design might have had in previous versions. The Lift and Drag charts have been adjusted in kind.

Speaking of, it will likely be a lot harder to get the kinds of speeds you were getting before. For one thing, engines now don't generate Thrust at all. Instead, they have a maximum Thrust. Thrust is generated the same way.

Finally, mass is removed from top speed on a 1-1 basis, so heavier planes will be slower.


Engines
There's a new system called the Engine Builder, which allows engines to be made in extreme detail. I'm talking choosing the size and number of cylinders, arranging them in banks, building their cooling systems, and so forth.

As a general rule, radial air-cooled engines are much lighter, but have inbuilt drag, reduce your visibility, and have lower torque, while liquid cooled engines are much more powerful but more expensive, more delicate, require radiators, and most of all are extremely heavy.

For starters, we will use pre-built engines instead of the builder, but when the company gets big enough it will start making its own engines and you can design them.


Wing Construction
Few things have changed here except some simplification of wing placement. It's much easier to make different wing aspect ratios now.

Structural Reinforcement
Wires and Bracing now work 5 units at a time instead of 1 unit at a time, so you can no longer get "free" optimization out of them. There's a new and very effective reinforcement called Wing Struts which give +10 Structure for 2 Drag and 2 Mass.

Seaplane Basics
You have two options for building a seaplane. A Float Plane adds 1.5 Drag (we round down as usual) per MP, so its just like a landing gear but draggier. A boat hull costs +5 Mass (1 MP) flat, but then only generates as much drag as regular landing gear, and gives bonus Structure.

Boat planes have special restrictions regular planes don't have. Their engines must be built as Pod Engines, or as Nacelle Engines in a plane with an Upper Wing. Otherwise they'll drown!

Finally, rigging up guns to shoot downward on a boat plane costs twice as much money as usual, because you need to be clever.

Next update OTW.
 
No offense to our dear major, but I much prefer he deal with a hothead prince/donkey than our pilot does so. If nothing else, I'm not sure Satomi had a sword...
Coralie's an officer. She very well might have.

Heh, apparently ceremonial swords aren't a thing in this reality.
At least not as far as the Akitsukuni are concerned?

Remember, this is roughly 1910. We're only about one generation removed from the invention of repeating rifles, and about two generations removed from the first clumsy machine guns. Well within living memory, swords were serious weapons even in full-scale warfare, and that goes double for Akitsukuni, which I strongly suspect had its version of the Meiji Restoration roughly on schedule (that is to say, only about 45 years ago).

All over the world, cavalry still carry swords and train to use them. Officers still carry swords and train to use them in close combat, the way that rank-and-file infantrymen train to use bayonets. Swords are not yet quite as much of a fashion accessory for soldiers as they would be after the first world war breaks out.

Especially not for Akitsukuni.

Well, it's a heavy scout plane. That means, presumably, they'll want a long range on it.
I'm tempted to try and design a less temperamental version of our racing plane. But if we want to go "flying boat," that's right out.

Optimizing around ship-based operations seems wise to me. In this time and place, that means a flying boat or float plane, ideally one that can be optionally launched with a catapult and landed and quickly retrieved even in somewhat rough weather. Make it a two-seater with a dedicated observer and provisions for mounting a camera. A radio is probably too much to ask by far at this tech level, but a signal light built in for reporting without landing might be a nice touch too. I'm not sure what they think they need this for, but what they actually need is a way to let their ships find and report on the position of other ships without themselves being found, not just something to watch from the coasts.
We are firmly pre-World War One.

If we build the Navy a scout plane designed to be launched off their ships, they're going to have to refit ships to accommodate the new plane. Their existing warships aren't likely to be designed with even light aviation catapults for scout planes; so far as I know those were a post-WWI innovation. We'd need to collaborate closely with naval engineers and it would be an expansive (and expensive) project. Not a good choice for a small company with which the Navy has a relation considerably more tsun than dere.

We should be thinking in terms of a flying boat, probably. Remember, this is a scout plane, not an artillery spotter for helping the battleline aim shells, assuming the Navy has even started thinking in terms of high-angle fire and 'Jutland rules,' as opposed to still having all their guns elevate to fifteen and twenty degrees for relatively short range combat by 'Tsushima rules.'

