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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Okay, the winning block seems to be this:

[X] Don't wear the armband.
[X] Form a Squad: Your cousin got away with it because everyone was too busy competing with each other, and everyone else was too fearful. If you figured out who the reasonable officers were and got them on your side, you could change the culture of leadership for the better.
[X] Be The Good Officer: Everyone was too worried about their career to dare to cross the captain. Your career was already a mess from day one. By making an effort to be a reasonable model officer, you could give the men a contrast and the other officers an example.

Can I get 3d6 + Diplomacy for option 1 and 3d6 + Prowess for option 2?
 
Ere we go

Edit: could have been worse...
Ato threw 3 6-faced dice. Reason: Diplomancing Total: 10
6 6 3 3 1 1
 
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Trying to roll the diplomacy...

Edit: Throw for 8, with diplomacy 11 gets us 19 (for those too lazy for maths :p ). I think I shouldn't throw dice again...

Edit the second: good thing I managed to get ninjad...
FlyingScanian threw 3 6-faced dice. Reason: Diplomacy Total: 8
1 1 6 6 1 1
 
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Looks like 22 on the first and 20 on the second, partial success all around since you got +1 to each roll from not wearing the armband.
 
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Is it just a judgment call on when something involves what skill?

Would digging through the books have been Subterfuge?
 
We're trying to avoid players just always voting for their best skill, and instead making character decisions. We know which skills are which when we write choices.
 
open_sketchbook said:
We're trying to avoid players just always voting for their best skill, and instead making character decisions. We know which skills are which when we write choices.
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Okay but like, counterpoint: Haruna is likely to have a reasonable ability to estimate how good she is at certain tasks, and favor methods which lean on her strengths and away from her weaknesses. I can see the rationale behind keeping it hidden for things where the necessary skills wouldn't be obvious IC, but in cases like this that doesn't seem to apply.
 
Wiadi said:
Okay but like, counterpoint: Haruna is likely to have a reasonable ability to estimate how good she is at certain tasks, and favor methods which lean on her strengths and away from her weaknesses. I can see the rationale behind keeping it hidden for things where the necessary skills wouldn't be obvious IC, but in cases like this that doesn't seem to apply.
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Being better at something does not always make doing it that way easier overall. For example, torpedoes are better at destroying ships than guns but getting into position to do that involves getting hammered by the enemy's guns. Similarly, a species in Stellaris may be better at diplomacy, but that doesn't stop their opponent from only being interested in galactic genocide and wiping them out.
 
2-3" Reasonable People Squad, assemble!
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Don't wear the armband.
    [X] Form a Squad: Your cousin got away with it because everyone was too busy competing with each other, and everyone else was too fearful. If you figured out who the reasonable officers were and got them on your side, you could change the culture of leadership for the better.
    [X] Be The Good Officer: Everyone was too worried about their career to dare to cross the captain. Your career was already a mess from day one. By making an effort to be a reasonable model officer, you could give the men a contrast and the other officers an example.    ​

    You picked up the armband on your desk, which had been laying there untouched. It made you feel disgusting just to hold the thing in your hands. It symbolized people who wanted only to bring the things which were cruel and hard from your past and say that they were preserving the things that made your culture great in the process. You would not wear this. You refused to wear it. To do so would betray everything the Imperial House was supposed to stand for. Stability, serenity, and guidance. The Empress was the mother of the nation. She cherished it, nourished it, guided it. She helped them to correct themselves when they strayed from the path. What she didn't do was hurt them or control them with the threat of suffering. You dropped it to one side.

    Maybe you'd throw it in one of the furnaces, if you found reason to be in the engine room.

    Fortunately by the time the ship sailed your cousin had, as you'd thought, already gotten bored of leaving you locked up in your little cabin after dark and amended the rules to allow you to dine with the other officers in the wardroom. And then specifically invited you to dine with him and his chosen group of officers. Good manners demanded that you accept the captain's invitation to his table and so with great reluctance you'd done so. Dinner, you suspected, would be interesting.

    The captain's private dining room was situated adjacent to his cabin. It wasn't large, but it was comfortable and well appointed with wood-paneled walls, artwork, and everything else a man of a certain taste and level of wealth expected in their surroundings. The table was, as with most of the accoutrements in the navy, in the Western style as were the chairs. You were attended by stewards in pristine white uniforms and white gloves and there was silverware laid out at each place setting. Apparently the Purity Club made an exception for Western style dining.

