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] Forget the party. This is serious. (Roll subterfuge, Very Hard roll. No stress relief. On a success, get enough to implicate both of them. A partial will give you a hard choice.)
 
[X] Another thirty seconds won't hurt. (Roll Subterfuge, Will get you limited actionable intelligence you can work on later.)
 
[X] Another thirty seconds won't hurt. (Roll Subterfuge, Will get you limited actionable intelligence you can work on later.)
 
Fairness Association are actually pretty big fans of Haruna because she's a modern woman paving the way towards the more equitable future of Akitsukuni or whatever. Also the FA is a social democrat party that believes in retaining the monarchy. It's the United Communist League that wants to do the choppy-chop.
 
Karlito said:
Odds seem relevant here.

Normal subterfuge roll: 99.54% Partial, 83.8% full success
Hard subterfuge roll: 98.8% Partial, 64.51% full success
Very Hard subterfuge roll: 96.45% Partial, 47.44% full success

Anydice, click "at least"
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I'd like to remind everyone of the odds on this vote. The reason to vote for thirty seconds is that it is the most likely to get a full success. I figure a full success on a less difficult option will have results as good as, if not better, than a partial success on the next more difficult one.

Voting to stay and listen the whole time means that, most likely, Haruna will only get a partial success. Voting to stay for a minute means she will probably get a full success. Voting to stay for thirty seconds means that it will be surprising if she doesn't get a full success. The latter two options also have the benefit of some Stress relief, which Haruna could use right now.

Are you all willing to risk the possible downsides of a mere partial success? It could mean that Haruna hears everything that she would on a full success but she gets caught. It could mean she simply doesn't get as much because they change topics or something.

I think it is better to get away flawlessly with less than it is to risk biting off a bit more than Haruna can chew.
 
13th Fleet said:
Are you all willing to risk the possible downsides of a mere partial success? It could mean that Haruna hears everything that she would on a full success but she gets caught. It could mean she simply doesn't get as much because they change topics or something.
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Artificial Girl said:
A partial will give you a hard choice
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We don't really know what a hard choice is, but I assume it's related to Flying Circus's hard moves. In which case, it probably involves someone getting shot.
 
13th Fleet said:
I'd like to remind everyone of the odds on this vote. The reason to vote for thirty seconds is that it is the most likely to get a full success. I figure a full success on a less difficult option will have results as good as, if not better, than a partial success on the next more difficult one.

Voting to stay and listen the whole time means that, most likely, Haruna will only get a partial success. Voting to stay for a minute means she will probably get a full success. Voting to stay for thirty seconds means that it will be surprising if she doesn't get a full success. The latter two options also have the benefit of some Stress relief, which Haruna could use right now.

Are you all willing to risk the possible downsides of a mere partial success? It could mean that Haruna hears everything that she would on a full success but she gets caught. It could mean she simply doesn't get as much because they change topics or something.

I think it is better to get away flawlessly with less than it is to risk biting off a bit more than Haruna can chew.
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Only thirty seconds gives us a probable full success with actionable intel, yes, but with the implication that we won't be able to use that against the cousin or the XO, letting the people who were plotting this in the first place get away. The harder options are harder not just because the rewards are better but because the results are worth risking ourself for.
 
Kinruush said:
The harder options are harder not just because the rewards are better but because the results are worth risking ourself for.
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Depends whether we think we need to get the captain and XO nailed for being personally responsible, or if looking the other way while his ship is used for arms smuggling is enough to get them transferred away from command. TBH, the lesser punishment for them may serve us better when we want to ask our family for support.
 
[X] Another thirty seconds won't hurt. (Roll Subterfuge, Will get you limited actionable intelligence you can work on later.)
Yeah, nah, just report this to the MPs and make it their problem.
 
[X] Forget the party. This is serious. (Roll subterfuge, Very Hard roll. No stress relief. On a success, get enough to implicate both of them. A partial will give you a hard choice.)
 
[X] Another thirty seconds won't hurt. (Roll Subterfuge, Will get you limited actionable intelligence you can work on later.)

We need the stress relief that a party offers, and I'm interested to see what we can do with the intelligence we get.
 
"racking up the staff posts"
I see you are not familiar with Paths of Civilizations :V Be grateful the boat wars were contained and snuffed out, given the subject matter this quest would have likely been infected if they weren't :p
[X] Forget the party. This is serious. (Roll subterfuge, Very Hard roll. No stress relief. On a success, get enough to implicate both of them. A partial will give you a hard choice.)
Go big or go home! I say, knowing i will make sure not to be the one rolling and so wont truly be at fault <.< >.>
 
Fuck it! This is our best stat, and we should use it.

[X] Forget the party. This is serious. (Roll subterfuge, Very Hard roll. No stress relief. On a success, get enough to implicate both of them. A partial will give you a hard choice.)
 
I haven't actually voted yet!

[X] Forget the party. This is serious. (Roll subterfuge, Very Hard roll. No stress relief. On a success, get enough to implicate both of them. A partial will give you a hard choice.)

Down with the fascist captain!
 
Abby Normal said:
"racking up the staff posts"
I see you are not familiar with Paths of Civilizations :V Be grateful the boat wars were contained and snuffed out, given the subject matter this quest would have likely been infected if they weren't :p
[X] Forget the party. This is serious. (Roll subterfuge, Very Hard roll. No stress relief. On a success, get enough to implicate both of them. A partial will give you a hard choice.)
Go big or go home! I say, knowing i will make sure not to be the one rolling and so wont truly be at fault <.< >.>
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> 77 posts

Jesus Christ

EDIT: Why boats? Why are there 30 pages of people calling each other morons and provocateurs over whether boats should be large or portable?
 
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[X] Another minute couldn't be too bad? (Roll Subterfuge, Hard roll Will give you enough intelligence to implicate the XO on a success.)
Adhoc vote count started by Jrin on Dec 17, 2018 at 6:56 PM, finished with 2722 posts and 26 votes.
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[X] Forget the party. This is serious. (Roll subterfuge, Very Hard roll. No stress relief. On a success, get enough to implicate both of them. A partial will give you a hard choice.)
 
[X] Another thirty seconds won't hurt. (Roll Subterfuge, Will get you limited actionable intelligence you can work on later.)

Working on intelligence we get now seems a good idea, we need some stress relief from this party after all.
 
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