Castles of Steel - Lesbians Good, Imperialism Bad

[open_sketch]

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​

Spoiler: Portrait

Click here for the winter version!

PLEASE READ THE QUEST RULES BELOW

Spoiler: Rules & Conceit

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.

 

[10ebbor10]

That's an interesting definition of a good party you have there Haruna, but whatever floats your boat, I suppose.

Click to shrink...

I mean, Haruna's previous parties pretty much all involved her drinking until the chaos forced her to stop, so her relationship with them is somewhat unusual.

 

[RubberBandMan]

I mean, Haruna's previous parties pretty much all involved her drinking until the chaos forced her to stop, so her relationship with them is somewhat unusual.

Click to shrink...

We're two-for-two at this point at getting drunk and punching people at parties in the last year, as far as I can tell. While this case was a lot more justified then the last one, I am worried about this becoming a standard habit.

Don't mistake at striking at evil as doing good, lest the act of striking become good, and such.

 

[Traveller76]

[X]Side Idea: The Writer
Upon seeing the conditions that many veterans live with Arisukawa decides to put pen or typewriter to paper to write about her experiences during the war. However this is not a glorious tale but the real truth (with some names and places edited out) about what the average soldier and sailor experiences from the food and the mud to the terror. This is also a form of therapy for her in order to 'get it all out' so it can relieve stress. Money from the book sales can be anonymously donated to veterans groups.

 

[Ramble]

And then you have people like Haruna who want to keep going back despite everything.

Click to shrink...

I don't exactly know if that's how Haruna feels, but a lot of the time, the "issue" is that she might be missing being part of it all. Being part of the machine, being part of the crew, having a clear, focused objective and accomplishing it little by little, day by day, one step at a time.

Edit: And another issue. She can't bring that up to talk about it either. She can't talk to Aiko about it because Aiko might think less of her for wanting to get back into the fight. She can't talk to her family about it. They're too blinded by their dumb samurai machismo to get it. She can't talk to anybody in the navy, because offloading her troubles onto her subordinates is improper. She can't talk to anybody in the army because they're in the army. She can't hire a therapist because then they might think she's damaged or something and that's just not honorabru.

There's also an anecdote in the comments about a veteran who thinks of gunfire in order to calm down from his anxiety. It's not that he liked being shot at or being in danger, but the interminable waiting for something that he "knows" is going to happen sets him on edge, so when the gunfire starts up the waiting is over and now he can go do something proactive. It's terribly Pavlovian.

Another video.

 

[brmj]

I know it's already been said, but I really enjoyed seeing Haruna's alternative perspective on the same events, especially the fight and the events leading up to it. I also enjoyed seeing her bonding with Yachi. It would be pretty neat if they ended up as friends somehow after all of this.

 

[Vindictus]

Edit: And another issue. She can't bring that up to talk about it either. She can't talk to Aiko about it because Aiko might think less of her for wanting to get back into the fight. She can't talk to her family about it. They're too blinded by their dumb samurai machismo to get it. She can't talk to anybody in the navy, because offloading her troubles onto her subordinates is improper. She can't talk to anybody in the army because they're in the army. She can't hire a therapist because then they might think she's damaged or something and that's just not honorabru.

Click to shrink...

Fortunately, Haruna has at least one confidante who she has a mutually assured destruction type deal with, in the form of her anarchist buddy.

I'm sure that becoming further enmeshed with anarchists and anarchism will have absolutely no long term implications that we need to worry about.

 

[Strypgia]

And then you have people like Haruna who want to keep going back despite everything.

Click to shrink...

I know that feeling, Haruna...

 

[open_sketch]

One of your favorite things about being home (strange to think of the flat as 'home' still) was the small moments you got to share with Aiko. It was the Sunday after the wedding and the two of you were in the midst of your weekly ritual--plotting out your mutual schedules for the week so you knew when to expect each other at home and what to budget for groceries and so on. Not that you strictly speaking needed to budget, but Aiko said that it was a good way to spend time together and for you to learn to live "like a normal person for once."

Aiko was out of the house for surprisingly long periods: the life of a college student seemed both more and less intense than you imagined. She was starting a new year at university--her third, which was exciting since that meant she was closer to getting her degree. It seemed so strange that you had basically missed a whole year while the war was on.

On top of that, she had a pile of extracurricular activities to keep up on. She volunteered with the Woman's Equality League (the political party that had recently won a pile of seats, pushing for full franchise for women and other such things), the photography club of all things, and of course the rowing team, to which extra practices were being added.