    You were, naturally, seated at the captain's left hand. Across from you was the odious little rat of an executive officer, Lt. Commander Uozumi Teijo. The rest of the table was taken up by younger officers closer to your age or your cousin's. Three lieutenants, all of them wearing that armband. Everyone stood when you entered (ugh) and one of the lieutenants held your chair out for you. You sank into it with all the poise and decorum you could muster. They were not going to see that they got to you, if you had anything to say about it. Your cousin smiled.

    "Welcome, Princess Ensign." He grinned. "I hope you'll find the table up to your standards. I made sure that the menu is excellent. As is the company." He chortled and the rest of the table joined him in his gaiety. You smiled politely. Like you were expected to.

    "Thank you for the invitation, captain," you replied. "Though I think most of the people here at the table haven't been introduced to me yet…" You looked around for a moment, then cocked an eyebrow.

    "Of course. Next to the lieutenant commander, we have Lieutenant Muratagi Jun, at the foot of the table, Lieutenant Seto Isao and of course, next to you, Lieutenant Yoshida Ashitaka. His family, you might remember, own the Yoshida Ironworks. Quite eligible too, from what I understand." Your cousin's eyes sparkled with barely contained mirth. You responded by peering over at the young man next to you. Unremarkable as far as men went. Strong jaw, at least?

    "Charmed to meet you, Your Imperial Highness," the young man said with far too much solicitation. Disgusting. You maintained your cool, aristocratic demeanour and practically peered down your nose at him.

    "Oh, the Yoshida Ironworks, is it? They were peasant stock, weren't they? Craftsmen or some such thing?" you said with a cherry, almost breezy disposition. As if it would never occur to you that saying something like could be considered rude. You were just a silly girl who needed to be locked into her cabin for her own protection, after all. You reached out and took a sip of water from the glass on the table in front of you. The lieutenant's smile faltered.

    "I mean, the Yoshidas are a great asset to our nation, but they're still new money," you said the phrase (which you had picked up from Albia and New Allegheny) with great relish. "I'm sure your family is fine, they're just… you know. Well, they're new to having responsibility. I understand," you finished, privately happy that neither Hideaki nor Aiko were here to listen to you say that. Even if they were commoners, lording it over them seemed different.

    You nodded warmly, as if you had extended him some great sympathy instead of simply dunking on Yoshida's family background and rather deliberately shattering any hope he might have had of perhaps courting you. The fool. As if he had ever been under consideration. This was the modern age--a girl could only marry in silk if she wished, these days! Not that you suspected he knew your predilections. The atmosphere around the table had turned a little awkward and icey now and Hisanobu did his best to salvage it.

    "Heh. You see? A traditionalist after our own hearts. Isn't she delightful? Spirits, she does have your number there, Yoshida!" Apparently it didn't bother Hisanobu that you insulted one of his favorites, since he indulged in it himself. There were murmurings of assent though you could tell Yoshida was seething behind his polite smile. Good. At that point, the food started to arrive. It was Western in style, which surprised you, but then again Hisanobu had always enjoyed the latest fashions. Soon it would be fashionable to eat only rice with nothing but horseradish and then he would no doubt serve only that. At least it was good food--a delicious cut of beef. As you delicately began to dig into your food, Hisanobu smiled.

    "I heard what you did for that injured sailor, very noble of you, cousin Unfortunately, I think it would best for you not to intervene in such cases in the future. I understand, you're naturally going to want to offer succor to those who get injured in our line of work, but we have a system on this ship and in the Navy. You should learn to accept that system, because it won't change on account of one little Princess, hm?" Your skin crawled. Didn't everyone want to ease pain when they saw it? And if this was the system in the Navy, it was one that been twisted and perverted into this little fiefdom. Discipline and order were a necessity for a ship of war but this was something beyond that. For now though? You'd play along.

    "Of course, sir," you replied in your best demure tone. "I'll make sure to keep that in mind for the future." Dinner went as well as you expected after that, with the men all ignoring you to talk amongst themselves and laugh at their own idiotic and ribald jokes. You retreat to your berth at the end of the night with a sense of grateful relief.

