Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Okay, so here's a character sketch that fleshes out the idea of using either talking or hiding to survive rather than combat, put together with Earth specialization. I also made her a medic-nin, because that's even more nonthreatening (also, might be able to change her face if needed).

Earth affinity 2
(42 points - meaning enough left over for some kind of long-term useful bloodlimit, preferably something we can keep hidden and/or won't get us dissected)
Taijutsu 2, Weapons 2, Stealth 2, Awareness 2, Transformation 1, Clone 1, Substitution 1
Resisting intimidation 1, Seduction / Fast-talk 3, Resisting seduction / fast-talk 1, Technique modification / development 1, medical knowledge 2, medical ninjutsu 2
Underground movement 1

Alright, so I've gone full Face.

-Face-

Attributes (72)

Intelligence 2 (4), Wits 2 (4), Resolve 2 (4)
Strength 1, Dexterity 3 (10), Stamina 2 (4)
Presence 4 (14), Manipulation 4 (14), Composure 4 (14)
Capacity 2 (4), Control 3 (10), Regeneration 1

Wind Affinity 2


Skills (15)

Seduction/Fast-Talk : 4 (++++) (10) [Max: 28]

Intimidation Res: 2 (++) (3) [Max: 24]

Taijutsu: 2 [Max: 22]

Weapons: 2 [Max: 19]

Stealth: 2 [Max: 19]

Awareness: 2 [Max: 26]

Transformation: 2 (+) (2) [Max: 18]

Clone: 1 [Max: 12]

Substitution: 1 [Max: 15]

Red Bovine said:

That's I guess, still I think just having a few clones to train with should still seriously speed up training even if it's just a handful of clones.

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Keep in mind that you're still limited by game mechanics -- no matter how much you train, you won't get better unless you have points to spend. Having clones could let you train in a shorter period of time but it won't let you go beyond what you can buy. That said, kage-bunshin-with-mega-numbers-of-clones is still vetoed because it breaks the game in all the ways.

Hi all, first time poster, never played one of these before (just read a bunch of stuff), but this looked fun so I thought I'd add something.
I don't have much to add for gaming combat, but it might be helpful to think about strategy some before making a character we regret later (when they're murdered by a prepared jonin as an unprepared genin). For this reason, I've come up with three general strategies we may want to consider during character creation. Sorry for length.

Strategy Survive to fight again: (this seems to be what most people are talking about building)
Why - the universe is unforgiving and we don't know much about it yet (mechanics, politics, how to get exp etc), to survive we can only really depend on ourselves, and what we start with, and need to survive any encounters. We can later figure out a way to thrive, grind the skills we need, and do whatever we want – but first we need to not die. We'll not die by being hard to kill in combat.
How - some type of survival and escape mechanism (e.g. mole, steel skeleton, substitution, etc). We dump other stats (e.g. social skills, most bloodlines, attributes) and try to be as physically indestructible as we can be. I'm not the best at coming up with these sorts of tactics, but there's been plenty of discussion on viable possibilities.
Pros - More likely to survive encounters, contributes to a versatile combat build. Makes engaging in combat a viable option for future actions. Could be fun to munchkin. Classic single player strategy for a reason in most games.
Cons - Any ninja sent after us knows exactly who we are – if we have anything substantially threatening or effective, they'll come prepared to thwart it. We're be more likely to wind up in combat situations in the first place, by spending our points preparing for it rather than avoiding it. We're committing quite a bit to a combat based build (which seems likely to lead to death – this is rational Naruto and we're a genin). We lose the possibility of free NPC labor by giving up social skills, also, won't be able to convince the group to pursue plans more beneficial to us than the group.

Strategy Run and hide: (my personal favorite)
Why - We already have above average skills for a civilian, if we can hide as one and train as a ninja at the same time, we can become as powerful as we want in time (depending on how experience works), emerge years later, and use our advanced knowledge we gain to make the world do what we want.
How - Take some ability to make ourselves able to hide as a non-ninja (bloodline? – we'll earn back the points later), take social powers then leave the missing-nin (fake death? Convince them to all split up?) and join a civilian community somewhere – pose as a travelling merchant beset by bandits or something (after scouting village because we're ninja). Find best training exploit we can, gain skills, become (nearly) invincible. Maybe do science. Maybe puppeteer civilizations. Maybe train combat and have much more than 72 points to work with before entering combat.
Pros - Less likely to enter combat. Persuasion is always useful. If it works, sacrifices our starting group for potentially unlimited time. Sets us up to mastermind change in the future by giving us skills to convince and influence people (much more survivable long-term and gives more options for molding the universe). We can then address problems like stopping death in the Narutoverse instead of problems like not being murdered as a missing-nin.
Cons - Unclear if we can actually achieve step one in plan – depends on our village's interest in killing us, their knowledge of our ability to hide, their policy towards missing-nin death confirmation, our group going along with our plan etc. Depending on how experience is gained, might just be infeasible (e.g. if ninja v ninja combat is only way to gain exp, if time progresses at a set pace and we can't time-warp through training until next conflict)