If she didn't do it beside you every night (!!!) you'd wonder if she got any sleep.

Your life was, at the moment, a lot simpler. You had a surprisingly (and aggravatingly) normal schedule. Arrive at post at 0825 hours, assembly and inspection at 0830 of your ladies, followed by the day's work assignments. Then you spent the morning doing paperwork and dealing with anything that popped up until you had luncheon at 1200 or 1300, then the afternoon was usually filled with things like barracks inspections, meetings, or whatever other nonsense there was to fill the time. And then you left the Naval yard at 1715, caught the trolleycar and got home by no later than 1740. Routine. Normal. Except for the days where you got sucked into a project and didn't realize it was 1800 (or later) until Deputy Shipkeeper Kawano poked her head into your office and asked why you were still here.

What was your normal routine at the end of the day, though?

We're moving into a different system that we hope will end up being more engaging and used more than the old one so, first vote: Does Haruna focus more on her work life or her home life right now?​

[ ] You take off work as soon as you get the chance. You're tired of not having a life. ( Completely Life, no Work)​

[ ] You try to get home on time as frequently as you can. You don't want to miss precious Aiko-time. ( Mostly Life, less Work)​

[ ] You leave when you're supposed to, no later and no earlier. (Balanced)​

[ ] You stay late to work more than you leave on time: you have to set a good example. (Less Life, more Work)​

[ ] You stay late practically every night; there's always something that needs doing (No Life, completely Work)​

That's not to say that work is all you have going on. You've promised yourself that at least once per week, you were going to get out of the flat and do something important other than follow orders. That meant getting out, being social, and making connections. Connections that would be important in the future...

​

[ ] You've somehow managed to get an invite to a poker night through your friend Kenshin: the table is full of officers attached to various admirals. It's a career miracle. (Completely Warrior, no Princess)​

[ ] You've been braving the officer's club after working hours cease once a week, and it has almost started to feel like you belong there. Almost.(More Warrior, less Princess)​

[ ] You go watch baseball with a few friends from the base. The women's league is still going strong post-war, and you think you've convinced them to care about it! (Balanced)​

[ ] You've promised to accompany Akio to one of her WEL meetings. That ought to be interesting. Hopefully the ladies don't freak out too much. (Less Warrior, more Princess)​

[ ] You may have pledged at one point that you'd be a spokeswoman for the local WEL chapter, and now it's time to put your money where your mouth is.(no Warrior, Completely Princess)​

Finally, there was your favourite new weekly ritual of all. Aiko had expressed concern that it would be too easy for the two of you to fall into a routine and never do anything exciting anymore, so you'd resolved that once a week, the two of you would do something special together, whether it was just having a nice dinner or… something wilder. And on the schedule this week was…

​

[ ] You dine at one of the nicer Tokei restaurants. Sure, you're dating a commoner, but it doesn't mean they aren't delicate about polite sensibilities. (Completely respectable, no radical)​

[ ] There's a club-slash-theater that caters to New Class women. It doesn't put on any particularly scandalous show and focuses on all female revues. Besides that, the drinks are good and the company is nice. (More Respectable, less Radical.)​

[ ] Movie night! There's a lovely little theater just down the tram line, small showings and seating for couples. It's perfect. (Balanced)​

[ ] Aiko is a big fan of this dance hall near her school. All the latest Western music and dance, absolutely scandalous. Your mother would have a fit. (Less Respectable, More Radical)​

[ ] There's this artist you and Aiko are a fan of, Shimomura Okura. His medium is hemp rope and woodcut prints, and apparently he does live demos. How Aiko got an invite, you'll never know, but you can't pass it up, right? (No respectable, completely Radical )​

====

Okay! So here are the new stats (we are moving to a slider system, much like Aikoquest) and why this vote matters!

Balance​

In navigating the personal and political sphere, Haruna relies on three paired stats that change when they are used. They are…​

​

Work/Life: How much time and energy Haruna is dedicating to her job, versus how much she is dedicating to herself and her loved ones.​

​

Warrior/Princess: How much Haruna is dedicating to agitating for command and climbing the military ranks, versus the time she is spending in political pursuits.​

​

Respectable/Radical: How well Haruna is keeping with the demands of high society, versus how much she is living for herself and breaking the rules.​

​

These stats will have a non-numerical range, formatted as such: "All Work, More Work, Balanced, More Life, All Life"​

​

With some regularity, Haruna will be asked to roll a Balance roll to see how she is handling ongoing events in her life, or to use her image in the moment.​

• If she is balanced, she simply rolls three dice. If any die is a 5 or 6, she succeeds.
  • If she's more invested in the thing she's rolling, she adds +1 or +2 dice, respectively.
  • However, if she's invested in the opposite of the thing she's rolling, she rolls -1 or -2d6 to the same proportion.

