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Old 12-03-2016, 10:09 PM   #161
Daigoro
 
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Default Re: [Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

Let's see how the question pool (looking more like a question lake) is standing.

I've grouped the standing questions together at the bottom for easier reference. There are 11 regular questions open and 14 standing questions. There's an Imperador's Sable Ribbon for anyone who can put a dent in the first block.

And the wiki might get an update in a day or two, and let me know of any errors in the recap.
ETA: The wiki is up-to-date to this post. Yay!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Question Pool Recap
One-off Questions
Question 50- Wealthy Lifestyles
How do the wealthiest of the wealthy flaunt their fortunes?

Question 58- North American Indians
How are the North American Indians doing?
Do they have own nations, or something like reservations?
ETA: c.f. Post #23/Answer 21 for earlier comments on this

Question 63- Fort McMurray Massacre
What really happened at the massacre near Fort McMurray? (Was it a massacre or did it get puffed up by Yellow Journalism?)

Question 65- Houdini
Harry Houdini is well known for being an occultist/debunker in OTL. In this setting, magic exists. Does Houdini use magic to aid his performances in this setting?

Question 67- The Conglomerate
How wide spread is the Conglomerate's influence?

Question 68- Greenland
Who owns Greenland?

Question 70- NA States & Territories
Do the North American countries have states, territories or provinces? Or is it all Louisiana, say, from tip to tail? And is this a reasonable map to base our version on?
Answer excerpt: This map is useful for discussing the territory of California and Texas
Question addendum: Does someone want to photoshop up a map to host on the wiki?

Question 71- Choshu Five
Do the Chōshū Five exist in this world (they would be in their 60s, now) and, if so, what are they doing?
- Thanks for your patience, I might get an answer up tonight.

Question 72- Brazilian Scandal
What's a scandal facing the current Imperador of Brazil, Dom Pedro IV, or a member of the royal family?

Question 77- Snake Oil Cures
With so many 'new age' mystics and therapy moving around, peddling cures like soaking ones feet in baths containing electric eels, diets of strict corn flakes, and steam powered message devices to handle hysteria, sore muscles, boost intelligence, relieve stress, and myriad other claims- are any of them getting close to tapping into the magic that actually does exist (potentially from atypical and unseen avenues)? Are there any measure to prevent/encourage this from existing practitioners?

New- Question 78- Tesla's Home
Where is Tesla living and based?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Standing Question Pool Recap
Standing Questions
Question 34- Standing question on Tourist Destinations
What are popular tourist destinations?
- 4 of 5 entries

Question 38- Standing question on Hot Spots
What are the top 5-10 Global Trouble Spots, and which side are the British or other powers supporting?
- 4 entries of 5-10

Question 41- Standing question on Asia-Pacific Resistance Groups
What are some of the Chinese or Western Pacific indigenous resistance groups who fight the brutally oppressive occupations by the Japanese Empire?
- 3 entries of 5

Question 42- Standing question on Weaponry
What types of weaponry are commonly available for various countries' troops? And what advanced options are there? Who has the superior armaments?
- now have 15 weapons

Question 44- Standing question on Everyday Tech
What everyday contraptions, devices or technology do denizens of the setting enjoy that we were deprived of in OTL, or deprived of today even? How is life different for the average middle-to-upper-class member of modern industrialised society?
- 9 items out of 10

Question 46- Standing question on Adventurer Groups
What organisations, groups, agencies, departments, corporations or security forces have teams, units or detachments of 3-6 operatives, agents, investigators or representatives ready to solve problems, dive into adventure or trounce rump, or otherwise to execute diabolical plans of immoral purpose?
- 4 of 8 entries

Question 47- Standing question on Heroes
Who are the five most famous living heroes, be them soldiers, explorers, scientists or police?
- 1 out of 5

Question 48- Standing question on Inventors
Which tinkerers and inventors would we see on the short-list for the Sir Alfred Nobel Prize for Excellence in Machinery Arts and Engineering? Who are five famous gadgeteers and what are they known for?
- 1 out of 5 (Tesla would appear to be on the list)

Question 56- Standing Question on World Headlines
What are the top 5 headlines coming off the news tickers and lithograms for November, 1911, for each of 5 different world cities?
- 2 of 5

Question 57- North American Relations
Have we clearly stated the relations between the various North American countries? Are they at peace, war or cold war? Are there territorial disputes or cross-border fighting?
- California, Texas & Louisiana covered
- British Ontario, British Columbia & Quebec somewhat in post 29
- Anyone for relations between northern countries & southern?

