The Dongfeng (simplified Chinese: 东风; traditional Chinese: 東風; lit. ‘East Wind’) series, typically abbreviated as “DF missiles”, are a family of short, medium, intermediate-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles operated by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (formerly the Second Artillery Corps).
History
In the early years of New China, the industrial development of China mainly depended upon capital investment and technical assistance. At that period, China exchanged through foreign trade at equal values for “156 types” of Soviet industrial project assistance, with building nuclear bombs and missile factories and corresponding technologies included.
Chinese missile production started from imitating Soviet missiles. At the end of 1957, Soviet provided China with two P-1 missile models, and in June, 1958, the first batch of drawings and technical documentation of P-2 missiles was transferred. Scientists and engineers formed the Fifth Institute of National Defense Ministry (hereinafter called “the Fifth Institute”) , translated and copied those documents and made preparation for imitating the “1059”model missile.
“1059” was named for paying homage to 10th anniversary of the founding of New China of October 1, 1959. Under the lead of Qian Xuesen, scientists and engineers gained a thorough grasp of design theories, overcame technical obstacles and managed to advance imitations of Soviet missiles.
While the whole Fifth Institute was quietly getting immersed in hard work, the Sino-Soviet relationship suddenly cooled down and the “honeymoon period” of the two nations came to end. In June, 1956, the Soviets began to tear up the “Sino-Soviet New National Defense Technology Agreement”, and withdrew all the Soviet experts in the next year and abolished all the joint projects.
Although that following serious and tough situation fell upon the shoulders of Qian Xuesen, his confidence, self-improvement and self-esteem once again showed their power. During several round-table meetings, Qian Xuesen called upon all the personnel in the Fifth Institute with great passion not to give up or hold back, and to carry on the imitation of missiles. Qian stated,
“All of us in the Fifth Institute would certainly get straight and upright under the pressure of the fact that Soviet experts were withdrawn. We are able to build our own missile mission with our best efforts, and the Soviets cannot overwhelm us!”
“We shall continue our work day and night; we shall burn the candles at both ends!”
“We will certainly catch up with progress!”
Just like that, inspired by Qian Xuesen’s passion and inspiration, all comrade fellows bent their efforts towards only one direction, held their breath and swore to launch the “1059”missile to the sky.
At 9:00 am, under the command of chief officer, “1059”missile rose to sky, and hit the target exactly within the proposed impact area at the distance of 554km from the launch site after flying for 7 minutes and 37 seconds.
This “missile of our own”- “1059”was named for “Dongfeng 1”, DF-1 for short. From then on, Qian Xuesen led the Fifth Institute to succeed in improving and designing the “Dongfeng 2 and Dongfeng 3” missiles by ourselves and Dongfeng missile family were expanded and gradually grew up to be the champion weapons of our national defense mission. “Dongfeng 31-A model” nuclear missile attending our 60th anniversary military parade of the New China on the 2009 National Day was the strong new member of the Dongfeng missile family.
On October 16, 1964, the first atomic bomb exploded in China and the rising mushroom cloud astonished the world.
However, this atomic bomb was detonated by fixing it upon an iron cradle in advance, which caused western media to state it was “only a bomb without a gun” to satirize China, faced with the reality that, although atomic bomb had been produced, it still could not be discharged.
How to change that situation?
Undoubtedly, missile is the best “gun”. Qian Xuesen proposed to develop nuclear missiles carrying nuclear warheads on the basis of successful test launches of mid-and-short-range missiles, and that is the well-known pioneering work of “combination of missile and atomic bomb” at the present time.
Nuclear missiles are very different from typical ones. A subtle mistake could incur irreparable losses. Qian Xuesen led the Fifth Institute to make improvements for the “Dongfeng 2”missile. All the comrades worked hard and took every detail quite seriously and carefully.
On October 26, 1966, Marhshal Nie Rongzhen and Qian Xuesen came to the site to personally monitor the docking process of the “DF-2A”missile body and atomic warhead.