    ---

    Over the next few days on the trip to Joseon, you started to get a feel for your station. The CMO, an old man who had probably spent his early career removing limbs on a wooden ship, spent most of his time in his cabin, and the orderlies were almost always being pulled away to supplement some other duty. You thus had plenty of time to go over the ship's books, discovering that on this perfect little ship, nobody got injured, nobody got sick, and there were never any disciplinary violations worth writing down. Two deaths in the last year, put down as accidents, though.

    Despite that, you did have some cause to leave sickbay on occasion, as it was not uncommon for sailors to arrive to requisition supplies, usually bandages or painkillers. It turned out that ensuring that the supplies in sickbay were being used appropriately was part of your duties, probably originally so to prevent opiates from making their way into the hands of the crew, but you decided to follow the letter of the regulations and start personally following any supplies out of your office. The results were, unsurprisingly, that the supplies would be given over to patch up some injury taken either through work or, more commonly, collective punishment.

    Though you didn't want to push things too far, you did make a point of writing up all the injuries you saw in the ship's ledger, doubting anyone with authority aboard would actually check. When you got home, either command would see the gross rate of injury aboard the ship and do something… or they'd put it down to men deliberately injuring themselves for female company. Urgh.

    You were returning from one such trip, monitoring the deployment of a damp rag meant for a split lip and two acetylsalicylic acid pills, when you were surprised to find somebody waiting for you in sickbay, standing over your desk. You briefly feared you had left out your ledger and an officer was going through it, before you realized the truth was much worse.

    You'd left out the woodcut.

    "Can I help you?" You asked, trying to hide the fact that you were about to die of embarrassment on the spot.

    "Oh, Ensign." He turned towards you with a smile. He was a lieutenant (as opposed to the next step up for you, junior lieutenant), with a classically handsome face that belonged in the pages of some old romantic tale about noble warriors. High cheekbones, slender chin and nose, dark hair and eyes. If you were into men, he'd be a heartstopper.

    "Good choice in artists. Shimomura's work in that period is so fascinating! Do you have the rest of the series?"

    There's a series?

    "I have to admit I don't," you said as you did your best to stay composed. Thank the Spirits that your mother had taught you to hold yourself together.

    "Well, I'm not saying I have the whole sequence back in my cabin, because that's strictly against regulations, of course, but…" He trailed off with a shrug. Even his voice was made to make women (and men) who liked men swoon. A delightful baritone without any of the gravelly roughness that sometimes accompanied such tones. It was like listening to molasses. You had some friends back home you needed to introduce this man to.

    He was speaking again, holding out his left hand. "I'm afraid that I cut myself rather badly while I was supervising some work in the engine spaces. That's why I came up here."

    "You had the good sense to come get treated? Lovely." You couldn't hide the surprise in your voice as you stepped over to the supply cabinet to get some plasters. You felt even more like a mother in this moment, but it wasn't terrible. At least this man was friendly.

    As you patched him up, you noticed the lack of band on his arm, and thought it might be worth the risk to try to make an ally.

    "So, how long have you served on the Hachinosu?" You asked conversationally.

    "Long enough." He replied. "This is a hard ship to serve on, though I think you've been getting it a bit worse than me."

    "It's been rough. But if I wasn't ready for the kind of push back I'm getting, I wouldn't be here." You admitted. "Has it always been like this?"

    "More or less. I've been here as long as the captain and it's been like this almost since the day we came on board. The groundwork was already there, just waiting for a man like him to take charge."

    You had the same suspicion, that the culture of harsh discipline and authority in the Navy was a breeding ground for this sort of philosophy, even if it hadn't gotten this bad on most ships.

    "You said you work in the engineering spaces?" You asked as you bandaged his hand.

    "Sometimes. I'm a damage control officer, so I work wherever I need to. We were running a drill and, well…" He laughed. "Now I need a damage control team."

    Was that an actually funny joke? Your cousin Kochiyo needed to meet this guy. She had the worst luck with men. This also might be your chance to talk to someone without prying ears to rat you out to your cousin.

    "So I noticed you're not a member of the Purity Club, either," you said lightly, as if just making conversation.

    "Oh, that. No. I voted New Independent last election. The Purity Club are a bunch of loons who think that we should go back to wearing our hair in top-knots and carrying swords in our belts, except this time we have machine guns. My father and grandfather remember those days and even if they get nostalgic for our days of warrior glory, I think they both know that the modern era is better for us as a country. My great-grandfather actually swung a sword during the Hard Years," he said, referencing a five-year famine that had wracked the country with instability just over 90 years ago. It had been the last major fighting between samurai in the old style before the country was opened to the West. That was astoundingly forthright. "I'm guessing you're not too fond of them either."