Voting options will frequently allow Haruna to adjust her Balance, but you will not always have a chance to adjust!​

​

Her combat stats will change too, but we will get to that when it becomes important! ​

 

[Alobomb]

[X] Plan Politics and Self-Care
-[X] You try to get home on time as frequently as you can. You don't want to miss precious Aiko-time. ( Mostly Life, less Work)
-[X] You've promised to accompany Akio to one of her WEL meetings. That ought to be interesting. Hopefully the ladies don't freak out too much. (Less Warrior, more Princess)
-[X] Aiko is a big fan of this dance hall near her school. All the latest Western music and dance, absolutely scandalous. Your mother would have a fit. (Less Respectable, More Radical)

The Navy's had it's share of our labour, and they aren't exactly dropping a massive amount of stuff on our lap at the moment, let's lean towards taking some time for ourselves. It seems like we're interested in doing some progressive political stuff too, so starting to get into that (and probably transitioning to full princess eventually) might be a wise choice, once we see exactly what kinda rolls these are for. Finally, we've always been a bit of a rebel, let's lean into that.

 

[Undead Martyr]

[X] Plan Work hard, party hard.

-[X] You stay late to work more than you leave on time: you have to set a good example. (Less Life, more Work)
-[X] You've been braving the officer's club after working hours cease once a week, and it has almost started to feel like you belong there. Almost.(More Warrior, less Princess)
-[X] There's this artist you and Aiko are a fan of, Shimomura Okura. His medium is hemp rope and woodcut prints, and apparently he does live demos. How Aiko got an invite, you'll never know, but you can't pass it up, right? (No respectable, completely Radical)

Haruna enjoys her free time but she's also cognizant of her burden as a trailblazer.
Contacts and connections in the army are going to be vital to stop the shenanigans that led to jaapnese fascism, or at worst give us as danced warnjng.
And shibari is too intriguing to pass up.

 

[Crazycryodude]

[X] You leave when you're supposed to, no later and no earlier. (Balanced)
[X] You go watch baseball with a few friends from the base. The women's league is still going strong post-war, and you think you've convinced them to care about it! (Balanced)
[X] There's this artist you and Aiko are a fan of, Shimomura Okura. His medium is hemp rope and woodcut prints, and apparently he does live demos. How Aiko got an invite, you'll never know, but you can't pass it up, right? (No respectable, completely Radical )

So this quest actually got me to register an account and start posting! Anyways, it's important to put at least the expected amount of effort into work and career advancement we cannot afford to fall behind when we already work twice as hard for half the recognition. To make up for that though, when we DO have time off it's time to go nuts and make our time off just for us.

 

[Artificial Girl]

You need to put 'x' in your choice for it to count, @Undead Martyr

 

[Artificial Girl]

[X] You leave when you're supposed to, no later and no earlier. (Balanced)
[X] You go watch baseball with a few friends from the base. The women's league is still going strong post-war, and you think you've convinced them to care about it! (Balanced)
[X] There's this artist you and Aiko are a fan of, Shimomura Okura. His medium is hemp rope and woodcut prints, and apparently he does live demos. How Aiko got an invite, you'll never know, but you can't pass it up, right? (No respectable, completely Radical )

So this quest actually got me to register an account and start posting! Anyways, it's important to put at least the expected amount of effort into work and career advancement we cannot afford to fall behind when we already work twice as hard for half the recognition. To make up for that though, when we DO have time off it's time to go nuts and make our time off just for us.

Click to shrink...

Welcome to SV! As is usual, I will ask: who's your favorite character?

 

[Crazycryodude]

Welcome to SV! As is usual, I will ask: who's your favorite character?

Click to shrink...

I'm gonna go with Ota and Kwon I think, I know that's kinda cheating picking two but I shuddered in visceral horror when I saw we were gonna be sailing in like a 1905 era minisub (thank god at least we didn't get the pre-sunk minelayer). Getting stuck in and surviving an early submarine with them was a good bonding experience, and their appearances since have all been great too.

 

[FrangibleCover]

Tough one. Very tough one on all three.

