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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[X] Asuka

"Flying bird" eh?

Anyway, it's sort of a good thing that we are at the very beginning of it and wood is the go-to. If this maps out to OTL!Japan, we would be mostly forced to work with magnesium instead of duralumin, which is less than ideal.

Anyway, just to be sure: @open_sketchbook who invented the airplane?

Just to clear the air :V
 
First Flight!
[X] Asuka

Anyway, just to be sure: @open_sketchbook who invented the airplane?
Why, that would be the Sears sisters of Buckeye, New Alleghany! Rose and Antoinette, a seamstress and print shop mechanic respectively. Rose built steerable cloth kites as a hobby, constructed using experience from building hoop skirts and ribbed corsets, and when Antoinette saw her innovations she realized her sister had fixed many of the problems plaguing early attempts at flight. They procured a light engine from a machine shop, built a wind tunnel in their yard, made a series of progressively larger gliders, and just about exactly ten years ago they made the first flight of 14 seconds.

They're still out there flying and designing, you know. Maybe you'll get to meet them.

Of course, there's a lot of dispute over this; a lot of bigshot engineers and inventors aren't terribly happy they got beaten to the punch. But the Sears Sparrow is generally accepted as the first.
 
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0-4
.. Asuka, the genius designer who's going to get this company off the ground!"

Everyone stood up and huddled around, and you tried your best to keep up with the blur of new names and faces in your team. Everyone was young and a little disheveled.

Your Team
- Sakane Jun, Materials Engineer. A young man with close cut hair and a trim suit, who regarded you quite seriously. You noted the Imperial Starburst pin on his lapel.
- Tezuka Kenji, Areodynamics Engineer. A tall, willowy man with long hair and an unusual smell clinging to him. He seemed cheerful enough, if slightly dazed.
- Hasegawa Morio, Chemical Engineer. A bespectacled, short and youthful looking man with stress already etched on his face. He looked somewhat starstruck.
- Kawamura Yosai, Materials Engineer. Relatively sharply dressed, and with a sweep of messy hair. You noted the silver chain of a fine pocketwatch in his vest.
- Kibe Koume, Mechanical Engineer. An extremely short woman with boyish, short-cropped hair and oil stains on her fingers. A monocle rested in her shirt pocket.
- Kobayashi Ayao, Areodynamics Engineer, who was definitely a member of the business family of the same name. Judging by the burn scar just peaking out of her high collar, it was not an amicable separation.
- Adachi Ren, Chemical Engineer. A striking woman with long hair and fine makeup, clearly concerned with her appearance. You noted a paper tag on her desk.
- Uyeno Sei, Ballistics Engineer. A very tall and well built woman who greeted you with a smile. She looked to be the oldest member of the team, and you couldn't help but notice she was missing a piece of her ear.

When you design aircraft, you will choose a subset of your team to work with. Each member of your team will carry their own bonuses, and will give you your team's stats for the project if you want to innovate. The team will change as we go.
After you'd met everyone, you settled in to get briefed on the current project.

"Right, so, here's the situation." Mr. Ohara started. "We've received our largest order yet, from the Imperial Army. They're interested in exploring military aviation for scouting and artillery spotting but they don't have the budget the Navy does, so they've come to us for a dozen of our Type 1 Series; that's the copy of the MacUilleim Model 3 two-seaters you saw in the factory."

"That's great!" You said. "But I don't see why it's a problem for the engineers. Why can't we just run them off the line?"

Mr. Ohara looked embarrassed and hestitated a second, and Kawamura spoke up. "Because they expect the same performance from our knock-offs as the original."

You put the pieces together. "... And ours don't have that performance. Okay, what's the issue?"

Mr. Ohara regained his composure. "It's something with the materials. From what Mr. Sakane explained, they're using a chemical treatment to strengthen the wood we don't have access to. As a result, our plane is much more delicate than theirs."

Kobayashi interjected, bitterness in her voice. "The frame can't handle any more than the engine's top speed going flat out, about a 100 kilometers an hour. The original is rated for 140kph. So if the army guys pitch down even a little while flying at maximum speed, pieces are going to start coming off."

Over the next hour, you became engrossed in conversation with the team. Everyone had their own ideas for strengthening the plane, but they were working with little oversight or coordination. The plane was right up against it's tolerances; an addition in any area would impact performance in another. Mr. Ohara was watching you work with the team, and you realized he expected you to come to a decision. You would...
- [ ] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)
- [ ] Back Kibe Koume's plan of stringing additional bracing wires, increasing drag and decreasing top speed. (+1 Stress)
- [ ] Side with Kobayashi Ayao's plan to close the wing structure. This would increase drag as much as the wires, but would produce twice as much structural integrity. The difference from the original would be blatantly obvious to Army inspectors, though. (+1 Stress)
- [ ] Agree with Adachi Ren that there is nothing to be done but to order the treated wood from the Albian Union, regardless of the (considerable) cost. (+1 Stress)
- [ ] Stay overnight on your first day with a team and try to make a miracle happen. (+3 Stress, roll a Check)

Every production cycle you'll build up stress when you make decisions, especially hard ones. You can blow off some steam through extracurricular, but it'll catch up with you eventually, and it can have very serious personal consequences.
 
