[Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

[Dr. Beckenstein]

One personal plea: Please stop using prose or "fluff text" :-)" for questions and anwers. They are harder to understand than simple Q/A.

Thank's in advance.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Answer 56b Frankfurter Nachrichten

(Most influential newspaper published in the German Capital)

1) Hamburg dockworkers strike prolonged. Unionists demand better working conditions, warehouse owners demand federal support to crush the strike. Harbour management afraid that more ships turn to Bremen and Rotterdam.

2) Duel in parliament. Johann, grand duke of Hesse, speaker of the house of princes, and Herr Doktor Richard Vogler (Liberal-National party, Berlin) met at dawn and resolved some misunderstanding about the dockworkers strike like gentlemen.

3) Otto and Wilhelm only 10 km apart. The owners of both bucket-wheel excavators again could not come to an agreement over the prospecting rights of the West-Rhine tar coral mines. Both owner companies improved security.

4) 9th victim of Lorelei killer. The federal justice investigation office confirmed that the body of a young man, washed ashore near Bonn, showed the same stabbing wounds like the other victims. In the last 9 month, at each full moon a young man was murdered along Germany's longest river. The investigators are still looking for clues.

5) Ludwig Schmidt wins Hamburg-Munich Rally in a Thuringa Type 4. Average speed 25.7 kph, new German Record. Fastest motorcyclist was Harry "Rem" Fowler on a Knightsbridge Inferno.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rem_Fowler

Question 59
Who are the 5 most known stage artists - and what are they known for?

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Question 47- Standing question on Heroes
Who are the five most famous living heroes, be them soldiers, explorers, scientists or police?

Answer 47a
Detective sergeant Hiro Aoyama, Edo metropolitan area police force (CID). The young policeman from a humble background (his father is a simple fisherman) started five years ago as a constable, walking the beat in the dockside district. A few weeks into his job, he stumbled upon the body of a murdered prostitute. Just with his keen eyes and common sense, he caught the murderer within a few hours - even before the body of the victim was in the morgue.
Since then, DS Aoyama solved 37 major cases, most notable were the cases of rabid snow monkey, the ruthless cat women of Yoshiwara and the robbery of the Ushihara bank. His successes were noted in the press, and his skill is admired by laymen and professionals around the world. One officer of London's metropolitan police stated that "Aoyama is the police work what Mozart was to music."
Due his age, further promotions have to wait for a few years, but he was awarded with the medals for meritorious service (4 times) and exceptional bravery (twice). it is rumoured that the Orchid - Rengu of the notorious Yakuza have placed an open bounty on his head.

Question 59?
What is an unusual job you would not find in another timeline?

[Daigoro]

Answer 41b)- Asia-Pacific Resistance Groups
The Emerald Cobras of Vientiane Province
Named after the Emerald Buddha Temple, symbol of Vientiane's struggle against foreign invaders, and the cobra, pretty universally recognised as a tough, nasty critter, the Emerald Cobras are a guerrilla group operating in the thick forests of the Annamese Cordillera under the leadership of Pee Lek.

Pee Lek, also written P-Lek, and meaning "Big Brother Little", was a former army colonel trained by French colonial forces during their protectorate era, but stole off into the mountains with his division when the pro-Japanese governorship commenced.

The provincial army are tasked with removing the insurgents, but are actually sympathetic to their nationalist cause as well as many being former comrades. Therefore, they are easily bribed to leave supply caches unguarded, they never seem to have useful intel on guerrilla movements, and in the occasional actual firefight, don't seem to shoot very straight. The general makes a big show of being strict on the insurgency, but has little actual success to show the governor. When the governor realises the complicity against his rule and Japanese troops get involved, most of the provincial army will probably join the guerrilla movement in the hills.

While the Emerald Cobras try to shed as little army blood as possible, they are not so kind to the real enemies they perceive in their territory. They target Japanese zaibatsu forestry operations, Vientianese merchants and landowners who appear to profiteer from them, and almost any other foreign influence they happen across. P-Lek trains his followers in krabi-krabong and himself carries around paired daab song mue swords engraved with cobra motives, which he employs to cut off the hands of suspected foreign sympathisers.

The Emerald Cobras' long-term goal, as well as that of other Vientiane nationalists, is to reinstate a king of the royal bloodline of Anouvong. Their other ambition is to return the long-lost Emerald Buddha, which they hope will bring protection to their country which appears to have been cursed for so long.

Question 61- The Great War
Sometime in the next few years, is there likely to be a so-called Great War between most of the major powers of the era? When and where is such a Great War most likely to break out? What would need to happen for this war to be started or to be avoided?


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ETA: Two qn 59's there, Dr.
Also, I was actually thinking of a similar question about jobs. Why don't we make it a standing question for 5 unusual jobs?

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

One personal plea: Please stop using prose or "fluff text" :-)" for questions and anwers. They are harder to understand than simple Q/A.

Thank's in advance.

I think I'd prefer to continue as we have, but we can add a few lines of summary in point-form if that helps.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I think I'd prefer to continue as we have, but we can add a few lines of summary in point-form if that helps.

Yeah, that would help.

And for the #59 - how do we solve this?

Also - maybe we should pause with "list questions" until most of the open one's are answered?

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

Yeah, that would help.

And for the #59 - how do we solve this?

Just go back and edit the second one to 60.

Also - maybe we should pause with "list questions" until most of the open one's are answered?

I don't think it matters too much, people will answer the questions they like, and leave the ones they don't. There's little point foregoing new questions for the sake of open questions that no one's been inspired to answer yet.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

[B]

(SNIP)

Question 59 (or 60)?
What is an unusual job you would not find in another timeline?

