- Location
- The state of Paranoia
I didn't figure it out until I read the second comment. 
Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
-
- Tags
- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard open voting
This is April Fools, so everything is the opposite of what it seems. I should be as much of an asshole as I can be and hide my feelings and intentions as much as possible? Got it!
My faulty logic shall triumph!
April Fool's 2018: Rules Rebalance 01/04/18
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You thought @eaglejarl was joking when he mentioned us working on a rebalance and rules modification update, didn't you?
Having now given the new FtD rules a decent test run, as well as lots of QM experimentation, we are ready to announce the first round of balance changes. We are also taking this opportunity to patch some major worldbuilding holes which we predict to otherwise have problematic consequences further down the line, as well as applying the logical consequences of the balance changes to the game world. While we appreciate that some of the changes may appear unintuitive, we assure you that we have done a lot of modelling to ensure behind-the-scenes consistency on all levels. Please bear with us as we begin the time-consuming process of retconning past updates as necessary.
Balance changes
Worldbuilding changes
Fated to Die 2: Die Harder
Having now given the new FtD rules a decent test run, as well as lots of QM experimentation, we are ready to announce the first round of balance changes. We are also taking this opportunity to patch some major worldbuilding holes which we predict to otherwise have problematic consequences further down the line, as well as applying the logical consequences of the balance changes to the game world. While we appreciate that some of the changes may appear unintuitive, we assure you that we have done a lot of modelling to ensure behind-the-scenes consistency on all levels. Please bear with us as we begin the time-consuming process of retconning past updates as necessary.
Balance changes
- In order to better reflect the "survival of the fittest" nature of the ninja world, future NPCs will be given stats based on the optimisation principles developed by @Radvic.
- The scale of a sealing failure during research is now proportional to the complexity of the seal being researched. Seals are now more dangerous to research, making strategic decisions about which seals to research more important.
- Kunai use has been moved from Taijutsu to Melee Weapons. As a corollary, it is no longer possible to defend against Ranged Weapons using Taijutsu, meaning that Taijutsu users will need to use Athletics to dodge.
- A summon's chakra pool is now based on additional chakra invested when using the Summoning Technique, as with elemental clones. This encourages more tactical summon use, as well as modelling the difference in ambient nature chakra levels accessible to summons on the Human Path as opposed to the Seventh Path.
- The Transformation Technique no longer exists, as it was simply a source of far too many QM headaches on both rules and simulationism levels.
Worldbuilding changes
- In line with the change to the sealing rules, the Watchers are now an internationally recognised organisation. A Kagome infodump is in the works.
- Summon physical size has been increased to better reflect canon. All summons are now two to four times larger than before. Summons' society and personalities have been changed to reflect their greatly increased physical superiority over humans (especially for previously small pangolins such as Pandā, who is now 6'6'' (2 m) tall).
- Privacy seals no longer exist. The Hyūga's social and political status has been adjusted accordingly, as have procedures for storing and exchanging sensitive information. Team Uplift can be assumed to know said procedures.
- Homosexuality is now illegal in the Elemental Nations, reflecting the vital necessity of maintaining a high birth rate in a world with unnaturally high death rates due to constant military conflict and chakra beasts. This has an impact on Mari and Keiko's story arcs.
- Do Not Go to Bear.
Last edited:
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Fixed, thanks.
- Location
- a
I thought that was intentional to torture us, poor questers
Edit : Thats quite a lot of retcons and a lot of work from that
Last edited:
- Location
- Norway
This is where the update really starts to smell of More April Fools' to me, although I don't know if you're doing one per QM or if the real joke is posting actual updates on April 1st and having people disbelieve them. I guess I'll just wait and see tomorrow.
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
This one's threadmarked, pretty sure it's true.
will408914
(slouching towards bethlehem)
- Location
- California
Personally, I figured it was probably an April Fools' joke at the 6'6" Pandaa bit.
- Location
- Europe
You mean they get exterminated long before they could join the Hidden Leaf? I mean Whirlepool got destroyed because they had the ability to develope advanced sealcraft weapons, who would let something like the Hyuga exist?
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
Pretty sure it's an April Fools, though I was taken in a little by the thought "well, they've already done their trick..."
You've made it subtle enough that it's hard to be sure, but I think the retcons in how people act - homosexuality, summon personalities, etc. - make it too unlikely to be true, because it invalidates a not insignificant portion of the quest story thus far.
You've made it subtle enough that it's hard to be sure, but I think the retcons in how people act - homosexuality, summon personalities, etc. - make it too unlikely to be true, because it invalidates a not insignificant portion of the quest story thus far.
- Location
- Yes.
You clearly weren't here last year. @eaglejarl pulled off a massive gambit involving writing invisitext involving Mari marrying Jiraiya, and then had it pay off months later when he and @OliWhail actually had them do that.
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
Ain't in writing yet, buddo.
I'm pretty sure the black text thing was intentional this time. For those who don't know, it's pretty much become a running joke that Vel's formatting keeps changing his text-colour to black. But this time there was a single line of white text, so...
E: Oh, and bear in mind that "radvic's optimisations" involve having fresh genin able to one-shot kage by layering minmaxed boost-type jutsu.
E: Oh, and bear in mind that "radvic's optimisations" involve having fresh genin able to one-shot kage by layering minmaxed boost-type jutsu.
Last edited:
Cariyaga
Handsome Gentleperson
- Location
- United States
Ah, yes, I do suppose that would have given it away.