Question 59- Standing question on Stage Artists & Performers
Who are the 5 most known stage artists - and what are they known for?
- 1 of 5

Question 60 (posted as 59)- Standing Question on Unique Jobs
What is an unusual job you would not find in another timeline?
- 1 of 5

Question 64- Standing Question on Asia-Pacific Villains
Who are the major bad guys, in the Far East, if they're not the Japanese?
- 1 of several?

Question 69- Standing Question on Industry Olympics Events
What are 5 other events held at the Imperador's Industry Olympics?
- 0 of 5
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Last edited by Daigoro; 12-04-2016 at 07:03 AM.
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Old 12-04-2016, 10:35 AM   #162
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Default Re: [Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

I'll give some thought to some of the items in the first block. I may forgo asking a few questions, though, until we drain the lake, a bit.

I need to GM a session, today, though, so it may be a day or two before I post anything else.
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Old 12-04-2016, 12:47 PM   #163
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Default Re: [Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

Answer 50: Wealthy Lifestyles
How do the wealthiest of the wealthy flaunt their fortunes?

There is only one way to prove that belong to the "right people" - you must have your own airship / air yacht, the bigger and gaudier, the better.
One good example is the air yacht of the Prince of Monaco, the Demoiselle Bonheur, an impressive eyesore. More than 150 metres long, painted in gold, and inside you find plush seats, Persian rugs and brass finishings everywhere. It looks either like a cozy mansion or an over-decorated brothel, it depends who you ask.

Question 79: What is the most despicable sin in the eyes of the world?

Another one - I posted this already earlier, but it seems it did not show up then. Anybody knows what happened? My other posts appeared.

Last edited by Dr. Beckenstein; 12-04-2016 at 12:47 PM. Reason: typo
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Old 12-04-2016, 10:10 PM   #164
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Default Re: [Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein View Post
Question 79: What is the most despicable sin in the eyes of the world?

Another one - I posted this already earlier, but it seems it did not show up then. Anybody knows what happened? My other posts appeared.
You posted this question before? Don't think I saw it, can't really help you there.
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Old 12-05-2016, 12:58 AM   #165
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Default Re: [Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

Answer 34
While not immensely popular the Great Southern Arc is considered almost a right of passage in some circles of society.
A mixed vessel journey that the rich do mainly in luxury aboard airship and the poorest travelers work their passage in steerage, the great southern arc begins for many at Uluru and travels across the deserts of Australia to the gleaming military bases at Norfolk island and from there to the fabulous pink and white terraces of Nuevo Zealandia. Some choose to visit the bleak vastness of Antarctica from here and follow the southern Alps south. The rest follow the chain of islands that serve as the southern airship corridor. Chatham islands are bustling subnautical mining settlement where they mine superphosphate from the sea floor. The next stop is the historic Pitcairn islands that bear little resemblance to their untouched state. Landing pads and mooring towers compete for space with coral bunkers and tethered lighthouses while the coast is dominated by tugs and rescue craft. The royal naval life boat corps has its largest base outside of the British Isles here.

The next stop is Rapa nui (Easter island) the sight of the unified collegiate society's archeological and subnautical archeological investigation into the fragment of ancient society that existed there.

From there the next hop goes straight to the source of the amazon over the mighty Andes or more scholarly travelers may choose to stop over at the Galopagus island biological research station. Regardless of the exact path the final destination is the Caribbean.
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Old 12-07-2016, 08:35 PM   #166
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Default Re: [Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

Quote:
Originally Posted by Daigoro View Post

(SNIP)

IOW: What are the top 5 headlines coming off the news tickers and lithograms for November, 1911, for each of 5 different world cities?