So what we need is a biiiig hull full of aviation gasoline and twin engines, something that can stay in the air all day and travel very long ranges, so as to reconnoiter Caspian ports from Akitsukuni naval bases. At least that may be the hope. We'll get more details soon.

Okay, point, and they also clearly don't have the catapults just sitting their ready to use. What about designing it purely for water launch, but making provisions for storage, deployment and retrieval from a capital ship by way of a crane? There may be engineering solutions to managing the bulk of the wings, such as folding or removable sections, if that ends up being a problem.
It'll still be a problem. A battleship's deck layout isn't something you can fool around with casually. There's a lot of stuff that fits up there, and even if the wings are folded (a big jump for us to make), even the length of the fuselage is going to be an issue in terms of deck space constraints.

Plus the fact that you don't want to stow the plane somewhere that blast from the guns will shred the fabric and/or set it on fire every time the ship fires a shot.

A somewhat wilder thought would be to go more literal with "flying boat", with the intent that it operate with conventional naval forces at the strategic level, conduct the most routine necessary maintenance and repairs while afloat, and be able to ride out any weather it is likely to experience in the air or on the water, whatever is easier. By going a bit larger, we could probably fit in a radio and give it the facilities for very long term independent operation with the aid of whatever ships or bases are on hand for resupply.
That's going to be a problem. Making an aircraft that HEAVY means very large wing area that will in turn make it impossible for the plan to be seaworthy.

I don't think anyone ever built what you're describing here, and I think there's a reason.

Just having a reasonably normal airplane, with a boat hull, is probably our best bet.

Heh. Our protag is getting a bit ahead of herself. Even if air dropped torpedoes would be utterly terrifying if you got them to work in this era... Probably to the same point as the WWI British Navy and their risk aversion to possible Unterseeboots.
Not torpedoes. Bombs. The cargo bay is designed to function as a bomb bay.

The Dyskelandisch airship we're riding in has been designed to be used as long range bombers during war time, without significant retrofitting.

About that international incident we were trying to avoid...

Agreed, though those things have horrible drag. You think a flying boat is compatible with a lifting body?
You'd probably end up with a lifting body that technically floats, but that handles so badly in the water that the plane can't be maneuvered on the water into a hangar or out for takeoff.

Alternatively, a biplane that merges the floats and the lower wing.
That won't play well with wave action; you'll suffer badly on seaworthiness because waves will cause roll instability when the plane is on the water.

Eh, only a is-

Oh right, usually we do the test flights, I think.

Yeah, that is a issue.
No no no, the problem isn't that the pilot will drown. It's that the engines will drown if you mount them low, because they get smacked by waves.
 
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Hrm, given the request was for a HEAVY scout, the RAW makes it sound like we'd want to go for a flying boat right away rather than a floatplane, since the float would be draggier that the boat hull if we pass a certain size.
 
The Major disarmed the situation!

Yes, it's a shame that the prince couldn't grasp the severity of his actions before control of the situation slipped out of his fingers.

Also, if we want to slightly enter the realm of fantasy, what about mounting a light 20-30mm repeating cannon for attacking light craft and targets of opportunity? If we have a twin engine flying boat it ought to be able to carry something like that.
 
Also, if we want to slightly enter the realm of fantasy, what about mounting a light 20-30mm repeating cannon for attacking light craft and targets of opportunity? If we have a twin engine flying boat it ought to be able to carry something like that.
i too thought Black Cats was an awesome level. At this point in history, autocannon tech isn't great. Our options are pretty much 1-pound pom-pom light artillery types or building an autocannon from scratch. Once a big war starts, 20 mils should be worked out. That said, we should absolutely have a rear-facing machine-gun, and possibly a second belly-mounted if we think we can get away with it.
 
Actually I think she's thinking of dropping bombs. Her boyfriend is in the army after all.
Can we not do this? As I just pointed out a page ago:
Our protag is non-binary, and whatever the standard practice in not!japanese is, we've been using "they" pronouns.

As for other thread discussion, and SJ's points in particular, I admit some of my thoughts were probably over-ambitious especially given the speed these may be needed. Honestly, we'll probably have to see what the requirements look like before we can make informed suggestions about what we ought to build.
 
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