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[X] Back Kibe Koume's plan of stringing additional bracing wires, increasing drag and decreasing top speed. (+1 Stress)

At this point in aviation, top speed isn't a real priority so the extra wires increasing drag is whatever. Especially for a plane being ordered for scouting and artillery spotting.
 
Typo.

[ ] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)

I like this. Scout planes don't need handling, and it's the least likely to be noticed.

Unless we want to be noticed.

@open_sketchbook

Just to be clear, are the company's planes marketed as "comparable to but cheaper"?

The other question (for the voters) is this:
Can we get away with marketing this as an improvement? If we take Kobayashi's plan, that is.
- [ ] Side with Kobayashi Ayao's plan to close the wing structure. This would increase drag as much as the wires, but would produce twice as much structural integrity. The difference from the original would be blatantly obvious to Army inspectors, though. (+1 Stress)

Personally, I think the reduced handling is less likely to have an impact.

Thus:
[X] Sakane Jun
 
Typo.

I like this. Scout planes don't need handling, and it's the least likely to be noticed.

Unless we want to be noticed.

@open_sketchbook

Just to be clear, are the company's planes marketed as "comparable to but cheaper"?

The other question (for the voters) is this:
Can we get away with marketing this as an improvement? If we take Kobayashi's plan, that is.


Personally, I think the reduced handling is less likely to have an impact.

Thus:
[X] Sakane Jun
Increasing the mass of the plane will also increase it's stall speed and the length of the runway it needs to take off, but that's somewhat minor by comparison. And we're going to go an optional optimization stage.

Yeah, right now the company's reputation is for making cheap copies of Western designs.

Marketing is not really your scene but you can recommend whatever you like to Mr. Ohara.
 
[X] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)



- [ ] Side with Kobayashi Ayao's plan to close the wing structure. This would increase drag as much as the wires, but would produce twice as much structural integrity. The difference from the original would be blatantly obvious to Army inspectors, though. (+1 Stress)

The other question (for the voters) is this:
Can we get away with marketing this as an improvement? If we take Kobayashi's plan, that is.

The risk here is that the Army might just refuse to give us more orders ( if we're supposed to be cheaper), and it seems like too much to me.


At this point in aviation, top speed isn't a real priority so the extra wires increasing drag is whatever.

Even for scout planes? I'd have thought being able to get in and out quickly would be more important than in other plane types.
 
Closing the wing won't cost noticeably more. Generally speaking, mucking with bracing, wires, canvas, wood, etc, that's all basically free as far as the system is concerned. Costs are typically found in optimizations without performance tradeoffs, in engines, and in new features.
 
[X] Sakane Jun

Hopefully the army will just chalk the decreased handling up to rookie pilots

@open_sketchbook Can we set background research? That chemical treatment sounds useful
 
Large scale research is (currently) outside of your purview. Technological innovations made by researchers in other companies, academia, and the military will filter down gradually.
 
[X] Back Kibe Koume's plan of stringing additional bracing wires, increasing drag and decreasing top speed. (+1 Stress)

At this point in aviation, top speed isn't a real priority so the extra wires increasing drag is whatever.
It's more noticeable though. "Why can't our planes go as fast as the Navy's?"

Versus: "the handling is worse than that of the navy's"

Handling is more subjective than top speed.

Marketing is not really your scene but you can recommend whatever you like to Mr. Ohara.
Eventually, I'd like to transition to "Like X, but better." This feels like the most natural way to branch out into original work: improved knockoffs.

Even for scout planes? I'd have thought being able to get in and out quickly would be more important than in other plane types.
That is true, but in/out is speed, not handling.

There's a reason why I didn't pick a high drag option.
 
[X] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)
 
[X] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)
 
[X] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)

Eh, either way is fine with me
 
[X] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)
 
[X] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)

Stealthy mod, and still performs.
 
0-5
[X] Go with Sakane Jun's plan to reinforce the plane internally with additional bracing, increasing mass and decreasing handling. (+1 Stress)

You quickly swept aside the papers on one of the empty desks and laid out Sakane's plans across them. "This is good. The Army won't notice the extra pounds, and longer runway requirements won't even register for them. We should probably pull out this spar here and replace it with an x-frame... somebody hand me a slide rule."

Within a few hours, you and the team wrapped up the calculations and stared at your blueprints with glee. The changes got pretty involved; a new wing spar, the addition of metal bracing clips to hold key components, and an increase in the density of support bars. You probably added a hundred kilos of material to the plane, but externally it was basically identical to the original. If your calculations were correct, the new plane would need to get pretty close to it's top speed to take off, but it's top speed was within 2 kilometers of the standard model.

Outside, the day was growing long, and the muggy September heat was giving way to a cool evening breeze. You could probably turn in the project right now...

- [ ] Turn in your papers to the factory and end your first day.
- [ ] Stay late and try to optimize... (+2 Stress)
- [ ] Weight (Material Engineering)
- [ ] Aerodynamics (Aerodynamic Engineering)
- [ ] Engine Performance (Mechanical Engineering)
- [ ] Fuel Performance (Chemical Engineering)
- [ ] Write-In

Optimizing will involve a Check. You'll get a +1 to it for each of the specialists you keep on your team with you, and also add your stats. As a starting designer, you have a 0 in all your stats, as you haven't specialized yet. That means you're basically competent at everything.

Ending your day will lead to downtime.
 
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