    "No. Not at all. I feel the same way as you. This country has had enough strongmen do enough damage, and they didn't have artillery." You said. There was a thought.

    "Or their own ships." He added sourly.

    That sealed it. You leaned in conspiratorially.

    "I completely agree. Something has to change around here, and it's going to need to start with officers like us. You in?"

    He nodded slowly as you finished with his hand.

    "Yeah. Yeah I am. Thanks for the…" He held up his bandaged hand. "We should meet properly over this."

    He stood up and started heading out.

    "And hey, I do have the rest of those woodcuts…"

    ---

    Over the next couple of days, you did your best to try and find others who were willing to join you and Kenshin, and though many of the men in the little table of 'exiles' in the wardroom were sympathetic, none of them were willing to risk their careers or chance for advancement with you. Most figured you were too obvious a target, being the first woman in the Navy. Others just didn't trust your judgement because you were a woman. Idiots.

    Two officers was hardly a conspiracy, but fortunately having damage control on your side was a huge get. They were an elite and well-disciplined lot, being handpicked from the best trainees for the specialized tasks of firefighting and patching up holes in the hull. They also served as backup security aboard the vessel, as they only had vital tasks when something went wrong. Once they found out you were chummy with Kenshin, whom they almost universally admired as a steady, upright sort of officer willing to stick his neck out for them, most of them took a shine to you too and you found that some of the sailors who made disparaging remarks about you around the damage control boys ended up in your care with black eyes and bloody noses.

    Arriving at the port of Wonsanjin in Joseon was a whole chore, of course. As you were in charge of the funds, you ended up having to manage the sudden expenditure of hiring a squad of locals to clean down the whole ship to the waterline and repaint seams, and suddenly you understood why the ship was so pristine. Your prideful idiot of a cousin couldn't sail her for a week without getting bent out of shape about filth on his vessel.

    While you managed to get things under control and got started on getting the ship clean, your cousin wouldn't stop complaining about the expenditure once the bill came to his desk and you had to explain wearily, first to the executive officer, and then to the captain, that the labor market had changed since their last visit and that's why it had cost more. With the Northern Fleet parked here now, the laborers were in demand and could charge higher wages and it was completely out of your control, really. That had ended with a humiliating little condescending remark from Captain Nashimoto about how he understood that you had tried your best to exceed your limitations as a woman, but maybe next time you should ask for some help.

    Things were made better by the fact that the mail had beaten you there in a fast little packet ship and you had several pieces of mail waiting for you. One from your mother, asking after your health and so forth and updating you on the family news. Another from Hideaki, telling you that despite the cold shoulder you'd been given, your departure from the Okinami had produced a bit of dismay among your old ratings who were doing their best to keep up the good work, even with a new officer. He also assured you that the cat, which he had named Hanako Maru after some old story (the dork), was doing just fine. The final one was a letter from Aiko, which you sat down to read carefully. Even if she was just your friend, she deserved that much consideration.

    Dear Haruna,
    I hope that everything on your ship is going great! Please say hello to Hideaki for me. I've asked him to do the same for you, so you'd both better listen or you'll be in for it when you get back on shore. I already miss you! The house seems so much quieter and smaller without you and Hideaki here. Even my room feels far too big without you sleeping on the futon a few feet from me. Even if you always ended up mussing the covers something fierce. That was kind of cute, actually.

    School is going okay. The summer holiday is coming up an everyone is excited to have a break, but all I can think of is studying as hard as I can so I can try and get into the Academy like you did. I'm thinking of just staying inside all break and looking at my books, but I'm sure mother will shoo me out to have a good time with my friends ("it's your youth, enjoy it!" she says, "when I was your age I was already working!") or roam the streets like some sort of urchin. Ha ha. Really, I do miss you. Having you around was really nice--having another girl around, I mean. Growing up with two brothers was rough. I forgot to ask you, do you have any brothers or sisters or siblings? I'm sure you do since you're a princess and all that.

    It's really hot here now and muggy and the cicadias aren't shutting up. It it hot on the ship? What about in Joseon? Hideaki said that's where he thought the ship was going when you both left. Tell me all about it when you get there, okay? Osamu says hello, by the way. I should probably end this here because I have to finish my maths homework before bed. Please write back soon! I can't wait to hear from you.

