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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Hey, everyone! I'm new here, participating in such quest for the first time. I'm still learning about the system, trying to figure out how it works.

For now I'll just cast my vote I guess:

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

from:
[X] Rock

hiding out in
[X] Waterfall
in
[X] A cave
 
As a side note, since this is a Rational narutoverse, was Rin a dumbass that decided to get herself impaled by Kakashi as opposed to waiting for a sealing team just outside the village, or even just jumping off a cliff so that she didn't have to traumatize the people she loved?
 
MadScientist said:
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.
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Would that mean it's cheaper to buy Dust Affinity and get a three-for-the-price-of-two deal? I mean, that was Yamato's explanation of Tree nature, he has the Affinity for Tree, which means he has the Affinity for both Water and Earth and can combine them. I think since a single extra Affinity costs the same as a bloodline, it almost makes sense for an extra Affinity to be a combined nature bloodline (because combined nature transformation can be done by people without bloodlines in combination attacks, like when Sasuke and Naruto used a combination attack to generate a Scortch nature technique despite neither having the bloodline), and making Dust an expensive psuedo-bloodline at 50 points total.

I can totally see it either way, depending on how the QMs treat the setting mechanics.
 
dwibby said:
Would that mean it's cheaper to buy Dust Affinity and get a three-for-the-price-of-two deal? I mean, that was Yamato's explanation of Tree nature, he has the Affinity for Tree, which means he has the Affinity for both Water and Earth and can combine them. I think since a single extra Affinity costs the same as a bloodline, it almost makes sense for an extra Affinity to be a combined nature bloodline (because combined nature transformation can be done by people without bloodlines in combination attacks, like when Sasuke and Naruto used a combination attack to generate a Scortch nature technique despite neither having the bloodline), and making Dust an expensive psuedo-bloodline at 50 points total.

I can totally see it either way, depending on how the QMs treat the setting mechanics.
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I think you would need to buy fire, wind and earth (getting one for free) and then buy dust bloodline on top of that.

Which would cost 80 points (free element + 20 secondary element + 30 tertiary element + 30 bloodline) so isn't even possible for us to get.
 
Silver719 said:
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.
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Could be viable. Sounds worthy of 30 points, as long as you're willing to have individual uses vetoed further down the road if they're too crazy.
Silver719 said:
As a side note, since this is a Rational narutoverse, was Rin a dumbass that decided to get herself impaled by Kakashi as opposed to waiting for a sealing team just outside the village, or even just jumping off a cliff so that she didn't have to traumatize the people she loved?
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Oh, God, that. There's still a head-shaped dent in my wall from watching that scene. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that this never happened. Rin died because she's a weak combatant, and Kakashi is merely riven with guilt because with all his genius ability he still failed to save her.
 
Velorien said:
Could be viable. Sounds worthy of 30 points, as long as you're willing to have individual uses vetoed further down the road if they're too crazy.

Oh, God, that. There's still a head-shaped dent in my wall from watching that scene. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that this never happened. Rin died because she's a weak combatant, and Kakashi is merely riven with guilt because with all his genius ability he still failed to save her.
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Sounds cool. Technical skill for using jutsu on one's own body (risk or no risk) is still nothing to sneeze at even if it is easier, but extremely simple things like Transformation would be almost passive from the get go is the idea.

kek. What about Obito then? I mean, I get he didn't figure it out because he was a kid, but he's not always gonna be a kid.
 
[X]Shin Tatsumaki of the
[X]Mist

Attributes (cost in parantheses)
[X] Plan Chakra and smarts
Intelligence 3(10) Wits 2(4) Resolve 2(4)
Strength 1 Dexterity 2(4) Stamina 2(4)
Presence 1 Manipulation 2(4) Composure 2(4)
Capacity 4(18) Control 3(10) Regeneration 4(9)
1 point leftover. The low cost of regeneration is due to increasing capacity first.
[X]Plan ambush and survival skills
Taijutsu 2, Weapons 4(7), Stealth 3(3), Awareness 2, Transformation 1, Clone 1, Substitution 1
Sealcraft 1, Tactical movement 1, Working with traps 1, Medical knowledge 1, medical ninjutsu 1

[X] Earth affinity
[X] Hiding out in: Grass
[X] Camping in: Tent pallisade

The plan here is basically to survive to become better. Relying on stealth and weapons mainly, with some trap and sealcraft thrown in to make better ambushes and be useful in more circumstances. Medical knowledge and medical ninjutsu is to enable us to more accurately gauge when we are hurt and to do emergency first-aid on ourselves or others. People are a limited resource.
We can't afford to lose too many of them. Tactical movement is for medium-range dodging, while weapon-skill doubles as both CQB defense and long-range offense.

