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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Keiko "Iron Blizzard" Mori
Keiko "Eye of the Hurricane" Mori
Keiko "Storm of Swords" Mori
Keiko "Unlimited Blade Works" Mori
 
Honestly, I'm not super set on the Noburi or Akane songs.

Noburi, because it's hard to hit the perfect mixture of bragging and confidence issues that he has, and Akane because it's hard to find songs that have her pep while remaining mature.
 
For those who are interested, the next in the meta AT quest has been posted in it's own thread. Follow it here for future updates and voting.
 
So, we've been talking about using Iron Nerve to encode things. However, something just occurred to me. Iron Nerve is suited to doing something much more useful than simply encoding things, and it's something we've been taking absolutely no advantage of.

So, what are Deception and Diplomacy, really? Or, rather, what do you have to have to be good at them? Well, you need to be good at picking specifically what to say, and good at delivering it for maximum impact. Iron Nerve can't help with the former, but it could be a game-changer for the latter. None of us have thought of it that I've noticed, and given the way that the Kurosawa seem to be primarily focused on direct combat in order to avoid being used as slaves for seal-making, I would wager they haven't thought of it either. Or, they've judged it a waste of time compared to improving their combat abilities.

So, what is the idea I'm hyping up? Well, what do you need to deliver a good lie, or truth, regardless of which it is? The right tone of voice. The right body language. The right facial expression. What do all those have in common?

They rely on muscle memory.

We've invented Roki to leverage Iron Nerve to make perfect feints. And so we turned our bloodline to our advantage in combat. We did this by inventing a skill that was reliant primarily on Iron Nerve, which added to the effectiveness of our Taijutsu. I don't see any reason why we couldn't create a skill reliant on a library of memorized facial expressions, body language, and tones of voice to increase the viability of our social skills.

I am suggesting we create a Deception/Diplomacy style reliant on our usage of Iron Nerve. It would function a bit like Deal Making, but it would presumably function differently, instead functioning in all situations and possibly with both Deception and Diplomacy. Presumably if it applied to both and was general enough to apply to all rolls, for balance reasons it would have to offer a lower bonus to rolls. Maybe 1/4 or 1/3 of the skill, instead of 1/2.

We know that specializations of Diplomacy are possible. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to create one that relies on Iron Nerve and potentially applies to Deception and Diplomacy.

So, possible versions to put forward, with various drawbacks and benefits.

1. Iron Deception: Presence * 3, Manipulation * 2, Composure * 3. When rolling Deception, add 50% of Iron Deception, rounded down, to Deception roll. Bonus may not exceed 1/2 of Deception Score.

2. Iron Diplomacy: Presence * 2, Manipulation * 3, Composure * 3. When rolling Diplomacy, add 50% of Iron Diplomacy, rounded down, to Diplomacy roll. Bonus may not exceed 1/2 of Diplomacy Score.

3. Unholy Hybrid of Both: 3*Presence, 3*Manipulation, 3*Wits. When rolling Deception or Diplomacy, add (25%)/(33%)/(50%) of Unholy hybrid, rounded down, to Deception or Diplomacy roll. Bonus may not exceed 1/2 of Deception or Diplomacy score.

Obviously we wouldn't want to develop this inside of Leaf. But it's something to keep in mind for when we leave.

EDIT: Actually, it would totally only apply in certain situations. It would apply when we were trying to convince people of things, or make a deal, but not when we were trying to detect when we were being lied to or bamboozled. It wouldn't apply to counterrolls of Deception or Diplomacy, where we were trying to see if something was either not to our advantage, or if someone was lying to us or manipulaing us. It would thus be an offensive specialization of Deception and Diplomacy. It would help us "attack" by making it easier for us to lie, or generally diplomance, but it wouldn't make it any more difficult for others to lie to or diplomance us.

EDIT The Second: I could see the skill being general because of how we develop it, actually. As we develop a library of genuine-seeming facial expression, tones of voice, and body language, we could end up with a better idea of what insincere versions of those look like. So, actually, I could see the bonus applying in all situations, rather than simply offensively.
 
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OliWhail said:
Yeah I think Nobby can reasonably ask for like, general waiter jutsu training as his favor and get away with it.
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Then what should he get? Advanced medical techniques should be under Kabuto's discretion (though I suppose Noburi could ask Jiraiya to approve of "giving up" the techniques to Sarutobi), and he isn't doing much else and Noburi doesn't use any other skills beyond Water Release and Medical Ninjutsu...
 
faflec said:
Then what should he get? Advanced medical techniques should be under Kabuto's discretion (though I suppose Noburi could ask Jiraiya to approve of "giving up" the techniques to Sarutobi), and he isn't doing much else and Noburi doesn't use any other skills beyond Water Release and Medical Ninjutsu...
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Specialty training techniques. Something that'd give him a bonus to Chakra Control like Akane gets for Strength and Stam.
 
For Hazou, I have two recommendations for theme music.

When he's giving a speech about saving the world:


When he thinks up an incredibly complex plan in half a second, executes it, and wins:

This one works pretty well for anyone doing anything overtly thinky, actually. But Hazou's the one who pulls almost impossible stuff out on a moment's notice, so I think it fits him better than most.
 
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