On the site, a young technician named Tian Xiankun took charge of that docking task. Given that the distance between the warhead and missile body was just longer than one foot, only by moving their bodies sideways could they go there. However, despite the narrow space, Tian Xiankun finished more than a hundred movements with perfect accuracy through his highly skilled technologies and tools, and succeeded in docking warheads and missile bodies just like doing embroidery on cloth.
On October 27, 9:00 am, Tong Lianjie, one of the seven operators pressed the button of the principal machine of the control platform, and China’s first nuclear missile slowly rose and flew to the sky with a roaring boom.
However, the control room fell into quiet after the missile taking off, and no one could dare take a heavy breath. In their eyes, the nine minutes of estimated flight time seemed endless.
At last, Lop Nur testing ground delivered a report，stating: the nuclear missile hit the target exactly and the nuclear explosion smoothly took place!
That moment was so valuable and delightful! The seven operators in the underground control room could not help but shed tears of joy…
To celebrate that great and historic moment, and learning we were prepared to build the Qian Xuesen Library, the Second Artillery Force of the PLA donated to our library a missile with the same model as the “DF-2A”nuclear missile , and allowed us to use it as a large-scale physical subject exhibit in the Library. On March 27, 2011, under witness of the public, military officers and soldiers together with the construction company managed to unload the missile and then hoisted it to move from roof to rotunda, which took 45 minutes to complete the whole lift and set-up process.
The most glorious and most dangerous moments condensed into extraordinary, historic, and frozen time, which silently says, the peaceful time and life today we have derive from the endless efforts of Qian Xuesen and others in very tough environment.
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Question to those of you who are experienced DnD (or any TTRPG) players and/or DMs: how much do you plan out a story vs. letting players sort of run wild and rely on emergent story?
I ask because of the two campaigns I’m in, one (online) feels like we’re just playing along to the DM’s (kind of mid) script with minimal time spent on character arcs or RP, and the other (in person with a few of the same people, different DM) feels like we’re meandering and have way too much downtime (I don’t fucking caaare what food we get in the tavern) because there’s no real central goal(s). They both have their moments (mostly the in-person one) but I’m never really satisfied by how things play out.
These are the only two full campaigns i’ve ever been in and I just wonder if there’s something I’m missing out on. Plus I’m toying with running a short campaign myself someday and I wonder how I should handle this.
I have done a bit of Dming. My sessions were usually three hours. I would plan three diffrent bits. I would try to include something for everyone. Locked doors for the theif, friendly bar staff for the bard, a puzzle for the wizard etc. Roughly every 20 minutes I would check if everyone was having fun. My players liked to goof but they would need the occasional prompt or they would lose momentum. The first hour would be BSing. Then the second would be the key encounter. Then the final would be faffing about with a stinger at the end.
One session they were in an orc village trying to smoother over an international incident they caused. The first part was enjoying the carnival at an orc village. A weapon got blessed, a brothel got visited, supplies checked and all that. A few games of chance. Then they had a lacrosse match with the orcs. I just stole the rules from bloodbowl and just used those. Then we had a diplomatic meeting that was interrupted by drow assassin’s.
I had a handful of elements scripted, a general outline, and some random props from a thrift shop. Plus a little DJ set up with a few Spotify Playlist, a tablet, and a little light orb I should change the color balance of the room with. Maybe a half an hour of prep a week.
I am a big fan of the quantom ogere as part of my planning. If every they wanted to goof on a target I encouraged it
Watching this comment so that when I run Mothership next week for my first time as a GM I can have some notes…
The mothership wardens guide actually has a ton of good advice on the topic :)
I know! Read through it a while ago, planning on running Another Bug Hunt to start. A stretch goal is running Tide World of Mani, there are elements of Marxist-Leninist and Anarchist coalitions to overthrow Imperialism, but that is a spice level my coworkers may not be ready for, haha.
Still, absolutely want to run it without “blowing my cover.”
It really really depends on the game and o the players. There’s no right answer. I personally have “arcs” that are big level plot elements that players can influence (the king dies, but the players can influence the heir for instance). Future arcs adapt (or I write new ones) as the game progresses
This is really hard to do and requires a lot of preparation (and players on the same page). If it’s home brewed, especially.