    With care,
    Aiko

    PS: Harbour won our last two games. That'll show Cliffside!    ​

    Included is a little doodle in the bottom of the page of the Harbour mascot, an anthropomorphic tugboat, slugging out the Cliffside mascot, which looks like some kind of seabird. You weren't sure. It made you laugh, though. There was also a much less cartoony drawing of what must be the view from her classroom from one of the hills overlooking the harbour. She was really pretty accomplished at drawing, now that you looked at it, if somewhat unrefined.

    You were midway through writing your replies to all the letters when there was a knock on your cabin door. You opened it to find a nervous looking petty officer. The one you'd left in charge of the Joseon labor. He hurriedly explained that they'd all stopped working and were saying that they wouldn't continue unless they got better wages. You stared at him for a moment and he cringed, obviously used to being struck for bringing bad news. Instead, you grabbed your hat and shoved past him and out onto the deck.

    Sure enough, you went over to the railing and found the labourers sitting around their gear, staring definitely at the sailors around them. A man with a bullhorn was currently alternating between yelling encouragement in his native language to his fellow workers, and yelling up to the ship "HEY AKI, PAY US FAIR MONEY!" His Akitsukuni was not the best, but the point was getting across loud and clear. This was absurd. You'd agreed to pay the foreman the rate he'd asked for! Why were they asking for more now?

    You looked up at the mirrored windows of the bridge. Was your cousin watching this? You had a feeling he might. Then again, seeing as the strikers weren't being shot yet, he might still be asleep.

    Well, you'd been placed in charge of the money. Time to roll up your metaphorical sleeves and do some household budgeting.

    [ ] Negotiate with the Foreman: Let's see what he wants, and find out if we can give it to them. Surely, there's a deal that can be struck here?
    [ ] Threaten them: The traditional way that the IAN dealt with striking local labour was to shoot a couple of them until they got working again. Letting them know that might motivate them to act before the captain decides to take such measures.
    [ ] Just Fucking Pay Them: Just give in to whatever their demands are, and deal with the consequences with the captain. He's a fickle idiot, you can probably convince him it was necessary.
    [ ] Pay Them… in secret: Go find out what they want, and arrange for it to be done. There's a lot of supplies being brought on board right now, you can fudge the numbers and hide it in the expenditures for steak and wine. Super illegal, but if it works everyone will be happy.    ​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Wiadi said:
    Okay but like, counterpoint: Haruna is likely to have a reasonable ability to estimate how good she is at certain tasks, and favor methods which lean on her strengths and away from her weaknesses. I can see the rationale behind keeping it hidden for things where the necessary skills wouldn't be obvious IC, but in cases like this that doesn't seem to apply.
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    KhazintheDark said:
    Being better at something does not always make doing it that way easier overall. For example, torpedoes are better at destroying ships than guns but getting into position to do that involves getting hammered by the enemy's guns. Similarly, a species in Stellaris may be better at diplomacy, but that doesn't stop their opponent from only being interested in galactic genocide and wiping them out.
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    I mean yes, but at the same time, in real life people routinely plan around their skills. Like, if you know your side has excellent torpedoes but is outclassed in gunnery, you try to devise tactics that maximize your ability to use those torpedoes.

    The heart of good strategy is to be able to pit your strengths against your opponent's weaknesses, and you can't do that without a realistic appreciation of what methods do and do not capitalize on your strengths.

    It also nerfs characters who have a specialty, as opposed to all-rounders, if you don't know what skill checks do and don't use your specialization. It's like, we have six skills. An all-rounder with 11s in everything will perform fairly well in everything. A specialist with two 13s and four 10s has the same point total, and will perform roughly as well if forced to roll dozens of random skill checks, on average in the long run.

    But the specialist will tend to outperform the all-rounder if given a chance to preferentially pick their battles and focus on the areas where they are strong, rolling checks against their +13s disproportionately often. Without the ability to predict which skills get used, you might as well have chosen the all-rounder.

    We chose this particular character background with the deliberate intent of being able to use our skill at politicking and subtlety and manipulation to our advantage; that was in part the point of being the princess.

    ...