In a pinch we can use our Chakra to give us a boost on physical skills due to our high capacity, and our high regeneration enables us to spend it more often.

We have a high int, mostly because it, after wits, is the most limiting attribute. Also, the most interesting skills are limited by it. Sealing and Technique development? That sounds interesting to me.

It is also interesting to note that skills are relatively cheap. It only costs points equal to the new level to increase it.
To me, this provides incentives for maxing out a main-skill in character creation. If we survive we can diversify our skills a bit more. This is probably the largest pool of points we will get. As such, it is good to use it where we get the most survivability out of it.

Later we can go into Ninjutsu due to our high capacity, regen and control by investing in Technique development and still have a fallback in terms of defensive and offensive potential.


Personality-wise, this is a chakra-heavy, sly, shy and intelligent genin.
The thought is to fight where it is most advantageous for him, but still be able to survive when shit hits the fan.

Comments?
 
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Silver719 said:
Sounds cool. Technical skill for using jutsu on one's own body (risk or no risk) is still nothing to sneeze at even if it is easier, but extremely simple things like Transformation would be almost passive from the get go is the idea.

kek. What about Obito then? I mean, I get he didn't figure it out because he was a kid, but he's not always gonna be a kid.
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Don't you know that Madara hit Obito with his secret ultimate Uchiha Sharinnegan Genjutsu Ukemochi, which causes extreme retardation in its targets?
 
Corvus Black said:
I really like this plan, but wouldn't Mist ninja have a Water affinity?
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Not necessarily. Earth affinity is just in the extreme minority, almost non-existent. But it is not outside the realm of possibility for the PC to have it.

According to the rules we are free to mix and match affinities and villages.
Fluff-wise that means we are simply an anomaly. Just like Naruto and Asuma are in Leaf with their Wind-affinity.

Also, the plan is modular, it is possible to vote for sub-sections of it if you don't like my choice of affinity. :)
 
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MordBad said:
Not necessarily. Earth affinity is just in the extreme minority, almost non-existent. But it is not outside the realm of possibility for the PC to have it.

According to the rules we are free to mix and match affinities and villages.
Fluff-wise that means we are simply an anomaly. Just like Naruto and Asuma are in Leaf with their Wind-affinity.
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Is there a particular reason you chose Earth?
 
Corvus Black said:
Is there a particular reason you chose Earth?
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For later ability to run, hide and prepare ambushes.
Mostly, earth-skills are best suited for survivability(armor, covering weapons, impromptu walls to take cover behind), hiding and running(underground mole technique), preparing ambushes (explosive seals underground or easy spiked pits) and extreme late-game allows you theoretically to fly(Tsuchikage does. Us being able to probably depends on what the authors think of this skill, in addition to the vanishingly small chance we get this powerful).
Also: earth is (almost)everywhere.
 
Stealthy Mole Template:

Intelligence 1
Wits 1
Resolve 1
Strength 1
Dexterity 1
Stamina 1
Presence 1
Manipulation 1
Composure 1
Capacity 1
Control 1
Regeneration 1

Taijutsu (no special style) 2
Weapons (kunai and shuriken) 2
Intimidation 1
Resisting Intimidation 1
Seduction / Fast-Talk 1
Resisting Seduction / Fast-Talk 2
Sealcraft 1
Technique Modification/Development 1
Awareness 2
Tactical Movement 2
Stealth 2
Working with traps, locks, etc. 1
Medical Knowledge (poisons, antidotes, medicines, anatomy) 1

Earth 2
Wall-climbing, Chakra Adhesion 1
Water-walking 1
Dispelling 1
Transformation 1
Clone 1
Substitution 2
Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique 1 OR Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique 1 (they seem to do basically the same thing)
Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique 1
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall 1

with 69 points left over to flesh him/her out with various upgrades
 
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Corvus Black said:
I really like this plan, but wouldn't Mist ninja have a Water affinity?
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MordBad said:
According to the rules we are free to mix and match affinities and villages.
Fluff-wise that means we are simply an anomaly. Just like Naruto and Asuma are in Leaf with their Wind-affinity.
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Basically this. Villages have enough variation that it's plausible there would be ninja of any given basic affinity in any given village.
 