Strategy Group leader:
Why - We're just one genin with 72 points to spend. Our group is 3 jonin, 6 chunin, and 17 other genin. Surely munchkining 27 ninja is better than 1? We have a better chance of surviving if we can change group behavior than if we're just a member of the group (because somebody's going to die in an encounter, and we can make sure it's not us).
How - Take social skills, some physical dodging and substitution maybe, maybe a bloodline or skill making explicit consensual agreements have consequences which make people follow them (e.g. burns some of their stats)? Take leadership, format encounters to have us not die, figure out how a group of missing-nin can viably survive and function.
Pros - Gives us more power to spend (in form of other ninja). More control of what our group does. Persuasion is always useful.
Cons - Doesn't directly deal with hunter-nin problem. If our group dies, we're in trouble (without substantial hiding or combat abilities). Group of ninja we're with have already been deemed likely insubordinate and useless. Assumes we'll be better at commanding the NPCs than they are.

Name: ???? Yuki

Village of Origin: Mist

Ice Kekkei Genkai (wind/water chakra nature): 30

Intelligence 3: 36
Wits 3: 42
Dexterity 3: 48
Control 4: 60
Capacity 3: 66
Composure 3: 72

Medical Ninjutsu 2: 3
Medical Knowledge 2: 6
Chakra Adhesion 2: 9
Water Walking 2: 12
Stealth 3: 15


Final Stats:
Intelligence 3 Wits 3 Resolve 1
Strength 1 Dexterity 3 Stamina 1
Presence 1 Manipulation 1 Composure 3
Capacity 3 Control 4 Regeneration 1

Water 2
Wind 2

Taijutsu 2
Weapons 2
Stealth 3
Medical Ninjutsu 2
Medical Knowledge 2
Chakra Adhesion 2
Water Walking 2
Transformation 1
Clone Technique 1
Substititution 1

I made this build when the quest was first proposed on Akun. I figured I'd post it here because nothing's running this late.

The backstory can go one of two ways. See, the Yuki clan (which Haku is from), was previously lynched due to the Mist Village's kinda unexplained fear of Kekkei Genkai in general. Haku's parents in particular were slaughtered for being part of this clan. As the village made no apparent efforts to get what few members of the Yuki clan who survived out of hiding, it can be assumed they really don't value the Kekkei Genkai that much. As such, even if he were openly using it (even as a medical nin) it might just be the very reason he was sent off. The clan didn't want someone with an obvious advantage becoming a high-ranking nin while the general population was still so aggressive towards him. Or they just don't like Kekkei Genkai because fuck the police.

Alternatively, this MC could have been instructed by the parents to hide the Kekkei Genkai, and thus it wouldn't be particularly developed. Medical ninjutsu would be better explained this way, as medical nin are typically kept on the back row, assisting injured teammates instead of openly fighting. You don't stick your white mage on the front lines. This path could also encourage a gentler demeanor in the MC, a more pacifist approach to the whole thing. This pacifist approach, or discovery of the MC's bloodline, perhaps both, might be reasons why the MC was sent out.

Mechanical Observations:

1) Most attributes are virtually useless to buy at this juncture - they don't interact with the resolution system at all, they're an additional tax on skill development. We should focus on maxing as many relevant skills as possible, since almost all skills can be maxed with baseline or slightly above baseline attributes. This is especially true given our extremely limited experience spread.

2) The only exception to this is Chakra Capacity, which can be used to double-up on physical and some social tasks, a very limited number of times per day. This may or may not be extremely valuable, for both the obvious reasons and due to the nature of the system.

3) Consider a Taijutsu 18 jounin attacking a Taijutsu 2 kid. Average rolls are 18d100 vs 2d100, average effect is (959-101) = 858, divided by (18 + 2)*.65 equals 66. Now consider Taijutsu 4 vs Taijutsu 2: 4d100 vs 2d100, 202 - 101 = 101, divided by (4+2)*.65 equals about 26.

An additional 14 points of skill, the only relevant mechanical metric, results in less than three times difference in effective result. Basically, outcomes approach +100 even at their most lopsided (Kaguya vs an amoeba), and are very likely to stay in the band of +25 or less.

Now consider the case where the kid can boost his Taijutsu to 6: against the jounin, his result improves from 66 to 42, and against his peer he goes from losing by 26 to winning by 20. This raises two questions, which I'll repeat in the question section below. Firstly, how valuable is it to reduce an opponent's margin of victory from +66 to +42, given that a counterpart with double your skill can only achieve a margin of +25? Second, how many rolls does it take to typically resolve a fight? The fewer the rolls, the more valuable the Chakra stat is.

4) It is clear from authorial warnings that we would benefit from an optimized build. Given that we reach the stat cap for most relevant Skills with 11 or less XP, we can afford to specialize in 3-4 synergistic Skills or Techniques and still possess moderate competence at some important Skills, all while taking an Affinity or Bloodline Limit. In order to determine what builds are optimal, we need the answers to a few questions, below.

Mechanics Questions For The GMs:

1) Is the system as-presented more or less complete: that is, there are going to be no unpleasant surprises like Strength turning out to mediate damage or Intelligence turning out to mediate learning speed?

