Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

roobee · Nov 23, 2019

Inferno Vulpix said:
Give the players something that does persist between lives and let their actions affect it

Speaking of which, we should set up some contingency plans for our death. Both to carry our legacy if we don't have a reincarnation. And to help our reincarnation if we get one. Perhaps set up some civvie orgs like the snake orgs we've seen. The ponzi scheme medical ninjutsu snake org seems like it treats its civvies well.

Kiba said:
Can we now stop assuming our commanders will do the thing the hivemind wants?

Sure

Emstar · Nov 23, 2019

Shadowwarp said:
You were probably doing that anyway but still thought I'd say

Yeah its just gonna be some hopefully interesting variation on Digimon World (Fun 'mon building open world RPG, would rec.).

roobee said:
Speaking of which, we should set up some contingency plans for our death.

People in thread seem to be getting antsy about dealing with Oro though!

eaglejarl · Nov 23, 2019

Inferno Vulpix said:
If the players founded the Humanism Monastery or w/e then in all subsequent runs they'll want to do their best to adopt and spread the Dao of Humanism at all costs.

Or maybe the Gōketsu Clan?

TarzanNn · Nov 23, 2019

eaglejarl said:
Or maybe the Gōketsu Clan?

It is too tiny and physical. It could get wiped along with Hazō.
Ideas are not wiped as easily

Emstar · Nov 23, 2019

TarzanNn said:
It is too tiny and physical. It could get wiped along with Hazō.
Ideas are not wiped as easily

I think we can maybe rework the Cannibal Seal to imprint a copy of Hazou onto whoever sees it. Maybe we can try that? We can go construct a dungeon of interesting and dangerous things somewhere so that some powerful idiot walks through our lesser traps and precautions before getting Hazou'd.

TarzanNn · Nov 23, 2019

MMKII said:
I think we can maybe rework the Cannibal Seal to imprint a copy of Hazou onto whoever sees it. Maybe we can try that? We can go construct a dungeon of interesting and dangerous things somewhere so that some powerful idiot walks through our lesser traps and precautions before getting Hazou'd.

Good idea.

We should spread rumors about the place though. We don't want to go 'Albania horcrux' route.

Sad we will never get to actually implement the idea because every few updates some unexpected shit hits the fan and we get sidetracked

Velorien · Nov 23, 2019

Shadowwarp said:
*clan civ quest (unless the Goketsu all die within their founding generation)

I get shivers just trying to imagine how the clan will avoid this fate.

Keiko has married out, and any children of hers will presumably be Nara. Sage knows they need it.

Akane will marry someone she's not in love with if it is to save the clan, but unfortunately, for her, the next best thing to marrying for love is marrying Rock Lee.

Hazō's children will be Out-possessed eldritch abominations.

Kagome... no.

Mari... no (self-imposed).

Noburi and Yuno' s children will alternate between "laid-back and supportive" and "murderously unstable Bloodline Limit user".

Good luck.

faflec · Nov 23, 2019

Velorien said:
Noburi and Yuno' s children will alternate between "laid-back and supportive" and "murderously unstable Bloodline Limit user".

Is Noburi even supposed to be able to give birth to viable offspring? IIRC he's described Wakahisa children as being "made", which is a weird turn of phrase.

Cariyaga · Nov 23, 2019

Velorien said:
I get shivers just trying to imagine how the clan will avoid this fate.

Keiko has married out, and any children of hers will presumably be Nara. Sage knows they need it.

Akane will marry someone she's not in love with if it is to save the clan, but unfortunately, for her, the next best thing to marrying for love is marrying Rock Lee.

Hazō's children will be Out-possessed eldritch abominations.

Kagome... no.

Mari... no (self-imposed).

Noburi and Yuno' s children will alternate between "laid-back and supportive" and "murderously unstable Bloodline Limit user".

Good luck.

Shhhh.

The hivemind is very good at taking care of children. I mean, look at how Hazou's turned out!

faflec · Nov 23, 2019

eaglejarl said:
So, now where do things stand? In terms of real-world history, the MfD historical period is similar to that of feudalism. What killed feudalism? The Black Death. The Black Death wiped out something like 50% of the people in Europe. Suddenly there was a labor shortage and therefore serfs had both economic value and bargaining power. There was also a need for technology to help make up for the reduced number of people -- traditional inefficient methods of weaving, farming, etc weren't sustainable anymore, so you saw rapid improvement in looms, tooling, etc. You're seeing something very similar here. The large majority of the world's best ninja just got wiped out. Remember that precedent you set about how missing-nin can be repatriated? With so many ninja wiped out in the BotG, at least some Villages are going to be actively looking for missing-nin to recruit.

Hey I guess eaglejarl was right, we really are on the good timeline. I mean, just look at how clanless nin have been empowered.