The DM needs to have a long goal (get the lich) and then short term things to accomplish. After establishing whatever the current goal is, the DM should follow the rule of 3, any given task should have 3+ solutions each solution catering to a player (so they can be the hero of the session). This gives players agency in figuring out how to solve the problem and still direction to solving the problem.
In order to prepare, the DM needs to have lists of throw away NPCs to facilitate player freedom and have prepared the necessary information. As an example: the local shoemaker is missing and this follows a pattern of the townsfolk disappearing on the full moon. The party wants to talk to the barkeep or the local guard captain or the tramp or the eccentric folk healer. The DM should have the clue prepped (the shoemaker liked to walk to the pond at night and fish) but have unique characters ready for however the party chooses to pursue the clue. This would be one path for the rule of three.
This doesn’t have to be done but to do it well takes a lot of preparation.
Ah yeah this makes sense and allows for a good balance. Noted for my own use in the future.
It’s been said a few times in the thread to use the rule of three.
The idea is to let your players fail without hard consequences. That is the entire game. Let them fail their persuasion on the barkeep because you have two more interrogations you can let them succeed at. Let them fail their investigation of the warehouse because you have two other locations.
It’s a shared story, let them use their creativity to solve the puzzle you create.
This is what defines a good GMs. The goal is to make the players think that the planned story is what they are choosing to do.
This is done through the use of “the hook” If you can get good at developing hooks you will always have players who want to go where you want. Some games are easier to do this for than others as are some players. Ultimately the players should drive the game forward because the GM is luring them in. If they aren’t buying what you are selling you have to come up with something else.
As a player if the story is slow and there isn’t a central goal take advantage. Go try to push a story your character wants to tell if all you are getting “no you cant do that” then you walk because talking about getting soup at a tavern is boring.
Bunch of blathering
If you are planning on running your first game ask the people to build their characters and try to get them to you a couple days before. Find your most vocal players and figure out what it is they want. (if they are playing a paladin they probably want justice and dogoodery if they are a thief they want cash and wizards want more magic.) Set your objective to fill that players desire, then incorporate how other players will get their goals. Give the players what they want for your first time so they give you a shot at a second.
subsequent games the goal is to lure the foreceful player in but the have “the twist” where it all comes down to your less confident players saving the day and reaping the rewards.
Then once everyone recognizes your skills and you get sick of DMng you get into the dirty GMing where everything goes wrong and everyone just suffers and you make them feel like its their own fault.
See, yeah, this is what was missing from the online campaign. I’ve been playing a pure rogue thief forever and barely did any thieving because halfway through the DM decided we were all officers in an army preparing to fight a war. It’s almost over now and I’m in too deep to back out now, but it was very disappointing ngl.
This is also lacking in that campaign - it always feels like we’re being dragged somewhere. I’ll keep all this in mind, it makes intuitive sense to me.
I don’t have a lot of experience in TTRPGs having just joined my first campaign with some old friends earlier this year, but to me it seems like communication is by far the most important thing: Before planning out anything you probably want to ask the players what kind of campaign they want to play, if they want something meandering and slow or action-packed and streamlined. What characters they want to play, what their party is going to look like, etc. etc.
Also I feel like as a DM there really shouldn’t be any narrative device too cheap for you to use. If there is a narrative lull or the party has backed themselves into a corner, there’s no deus ex machina too cheap or too big to get them back on track. Our DM has an outspoken aversion to mcguffins and the like (this is what happens when you get all your ideas about storytelling from cinemasins or whatever) which really hurts the play experience. I’d much rather have our party always walk towards some magic gem or artifact that will solve all of our parties problems than aimlessly wandering around every session with no clear goal in mind. Like sure this kind of plot is lame in a tv series, but in a roleplaying game it seems like a pretty good idea to always give the characters something to orient themselves towards and to allow them to measure their progress by.
Vibe with the group, you’re all participating in a leisure activity. Some groups take story telling stuff seriously, some groups just want banter with dice.
But also, remember to take care of yourself and your own needs/desires. I’ve seen a lot of groups turn into “dunk on the gm’s story” sessions for really no reason.