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] "This is the IAN. Please pull over. Have you license and registration ready." (Diplomacy. Will get them to turn back out of your waters if successful.)
-[x] "Please have your holds ready for inspection so that we can check that your catch does not exceed quotas and have your fish handling equipment ready for hygeine assessment."

4WheelSword said:
A destroyer is small, often in this era they would be literally 1% of the tonnage of, say, USS Iowa. No double bottom. No armour belt. Few compartments.
Destroyers could survive mines and they did. But just as BB's were rarely sunk by 1, DD's rarely survived just 1.
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Also depends on the design. I mean, if we're looking at something from the "livebait squadron", then we even scrape the thing, it'll sink to the bottom in no time.
 
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The Laurent said:
What are the odds like for Hard Subterfuge?
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If I recall correctly, hard is 4d6 pick lowest 3.

That gives is 64% chance of 64% of success, 98 of partial.

Ironically, our odds for the diplomatic option are lower, at just 62% success, 95% partial.
Prowess has worst odds, at 37.5% success 83% partial.

Note: This is rushed. I may be wrong.
 
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[x] "This is the IAN. Please pull over. Have you license and registration ready." (Diplomacy. Will get them to turn back out of your waters if successful.)
-[x] "Please have your holds ready for inspection so that we can check that your catch does not exceed quotas and have your fish handling equipment ready for hygeine assessment."
 
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10ebbor10 said:
Float on the surface being a slow and vulnerable target?
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A sub on the surface is actually a devilishly hard target to hit. Their low profile and small size mean it's hard to see them, let alone hit them. There's a reason why night surface attacks were a favorite U-boat tactic.

I'm leaning towards Diplomacy, and challenging them right now. It seems the safest choice.

Edit: this is why air cover and radar were so important in stopping the U-boat threat.
 
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I kind of want to say something like "the Empress appreciates the gift, but if you want to immigrate your ship still needs to go through Customs."

Or "you appear to be lost, would you like to borrow a sober navigator and a working sextant?"

Can probably think of more in a bit.
 
Lazer Raptor said:
A sub on the surface is actually a devilishly hard target to hit. Their low profile and small size mean it's hard to see them, let alone hit them. There's a reason why night surface attacks were a favorite U-boat tactic.

I'm leaning towards Diplomacy, and challenging them right now. It seems the safest choice.
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It's not night though, it's a clear day. So, sure, we're hard to hit compared to a destroyer, but they only need to hit once.

Also, Intrigue has better success, If my calcs are correct.
 
[X] "This is the IAN. Please pull over. Have you license and registration ready." (Diplomacy. Will get them to turn back out of your waters if successful.)
 
10ebbor10 said:
It's not night though, it's a clear day. So, sure, we're hard to hit compared to a destroyer, but they only need to hit once.

Also, Intrigue has better success, If my calcs are correct.
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I suspect that a partial-success might get less than the comparable Diplomacy results. After all, the Diplomacy answer is pretty by-the-books, which is to say that it failing, or only partially succeeding, is less likely to get us censure than having an insult contest that *fails* to get them to either stop (so that we can ambush them with the cruisers) or turn around (in which case they're gone and we've done our duty.)

If that makes sense? I admit that I'm guessing on some things.
 
I almost feel like trapping her against the coast and forcing her to surrender or scuttle would be a viable end goal with the cruisers coming up.
 
[x] "This is the IAN. Please pull over. Have you license and registration ready." (Diplomacy. Will get them to turn back out of your waters if successful.)
-[x] "Please have your holds ready for inspection so that we can check that your catch does not exceed quotas and have your fish handling equipment ready for hygeine assessment."
 
[x] "This is the IAN. Please pull over. Have you license and registration ready." (Diplomacy. Will get them to turn back out of your waters if successful.)
-[x] "Please have your holds ready for inspection so that we can check that your catch does not exceed quotas and have your fish handling equipment ready for hygeine assessment."
 
[x] "This is the IAN. Please pull over. Have you license and registration ready." (Diplomacy. Will get them to turn back out of your waters if successful.)
-[x] "Please have your holds ready for inspection so that we can check that your catch does not exceed quotas and have your fish handling equipment ready for hygeine assessment."

I like this. Can we burn them without firing a shot?
 
[X] Accuse their Czar of terrible, awful, no-good things. See if you can draw them into an argument. (Hard Subterfuge. On a full success they'll sit still to banter, otherwise they'll just keep rolling.)

Time for some of this:
 
[x] "This is the IAN. Please pull over. Have you license and registration ready." (Diplomacy. Will get them to turn back out of your waters if successful.)
-[x] "Please have your holds ready for inspection so that we can check that your catch does not exceed quotas and have your fish handling equipment ready for hygeine assessment."
 
[x] "This is the IAN. Please pull over. Have you license and registration ready." (Diplomacy. Will get them to turn back out of your waters if successful.)
-[x] "Please have your holds ready for inspection so that we can check that your catch does not exceed quotas and have your fish handling equipment ready for hygeine assessment."

Gonna be honest, I'm voting for this 100% if this works we can (though perhaps shouldn't) write in our report that the Caspian destroyer was so small that the watch thought it was a fishing boat at first, and remain amazed that the Caspian Navy can do anything at all.

This being said, I'm not sure that would actually happen, but the idea tickles me enough that I want to support the vote anyway.
 
Honestly, that option seems like an attempt to create a Frankensteinian Monstrosity of option 1,2 and 3. I don't think it's a good idea in the slightest.

For one, it doesn't give the GM's any idea of what direction the vote is intended to go? Are we goading them into an attack? Are we trying to get them to bicker? Is this a diplomatic solution where we shoot ourselves in the foot to ensure it fails?
 
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[X] Call them cowards for running away. Say they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Provoke them. (Prowess. Will get them to fire on you, which could be really bad or very heroic.)
 
[X] "This is the IAN. Please pull over. Have you license and registration ready." (Diplomacy. Will get them to turn back out of your waters if successful.)
 
Anyway, we just read a book about the failings of Caspia. May as well discuss it with the other guys.

[X] Accuse their Czar of terrible, awful, no-good things. See if you can draw them into an argument. (Hard Subterfuge. On a full success they'll sit still to banter, otherwise they'll just keep rolling.)
 
[X] Accuse their Czar of terrible, awful, no-good things. See if you can draw them into an argument. (Hard Subterfuge. On a full success they'll sit still to banter, otherwise they'll just keep rolling.)
 
[X] Accuse their Czar of terrible, awful, no-good things. See if you can draw them into an argument. (Hard Subterfuge. On a full success they'll sit still to banter, otherwise they'll just keep rolling.)
 
[X] Accuse their Czar of terrible, awful, no-good things. See if you can draw them into an argument. (Hard Subterfuge. On a full success they'll sit still to banter, otherwise they'll just keep rolling.)
 
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