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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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A point that seems worth making - while Nara is most likely smarter than Hazou, and probably has better training in tactics, Hazou almost certainly has the advantage in actual combat experience, especially against large numbers or superior opponents. Beyond that, most ninja have fewer and less useful seal options (mostly the standard storage and explosive seals), which means Nara is less used to one of the biggest, most game-changing advantages the group has.
 
Erolki said:
A point that seems worth making - while Nara is most likely smarter than Hazou, and probably has better training in tactics, Hazou almost certainly has the advantage in actual combat experience, especially against large numbers or superior opponents. Beyond that, most ninja have fewer and less useful seal options (mostly the standard storage and explosive seals), which means Nara is less used to one of the biggest, most game-changing advantages the group has.
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While the experience issue is real, it seems like Nara is smart enough that if Hazou were to give him a report on the "game-changing" seals available he could pretty rapidly assimilate that information and take it into account in forming his plans.

I'm still in favor of high-risk high-reward, though. Let's have Hazou lead.
 
eaglejarl said:
A quick clarification because I think there's some confusion:

  • You are currently in the swamp, about a mile from the nearest shore
  • You cannot leave the swamp until sunset, in about 3 hours. If you do, you are disqualified from the event.
  • 30 minutes after sunset you need to be at the rally point
  • The rally point is two miles from your current location
  • All three of the suggested ambush sites are outside the swamp


That's 15CP for all of them.

I'll add Basic Clone to the QM todo list.


You could burn a Fate Point to make a Declaration. "We have <a sensible number of> <thing that it is reasonable for you to have acquired> in our storage scrolls" is a perfectly reasonable thing to Declare.
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What is "sensible" is a vague concept when your teacher is a paranoic, to be fair.

Citrus said:
Wouldn't other top teams do similar analysis and thus shoot for more if they expect other teams to try to shoot for how much they could have? I doubt any team that's doing a good job of stomping other nearby teams for their seals will not continue doing so well through the end of the event. I feel like this just turns into a positive feedback loop of "more seals is better" although I could definitely be misunderstanding
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Chakra should be the limiting factor. I doubt that there are any incompetent teams on the field (their village wouldn't send them to the exams in the first place), meaning every team should spend some chakra in every fight. Hence if you collected a lot of seals, then you are low on chakra, and getting into fights with teams you have no information on is liable to make you lose all seals.

Briefvoice said:
Guys, I will say again it's ridiculous to come up with a complicated plan and present it as mere advice. That's crap and everyone will recognize it as crap. Either stand behind the plan or don't put forth a plan, but don't put forth a plan and pretend you don't want to take charge. It makes Hazou look ridiculous.
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What, exactly, is ridiculous about us saying "alright Nara, tell you what. I'll tell you my plan, and if you like it I lead. If you don't then you come up with a plan and you lead. I trust you to be professional and evaluate the plan on its own merits and not let the fact that you would prefer not to lead influence your decision."
 
Briefvoice said:
Guys, I will say again it's ridiculous to come up with a complicated plan and present it as mere advice. That's crap and everyone will recognize it as crap. Either stand behind the plan or don't put forth a plan, but don't put forth a plan and pretend you don't want to take charge. It makes Hazou look ridiculous.
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"I'm not confident in leading this group in live combat because I don't know you guys well enough, and I would probably fail to utilise your abilities for the same reason. I think we should set up ambush in the meadow by the forest, and I have ideas how to do that, but it would be a mistake to give me the final say on these things."

Seems reasonable to me.
 
It looks like both plans want essentially the same leadership properties: Hazou creates the overall strategy, Shikamaru gives orders in the moment. The difference is whether we accept overall blame/praise when things go wrong/right or not.

I'd just have Hazou accept the commander position, then designate himself as Strategos, and Shikamaru as Tactician (and since we're his commander on his own nomination we can just order him to accept the role).
 
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Adhoc vote count started by Kiba on Feb 7, 2018 at 3:09 AM, finished with 414 posts and 21 votes.
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Omake: Keiko and Shikamaru Battle Discussion
  • Apocrypha
    • I desperately look forward to an instance of Shikamaru and Keiko in combat together flinging one or two word plans back and forth, Shika suggesting and Keiko assessing on the fly.
    ________________________

    The pair stood shoulder to shoulder, looking down the mountainside in dismay at the approaching onslaught of ravenous chakra-baboons.

    "Supplies?" Shika asked, glancing toward Keiko's bag.
    "6 medium-strength explosive seals, a mega-size storage seal full of seawater, two complete sets of Tea Country state dinner crockery including large serving platters, and the dismembered corpse of Momochi Sakura" Keiko replied rapidly, mentally estimating the distance between themselves and hairy, sweating doom. "Plan?"
    "King's Indian?"
    "No, too constricting."
    "Thermopylae?"
    "Not enough explosives."
    "Yagura?"
    "No rook."
    "Kagome?"
    "I said not enough explosives."
    "It'll have to be Point Break." Shikamaru sighed, "troublesome."
    "Agreed. Point Break." The swarm was close enough now for Keiko to hear their terrible shrieking.

    She descended once more into the perfect, mathematical silence of the Frozen Skein, stepped onto the Tea country platter, and prepared to activate the storage seal. "Are you ready?" She asked, knowing it didn't matter. Shikamaru responded by jamming the explosive seals out to the crack in the cliff above them.

    BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.

    The shots rang out into the sky, and the mountain began to rumble. Keiko prepared to activate the tidal wave seal, and Shikamaru jumped onto a serving platter.

    "I've got to be fucking crazy" Shikamaru said.
    "But are you crazy enough?" Keiko asked in reply. Shikamaru smirked. "Happy honeymoon."
     
    Last edited:
  • Apocrypha
    • Quick questions, can we seal explosive seals, and how much can we fit in one storage seal if we can?
    Also, how do those storage seals that hazou plans to give to civvies work?
     
    *wakes up, catches up on multiple pages of thread*

    Kurkistan said:
    Eh, part of it's "Nara's da best and can't make mistakes" part of it's dirty meta-level reasoning about the QM's being unwilling to kill us for letting the genius take the reins. I'm also more taking it as "Nara is Nara, therefore no Abysmal Failure" than concluding it from the "you won't be blamed".
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    Oh, we are totally willing to let you die, regardless of who is in charge.

    faflec said:
    • The retcon'd chapter 162 had Nara sit still while a battle was raging, resulting in the teams being struck by lightning at range.
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    Heh. Poor Nara...he gets criticized for sitting still and he also got criticized for moving. For the record, the full sequence was:

    1) Nara recognizes that turtling under the dome is a bad plan. He stops you from activating it and then starts a quick tactical-coordination huddle.

    2) He notices the lightning attack coming as it begins, which is the earliest point at which anyone could have noticed it.

    3) He tells everyone to scatter and gets out of the way himself.

    Winged_One said:
    What is [a "sensible" number of things to have] is a vague concept when your teacher is a paranoic, to be fair.
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    Let's reduce it to "a number that doesn't make the QMs feel like you're taking advantage."


    In other news, @OliWhail pointed out to me that I messed up the timeline. I was thinking that the event ended at sunset but apparently it ends late morning or noon. The sequence went:

    1. You arrived in Mist mid-day
    2. Ren gave her announcement speech at sunset
    3. You were taken to get your word and from there to the holding area
    4. At dawn you were taken into the Swamp
    5. Chapter 159 covered 5 hours, so it ended around noon-ish. (It originally covered 10 hours but then the second half got reconned away. I've updated the chapter notes appropriately.)
    6. Chapter 160v2 stated that it ended in the morning and that there's 3 hours left, meaning the event ends late morning or noon
    In a world without accurate clocks, "sunrise", "noon", and "sunset" are the sensible demarcations for things, so we'll roll with noon.

    This doesn't seem to make any difference in your plan and will in fact be to your advantage -- there's more light to see and fight by. It also doesn't contradict anything that was actually in any update, merely the OOC announcement that I made. Sorry for the mistake but now you have the correct info.
     
    ....and, a whole bunch of stuff ninja'd in as I was reviewing timelines and posting the above.

    KaGoGoGadgetMe said:
    "Not enough explosives."
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    Bite. Your. Tongue. :p

    Fun omake, and threadmarked so hard. See the 'Apocrypha' section.

    You are missing line breaks after your paragraphs throughout.

    KaGoGoGadgetMe said:
    Keiko to heir their terrible shrieking.
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    'hear'

    DuManHeiu said:
    Quick questions, can we seal explosive seals, and how much can we fit in one storage seal if we can?
    Also, how do those storage seals that hazou plans to give to civvies work?
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    You cannot seal any seal including explosive ones. Or, rather, if you do you get a cthulhu so that should be avoided.

    The storage seals for civilians use an LBF to activate the storage seal and another one to deactivate it. The civilians simply wave their hand through the correct beam to make it work.
     
    I always took the Nara opinions as someone who had intimate knowledge of the setting and all the facts at their disposal and a mild helping of GM perspective seeing everything from the perspective of someone who knows the setting inside and out.

    They aren't GM words but more a GM smoothing of the player plans.
     
    Golden Eyed King said:
    I always took the Nara opinions as someone who had intimate knowledge of the setting and all the facts at their disposal and a mild helping of GM perspective seeing everything from the perspective of someone who knows the setting inside and out.

    They aren't GM words but more a GM smoothing of the player plans.
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    No, that's the Mori clan. :p
     
    eaglejarl said:
    The storage seals for civilians use an LBF to activate the storage seal and another one to deactivate it. The civilians simply wave their hand through the correct beam to make it work
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    Does this work for inanimate objects too?
    Last one, how much force do those seals that store air produce, and can it keep filling an enclosed area to Jupiter levels of atmospheric pressure, or does it stop at some point?
     
    Whelp, time for some PUNCHING. It's been great to see this quest start back up, but we've been PUNCH-teased for the last couple of chapters. Looking forward to the PUNCH.

    Seriously though, I don't really know how the GMs will handle deciding what teams show up at the ambush site, what strange and weird jutsu they may or may not have, and building them. That's a lot of antagonists to design! Presumably the scrub teams will be relatively easy... give them some combat skills and the Aspect "A Scrub Gets No Love". But the actual good teams should presumably all have advantages that make them good.

    I'm also interested to see how the weirder jutsu translate mechanically. I mean, Shadow Control and Mind Transfer are "just win" buttons if they go off. I presume they're opposed with Resolve, but it'll be fascinating to see the details.
     
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