Contacts and connections in the army are going to be vital to stop the shenanigans that led to jaapnese fascism, or at worst give us as danced warnjng.

Click to shrink...

This is the Naval Officer's Club, Haruna wouldn't be caught dead in the Army Officer's Club and should she be caught alive there she might not be for long.

[X] You try to get home on time as frequently as you can. You don't want to miss precious Aiko-time. ( Mostly Life, less Work)

This is covering the lull. There's another war coming and it should give us plenty of opportunities for advancement and few to no opportunities for cute gf. We'll make time while we have it.

[X] You've somehow managed to get an invite to a poker night through your friend Kenshin: the table is full of officers attached to various admirals. It's a career miracle. (Completely Warrior, no Princess)

If you don't go to this you're not a Naval Officer, I'd like to help out at the WEL but honestly I think we can do more for them as a distant, inspirational Captain than as a Lieutenant guest speaker who everyone calls the Butcher of Heijo behind her back.

[X] There's this artist you and Aiko are a fan of, Shimomura Okura. His medium is hemp rope and woodcut prints, and apparently he does live demos. How Aiko got an invite, you'll never know, but you can't pass it up, right? (No respectable, completely Radical )

lol

I mean, it's a throw option but it should also provide plenty of entertainment and I can't wait until we argue ourselves into a bonus on the rolls to do an important piece of damage control because of our intimate knowledge of knots.

 

[10ebbor10]

If she is balanced, she simply rolls two dice. If either one is a 4, 5, or 6, she succeeds.

• If she is is More the thing she's being asked to roll, she rolls 3 dice.
• If she is more the opposite, she rolls 1 dice.
• If she is all that thing, she automatically succeeds.
• If she is completely the opposite of those things, she automatically fails.

Click to shrink...

This seems fairly unbalanced, actually.

With balance, we have 75% chance of making a roll.
Going one point unbalanced increases the odds of our favored thing by 12.5%, at the cost of reducing the odds of our non-favored thing by 25%.
Going completely unbalanced represents another gain of 12.5%, at the cost of a reduction by 50%.

Leaving the balance doesn't really gain you much of an advantage on what you want to do, so much as restricting your options for what you don't prioritize.
Given that predicting future challenges is fairly hard (I wasn't able to do it during Aiko quest), it seems extremely like that we should just pick the balanced option in all things and stay put there forever.

[X] Plan Balance
-[x] You leave when you're supposed to, no later and no earlier. (Balanced)
-[x] You go watch baseball with a few friends from the base. The women's league is still going strong post-war, and you think you've convinced them to care about it! (Balanced)
-[x] Movie night! There's a lovely little theater just down the tram line, small showings and seating for couples. It's perfect. (Balanced)

There are various options here that I want to consider for narrative reasons, but I don't want to pick them because I don't want to effectively lock out the other side.

 

[CyberFemme]

This seems fairly unbalanced, actually.

With balance, we have 75% chance of making a roll.
Going one point unbalanced increases the odds of our favored thing by 12.5%, at the cost of reducing the odds of our non-favored thing by 25%.
Going completely unbalanced represents another gain of 12.5%, at the cost of a reduction by 50%.

Leaving the balance doesn't really gain you much of an advantage on what you want to do, so much as restricting your options for what you don't prioritize.
Given that predicting future challenges is fairly hard (I wasn't able to do it during Aiko quest), it seems extremely like that we should just pick the balanced option in all things and stay put there forever.

[X] Plan Balance
-[x] You leave when you're supposed to, no later and no earlier. (Balanced)
-[x] You go watch baseball with a few friends from the base. The women's league is still going strong post-war, and you think you've convinced them to care about it! (Balanced)
-[x] Movie night! There's a lovely little theater just down the tram line, small showings and seating for couples. It's perfect. (Balanced)

There are various options here that I want to consider for narrative reasons, but I don't want to pick them because I don't want to effectively lock out the other side.

Click to shrink...

Hmmmm, that's a good point. It's kind of a shame through, because the balanced options are... pretty dull in comparison to say, going to a live shibari exhibition.

 

[ExNihilo]

[X] Plan Balance

 

[10ebbor10]

Hmmmm, that's a good point. It's kind of a shame through, because the balanced options are... pretty dull in comparison to say, going to a live shibari exhibition.

Click to shrink...