2) How many rolls does it take to end the average highly contested fight? For example, the fight between Naruto and Neji. What about Naruto vs Gaara, a much longer multi-stage fight? Can you explain in depth how damage works, and how margin of victory interacts with it?

3) Could the GMs stat out some example canon characters so we know what each Skill level represents? For example, does Sasuke have across-the-board 4s as Rookie of the Year, or are even his starting stats more modest?

4) Stat cost increases nonlinearly; does marginal in-universe power per stat point also do so? Given the extreme non-granularity of the Chakra Capacity Stat (at 4, our maximum, 1 point represents 25% of our chakra pool), how do Shadow Clones interact with Chakra? Does Naruto actually have 400 chakra to spread among 400 clones (and later, 2000+ chakra)?

5) Does Taijutsu also represent general athleticism? What are its benefits to justify its more restrictive cost typing vs Weapon Arts, which also have the benefit of ranged attacks?

6) How valuable are circumstantial bonuses and penalties? How rare is a +1d bonus? A +3d? +10d?

7) Is there any difference between attacking with Nin, Tai, or Genjutsu, mechanically speaking, or is all that abstracted out?

8) I'm a bit confused by the existence of the "Resist Fast Talk / Resist Intimidation" skills. There is no "Resist Tai/Ninjutsu" skill, so does social combat work differently than physical? What if I want to respond to an enemy's Fast Talk by Intimidating him? Are there Skills representing non-hostile social interaction (reasoned arguments, straightforward charisma), or do those depend entirely on our own dialogue-writing ability?

9) How does the action system resolve cross-discipline clashes? For example, if my primary defense against an enemy attack is to dissuade them with fast-talk, do I roll Fast Talk vs. Enemy Ninjutsu, or do I roll Fast Talk vs. Enemy Resist Fast Talk and Combat Skill vs Enemy Ninjutsu? Similarly, what are the actions necessary to enter Stealth from combat, and are there any penalties to defending yourself with a Combat Skill while trying one of the non-Combat actions described above?

10) Non-mechanics related, but how much time will each update roughly cover, given the relatively modest update speed? A lot of quests fall into extremely slow pacing and never reach the point where the character is powerful enough to matter or participate in relevant events. Given a relatively competent playbase, how long do you see it taking before we reach jounin level?

I'm a bit late to the party, so I highly doubt that whatever I post will win, but

A couple of my points on the discussion so far.

Affinities:
-Lightning has a pretty good armor buff if you're a master, something to keep in mind.
-Wind synergizes well with weapons
-Fire just sucks, don't take it if you don't have the sharingan. If you want to make explosions just buy explosion tags
-Water has the problem of needing existing resources that aren't actually that abundant. Pass.
-Earth is a fair contender for top spot, and on top of that has a flying technique for the masters (somewhat counter-intuitively)

Genjutsu:
Ya'll nuts if you think this is any good. Any one worth their salt is immune to genjutsu. Eye techniques that made people outright immune were abundant in canon, and even then it was trivially easy to break out of if you were not a complete idiot. There's a reason why Kurenai despite being a jonin was so pathetic.

It all comes down to GM bias. Will the enemies have ridiculously high saves against illusion like in canon? Who knows. But if they will then we're boned so hard it's not even funny.

Village:
I'm in favour of Mist or Sand, but that's only because I know my idea won't win, and that's village hidden in the snow. It's such a small thing that these guys only show up once in a Naruto movie, and that's it. On top of that Doto is a petty asshole, so him sending ninja that were grumbling about the regime change is something very in-character for him even if the MC is completely innocent of everything except not being okay with supporting a despot.

Specialty:
I'm surprised nobody thought to maximise henge. It's a swiss army knife of techniques and a scalpel and a hammer if need be. With such a small amount of points specialising in something that is both versatile and powerful is a pretty good choice and that thing could be henge.

What's that you say? It breaks in only one hit? Well, yeah, but I'm assuming that a master of henge can get very creative with it. A master could use it not only for stealth, but also for a wide variety of things because from the way it was shown in Naruto, this thing actually turns you into the thing you look like. Could we turn into a bird? We can turn into a windmill shuriken! How much harder could a working bird be?

If you combine this thing with Shadow (or any kind of) clone technique then you can do ridiculous stuff.

That being said I'm fine with specialising in anything as long as it's unique and fun. If it ends up being ninjutsu or puppets then I'll be pretty upset.

Rooster said:

I'm a bit late to the party, so I highly doubt that whatever I post will win, but

Genjutsu:
Ya'll nuts if you think this is any good. Any one worth their salt is immune to genjutsu. Eye techniques that made people outright immune were abundant in canon, and even then it was trivially easy to break out of if you were not a complete idiot. There's a reason why Kurenai despite being a jonin was so pathetic.

It all comes down to GM bias. Will the enemies have ridiculously high saves against illusion like in canon? Who knows. But if they will then we're boned so hard it's not even funny.

