@Velorien what are your thoughts on the player-voted [Jashin] opinion? It got more votes than literally anything else, and I'm more than happy for you do redo an official poll with that as an option if you want more engagement.
 
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[X] Action Plan: So, You Have Come This Far, and Still, You Understand Nothing
 
I have a question regarding the Shimura. I know that they (they being the formerly unofficial Shimura that were blood related but not officially of his Clan) retroactively inherited Danzō's belongings, including the estate we reclaimed from the wilds. But did they also retroactively inherit his Clan status? If yes, does that mean that the KEI representative on the Council is now a Clan Head (instead/in addition)? Or are those two roles split between different Shimura (or "Shimura") instead of being united in Yūichi?

I ask because the interlude I want to vote for is this:

[X] Interlude: Shimura on the formerly Gokētsu estate

This can be anything including but not limited to the following:
  • Hazō gives Yūichi the tour of his new estate
  • Some Gokētsu gives some Shimura (or KEI?) a tour of their new estate.
  • The Shimura (or KEI?) explore various stranger aspects of the estate and wonder.
  • The Shimura discuss their new home, some of them complaining.
  • The Shimura (or KEI) remodel parts that are not to their liking.
 
@eaglejarl , @Velorien , @Paperclipped

So, Noburi's jutsu, Hozuki's Mantle, is a pretty heckin' good jutsu, especially once it's leveled to 30... ostensibly, it was tossed in the Goketsu Jutsu Pool, alongside Surging Seas.

Did Jin not want to learn Hozuki's Mantle for some reason? It's pretty strong, and applies to any melee skill, such as Taijutsu. It seems like something he'd want to learn?

Was Jin just distracted by Surging Seas in the moment, and will learn Hozuki's Mantle afterwards, or something?
You can assume that the adoptees are learning the ninjutsu available to them in a sensible fashion, and that if we ever need to draw up full character sheets/roll combat for them, we will check the Gōketsu ninjutsu library to make sure we've properly accounted for their options.

In addition, I believe Hōzuki's Mantle has already been handed in to the Leaf Private Library. Poor Captain Miyamoto.

@Velorien what are your thoughts on the player-voted [Jashin] opinion? It got more votes than literally anything else, and I'm more than happy for you do redo an official poll with that as an option if you want more engagement.
I think at this point the QMs have a decent idea of what the players consider Hazō to believe in regard to Jashin. The question of whether or not this qualifies as Jashin worship to, say, people who burn Jashin worshippers at the stake is one we will have to explore when the issue comes up in-character.
 
Thank you QMs I really appreciate this and all the time, effort, and love you put into the quest ❤️
Thank you so much. :>


@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped I'm curious about your experiences during the POV switch during our 2nd Isan intervention. Did you all enjoy the change of perspective using the Isan team? And supposing there was an opportunity to delegate to Goketsu or Uplift to hunt down some lore, punch something, learn sealing, help Hazou with a political problem, and so on, would you want to bring back those POV swaps? Or would that be better as omakes from us players?
On the one hand, I liked the fact that it let me and @Velorien split up two parallel segments of the quest, each of which one of us was excited about and the other was anti-excited about.

On the other hand, I think it left things somewhat muddled.

Speaking off the top of my head and without talking to the other QMs about it: I'm not opposed to a temporary POV switch in the future, but I'd be inclined to make it a true switch -- the players take control of a different character and the camera follows them.

So then when Hazou-pilot, Resolve Georg, He of Unending Patience, has undergone "yet another Essie Fiasco" now decides to start snapping at people and being cruel? That now dealing with Essies is too stressful? He's four years older and his Resolve stat is at least double what it must have been in the Chunnin Exams, but now is when Hazou-pilot decides to start fumbling the ball?
Could you quote the part where Hazō was cruel, or fumbled the ball? I don't think he did either of those things and I'd like to understand where our readings differ.


That the meeting would be held outside of Fire Country, and in a neutral location. Pretty sure he floated Hot Springs as an option.
Yeah, that was Asuma's intent. Unfortunately, Akatsuki bulled on through instead of following the process he wanted.

