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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Ok. So, Hazō doesn't have a combination stunt for Force Blades with anything, so he can't benefit from the numeric bonus while using RRBs. On top of that, once the Leopards realize he has them, they're less of a bonus than Macerators or Roki anyway (Macerators are currently +6, right?), both of which Hazō has combination stunts for with Rocket Boots. So the only benefit to them that Hazō can really use is the weapons rating, which should still work even without a combination stunt if I understand the rules correctly (because it isn't a numerical bonus).

Weapon:4 is good. On a hit, it turns 1 stress into something that will inflict a Consequence on anyone with Physique under 80, which should be ~all of the leopards (someone correct me if I've misunderstood here!). Even without being able to benefit from the numerical bonus to rolls it still seems worth incorporating into Hazō's combat here.

Would it be reasonable to say that Hazou has Force Blades on his Pangolin gauntlets (which I think was the original plan for them) and that they're linked to his MARS chain? Having them linked to the primary chain might be a bad idea because the claws might hurt Hazou while still on his waist, but since each gauntlet would presumably have multiple seals on it having them linked to a MARS chain is probably a good idea regardless.
 
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Kyreneryk said:
Ok. So, Hazō doesn't have a combination stunt for Force Blades with anything, so he can't benefit from the numeric bonus. On top of that, once the Leopards realize he has them, they're less of a bonus than Macerators or Roki anyway (Macerators are currently +6, right?), both of which Hazō has combination stunts for with Rocket Boots. So the only benefit to them that Hazō can really use is the weapons rating, which should still work even without a combination stunt if I understand the rules correctly (because it isn't a numerical bonus).

Weapon:4 is good. On a hit, it turns 1 stress into something that will inflict a Consequence on anyone with Physique under 80, which should be ~all of the leopards (someone correct me if I've misunderstood here!). Even without being able to benefit from the numerical bonus to rolls it still seems worth incorporating into Hazō's combat here.

Would it be reasonable to say that Hazou has Force Blades on his Pangolin gauntlets (which I think was the original plan for them) and that they're linked to his MARS chain? Having them linked to the primary chain might be a bad idea because the claws might hurt Hazou while still on his waist, but since each gauntlet would presumably have multiple seals on it having them linked to a MARS chain is probably a good idea regardless.
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On Hazou's turn to prep he can:

Standard: Cast PEA
Supp: Equip Pangolin gauntlets
Supp: Activate MARS Chain (including RRB, Force Claws, Banshee Fucker, all of the Dog's seals) the only other jutsu he needs to cast is Sub from now on.

Banshee Fucker should, IMO, not cause stress since he's armored now. But it's worth it regardless for the AoE debuff.
 
Rihaku said:
I would assume a retaliatory strike force, even a hastily assembled one, has at least one Dog jounin - if not multiple - given it would be explicitly intended to enter enemy territory. If Leopard jounin numbers are such that 33% (roll of 5 or 6 on a d6) of randomly encountered adult Leopards are jounin, then Cannai would be foolish to permit the mission without at least two Dog jounin on staff.
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Note that these are not random leopard. This is a raiding force. As an analogy, if you grab three random Americans from somewhere in the USA it's very unlikely that one of them is a Navy SEAL. If you grab three random Americans in the middle of crossing an enemy border during wartime with the intent to perform a military raid, it's far more likely.

_The_Bomb said:
Can this be combined with Roki in some way in a single buff slot?
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For purpose of this combat, yes. Maybe not in future.
 
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Kyreneryk said:
So the only benefit to them that Hazō can really use is the weapons rating, which should still work even without a combination stunt if I understand the rules correctly (because it isn't a numerical bonus).

Weapon:4 is good.
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I note that Weapon:4 is about as close as we have right now to a lightsaber without literally having a lightsaber. That is in the same tier of "This should obliterate a thing real good" as an explosives tag. These are going to be one of our premier buffs for a while in all likelihood, because doing a flat +4 stress in addition to anything else you're landing from the hit itself is virtually guaranteed to cause someone a Consequence (and probably worse than a Mild one in many cases).

It's going to be real sweet to see these in action, given that this idea has been on the docket for several years at this point!
 
  • Force Claw caltrops. Toss, activate with MARS. Leopards run in, unknowingly, and get blender'd legs. Or forces them to go above/around. Forced movement OP, lead to strong combatant and/or traps.
  • Earth Clones for Substitution + MARs chains
  • Force Claws on Pangolin Gauntlets
 
MMKII said:
I note that Weapon:4 is about as close as we have right now to a lightsaber without literally having a lightsaber. That is in the same tier of "This should obliterate a thing real good" as an explosives tag. These are going to be one of our premier buffs for a while in all likelihood, because doing a flat +4 stress in addition to anything else you're landing from the hit itself is virtually guaranteed to cause someone a Consequence (and probably worse than a Mild one in many cases).

It's going to be real sweet to see these in action, given that this idea has been on the docket for several years at this point!
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We'll need to pick up the Roki + RB stunt before the next combat.
 
Sir Stompy said:
On Hazou's turn to prep he can:

Standard: Cast PEA
Supp: Equip Pangolin gauntlets
Supp: Activate MARS Chain (including RRB, Force Claws, Banshee Fucker, all of the Dog's seals) the only other jutsu he needs to cast is Sub from now on.

Banshee Fucker should, IMO, not cause stress since he's armored now. But it's worth it regardless for the AoE debuff.
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I was thinking he might want to save a Supp for substitution, but if you think it's fine to spend it then yeah it isn't an issue.

eaglejarl said:
For purpose of this combat, yes. Maybe not in future.
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Can Hazō try for Roki and then elect to use RRBs if he fails (given that he doesn't have the stunt to use both)?
 