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I'd like to point out that this is because the use of genjutsu mid-battle is a really advanced thing and prone to failure. The point of Genjutsu is to hit the target with it before they're made aware of the fact there's even an enemy to engage. As a point, that sleep jutsu that was used en masse on a field of people knocked out genin, chunin, and nobles alike. Only a few jounin managed to see they were caught in it and were able to break out of it (save for the genin who would end up being intellectual badasses in canon, but I'm chalking that up to plot armor). That was just one person using a genjutsu.

Using it when the opponent can see you using it is stupid, and its applications are few and far between. But using it from stealth to supplement an ambush or avoid being detected? It can give some random genin a chance to outperform a much larger force.

By the way, there is a contradiction as to Attribute costs: the "Rules" section says they cost "New Level x 2" XP, whereas the "Character Creation" section says that all Attributes start at 1, and it costs 2 points to raise a stat one level and 4 points to raise it two levels. Does it cost 2 or 4 XP to raise a stat from 1 to 2?

Rihaku said:

By the way, there is a contradiction as to Attribute costs: the "Rules" section says they cost "New Level x 2" XP, whereas the "Character Creation" section says that all Attributes start at 1, and it costs 2 points to raise a stat one level and 4 points to raise it two levels. Does it cost 2 or 4 XP to raise a stat from 1 to 2?

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That seems to be in reference to the attributes that start with 0 points. We only start with 1 point in the 9 main stats(the ones except capacity, control, regeneration and chakra attributes). It is always the case that raising an attribute costs 2x{new level}(with the exception of raising either capacity or regen when one is below the other. Then it costs 1x{new level}).
It is simply presented a bit confusing, since it is not made clear enough which stats are main stats and the example uses a non-main stat to elucidate costs.

MordBad said:

That seems to be in reference to the attributes that start with 0 points. We only start with 1 point in the 9 main stats(the ones except capacity, control, regeneration and chakra attributes). It is always the case that raising an attribute costs 2x{new level}(with the exception of raising either capacity or regen when one is below the other. Then it costs 1x{new level}).
It is simply presented a bit confusing, since it is not made clear enough which stats are main stats and the example uses a non-main stat to elucidate costs.

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Yeah, that's the interpretation I was assuming, but there are some builds constructed on the assumption that Stat 2 costs 2xp and Stat 3 costs 4, so I wanted to be sure.

Edit: Are you sure you we don't start with 1 point in the Chakra attributes as well? It does say "9 Main Attributes," but there's no way to possess our existing 1 Rank in Substitution technique without Chakra Control 1, and if we have Chakra Capacity 0 we are permanently unconscious. It seems strange to have mandatory attributes that must be bought with XP; if they're mandatory, the XP required to buy them shouldn't be available for chargen. Plus, all 12 Attributes are called "Main Attributes."

I'll leave the game mechanics questions to our master of game mechanics (AugSphere) for now.

Icehawk78 said:

Are there any sort of in character representations of xp/char points/etc?

I'm still interested in finding a way to get some sort of bloodline, as that seems like an up front investment that can pay off down the line. Possibly an observational bloodline similar to the sharingan (but without the genjutsu bonuses or advanced reaction time that it grants) that allows us to gain xp/skills from situations such as training or observing fights?

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I don't think you'd derive much by way of mechanical benefit from this. The time you spend training/observing to gain XP is also time you could have spent achieving things to gain potentially larger amounts of XP, and while you're indulging in passive learning, the world is still moving in the background (including those hunter-nin). Training *is* important to a ninja, but it's also a luxury when there is so much to do and so few people to do it.

ProperAttorney said:

This kind of makes me wonder if we could maybe have perfect chakra control, like Sakura, as a bloodline.

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Well, chakra control is an attribute, and you won't be getting a bloodline that sets an entire attribute to 999.

Red Bovine said:

That's I guess, still I think just having a few clones to train with should still seriously speed up training even if it's just a handful of clones.

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If you can acquire the Shadow Clone Technique, more power to you. But it's not going to be easy - the Shadow Clone Technique is rare, and the people who know it are generally very powerful and disinclined to share.

Velorien said:

I'll leave the game mechanics questions to our master of game mechanics (AugSphere) for now.



I don't think you'd derive much by way of mechanical benefit from this. The time you spend training/observing to gain XP is also time you could have spent achieving things to gain potentially larger amounts of XP, and while you're indulging in passive learning, the world is still moving in the background (including those hunter-nin). Training *is* important to a ninja, but it's also a luxury when there is so much to do and so few people to do it.



Well, chakra control is an attribute, and you won't be getting a bloodline that sets an entire attribute to 999.



If you can acquire the Shadow Clone Technique, more power to you. But it's not going to be easy - the Shadow Clone Technique is rare, and the people who know it are generally very powerful and disinclined to share.

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What about a bloodline that allows for perfect internal chakra control? Complete, conscious control over the normally subconsciously regulated chakra network? We'd be visibly better at some techniques, be a clear winner for Sage training, and have a direct counter to Gentle Fist style. Proper training with it could let us do some 8 gates fuckery without it having nearly as bad drawbacks on our body.

Rihaku said:

Yeah, that's the interpretation I was assuming, but there are some builds constructed on the assumption that Stat 2 costs 2xp and Stat 3 costs 4, so I wanted to be sure.