I also think it merits pointing out that Asuma thought Hiashi would be a better Hokage than he would, back when Jiraiya had first died. Asuma sought to preserve peace within Leaf, and wanted Leaf to stand united, rather than fall apart to infighting
No, Asuma thought he would be the best Hokage given the current field of candidates, which is why he ran. When it ended up a tie he realized that he could try to force the issue and maybe get the hat, maybe not, but either way he would end up with a divided Leaf and everyone would see him as a selfish power-grabber. On the other hand, he could show selflessness, unite the factions, and have a position of influence by allowing Hiashi to have the hat and working with him. Also, that's the Will of Fire and was what was best for Leaf.
You do know that we'll never really lighthouse, right ? At best we'll get one or two research cycles before the next distraction.
The QMs don't want to write a lighthousing quest. The QMs can and will make new mechanics to stop us from lighthousing.
tl;dr We're not going to stop you from lighthousing, but we're also not going to stop simulating the world around you. If you want to ignore everything, go missing, and lighthouse for the rest of the quest, we're not going to stop you.

Long form:

First, I'm sorry you feel that way. There's a tone of bitterness in there that I wish you didn't feel. If I'm interpreting it right you see this as the QMs actively and unfairly trying to stop you from doing something, stop you from having the kind of fun you want. That's not our intent.

You mention us creating mechanics, which I assume is a reference to the stagnancy rework that came out recently. A few things about that: first, the stagnancy mechanic had been in place for a very long time but the mechanics for it were too clumsy so we hadn't been using it. What came out recently was us fixing a problem, not adding a new thing.

One might then ask, why did there need to be a stagnancy mechanic?

There's a question that the QMs have been wrestling with for IRL years, which is why aren't senior ninja all gods? Why don't Jiraiya and Hiruzen and all of these guys have all of their stats in the 100s and all the stunts and etc etc? Also, why don't ninja XP rates accelerate as they power up -- they've got higher numbers and more options, so they can do more of whatever it is that produces XP and they can do it faster. For a long time it wasn't the highest priority item because we weren't dealing with top-level ninja that much so it wasn't urgent. More and more, however, we're dealing with S-rankers and they're only going to be turning up more often from now on. If we want a realistic world then we need an answer.

We've kicked around various answers to these problems and stagnancy was the best fit we could find. It solves a lot of problems and is much more realistic -- it's very easy for a beginner to advance because there's a lot of easy ground to capture, but the learning rate slows as you start running out of challenges. Eventually it becomes nigh-impossible to find a situation that you can learn anything from, and thus older ninja have stopped growing and started maintaining. It provides an effective cap on skills without actually being a heavy-handed "no higher!"

Going back to the "QMs are stopping you from lighthousing" thing...we really aren't. We're modeling the world to the best of our ability and having things happen in it. You can choose to engage with these things or not engage with them. You don't have to fight the Dragons, or interact with Leaf's politics, or be associated with the Conclave. We're not forcing you to do those things and if you don't want to, cool. Vote for something else. Vote to go missing again. Vote to step down and give Mari or Noburi the clan head's chair. Vote to ask Asuma to send you on a long-duration mission somewhere. Vote to have Hazō abscond to the Seventh Path and not come back.

Have things happened that are preventing you from lighthousing? Yes. The Dragons came along and you decided that Hazō needed to be involved in saving the world. (A great decision, IMO, since the world is where the story happens.) For the record, the Dragons are not a random encounter that we rolled up. They came into the story because of legit reasons that develop from in-universe actions that you know of, not anything hidden in the background. Yes, there is missing information that makes it extremely difficult to connect the dots, but it's not a random thing that we threw at you because we were bored.

I give you this promise: if you want to lighthouse, you can make that happen. It will involve giving some things up -- for one, you won't be able to bring all the characters that you like, since (e.g.) Ino isn't going to go missing with you absent force majeure. Still, it's in your power to do. Yes, you'll have to deal with the stagnancy mechanics but, honestly, that's unlikely to be an issue for you if you aren't tied down in Leaf. Go find some big monsters to punch, boom, combat barrier cleared. Work on a hard seal, boom, sealing barrier cleared. If Hazō is sitting in the woods by himself doing nothing but sealing it's almost certain that time-per-update will pass faster.

Fair warning: we will continue modeling the world even if Hazō isn't there. If another Nagi Island happens then you might get a quest over with no warning. If you go missing and then eventually go back to Leaf then you'll probably be arrested and executed as a traitor. If you aren't then you'll likely find that people you care about are dead or have moved on from you, or etc.

Point is, we aren't big meanies out to ruin your fun.
 
You can assume that the adoptees are learning the ninjutsu available to them in a sensible fashion, and that if we ever need to draw up full character sheets/roll combat for them, we will check the Gōketsu ninjutsu library to make sure we've properly accounted for their options.