Partial answer to Q59 (or 60)

Hydrogen Sulfide Containment Operator.

While the cleanliness and efficiency of petrol coral makes it the preeminently economic fuel of the world, the mining of it comes with special hazards. The worst of those hazards is the presence of pockets of concentrated hydrogen sulfide gas found through out the petrol coral "reefs."

In addition to giving petrol coral mines their distinct (and nasty) "rotten egg" odor, the presence of toxic, corrosive and explosive gas poses a constant threat to the health and safety of the miners. While modern gas mask technology -- required equipment in the mines of any civilized country -- allows miners to work in the toxic environment (albeit, with increased long-term risks of respiratory problems), gas masks do nothing about the volatility of the gas.

However, modern engineering sees the presence of such concentrated deposits of hydrogen sulfide as an opportunity, and not just a hazard. The concentrated energy provided by hydrogen sulfide allows for the creation of powerful engines that wouldn't be feasible, otherwise.

With that in mind, most mining firms employ highly-skilled personnel who specialize in the extraction of hydrogen sulfide gas.

The job requires no higher education, and the vast majority of those who operate H2S containment machinery learn to do so in apprenticeships. Most master containment operators pull apprentices from the best and brightest of the young men in their mining communities, and apprenticeships usually last five to seven years.

A journeyman H2S containment operator starts out making at least four times the wage of a petrol miner on the reef face. He'll spend much of his time maintaining the blowers that replace the contaminated air in the mines with fresh air from the surface, as well as maintenance of chemical filters that remove the H2S contaminants for processing, storage and eventual sale.

However, the most important and lucrative part of the skill-set includes recognition of reef configurations that may conceal pockets of H2S concentrations. Upon detection of such a pocket, the containment operators use ceramic drills to penetrate into the pockets, and then pump out the gas by replacing it with neutral nitrogen. Once the pocket is cleared, the nitrogen is replaced with regular air, so it can be re-used.

Initial penetration is the most dangerous, as if the gas pressure is unexpectedly high, it can cause a blow-out and flood the drilling compartment with volatile, toxic gas. If exposed to enough oxygen and a spark, a lethal explosion could occur. Fortunately, in most well-run mines, this happens only about once a decade, or so.

Assuming all goes well, the H2S is pumped safely into a storage tank, processed to remove impurities (and reduce the smell, somewhat), and then sold as a high-value commodity.

Most apprenticeships require participation in at least a dozen or so of such operations, before the apprentice can earn "journeyman" status, and the prospective journeyman must be able to describe, in detail, each stage of the process, and lead at least two such efforts, under the oversight of different masters. Once a journeyman has led at least 100 such efforts, he or she can take the master's exam, which comprehensively tests every part of H2S removal and containment.

(In fact, many journeymen never take the exam, and content themselves with a good living maintaining blowers, and occasionally assisting the best and brightest containment operators who have the brains and nerve to lead H2S pocket clearing projects.)

Relations between the working-class reef-miners and much more affluent containment operators is surprisingly good, despite the wide disparity in the wage each receives for working in the same mine. Most miners understand that containment operators make their jobs a lot safer (and thus save lives), and at the same time they qualify as "fellow workers" and not "management."

For their part, most containment operators identify quite strongly with the miners (as most of them came from mining families, themselves) and generally act as calm voices in the mines when management makes stupid, dangerous decisions. That said, a quiet discussion in which the containment operators note they wouldn't cross picket-lines frequently means the owners and managers negotiate in better faith at contract renewal time than they might have, otherwise.

Most containment operators take this role seriously, even if some would personally just prefer to go to work every day, and then clock out and go home to spend time with their families. As such, most containment operators are respected men in mining communities, albeit sometimes reluctant leaders.

For their part, the mine owners frequently find themselves frustrated at the actions of the members of the Guild of H2S Extractors and Operators, and constantly pressure the masters to take on more apprentices so as to increase the supply of journeymen. However, most master guildsmen resist such pressure, since colleagues expect them to keep the number of qualified journeymen limited as a means to keep wages high. Every country usually has an annual Guild Congress, which creates guidelines for masters to use to select potential apprentices, as well as recommendations to avoid "overextending themselves" and thus allowing the quality of the training to suffer.

In effect, this means the Guild guidelines limit the number of new journeymen, every year, to somewhat less than the mining firms would prefer, much to the dismay of shareholders. Usually, the proceedings of the Guild Congress are followed quite closely in mining communities, and stricter guidelines about apprenticeships can put downward pressure on mining stocks, while looser guidelines can have the opposite effect. Congress members are heavily lobbied, and incidents of bribery and fraud do sometimes make the headlines.

(Members of the Guild Congress are referred to as "canaries," because when they do bad things -- such as engage in clandestine arrangements with mining firms -- miners will die.)

Question 62
Given the state of land transportation technology, what is the longest rally for single, privately-owned vehicles, who won the last rally, what type of land vehicle did he or she drive, and who sponsored the team?

[(E)]

Clarification/calibration sought,
The Japanese regime is mentioned as being harsher that the British regime. One of the tickers mentions a British massacre of Cree. Is it a one off incident or is the Japanese worse?

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by (E)

Clarification/calibration sought,
The Japanese regime is mentioned as being harsher that the British regime. One of the tickers mentions a British massacre of Cree. Is it a one off incident or is the Japanese worse?

The British Empire did some nasty things to the "wogs" and the "fuzzy-wuzzies," but the systemic abuses the Japanese perpetrated in Korea and Nanking surpass, by far, the worst of the British excesses. I see no reason why any realistic AH depiction of Imperial Japan wouldn't follow that model, and those are my underlying assumptions.