Edit: Are you sure you we don't start with 1 point in the Chakra attributes as well? It does say "9 Main Attributes," but there's no way to possess our existing 1 Rank in Substitution technique without Chakra Control 1, and if we have Chakra Capacity 0 we are permanently unconscious. It seems strange to have mandatory attributes that must be bought with XP; if they're mandatory, the XP required to buy them shouldn't be available for chargen. Plus, all 12 Attributes are called "Main Attributes."

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I have the same confusion as you. The main reason for arguing that Chakra attributes are not main attributes is the following:

Character creation document said:

1. You start with 72 points to spend on main attributes, chakra affinities, chakra attributes, and bloodlines

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Here there is a distinction between main attributes and chakra attributes. I assume the different sections were written by different authors, since the introduction of attributes gives the impression that main attributes include chakra ones.

Given the proximity of this quote to the rules governing cost of attributes and which start with which number of points, I assume this takes precedence. Though it would be nice to have authorial backing on this interpretation.

EDIT: On further reading, it seems like chakra attributes can refer to the set of element-skill the character has. Can an author comment on whether the "9" starting stats is wrong(if it should be 12) or which interpretation is correct? With this possibly referring to skill in Earth, Fire, etc. in mind I agree with Rihaku. It doesn't make much sense that we start "passed out", so something is problematic with the char gen-rules. At least some clarification would be nice.

Silver719 said:

What about a bloodline that allows for perfect internal chakra control? Complete, conscious control over the normally subconsciously regulated chakra network? We'd be visibly better at some techniques, be a clear winner for Sage training, and have a direct counter to Gentle Fist style. Proper training with it could let us do some 8 gates fuckery without it having nearly as bad drawbacks on our body.

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That sounds potentially really powerful, so I think you'd need to be very explicit over how you want it to work and what you want it to be able to do. Then we can figure out if it's acceptable.

Spector29 said:

Alright, so, before I get number crunching, I'd like one of these builds.

- 'Face' Social/Genjutsu
- 'Nuke' Ninjutsu/Chakra
- 'Assassin' Nin-Taijutsu/Stealth(?)

Has anyone made these, or would anyone prefer a build over another?

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In preferred order:
Assassin > Nuke > Face

[X] Ninjutsu Specialist, you're throwing fire from behind the meatshields. Your elemental affinity is:
-[X] Water

[X] Mist

This seems like just the sort of tactic Mist would employ and hailing from there, our affinity would be Water Release, which happens to be my favourite element.

[X] Rock

[X] Tents with a rough palisade

If this is a suicide mission, then for it to make sense it would have to be against a strong enemy. Everyone hates Iwa, but they are undoubtedly a powerful foe.

Hiding there, it makes sense to set up camp surrounded by the high cliffs for protection.

[x] ninjutsu spec
-[x] earth

[x] a minor village (like moon, waterfall, or star)

[x] somewhere far away from our village of origin and any of their allies, and in a forest/jungle area if possible

[x] tents, set up to look like the camp of a group of travelling merchants and VERY DEFINITELY NOT A CAMP OF MISSING NINJA OR BANDITS OR WHATEVER, should be easy to abandon and escape from when necessary

Just gonna drop in to say I'm definitely hyped for this, the thought of a quest like this has run through my mind before so its awesome to see one take form.

I don't have the time to read the mechanics or votes in detail, so I'll just mention that I'd lean towards voting for some sort of Social- or Stealth-based character, probably from Mist. Tomorrow when I have time I'll catch up and submit something of value.

Thanks for running it QMs, looking forward to it.

Alright, here's a crazy "Attributes do nothing, 0 Skill costs XP, Extra skill points are of questionable use, Affinites can't be bought after char-gen" build. All the points feel pretty low, but since

Affinities
Primary affinity: Earth (0)
Secondary affinity: Wind (20)
Tertiary affinity: Fire (30)
[Since we can't do it ever again, buy up a bunch of affinities for free points, and lower XP costs in the future. Also, does this combo count as a Dust Affinity? Even if it doesn't, we have Earth for defense, Wind for armor penetration, and Fire and Wind for area attacks, and no real nature weaknesses.]

Main Attributes
Intelligence 1
Wits 1
Resolve 1
Strength 1
Dexterity 1
Stamina 1
Presence 1
Manipulation 1
Composure 1
(0)
[Most skill caps care about Wits, so this is a good place to use up our extra char-gen points. Dropped the extra point of Wits to pick up extra Chakra Capacity and Regeneration.]

Chakra Attributes
Capacity 3
Control 2
Regeneration 3
(19)
[Most of the techniques we have access to at this point need a Capacity of at least 1, and and Control caps as many skills as Wits. If we throw too many points here, we end up with unused points, so we don't bump Regeneration instead of Wits. We'll have pretty solid chakra reserves for our experience level.]