(SNIP)
Answer 56c

Headlines from the London Times, November 1911

1. Land race for South Pole a close one

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen appears to have the lead in a race against Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

Amundsen, the first to complete the Northwest Passage by surface ship, five years ago, departed from the shore of the Ross Sea earlier in the year to establish several supply camps. The most recent effort began Oct. 19, and is expected to allow Amundsen to reach the pole, via dog-sled.

Capt. Scott got a later start, after some confusion about Amundsen's intentions. Compounding the problems faced by the effort sponsored by the Royal Geographic Society was the unexpected discovery of an extensive set of ruins, located along Scott's route, just south of the Beardmore Glacier.

The British party first left the Antarctic Ice Barrier and made landfall on the continent proper, at the Beardmore Glacier, and discovered the ruins several days later, after they'd left the rugged region. Capt. Scott chose to delay his journey to the pole so as to make an initial survey of the ruins, virtually assuring the Norwegian party will reach the pole, first.

2. Gaelic Brotherhood separatists threaten shipping

Members of the Gaelic Brotherhood of Eirann and Alba demanded that the parliaments of the Celtic Federacy cut all ties with the British Empire and declare independence, and threatened attacks on British shipping if they refused.

The radical group formed as an offshoot of the Celtic Autonomy movement that eventually led to the creation of the Celtic Federacy as a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Those dissatisfied with the compromise that created the Celtic Federacy, rather than an independent Celtic state, have periodically engaged in bombings and shootings in the years since its founding.

The Gaelic Brotherhood has been labeled an "illegal insurgency" by the Home Office, which dismisses it as a credible threat to the Commonwealth, but cautions the group may engage in isolated acts of political violence.

3. Heiress announces plan to circumnavigate world via dirigible

Cecily Wedgewood, daughter of the Marquess of Bainbright and heir to the family fortune, announced the commission of a Bustard-class transport dirigible, with modifications intended to allow her to circumnavigate the world.

The Royal Navy regularly posts dirigibles throughout the Empire, and uses them as reconnaissance and resupply in concert with land and sea forces, but no airship has ever completed a circumnavigation of the planet.

The French airship, Joyeuse Brise, made sucn an effort, five years ago, and was accompanied by several tender airships. The French had to turn back to California after fuel ran low in the face of contrary winds over the north Pacific.

Dame Wedgewood says she intends to try a more southerly route, even though the trip across the South Pacific would require a long voyage across open ocean between the Hawaiian Islands and his majesty's colonies in either Australia or India.

Moreover, large stretches of the supposedly empty southern Pacific remain unexplored, and may pose unexpected hazards.

However, Dame Wedgewood has said advances in dirigible technology make the trip more plausible than even five years ago, and expressed confidence that the Bustard-class dirigible (the largest class of airships in the world) when combined with other British technological advances, would succeed where the French effort failed.

4. Mechanical Intelligence project reports setback

Efforts to create an advanced Babbage engine that could model human intelligence suffered a setback when the system performed less well than expected.

Researchers and Babbage engineers at Cambridge have spent nearly two decades in the creation and refinement of the system, designed to permit strategic analyses without human biases, on behalf of the Royal Navy. The project reported a breakthrough, last year, when the system successfully held a conversation for 53 minutes with a human being.

The system also reportedly provided what were reported as a number of analyses described as "insightful" by sources in the Royal Navy, but the exact nature of which remain classified as "Most Secret."

Based on the advances, the Royal Navy authorized the Cambridge savants to introduce the new system to one of three Advanced Strategy Engines at the Royal Navy College, in Greenwich, which was placed in isolation from the other two. Although no one spoke publicly about the exercise, sources from the Royal Navy and within Cambridge reported results described as "disappointing."

