Castles of Steel - Lesbians Good, Imperialism Bad

Voting is open
Reader mode
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​


Click here for the winter version!

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.
 
Last edited:
brmj said:
Coming from a GM, I take this to mean something like "given your stated reasoning, you are in the process of screwing up."

[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.

If we're going to do something where technical maters, maybe better to make it a thing less likely to get us killed.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Not so much 'you're screwing up' so much as just making sure you know that torpedoes are just as technical as any of the other positions except for maybe logistics.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.
 
open_sketchbook said:
One of the people he kept coming back to was some Europan writer with a theory about "master" and "slave" moralities, and the author posited that Western influence was an attempt to impose a slave morality on Akitsukuni, which could only be countered by dynamic, powerful, prideful people taking back what's theirs, which apparently included pretty much everything in and touching the Auroric Ocean.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
-complains about western influence
-suggests using a western ideology to counter this.
Yeah alright mate.

[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.
 
[X] Logistics Officer: You're in charge of making sure the submarine has everything it needs. You've got experience in this field, and it gives a lot of authority, for all that it's once again being shuffled off to a logistics position.

This is the position Haruna is most suited to, and it's just as important as the others for all that it is less glamorous. An army marches on its stomach, after all.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.

I have [Concern] for low technical officer handling explosives inside an enclosed space.
open_sketchbook said:
the tubes needed converting to accept Akitsukuni-built torpedoes (which, apparently, were actually much better than the New Alleghany ones)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
*Feels vaguely guilty for the dud torpedo report*
 
[X] Torpedo Officer: You'll be responsible for the technically intense work involved with the torpedo tubes, where absolute discipline must be maintained lest a misloaded torpedo flood the boat. You'll also be responsible for the deck gun, if and when it's employed.

We die first if anyone screws up.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.

this sounds like a job with a lot of talking going on.
seeing that mostly our strength or at least competent at that kind of job i say take it
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.

We can send a letter to Hideaki about how we're gonna end up doing his job better than him :p
 
[X] Torpedo Officer: You'll be responsible for the technically intense work involved with the torpedo tubes, where absolute discipline must be maintained lest a misloaded torpedo flood the boat. You'll also be responsible for the deck gun, if and when it's employed.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.
 
[X] Logistics Officer: You're in charge of making sure the submarine has everything it needs. You've got experience in this field, and it gives a lot of authority, for all that it's once again being shuffled off to a logistics position.

She may not like it but this is what the Akitsukuni navy is really going to need better capability in.
 
open_sketchbook said:
One of the people he kept coming back to was some Europan writer with a theory about "master" and "slave" moralities, and the author posited that Western influence was an attempt to impose a slave morality on Akitsukuni, which could only be countered by dynamic, powerful, prideful people taking back what's theirs, which apparently included pretty much everything in and touching the Auroric Ocean.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ah, the good old "Nazis quoting Nietzsche and getting him completly wrong"

[x] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.

Knowing where everyone is is the first step to being sneaky. Being sneaky is a sub's strength and ours.
 
[X] Signals officer.

Of course our idiot cousin gets away with it mostly. Prick.

I can already tell he's going to be an irritant in our future.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.

We are a subterfuge build, and the Purity Club is soon likely to try to find a chance to assassinate us. Let's keep our fingers on the pulse, and keep our guard up.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.


It seems like a big step for Akitsuni to put a woman on a submarine this early.
 
[X] Signals Officer: You'll be put in charge of the radios and other communication equipment, which includes the hydrophone. You'll be the first to hear of anything that happens, and you'll also be informally in charge of managing incidents with the crew.
 
I'm operating under the assumption that none of these are trap options, even if some might be trickier than others. I'm fairly confident that, even if the department itself is highly technical, there will be some room for delegation or assistance. Half the point of officers is to coordinate and lead instead of getting their hands greasy and doing everything themselves, after all. And, even if things do go wrong, one or two bungled rolls shouldn't sink things immediately.

Also note that the original choice of ship involved a lot of reasoning attempting to find the option that was most glorious (we'll be a PT boat commandant!) only to find ourselves in the ignominious logistics/hospital positions that people had chosen that ship to avoid. Trying to game things isn't surefire.

All that in mind, I think we should perhaps be voting for the options which we think will make for the most interesting story, rather than just being the safest mechanically.

I'd personally rank Logistics dead last - it's been done in this quest before as well as 4wheelsword's one. All of the others seem novel - I don't know if I've seen any of them handled by a protagonist before, they're usually the sort of thing which have a generic Bridge Officer doing them in the background and occasionally shouting out "MY GOD, THE READINGS ARE OFF THE CHARTS!" or "WE CANNAE HOLD IT CAP'N!" - but I think Weapons Officer is the most interesting, perhaps with Chief Engineer as a runner up.

Presumably it'll also keep our revolutionary torpedoman near at hand, so we'll be able to see more of them and Haruna playing off against each other.

[X] Torpedo Officer: You'll be responsible for the technically intense work involved with the torpedo tubes, where absolute discipline must be maintained lest a misloaded torpedo flood the boat. You'll also be responsible for the deck gun, if and when it's employed.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Voting is open
Back
Top