Chakra Nature Attributes
Fire 1
Wind 1
Lightning 0
Earth 2
Water 1
(3)
[Some points from our affinities, and Water and Lightning will be expensive. Tossed the extra points into Water]

Skills
Taijutsu 2
Weapons 2
Intimidation 1
Resisting Intimidation 1
Seduction/Fast-Talk 1
Resisting Seduction/Fast-Talk 1
Sealcraft 1
Technique Modification/Development 1
Awareness 2
Tactical Movement 2
Stealth 2
Working with traps, locks, etc 1
Medical Knowledge 1
Medical Ninjutsu 1
Wall-climbing, Chakra Adhesion 1
Water-walking 1
(14)
[A bunch of skills across the board, and spending leftover skill points on Tactical Movement, since we're on the run to an extent]

Techniques
Dispelling 1
Summoning 0
Transformation 1
Clone 1
Substitution 1
(1)
[Picking up Dispelling in addition to our freebies, but we can't buy Summoning even if we dropped a bunch of points into Chakra Capacity]

So, all told, it's a fairly low power character with a lot of future flexibility. Then again, the skills system averages dice rolls, so extra dice (and therefore skills) doesn't mean we do better on rolls, and we really only need a higher skill rank than our opponent. Since that's capped at four at char-gen, we can either have one skill at four and hope that our opponents have three dice or less, or have all the skills and hope our opponents have skill gaps where our one rank beats their zero ranks. If we survive long enough to buy other skills, we have cheaper buys in three of chakra natures which may or may not be important.

Even after all that, I'm not convinced this is a "good" or even "fun" build. It's essentially a "growth" build.

If this does get votes, I suggest Land of Earth for the character's homeland, for theme. Land of Grass would likely be a good starting point, between Rock and Leaf, and with Grass's penchant for diplomacy, we might be able to work some sort of asylum deal until their sudden yet inevitable betrayal.

Edit: Updated character sheet to reflect @AugSphere adding Chakra to the main attributes. Also, I might as well actually lock in my votes:
[X] Plan "Well-Rounded"
[X] Rock (Homeland)
[X] Grass (Current Locale)
[X] Tent with a rough palisade

Rihaku said:

Mechanics Questions For The GMs:

1) Is the system as-presented more or less complete: that is, there are going to be no unpleasant surprises like Strength turning out to mediate damage or Intelligence turning out to mediate learning speed?

2) How many rolls does it take to end the average highly contested fight? For example, the fight between Naruto and Neji. What about Naruto vs Gaara, a much longer multi-stage fight? Can you explain in depth how damage works, and how margin of victory interacts with it?

3) Could the GMs stat out some example canon characters so we know what each Skill level represents? For example, does Sasuke have across-the-board 4s as Rookie of the Year, or are even his starting stats more modest?

4) Stat cost increases nonlinearly; does marginal in-universe power per stat point also do so? Given the extreme non-granularity of the Chakra Capacity Stat (at 4, our maximum, 1 point represents 25% of our chakra pool), how do Shadow Clones interact with Chakra? Does Naruto actually have 400 chakra to spread among 400 clones (and later, 2000+ chakra)?

5) Does Taijutsu also represent general athleticism? What are its benefits to justify its more restrictive cost typing vs Weapon Arts, which also have the benefit of ranged attacks?

6) How valuable are circumstantial bonuses and penalties? How rare is a +1d bonus? A +3d? +10d?

7) Is there any difference between attacking with Nin, Tai, or Genjutsu, mechanically speaking, or is all that abstracted out?

8) I'm a bit confused by the existence of the "Resist Fast Talk / Resist Intimidation" skills. There is no "Resist Tai/Ninjutsu" skill, so does social combat work differently than physical? What if I want to respond to an enemy's Fast Talk by Intimidating him? Are there Skills representing non-hostile social interaction (reasoned arguments, straightforward charisma), or do those depend entirely on our own dialogue-writing ability?

9) How does the action system resolve cross-discipline clashes? For example, if my primary defense against an enemy attack is to dissuade them with fast-talk, do I roll Fast Talk vs. Enemy Ninjutsu, or do I roll Fast Talk vs. Enemy Resist Fast Talk and Combat Skill vs Enemy Ninjutsu? Similarly, what are the actions necessary to enter Stealth from combat, and are there any penalties to defending yourself with a Combat Skill while trying one of the non-Combat actions described above?

10) Non-mechanics related, but how much time will each update roughly cover, given the relatively modest update speed? A lot of quests fall into extremely slow pacing and never reach the point where the character is powerful enough to matter or participate in relevant events. Given a relatively competent playbase, how long do you see it taking before we reach jounin level?

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1. There won't be any unpleasant surprises if we can help it. You'll see new skills and techniques added as the character acquires them, but there shouldn't be any significant mechanics changes, unless I managed to accidentally bake a fatal flaw into the system.

2. I'll just say that most ninja are able to dish out punishment much better than they take it. They generally rely on evasion for staying intact, so you can expect your combat effectiveness to be largely determined by the character's ability to deliver their firepower. The precise amount of damage dealt will depend heavily on the circumstances: a vanilla chūnin wouldn't be likely to survive a knife to the jugular, but someone like Orochimaru may just vomit up a new body and be on his way.

As far as damage to the player character, you can rely on QMs to give you in-character description of his state. Just how detailed this information will be will depend on the medical knowledge and ninjutstu the character has access to.