Lailoken · Nov 23, 2019

GMs: "The levees have broken in multiple locations. Half the city is submerged, and the other half is on fire. Local responders are overwhelmed. The damage pattern conspicuously aligns with the interests of the literal supervillain who has been hanging around for the last few months. In accordance with the deal your leaders cut during the recent summit Mexico has a lumber convoy nearby which is offering to aid the relief effort. Critical periods are likely to be measured in hours for the foreseeable future. Whatdo?"

Players: "Let's invent, design, and build a rocketship and use it to invade Mexico!"

eaglejarl said:
Serious.

*sigh*

Lailoken said:
I know that this is going to be shifted right out of the hivemind's awareness yet again, but given the Keiko, Pangolin, and Leaf chakra beast situations I have to raise it another time:

We have a way to address all of them. Summons are extremely long-lived and are probably both controlling their populations' reproduction and in a state of constant endemic war due to food limits. Leaf just lost enough ninja to raise the specter of needing to abandon territory due to being unable to control chakra beast numbers.

We have a summoner, soon two, and a Wakahisa. Chakra beasts have chakra. If we invite as many summons as we possibly can to participate they can run wild through the virgin wilderness massacring wildlife and dragging it back to be drained of chakra to fuel yet more summons while the humans cut off the horns, drain the humors, take any other valuable bits, and then allow the bodies to be sent to the summon realm for consumption and trade. In terms of return on investment it is far more profitable than fighting wars for agricultural territory, so that drains resources and incentives from warmongering and the enhanced trade does so further. Leaf gets oodles of safe new agricultural territory and an eager market for its enhanced food output. The Gouketsu get literal mountains of valuable chakra beast parts and serve as the lynchpin of a massive rapid-trade network on both the human and summon paths. Sage help the scorch squad who stumbles upon the reason Leaf's economy is booming in an area while out on a mission.

Keiko gets to solve her problem by selling food instead of weapons.

Cariyaga said:
It occured to me that the once-Nara will now be built on the heretofore unknown union of Nara and Mori.

Gee, who does that benefit?

Emstar · Nov 23, 2019

Velorien said:
I get shivers just trying to imagine how the clan will avoid this fate.

I'm sure we'll figure out a way, through sheer force of numbers if nothing else.

Pun intended.

Lailoken · Nov 23, 2019

Velorien said:
I get shivers just trying to imagine how the clan will avoid this fate.

Keiko has married out, and any children of hers will presumably be Nara. Sage knows they need it.

Akane will marry someone she's not in love with if it is to save the clan, but unfortunately, for her, the next best thing to marrying for love is marrying Rock Lee.

Hazō's children will be Out-possessed eldritch abominations.

Kagome... no.

Mari... no (self-imposed).

Noburi and Yuno' s children will alternate between "laid-back and supportive" and "murderously unstable Bloodline Limit user".

Good luck.

Hey.

Don't forget snekuncle.

Murska · Nov 23, 2019

Kiba said:
Can we now stop assuming our commanders will do the thing the hivemind wants?

I had a PLAN that had us scouting, diplomatic missions, and skytower defenses. INSTEAD, we still fucking don't know because apparently, Asuma is too busy with relief effort to think about the medium and short term.

"IT'S TRAITOROUS! ASUMA WILL KNOW! KNOW YOUR PLACE! ASUMA NOT AN IDIOT! ASUMA HAVE MORE INFORMATION!"

Instead, we BLOW any initative we have because we're "waiting" for information.

Iwa took initiative.

We're not really in a position to take much initiative, what with us not being in command of Leaf and currently not even being in command of our own clan since we're under suspicion of being insane and/or possessed. We can offer suggestions, but that's about it.

Kiba · Nov 23, 2019

Murska said:
We're not really in a position to take much initiative, what with us not being in command of Leaf and currently not even being in command of our own clan since we're under suspicion of being insane and/or possessed. We can offer suggestions, but that's about it.

I am talking about Leaf losing the initiative because it decided to focus purely on recovery rather than also getting some much needed intelligence.

HOW THE FUCK LEAF DROP THE BALL!?

Also, the problem is not being restricted to suggestion, it's the fact that Hazo didn't make any in the first place, we players assuming that Asuma is hypercompetent who will never make any mistake.

Oneiros · Nov 23, 2019

So out of the 50 jounin leaf had when we joined there are only between 10-20 left

Twinnstars · Nov 23, 2019

Velorien said:
I get shivers just trying to imagine how the clan will avoid this fate.

Keiko has married out, and any children of hers will presumably be Nara. Sage knows they need it.

Akane will marry someone she's not in love with if it is to save the clan, but unfortunately, for her, the next best thing to marrying for love is marrying Rock Lee.

Hazō's children will be Out-possessed eldritch abominations.

Kagome... no.

Mari... no (self-imposed).

Noburi and Yuno' s children will alternate between "laid-back and supportive" and "murderously unstable Bloodline Limit user".

Good luck.

Simple, adopt 2 people a year. Focus heavily on personality and compatibility rather than talent. Adopt civvies as well; we're already the clanless/civllian clan. Lean into that, become the 'default' clan of leaf. "Injured and clanless? We'll treat you like our own."