    @open_sketchbook , @Artificial Girl , I think our voting choices to date suggest that our voter base is quite prepared to make principled or 'in-character' decisions at the expense of what's mechanically optimal. Giving us information about what stats we roll against would be very helpful in giving us choices where there are actual tradeoffs involved, as opposed to just decisions where we feel compelled to always take the same path, in my opinion.
     
    [X] Pay Them… in secret: Go find out what they want, and arrange for it to be done. There's a lot of supplies being brought on board right now, you can fudge the numbers and hide it in the expenditures for steak and wine. Super illegal, but if it works everyone will be happy.

    Stick it to the fucker.
     
    Simon_Jester said:
    I mean yes, but at the same time, in real life people routinely plan around their skills. Like, if you know your side has excellent torpedoes but is outclassed in gunnery, you try to devise tactics that maximize your ability to use those torpedoes.

    The heart of good strategy is to be able to pit your strengths against your opponent's weaknesses, and you can't do that without a realistic appreciation of what methods do and do not capitalize on your strengths.

    It also nerfs characters who have a specialty, as opposed to all-rounders, if you don't know what skill checks do and don't use your specialization. It's like, we have six skills. An all-rounder with 11s in everything will perform fairly well in everything. A specialist with two 13s and four 10s has the same point total, and will perform roughly as well if forced to roll dozens of random skill checks, on average in the long run.

    But the specialist will tend to outperform the all-rounder if given a chance to preferentially pick their battles and focus on the areas where they are strong, rolling checks against their +13s disproportionately often. Without the ability to predict which skills get used, you might as well have chosen the all-rounder.

    We chose this particular character background with the deliberate intent of being able to use our skill at politicking and subtlety and manipulation to our advantage; that was in part the point of being the princess.

    ...

    @open_sketchbook , @Artificial Girl , I think our voting choices to date suggest that our voter base is quite prepared to make principled or 'in-character' decisions at the expense of what's mechanically optimal. Giving us information about what stats we roll against would be very helpful in giving us choices where there are actual tradeoffs involved, as opposed to just decisions where we feel compelled to always take the same path, in my opinion.
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    I understand, but our experience so far has been that people just bandwagon whichever vote has your best stat name on it. So we're trying to set up votes so you can make a reasonable guess which will be which, without just telling you.
    Adhoc vote count started by open_sketch on Nov 25, 2018 at 8:32 PM, finished with 49 posts and 33 votes.
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    This choice is a doozy. If we're going up against the Captain I don't know if trying to do this off the books is wise, given the amount of ammo it will hand him should anything go wrong. I would be very nervous about anything less than a complete success here.
     
    [X] Pay Them… in secret: Go find out what they want, and arrange for it to be done. There's a lot of supplies being brought on board right now, you can fudge the numbers and hide it in the expenditures for steak and wine. Super illegal, but if it works everyone will be happy.
    Let dear cousin think we worked some kind of womanly magic on them.
     
    Artificial Girl said:
    That had ended with a humiliating little condescending remark from Captain Nashimoto about how he understood that you had tried your best to exceed your limitations as a woman, but maybe next time you should ask for some help.
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    I'm kind off tempted to take him up on his offer really. Let him deal with the angry workers. Maybe they'll deal with him.

    Edit : Can we bribe the Foreman not to accept any deal, then call in the captain to help?
     
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    [X] Negotiate with the Foreman: Let's see what he wants, and find out if we can give it to them. Surely, there's a deal that can be struck here?
     
    Simon_Jester said:
    @open_sketchbook , @Artificial Girl , I think our voting choices to date suggest that our voter base is quite prepared to make principled or 'in-character' decisions at the expense of what's mechanically optimal. Giving us information about what stats we roll against would be very helpful in giving us choices where there are actual tradeoffs involved, as opposed to just decisions where we feel compelled to always take the same path, in my opinion.
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    In my experience giving people the stats means they always take the same path--the one with the best numbers. Besides that, I like to think that we give enough context clues that you can know which vote is associated with which stat.

    I am really not interested in arguing about this any further.
     
    [X] Pay Them… in secret: Go find out what they want, and arrange for it to be done. There's a lot of supplies being brought on board right now, you can fudge the numbers and hide it in the expenditures for steak and wine. Super illegal, but if it works everyone will be happy.

    by the power of magic

    get the captain to pay it
     
    [X] Negotiate with the Foreman: Let's see what he wants, and find out if we can give it to them. Surely, there's a deal that can be struck here?
     
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