In addition, I believe Hōzuki's Mantle has already been handed in to the Leaf Private Library. Poor Captain Miyamoto.
Oh, sorry! Since Surging Seas was specifically called out within the narrative (Jin going "Oo, shiny!" And rushing off to learn it made me grin), I was worried that he may have overlooked other options available to him.

(I would have liked to have Captain Miyamoto swayed to our side, and watch as he grumbles, admits that we're not so bad after all, and then hasten to add a "for a Mist turncoat" as an obligatory afterthought)
 
Did we ever clarify to the KEI ninja among us that we weren't taking their KEI jutsu? I can't remember...
 
Did we ever clarify to the KEI ninja among us that we weren't taking their KEI jutsu? I can't remember...
I'm fine with taking the KEI jutsu, FWIW. KEI knew this would happen when their members got adopted, the adoptees knew that they would be expected to share amongst the Clan, just as the Clan shares with them... everyone knew what they were getting into when they joined up. If they have sour grapes, then that's on them.
 
I'm fine with taking the KEI jutsu, FWIW. KEI knew this would happen when their members got adopted, the adoptees knew that they would be expected to share amongst the Clan, just as the Clan shares with them... everyone knew what they were getting into when they joined up. If they have sour grapes, then that's on them.
Yeah, but with respect, you're kind of unhelpfully spiteful toward a lot of people in-story.
 
Yeah, but with respect, you're kind of unhelpfully spiteful toward a lot of people in-story.
More than I'm supremely annoyed by their hypocrisy, tbh.

If we want to buy their jutsu from KEI, then sure, we have ES50 amounts of money to throw around.

It can even help set precedent for buying KEI-adoptees non-public jutsu, which is useful and makes the Goketsu look good. We already set a precedent for buying adoption tickets for specific people, and this would further that.
 
[X] Interlude: Hiruzen and Jiraya Teach the Hyūga Elders the Pink Pony no Jutsu
[X] Interlude: Honoka's Adoption Ceremony
[x] Interlude: Uplift goes to the karaoke
[x] Interlude: Uplift goes shopping
[x] Interlude: Uplift goes on a picnic above the clouds
[x] Interlude: Hiruzen Learns About EM Nuke, Decides Hazou is going to learn THing, and scoops Hazou off the street like a stray kitten. Hazou is just thrilled to finally get an apprenticeship.

... I think I want to get all of the above across to Mari. I think she has some sort of unhealthy learned helplessness around S-rankers. See also her recent thoughts about how if Asuma is a threat to the Gouketsu, the best she can do is not provoke his ire.
Seconded. It reminds me of a plan that mentioned asking her what new seals could boost her combat capabilities; it might be a good idea to do just that. Also, do we know what Kagome is working on as far as seals are concerned? Is he still trying to make sense of MS 8?

Noburi would get free xp, which is great since he lacks FOOM
IRRC, he can't FOOM due to his unique chakra system, and therefore doesn't have enough CR, right? Any reason we don't get Nobs to FOOM?

No, Asuma thought he would be the best Hokage given the current field of candidates, which is why he ran. When it ended up a tie he realized that he could try to force the issue and maybe get the hat, maybe not, but either way he would end up with a divided Leaf and everyone would see him as a selfish power-grabber. On the other hand, he could show selflessness, unite the factions, and have a position of influence by allowing Hiashi to have the hat and working with him. Also, that's the Will of Fire and was what was best for Leaf.
OH. Well played, Asuma. I was convinced he was reluctant to run.

Point is, we aren't big meanies out to ruin your fun.
I feel alarmed that there is even a need to point that out. We love y'all, and we know you want to stay fair. As in any Quest/Game, players will complain because that's what we do. I hope the QMs don't feel bitter/discouraged/too negatively about it.
 
IRRC, he can't FOOM due to his unique chakra system, and therefore doesn't have enough CR, right? Any reason we don't get Nobs to FOOM?

That, and along with "Asuma is very leery of handing out the Shadow Clone jutsu, and doesn't seem to consider the medical benefits of Shadow Clone use in hospitals worth the potential OPSEC leak."

Even then, with the startup cost to raise Noburi's Resolve stat and a potential Shadow Clone stat high enough to start FOOMing, it would be a while before Noburi had a net-gain of XP (compared to the startup costs).

Personally, my hope is that if we raise Noburi's Medical skills high enough, he can impress Tsunade enough to earn an apprenticeship-in-truth, and thus have access to learning S-rank Stunts and jutsu.
 