There's some additional info from the discord :

but yes the general idea is that a lot of options players are going to want to take are going to push them away from balance and that'll be the interesting dilemma

[20:37]​

considering how much the story has been about work-life balance of late, it is appropriate

[Comment from me snipped]

nah, because what we're going to do is generally like... if you want to do something for somebody, you generally want to be situating yourself with them first? like

[20:41]​

its designed to work more with how we write

[20:41]​

and the way we tend to find plotlines

[20:42]​

the stats are partially prompts for us, so if you're far over on the Princess side, you'll probably deal with Princess stuff more generally
when the world shifts, you'll probably take a bit of a hit as Haruna realigns her life, and then stuff gets better

Click to shrink...

Bleh, the discord doesn't copy well.
Put simply, the choice also effects event generation. So, the choice is more powerful than it may at first appears, and the higher chance of failure for the event on which you don't focus is negated by the fact that you'll get less of those events.
So, probably better to ignore the mechanical side for a bit and focus on the narrative implications.

 

[Wings-Of-Change]

[X] You try to get home on time as frequently as you can. You don't want to miss precious Aiko-time. ( Mostly Life, less Work)

[X] You've somehow managed to get an invite to a poker night through your friend Kenshin: the table is full of officers attached to various admirals. It's a career miracle. (Completely Warrior, no Princess)

[X] Aiko is a big fan of this dance hall near her school. All the latest Western music and dance, absolutely scandalous. Your mother would have a fit. (Less Respectable, More Radical)

 

[Nuew]

So, after reading this through on the thirty-first and not going a day since without thinking about it (you've both done a really great job here), I finally get a chance to vote. Along with a mechanics change I'm not quite sure about; hopefully I'll be proven wrong on that.

As thinking about this in mechanical terms is just causing me anxiety and making this kinda unfun, I'll just ignore the stats and vote for what descriptions I like best.

[x] You try to get home on time as frequently as you can. You don't want to miss precious Aiko-time. ( Mostly Life, less Work)
[x] You've somehow managed to get an invite to a poker night through your friend Kenshin: the table is full of officers attached to various admirals. It's a career miracle. (Completely Warrior, no Princess)
[x] There's this artist you and Aiko are a fan of, Shimomura Okura. His medium is hemp rope and woodcut prints, and apparently he does live demos. How Aiko got an invite, you'll never know, but you can't pass it up, right? (No respectable, completely Radical )

 

[Night_stalker]

[X] Plan Politics and Self-Care

 

[Artificial Girl]

So, after reading this through on the thirty-first and not going a day since without thinking about it (you've both done a really great job here), I finally get a chance to vote. Along with a mechanics change I'm not quite sure about; hopefully I'll be proven wrong on that.

As thinking about this in mechanical terms is just causing me anxiety and making this kinda unfun, I'll just ignore the stats and vote for what descriptions I like best.

[x] You try to get home on time as frequently as you can. You don't want to miss precious Aiko-time. ( Mostly Life, less Work)
[x] You've somehow managed to get an invite to a poker night through your friend Kenshin: the table is full of officers attached to various admirals. It's a career miracle. (Completely Warrior, no Princess)
[x] There's this artist you and Aiko are a fan of, Shimomura Okura. His medium is hemp rope and woodcut prints, and apparently he does live demos. How Aiko got an invite, you'll never know, but you can't pass it up, right? (No respectable, completely Radical )

Click to shrink...

As is required, I must ask who your favorite character is!

 

[Nuew]

As is required, I must ask who your favorite character is!

Click to shrink...

I've never really been good at choosing specific characters as favorites, so I'm going to pretty arbitrarily go with Aiko.

Also, do snippet votes work the same? If so:

[ ] Aiko learns about the legal issues involved with, and the approvals necessary to marry Haruna
*This assumes that the alternate-Imperial Household Law of the early 1900s is more-or-less the same as the real one, adjusted for having an Empress. Totally possible that that's not the case.

 

[Strypgia]

[X] Plan Balanced Warrior Radical
-[X] You leave when you're supposed to, no later and no earlier. (Balanced)
-[X] You've been braving the officer's club after working hours cease once a week, and it has almost started to feel like you belong there. Almost.(More Warrior, less Princess)
-[X] Aiko is a big fan of this dance hall near her school. All the latest Western music and dance, absolutely scandalous. Your mother would have a fit. (Less Respectable, More Radical)

I have to go with 'option that annoys her mother'.
And More Radical with More Warrior sounds like more fun than Princessing.
So Balance on Life/Work to help advance in the Navy, but still get precious Aiko-time, Warrior focus to help there, and More Radical for both 'annoy mother' and 'everyone respects a radical warrior'.