Sir Stompy said:
We might need to upgrade Roki by buying a 50 XP stunt. But that seems reasonable
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I look forward to the future where we have some sort of MS-based,Jonin-aura-related Trickster Chaos Field emanating around Hazou so that people are just incapable of figuring out how he is going to feint and dodge.
 
  • Banshee Slayer Collars on Doggo (the Slayers work while on earrings, so perhaps also collars?). Collars either made beforehand, or perhaps improvised using rope/leather?
 
eaglejarl on Discord said:
[Leopards are] Similar to Hyenas. Mostly they use chakra- and/or ninjutsu-boosted physical attacks but there are some who use ranged ninjutsu. Not many support specialists among them.
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Gee thanks, dropping a six hour planmaking session which starts in the middle of the night.
I can't participate and haven't been reading the discussion, but: have we considered putting force blades on small tokens, which we have a dog throw around with wind jutsu or something ?

Also the obvious weaponisation is just putting them on the upper back/flanks of a dog. Dog anatomy involves a lot less "swinging your arms by your body" than human ones. We already have dog harnesses - let's write some knife seals on them !
And Kagome definitely carries lots of leather strips around, so even if these guys don't have harnesses we can improvise some murder belts.
 
Hi everyone, just caught up. It's been a while (I'm the kind of person who usually prefers binge reading one story at a time) and wow, so much has happened in the past year. And as always, this story is a delight to read!

Is it confirmed that CATEARS allows for activation as a reflexive action? If it doesn't, and if dogs can use chakra adhesion from their tail as someone mentioned, put the root MARS of the sound-based chain on the tail of the dog with highest alertness?
 
How does a Poor Man's Yellow Flash work, again? By unsealing valid Substitution targets?

We could add one into a MARS/CATEARS chain and get valid Substitution targets that way, instead of needing to cast Earth Clone.
 
  • Sort out in advance who the best fighter in the troop is, and who, if anyone, can meaningfully support them in fighting a high-level opponent.
    • If we run into a Jounin-equivialent, Best Fighter takes point while others support them.
    • If Hazou is not said best fighter, his job is croud control. He's an interesting-looking target who can bait Leopards into clumping up on him, then Goo Bomb away!
 
eaglejarl said:
You have until 10pm Eastern tonight to come up with ways to use these on your current venture with the dogs
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T_of_A said:
Gee thanks, dropping a six hour planmaking session which starts in the middle of the night.
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Seconded. I get the reasoning, but this does feel a bit unfriendly to those of us in European timezones (and I'm in the UK, so about as far west as you can get in Europe). (Not really complaining for myself, given that I'm a very-recent-and-still-somewhat-fencesitting-about-it participant, but there are MfD regulars who'd be in the same position.)

T_of_A said:
Also the obvious weaponisation is just putting them on the upper back/flanks of a dog. Dog anatomy involves a lot less "swinging your arms by your body" than human ones. We already have dog harnesses - let's write some knife seals on them !
And Kagome definitely carries lots of leather strips around, so even if these guys don't have harnesses we can improvise some murder belts.
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I don't think they're long enough for that? Post says they're about 10cm long, so they wouldn't reach past the head, and they don't do any good if they're just flat to the body.
 
If we go hard enough early on, we should be able to get them to disperse/flee pretty quickly. They're not family, and I doubt they're friends. They're not even allies, really. They're a handful of anti-social individuals, grouped together by a merciless teacher Clan Boss.

If we can get them to flee, they'll spread word of what happened. And the other Leopards will see, for themselves, "the ones who tried to follow such an unnatural framework died, the ones who fled as individuals lived."

They'll have their anti-teamwork mentalities reinforced by what they see.

Sure, the Leopard Boss might try to overcome this with "lesson" by punishing those who fled. But that doesn't really solve the underlying issue, it just paints over it with a thin coat of "fear of the powerful authority commanding this."

So if this is still forced to happen (leopard teamwork), then they'll be even more fractured and uncooperative with each other than they were before. Perhaps even to the point of betraying each other, which would only serve to further reinforce the cycle.

Win/win, all around.
 
RandomOTP said:
How does a Poor Man's Yellow Flash work, again? By unsealing valid Substitution targets?

We could add one into a MARS/CATEARS chain and get valid Substitution targets that way, instead of needing to cast Earth Clone.
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  • Put a storage seal with a substitution target on the side of each dog(via a string harness or whatever, should be easy) and connect them to our MARS setup. When the fight starts, this scatters Substitution Targets all over the place.
    • For bonus points, attach a PMYF to the other side, so that a second substitution target gets dropped the next round, for even better spread/coverage
      • For funsies, use ES to shape the substitution targets into humanoid statues of Hazou's size. The Leopards might think we're setting up some crazy Jutsu, or about to animate an army or whatever. Best case, they get spooked or waste actions destroying statues, worst case, it's one more weird thing to throw them off their game.
Substitution is mostly a human jutsu, right? I don't think we've ever seen a 7th path resident use it, even when it would be useful. This idea is less good if we're also giving the leopards Substitution targets.
 
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Kyreneryk said:
Seconded. I get the reasoning, but this does feel a bit unfriendly to those of us in European timezones (and I'm in the UK, so about as far west as you can get in Europe). (Not really complaining for myself, given that I'm a very-recent-and-still-somewhat-fencesitting-about-it participant, but there are MfD regulars who'd be in the same position.)
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Part of the reason for this impromptu session was that the other QMs were questioning if some of EJ's ideas for the fight would be conceived of by the players.

Those ideas were proposed on Discord less than 30 minutes after he opened discussion. (Unicorn Force Blades, Hedgehog Force Blades)

It's not an official voting cycle. But your input is still welcome! However, don't stress too much, we aren't voting anything in, just suggesting things that Hazou could try.
 
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