I think at this point the QMs have a decent idea of what the players consider Hazō to believe in regard to Jashin.
For clarity purposes, what would you say that is?
The question of whether or not this qualifies as Jashin worship to, say, people who burn Jashin worshippers at the stake is one we will have to explore when the issue comes up in-character.
Sounds fair and simulationist to me!
 
IRRC, he can't FOOM due to his unique chakra system, and therefore doesn't have enough CR, right? Any reason we don't get Nobs to FOOM
We probably can, since he has 2 CP internal. Which would get evenly divided when he makes a clone.

But since if you don't have enough chakra, SC kills you when you cast it. It's dangerous to test. It's for this reason that Kabuto said it was too dangerous for him to learn.

Since then there's been very little interest in getting him SC, and I tend to agree there. If he dies, that's very bad. He's in a noncombat role and is unlikely to die on a shitty mission (RIP Akane)
 
[X] Action Plan: So, You Have Come This Far, and Still, You Understand Nothing
Word Count: 395
  • Optimize with Uplift
  • Clan Announcement: Denounce Hidan's penchant for ritual slaughter as recommended
    • Announcement:
      • Hazou has literally dedicated his career to preserving lives, even civilians, which he's frequently laughed at for doing. He's astonished anyone believed he'd support ritual execution of people he's invested so much in protecting.
      • People say crazy things about Hazou daily. Look at his actions, not words from literal zealot mass-murderers.
    • Have Mari organize Goketsu ninja and handle suspicious characters to avoid another Scarf Man incident.
    • Distribute announcement to Leaf.
  • Bring upset Goketsu ninja to Bakuchioka. Invite same-age Clan Heads/peers from specjonin celebration.
    • With permissions, describe the incident.
      • Hidan infiltrated Leaf and kidnapped Hazou, then forced him to play psychotic murder games.
        • When facing S-Rankers, options are generally, "Do what they say," or "Die." Hidan is no exception. Except he won't just kill Hazou. He'd kill everyone and everything Hazou cares about just to prove a point, because he can.
        • If Hazou's choice is between his Clanmates being at Hidan's mercy or himself, it's not much of a choice is it?
      • Hazou helped Bakuchioka recover as best he could, but the dead still died, along with the village the Goketsu had assisted that Hidan just visited. How's it possible to believe Hazou endorses that? He's genuinely baffled. You can't both think he's a pussy for caring about every life and think he's a murder cultist. That's frankly stupid.
    • He's dedicated to sealmastery at his combat/social abilities' expense, to Mari's dismay. Why? Punching empowers himself, but better seals empower his Clan and Leaf ninja. He must be careful what'd shared lest it get turned against Leaf. He's not protecting them if he's arming their enemies. Shikaku taught him that. Though frustrating, he's determined to become so skilled, no sealmaster can imitate him and he can share freely.
    • Until he makes something to deal with S-Rankers, Hazou's stuck doing whatever they say. That doesn't mean you should believe crazy shit they say.
@Cariyaga Is this more what you want in terms of "make arguments Hidan could buy as 'life priest' stuff" type of statement?

Anyone who would like to move the timeline forward, I strongly encourage you to vote for my plan. Though I sympathize with the 'just request a string of interludes' mindset, I personally don't want to slow down the story even more.
 
@Cariyaga Is this more what you want in terms of "make arguments Hidan could buy as 'life priest' stuff" type of statement?

Anyone who would like to move the timeline forward, I strongly encourage you to vote for my plan. Though I sympathize with the 'just request a string of interludes' mindset, I personally don't want to slow down the story even more.
Vaguely, yes -- but I'd like to be sure that uh... that's cogent with the will of fire and that we're not Doing a Heresy.
 
I have a question regarding the Shimura. I know that they (they being the formerly unofficial Shimura that were blood related but not officially of his Clan) retroactively inherited Danzō's belongings, including the estate we reclaimed from the wilds. But did they also retroactively inherit his Clan status? If yes, does that mean that the KEI representative on the Council is now a Clan Head (instead/in addition)? Or are those two roles split between different Shimura (or "Shimura") instead of being united in Yūichi?
The self-named Shimura weren't blood-related to Danzō (or, if they were, have chosen to keep it secret), and did not inherit his clan status in any way.
 
Could you quote the part where Hazō was cruel, or fumbled the ball? I don't think he did either of those things and I'd like to understand where our readings differ.
I need to get up in ~5 hours for work, but I'll get back to you on that. Promise I'm not trying to evade (this is really important to me, and I would like to discuss this more), I just need to get to sleep at a reasonable(ish) hour (though, given the time frame, I suspect that "a reasonable hour" has passed me by :p ).
 
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