3. Sasuke would have some attributes and skills at 4, but it certainly wouldn't be across the board. His dump stat is obviously composure and he never paid much attention to his social skills. Medical knowledge and techniques didn't interest him either. As far as taijutsu and weapons, he'd have the 4 points, yeah. His proficiency in ninja wire is notable enough for a separate skill as well.

4. Naruto has an absolutely ridiculous chakra pool. The details of shadow clones you'll learn if the character ever manages to get their hands on it.

5. Well, the difference is mostly in the tools required. If you're playing a prodigy of shurikenjutsu and someone's nicked all your shuriken, well all those points are not going to be of much use, are they? Basic taijutsu doesn't require anything but the ninja's body, and its effectiveness is comparable to fighting with weapons. On the mechanics side: should you choose to specialise in ranged combat to the exclusion of melee, you can expect to get a new dedicated skill like "shurikenjutsu" that will start from the current level of "weapons", but will not count for melee rolls.

6. Given that 1 die can make or break the challenge, don't expect too see large bonuses often.

7. The difference will be in what skill opposes the check. If you're attacking at long to medium range with an area of effect technique, such as fireball, then the enemy will have to use Tactical Movement to try and get out of the way. If you're in the CQC, the roll is going to be opposed by the taijutsu, or a melee weapon skill. Opposing genjutsu will rely on awareness.

8. Taijutsu is opposed by taijutsu or a melee weapon skill. Ranged weaponry is opposed by either Tactical Movement (if you must bodily evacuate the area of effect) or taijutsu/weapon-skills (if you can just dodge with minimal movement or deflect the projectile with you weapon and so on). If someone is trying to seduce you, first you'll have to resist the attempt with the corresponding skill. Generally, someone is going to try and be subtle with fast-talking or seducing: the fact that you've caught on to the attempt in progress represents resisting the attempt. Fast-talk will mostly come into play when some social-engineering conman tries to convince you to give up the password, things like that. If you manage to present a reasonable and well thought-out argument, you won't have to bullshit anyone. Equally, should you fast-talk someone into agreeing with some shoddy argument, they may well notice, once they have the time to cool off and go over it again without your interference.

9. If someone's already lobbed a fireball at you, you'll have to first get out of the way, then you're free to try and talk him down. Entering stealth from combat is going to be tough: the enemy will know to be on alert and you can expect bonuses to their awareness rolls to detect you. Bonuses and maluses to combat skills based on social interaction will depend on context, but if the enemy doesn't actually want to hit you, they'll not be using their full skill score to hit you, that's for sure.

10. That'll depend on the direction the players take the quest, I suspect. It's somewhat up in the air at the moment.

Rihaku said:

Yeah, that's the interpretation I was assuming, but there are some builds constructed on the assumption that Stat 2 costs 2xp and Stat 3 costs 4, so I wanted to be sure.

Edit: Are you sure you we don't start with 1 point in the Chakra attributes as well? It does say "9 Main Attributes," but there's no way to possess our existing 1 Rank in Substitution technique without Chakra Control 1, and if we have Chakra Capacity 0 we are permanently unconscious. It seems strange to have mandatory attributes that must be bought with XP; if they're mandatory, the XP required to buy them shouldn't be available for chargen. Plus, all 12 Attributes are called "Main Attributes."

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MordBad said:

I have the same confusion as you. The main reason for arguing that Chakra attributes are not main attributes is the following:

Here there is a distinction between main attributes and chakra attributes. I assume the different sections were written by different authors, since the introduction of attributes gives the impression that main attributes include chakra ones.

Given the proximity of this quote to the rules governing cost of attributes and which start with which number of points, I assume this takes precedence. Though it would be nice to have authorial backing on this interpretation.

EDIT: On further reading, it seems like chakra attributes can refer to the set of element-skill the character has. Can an author comment on whether the "9" starting stats is wrong(if it should be 12) or which interpretation is correct? With this possibly referring to skill in Earth, Fire, etc. in mind I agree with Rihaku. It doesn't make much sense that we start "passed out", so something is problematic with the char gen-rules. At least some clarification would be nice.

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I've clarified it a bit in the doc. You start with 1 point in the 12 attributes from the table on the second page, which includes chakra capacity, control, and regen. Elemental attributes start at 0, except you get 2 for free in you main affinity (which you get for free as well). I apologise for the confusion, somehow everyone managed to miss the error.

dwibby said:

Alright, here's a crazy "Attributes do nothing, 0 Skill costs XP, Extra skill points are of questionable use, Affinites can't be bought after char-gen" build. All the points feel pretty low, but since

Affinities
Primary affinity: Earth (0)
Secondary affinity: Wind (20)
Tertiary affinity: Fire (30)
[Since we can't do it ever again, buy up a bunch of affinities for free points, and lower XP costs in the future. Also, does this combo count as a Dust Affinity? Even if they don't we have Earth for defense, Wind for armor penetration, and Fire and Wind for area attacks, and no real nature weaknesses.]