The Cambridge dons have reportedly requested that the Royal Navy allow a telegraphic connection between the university system, and the one in Greenwich, to allow them to investigate possible differences in the two engines that may explain the disparate results.

An extensive telegraphic network already connects government offices, military facilities and universities, throughout the United Kingdom. Royal Navy engineers deliberately disconnected the engine that held the new system from that network, as a way to create a controlled environment for the trial.

5. Drain Gang violence extends to Whitechapel

Violent criminal gangs who hide within London's extensive system of storm drains and other underground structures have reportedly spread to Whitechapel, Scotland Yard reports.

Originally confined to poorest and most desperate sections of Limehouse, the gangs first appeared when vagrants took to the large storm drains during the cold winter months, and began to fight for control. For some years, repair crews have been accompanied by police and private guards when making repairs to the infested sections.

Despite best efforts by police to eliminate the drain gangs, and Christian temperance and other social services organizations to provide more wholesome shelter, the pernicious problem continues.

Recently, the Scotland Yard Street Violence Section reported that one of the largest gangs, the Bluefields Underboys, had broken up in a violent dispute about leadership. The metropolitan police had hoped to wrest away control of the storm drains used by the gang, in light of the dispute, and reportedly made considerable inroads.

However, it appears a violent splinter faction consisting of several dozen former members of the Bluefields Underboys have moved west to drains somewhere beneath Whitechapel. Scotland Yard reports it became aware of the move when violence near Dorset Street suddenly increased.
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Old 12-08-2016, 05:49 AM   #167
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Default Re: [Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

Hallo,
I will also just drain the question lake for a while.

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

Answer 47b
Oswald Phineas Robinson, MD
Born in 1873 to a New York doctor, young Oswald followed the foot steps of his father and enrolled at the New York Medical School. After graduation, he worked at various hospitals in the United States and became the leading specialist for internal medicine of Bostons Hospital of Mercy in 1902. Two years later, he was hired as the "medical director" for the Panama Canal construction site. It was his doing that reduced the infection rates among the workers by more than 70%, and it is claimed that his work here saved the lives of at least 2,000 workers.
After the completion of the Panama Canal, "Yankee-Doc" Robinson supervised the construction of a network of hospitals and laboratories to combat the yellow fever in Latin America. In the last year, he moved to the other side of the world and took over the medical care at the Kra Canal site.
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Old 12-08-2016, 06:11 AM   #168
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Default Re: [Game] Work Up a Steampunk Setting

Question 59- Standing question on Stage Artists & Performers
Who are the 5 most known stage artists - and what are they known for?

Answer 59b
Adelina Patti. The "greatest voice of all times", as her admirers - and many rivals - praised her, is a miracle. She was born in 1843, which makes her now 68 years old, but one would never know this by listening to her voice. Her body may be frail, and her hair is mostly grey, but her voice still sounds like it was in her prime in the 1880s. Some envious people claim that this is can not be her natural voice and she is "cheating" somehow. Some claim she uses an unknown patent medicine, others say she had some kind of surgery, others think she is not singing herself but uses advanced sound recording and speaker systems - the last claim is esp. laughable.
It is a fact that she vanished for almost a year in 1891 and lost a good part of her fortune than. The Patti just stated that she was "very sick" and spend the time in a remote sanatorium. What ever is the truth, it will probably never revealed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelina_Patti
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Old 02-17-2017, 12:29 PM   #169
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Quote:
Question 72- Brazilian Scandal
What's a scandal facing the current Imperador of Brazil, Dom Pedro IV, or a member of the royal family?
Right now the most scandalous thing in Brazil is the crown prince Dom Pedro, destined to become the V. Or perhaps destiny has other plans. Pedro seems to thrive on scandal. The brazen affair with an actress was within expectations. The burning of money previously earmarked "For Charity" was not. The prince is talented though, and seems to know exactly how far he can push things.

Question: Which power (or other country) is best known for its fashion?
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Old 02-17-2017, 11:25 PM   #170
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Here's a map that was requested as an addendum to Q70.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/io1uj2jime...ion_2.png?dl=0
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