In short become ethical insurance providers

eaglejarl · Nov 23, 2019

Lailoken said:
*sigh* [sell food to pangolins]

I remembered the plan, I simply didn't know which of the things you've suggested you were referencing.

Random thought to share:

There's a technique you can use when someone is really angry, especially if they're shouting: Keep your voice and demeanor calm, use reflective listening instead of confronting specific complaints, and lower your voice slightly. Subconscious mirroring will often (not always) calm their behavior and reduce their volume in order to match yours.

Kiba said:
HOW THE FUCK LEAF DROP THE BALL!?

You sound pretty frustrated. Is everything okay?

eaglejarl · Nov 23, 2019

faflec said:
The pre-rework version says they last as long as MEW does, which last on the order of 20 minutes (again, pre-rework).

A quick look-over tells me that HLaM should state that its effect ends once the user leaves the ground (as demonstrated during the Hazou vs. Keiko fight) but it's possible to not do so (as demonstrated during the Team Gouketsu vs. Team 8 fight, round 2); Tunneling Excavation in Chapter 162.1 was noted to have produced a sagging tunnel with the implication that it would have collapsed given time (suggesting that the permanent tunnels could collapse if made in structurally unsound areas).

As for seals, Banshee Slayers should be within a 3cm radius (not 2cm).

Jutsu updated, thanks. Awarding +3 XP now.

An extra +1 XP if you can find a player-accessible doc that has the writeup for Earth Dome, or certify that there isn't one. I'm not instantly seeing it and I don't want to double up if it's listed somewhere else.

faflec · Nov 23, 2019

eaglejarl said:
Jutsu updated, thanks. Awarding +3 XP now.

An extra +1 XP if you can find a player-accessible doc that has the writeup for Earth Dome, or certify that there isn't one. I'm not instantly seeing it and I don't want to double up if it's listed somewhere else.

Is this what you're looking for?

Edit: Wait, no, that can't be right, I gave that to you. Could you clarify, are you looking for a new version of the Earth Dome?

Edit2: @eaglejarl Having checked my google docs for possible docs with the writeup, I can't seem to find one. The closest equivalent is this, but that's written by me and so can't be right.

Shadowwarp · Nov 23, 2019

faflec said:
Hey I guess eaglejarl was right, we really are on the good timeline. I mean, just look at how clanless nin have been empowered.

Assuming we don't all die anyway

eaglejarl · Nov 23, 2019

faflec said:
Is this what you're looking for?

Edit: Wait, no, that can't be right, I gave that to you. Could you clarify, are you looking for a new version of the Earth Dome?

Edit2: @eaglejarl Having checked my google docs for possible docs with the writeup, I can't seem to find one. The closest equivalent is this, but that's written by me and so can't be right.

You are filled with awesome. I have merged your document and the official one, although I have not yet converted the stuff you had into the FtD rules.

+10 XP. Just for Hazō.

Kiba · Nov 23, 2019

eaglejarl said:
You are filled with awesome. I have merged your document and the official one, although I have not yet converted the stuff you had into the FtD rules.

+10 XP. Just for Hazō.

Narrator In Hazo's Head: Congratulation! You acquired 10 XP for absolutely no reason at all!
Hazo: I think I got a little stronger?

Shard · Nov 23, 2019

Inferno Vulpix said:
If you want player characters to die without people getting too attached to them, it might be worth setting up a time limit from the beginning. Something like "You will die in X days if you don't get killed before then".

The problem of Bad Ends seems pretty straightforward to me, though. Give the players something that does persist between lives and let their actions affect it. The players will learn to devote their attachment to that thing rather than the characters themselves (kamikaze plays would probably become acceptable then) and the stakes are always going to be the repercussions for that persisting thing.

That persisting thing might be as simple as a country or something, but it could also be a unique tradition of knowledge. If the players founded the Humanism Monastery or w/e then in all subsequent runs they'll want to do their best to adopt and spread the Dao of Humanism at all costs.

Hmm if players were setup to die in MfD and we would get a new character every 12 or so updates it would be interesting. Rewards might be something like rollover EXP based on how well we did, whether our character survived or died, etc, etc.

We could play anywhere between 0 EXP civilians to 10000 EXP Jounin. the 'OOC' EXP is more like a supplementary income that's fixed.

For example if we died now we could have a supplementary exp of say 1000 EXP. Our new character is a Genin somewhere. We add that 1000 EXP to their stats, perhaps added slowly. When that Genin dies we move on to the next. Say we did poorly and died. Our supplementary EXP is only 1008 EXP this time. But if we did well (got the Genin out of danger, moved him/her into a position where he/she might excel, etc) our EXP might be 1100 instead.

roobee · Nov 24, 2019

eaglejarl said:
An extra +1 XP if you can find a player-accessible doc that has the writeup for Earth Dome

eaglejarl said:
+10 XP. Just for Hazō.

Typo? Or did you change your mind?

Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

The Shining One

The Shining One

Handsome Gentleperson

The Shining One

One and Many