Main Attributes
Intelligence 1
Wits 2
Resolve 1
Strength 1
Dexterity 1
Stamina 1
Presence 1
Manipulation 1
Composure 1
(4)
[Most skill caps care about Wits, so this is a good place to use up our extra char-gen points]

Chakra Attributes
Capacity 2
Control 2
Regeneration 1
(9)
[Most of the techniques we have access to at this point need a Capacity of at least 1, and Control caps as many skills as Wits. If we throw too many points here, we end up with unused points, so we don't bump Wits instead of Regeneration.]

Chakra Nature Attributes
Fire 1
Wind 1
Lightning 0
Earth 2
Water 0
(0)
[Some points from our affinities, and Water and Lightning will be expensive]

Skills
Taijutsu 2
Weapons 2
Intimidation 1
Resisting Intimidation 1
Seduction/Fast-Talk 1
Resisting Seduction/Fast-Talk 1
Sealcraft 1
Technique Modification/Development 1
Awareness 2
Tactical Movement 2
Stealth 2
Working with traps, locks, etc 1
Medical Knowledge 1
Medical Ninjutsu 1
Wall-climbing, Chakra Adhesion 1
Water-walking 1
(14)
[A bunch of skills across the board, and spending leftover skill points on Tactical Movement, since we're on the run to an extent]

Techniques
Dispelling 1
Summoning 0
Transformation 1
Clone 1
Substitution 1
(1)
[Picking up Dispelling in addition to our freebies, but we can't buy Summoning even if we dropped a bunch of points into Chakra Capacity]

So, all told, it's a fairly low power character with a lot of future flexibility. Then again, the skills system averages dice rolls, so extra dice (and therefore skills) doesn't mean we do better on rolls, and we really only need a higher skill rank than our opponent. Since that's capped at four at char-gen, we can either have one skill at four and hope that our opponents have three dice or less, or have all the skills and hope our opponents have skill gaps where our one rank beats their zero ranks. If we survive long enough to buy other skills, we have cheaper buys in three of chakra natures which may or may not be important.

Even after all that, I'm not convinced this is a "good" or even "fun" build. It's essentially a "growth" build.

If this does get votes, I suggest Land of Earth for the character's homeland, for theme. Land of Grass would likely be a good starting point, between Rock and Leaf, and with Grass's penchant for diplomacy, we might be able to work some sort of asylum deal until their sudden yet inevitable betrayal.

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It's only a dust affinity if you buy a bloodline for it (30 points). Also I suspect dust element is banned because Rock wouldn't send a dust user on a suicide mission.

AugSphere said:

2. I'll just say that most ninja are able to dish out punishment much better than they take it. They generally rely on evasion for staying intact, so you can expect your combat effectiveness to be largely determined by the character's ability to deliver their firepower. The precise amount of damage dealt will depend heavily on the circumstances: a vanilla chūnin wouldn't be likely to survive a knife to the jugular, but someone like Orochimaru may just vomit up a new body and be on his way.

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Thanks, that's good to know. Is there a Skill that mediates our chakra-boosted physical resistance, or is that folded under Taijutsu?

Would a 20-point margin in the combat resolution roll end the fight against the average chunin, cripple him, or only moderately wound him?

AugSphere said:

As far as taijutsu and weapons, he'd have the 4 points, yeah. His proficiency in ninja wire is notable enough for a separate skill as well.

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In that case, we may not be as useless as I initially thought. Sasuke is able to defeat the chunin-level Demon Brothers fairly easily, so we should actually be competent in a Skill if we have 4 Ranks. We can get up to 2 Skills at 4 if they're Tai/Weap/Stealth/Awa, something to consider. We won't be as good as Sasuke overall, but if we can match him in some areas that's quite something.

AugSphere said:

7. The difference will be in what skill opposes the check. If you're attacking at long to medium range with an area of effect technique, such as fireball, then the enemy will have to use Tactical Movement to try and get out of the way. If you're in the CQC, the roll is going to be opposed by the taijutsu, or a melee weapon skill. Opposing genjutsu will rely on awareness.

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Could you write up a short example of combat for reference?

Velorien said:

That sounds potentially really powerful, so I think you'd need to be very explicit over how you want it to work and what you want it to be able to do. Then we can figure out if it's acceptable.

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Well, the idea is that normally a person is incapable of controlling their various chakra points (which is what the Gentle Fist style targets). It's mentioned the points can be closed off or opened up, thus altering the body's ability to manage chakra. The closest thing we ever see to any sort of conscious control is the Eight Inner Gates, which is still just being battered down on willpower alone as opposed to any conscious, direct control.

What it'd lead to is some jutsu that rely entirely on internal manipulation of chakra (such as the Raikage's lightning cloak thing) would be much easier as the Kekkei Genkai would minimize any risk that'd come from manipulating chakra within one's own body. Kabuto's Regeneration or Tsunade's muscle enhancement would also be viable options, if we had the appropriate medical knowledge to use it, and taijutsu is also easier since we can artificially enhance how much chakra we can send through our body at once. But this would still have a negative effect on our body, as our chakra capacity would be as small as normal (control is enhanced, not capacity or regeneration), and making something like a Water Dragon or a shadow clone, since that involves manipulating chakra outside of the body, would be as difficult as ever.