MadScientist said:
Stealthy Mole Template:

Intimidation 1(1)
Resisting Intimidation 1(2)
Seduction / Fast-Talk 1(3)
Resisting Seduction / Fast-Talk 2(6)
Sealcraft 1(7)
Technique Modification/Development 1(8)
Tactical Movement 2(11)
Working with traps, locks, etc. 1(12)
Medical Knowledge (poisons, antidotes, medicines, anatomy) 1(13)

Wall-climbing, Chakra Adhesion 1(14)
Water-walking 1(15)
Dispelling 1(16)
Substitution 2(18 [2 for 1 -> 2])
Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique 1 OR Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique 1 (they seem to do basically the same thing)(19)
Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique 1(20)
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall 1(21)

with 69 points left over to flesh him/her out with various upgrades
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You have spent 21 points on skills in this.
I think the points we get are explicitly ear-marked.
We can't use points from the pool of 72 on skills.
We can't use points from the pool of 15 on attributes or bloodlines.

My assumption is that any xp leftover becomes "free" xp once the game starts.
I don't think we are free to mix and match.
Otherwise, a character with all skills of 4 would almost be tempting. :p
 
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MordBad said:
You have spent 21 points on skills in this.
I think the points we get are explicitly ear-marked.
We can't use points from the pool of 72 on skills.
We can't use points from the pool of 15 on attributes or bloodlines.

My assumption is that any xp leftover becomes "free" xp once the game starts.
I don't think we are free to mix and match.
Otherwise, a character with all skills of 4 would almost be tempting. :p
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From the doc:

You get the following as freebies:

  • Taijutsu: 2

  • Weapons: 2

  • Stealth: 2

  • Awareness: 2

  • Transformation Technique: 1

  • Clone Technique: 1

  • Substitution Technique: 1
Plus, we get 15 free points to spend on skills in addition to that.

EDIT: and each attribute starts at 1.
 
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MadScientist said:
From the doc:

You get the following as freebies:

  • Taijutsu: 2

  • Weapons: 2

  • Stealth: 2

  • Awareness: 2

  • Transformation Technique: 1

  • Clone Technique: 1

  • Substitution Technique: 1
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Yeah, but the following skills add up to a cost of 21, even taking the freebies into account. Total cost for skills other than freebies in parantheses.
Take note that skills and techniques have to paid for from the same pool of 15 points.

Intimidation 1(1)
Resisting Intimidation 1(2)
Seduction / Fast-Talk 1(3)
Resisting Seduction / Fast-Talk 2(6)
Sealcraft 1(7)
Technique Modification/Development 1(8)
Tactical Movement 2(11)
Working with traps, locks, etc. 1(12)
Medical Knowledge (poisons, antidotes, medicines, anatomy) 1(13)

Wall-climbing, Chakra Adhesion 1(14)
Water-walking 1(15)
Dispelling 1(16)
Substitution 2(18 [2 for level 1 -> 2])
Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique 1 OR Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique 1 (they seem to do basically the same thing)(19)
Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique 1(20)
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall 1(21)
 
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MordBad said:
Yeah, but the following skills add up to a cost of 21, even taking the freebies into account:
Total cost for skills in paranthesis.

Take note that skills and techniques have to paid for from the same pool of 15 points.
Intimidation 1(1)
Resisting Intimidation 1(2)
Seduction / Fast-Talk 1(3)
Resisting Seduction / Fast-Talk 2(6)
Sealcraft 1(7)
Technique Modification/Development 1(8)
Tactical Movement 2(11)
Working with traps, locks, etc. 1(12)
Medical Knowledge (poisons, antidotes, medicines, anatomy) 1(13)

Wall-climbing, Chakra Adhesion 1(14)
Water-walking 1(15)
Dispelling 1(16)
Substitution 2(18 [2 for level 1 -> 2])
Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique 1 OR Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique 1 (they seem to do basically the same thing)(19)
Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique 1(20)
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall 1(21)
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Okay, I guess I miscounted.
 
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The Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique seems to be the more basic technique as the databook does not mention the 'magnetic-sense' ability. Mind you the manga/anime does suggest this since Team Oboro would have serious difficulty locating a moving enemy (Team 7) from underground but it's by no means stated outright, and there are alternative explanations.

So get Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique. It's the better one.
 
Redone Stealthy Mole Template:

Intelligence 1
Wits 1
Resolve 1
Strength 1
Dexterity 1
Stamina 1
Presence 1
Manipulation 1
Composure 1
Capacity 1
Control 1
Regeneration 1

Taijutsu (no special style) 2
Weapons (kunai and shuriken) 2
Intimidation 1
Resisting Intimidation 1
Seduction / Fast-Talk 1
Resisting Seduction / Fast-Talk 1
Awareness 2
Tactical Movement 2
Stealth 2
Working with traps, locks, etc. 1
Medical Knowledge (poisons, antidotes, medicines, anatomy) 1

Earth 2
Wall-climbing, Chakra Adhesion 1
Water-walking 1
Dispelling 1
Transformation 1
Clone 1
Substitution 1
Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique 1 OR Earth Release: Underground Projection Fish Technique 1 (they seem to do basically the same thing)
Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique 1
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall 1

With all 72 points left over for non-skill stuff (thanks @MordBad :)).
 
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There's also this to think about: Kakashi doesn't seem to be using any jutsu yet he can launch himself using (presumably) just the standard Hiding Like a Mole Technique. If our goal is rapid assassination it would be more logical for us to just propel ourselves upwards to stab an enemy, instead of dragging them down, then stabbing them. Faster and saves us points since we don't need to learn a new technique.
 
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Hear me out (first "quest" I've ever done), but this whole creation process sounds extremely similar to deck building in Magic: The Gathering. Granted, our "opponents" (i.e. hunter-nin, foreign ninja, and w/e the QM's throw at us), are not constrained by the same "card-pool" as us, I want to draw your attention to how the same thought process of making a competitive deck can be used to optimize our PC.

The comparison to MtG makes more sense if you think of it as challenge-modes that one could experience in various digital versions of the game. Notably, playing against decks that have a preset strategy using very specific cards in usually unfair ways. For example, there are very aggressive decks that would use a banned combo of two cards or more that would instantly kill you, the player or use many synergistic cards of the same name(s) in rules-breaking proportion. The key to beating these decks is not playing to win normally, but to survive the combo by negating its execution, exploiting a weakness in the combo before you die, or use a niche card(s) to live one more turn at a time. Our biggest threats are hunter-nin and foreign ninja, hands down. So how do we win against stacked odds?

Know what your opponent's game plan is and have your own clear plan to counter it.

Our win-con at the moment is simply to survive; not to fight off the superior ninja, not to take over a country, and certainly not to draw any attention to ourselves. Eventually, we can 'get better cards' so that we can beat these opponents, but until we feel that time has come our best bet is to simply avoid detection.

In order to achieve this we have many resources at our disposal: our companions, our ninja-tools/gear, our basic shinobi knowledge, and, in my opinion the best (if finite) resource we have are the circumstances about our desertion. I think I need a bit more exposition on how exactly we became missing-nin, but if I am reading the first post correctly, we have a good amount of time before our former village notices we went AWOL. All of us ran, so who is left to tell the village we did not follow our orders into contested territory? More importantly, we know we were expected to die. I need the time-table from the commander's documents to be certain, but we might be able to fake being obliterated by the enemy with our commander killed by an enemy assassin. If we pull that off (and that's a big ole 'if'), we solve the hunter-nin problem (and bingo books!) so long as we don't attract attention to ourselves.

To do this we would probably need to spec hard into manipulation and have the QM's' collective confirmation that this is possible through details surrounding our desertion, but I think it could be worth it in the long run. Basically, how good can we make our Talk-no-Jutsu?

Now I'd love to make some manipulative-bastard style character who would utilize this strategy, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Before we offer specific solutions we need to identify the problem in its entirety and go from there. Contingencies and collaboration are good things.

Side-notes: Why not hide out in some civilian town? Even if we are missing-nin we (the group of deserters) can all henge to look normal and have the jonin teach us to suppress our chakra to look more like civilians? Then have someone with an earth-affinity (it doesn't have to be us if we just manipulate our comrades!) make an underground base for training plus an escape tunnel if things get too dicey.

What is the tech-level in this AU anyway? That's always a huge sticking point for any rational-Naruto world and we need to plan accordingly.
 
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