I can consider myself thoroughly japed, then. That was quite a boner on my part.
dhasenan
always lowercase
- Pronouns
- She/Her
But a turkey baster can take the place of a man for a lesbian couple?
- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Turkey basters probably haven't been invented yet. Among other reasons, I invite you to consider how many ninja would have to be sacrificed in order to take a chakra turkey in one piece.
- Location
- Potato land
Oh, are we playing "Separate the real changes from the joke ones"? Let's go.
Real, of course. Quoting @eaglejarl himself, people optimize themselves constantly, and this is a rational quest.
Fake. This would make us kill ourselves the moment we get to do sealing research, which would end the quest and deprive the QMs of their sustenance of panic, screaming and terror.
100% fake. No more deflecting shuriken with kunai without investing points in Ranged Weapons? Too much of a break with canon. Might as well remove one of the basic academy jutsu.
Also fake. Can you imagine what @MadScientist will get up to once he gets his desired psyops Pangolin? The QMs are too smart to let this go through.
Pff, as if our QMs weren't smart enough to worldbuild around Henge after coming up with the Sage/Dummy backstory. Not buying it.
Ninja villages accepting the authority of an independent organization to limit their military research capabilities? Hah.
Obviously, this is necessary for the tactic of Skywalking above a target and dropping summons on them to be viable, as without it the geopolitical balance goes out of whack.
@eaglejarl buffing his self-insert character, I see.
Yeah, I'd like to see any authority try to regulate who S-rankers are allowed to have sex with. Also a big nerf to Rock Lee, which @Velorien would never permit.
Yes.
Real, of course. Quoting @eaglejarl himself, people optimize themselves constantly, and this is a rational quest.
Fake. This would make us kill ourselves the moment we get to do sealing research, which would end the quest and deprive the QMs of their sustenance of panic, screaming and terror.
100% fake. No more deflecting shuriken with kunai without investing points in Ranged Weapons? Too much of a break with canon. Might as well remove one of the basic academy jutsu.
Also fake. Can you imagine what @MadScientist will get up to once he gets his desired psyops Pangolin? The QMs are too smart to let this go through.
Pff, as if our QMs weren't smart enough to worldbuild around Henge after coming up with the Sage/Dummy backstory. Not buying it.
Ninja villages accepting the authority of an independent organization to limit their military research capabilities? Hah.
Obviously, this is necessary for the tactic of Skywalking above a target and dropping summons on them to be viable, as without it the geopolitical balance goes out of whack.
@eaglejarl buffing his self-insert character, I see.
Yeah, I'd like to see any authority try to regulate who S-rankers are allowed to have sex with. Also a big nerf to Rock Lee, which @Velorien would never permit.
Yes.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
I sent the optimization principles with a few samples to the QMs a while ago, I've avoided posting anything too explicit about them in thread (or engaging too much in optimization conversations aside when direct asked) in part so they they can properly model Hazou not having access to the best teachers during his developmental phases, but you're welcome to hunt down my various posts in the thread, as I didn't try too hard to keep it secret. I'd suggest starting by searching for posts I've made recently with the word "jutsu" in them to get a general feel of how strong the NPCs will be, though note that I'd expect a bunch of them to use the more detailed routes I've outlined to the QMs explicitly, which can add a few score points to their stats in the right situations.
That said, it's unlikely *all* the genin will be rolling over 100 combat dice when surprised (I assume there will be a few social spec'd genin as well).
I hope you're not depending too much on custom jutsu. There will be lots of arbitrary "no we can't get it to do that" restrictions that aren't and can't be modeled mechanically.
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ
No worries -- there's a lot to optimize aside from just jutsu. For example, we've also got bloodlines, mechanical abilities, seals, fighting styles, aspects, and environmental boosts. It just makes sense for every genin to have spent time working on each of them. So, if, for instance, you had one of each of those in you're fighting and you were a combat spec at 50 skill, you'd hit something like:
50 + 6 (bloodline) + 6(mechanical ability) + 6(seal) + 6(fighting style) + 6(favored environment) = 80, prior to expending any significant resources on the combat.
Spending a FP to activate your combat based aspect and using chakra boost, without any custom boosting jutsu you'd look something like:
50 + 6 (bloodline) + 6(mechanical ability) + 6(seal) + 6(fighting style) + 6(favored environment) + 6(aspect) + 6(chakra boost) = 92
And, if you add in a jutsu like Pantokrator's Hammer (which has been approved) instead of chakra boost, you get something like
50 + 6 (bloodline) + 6(mechanical ability) + 6(seal) + 6(fighting style) + 6(favored environment) + 6(aspect) + 18(Pantokrator's Hammer) = 104
That said, I did propose a fair number of unique custom jutsu which are better than Pantokrator's Hammer in terms of adding to combat capability. The beauty of NPCs is that they can actually be good at operational security, and have real clan secrets which allow them to hit harder than Hazou'd have access to without requiring significant revision to the world.
I question bloodline, mechanical ability, seal, fighting styles, and favored environment. Seals do stuff which you can take advantage of; they aren't flat skill enhancers*. "Favored Environment" would be best modeled by an appropriate aspect which you then activate with a Fate point.
I don't know what "mechanical ability" would even mean. And the point of fighting styles is that not everyone can have them. If everyone can have them, then they should just get folded back into the general taijutsu skill. In fact, in cases where bloodlines contribute to combat power they usually seem to to so by enabling a combat style, so you're double-dipping.
*And if you want to start pointing at Kagome as an example, I think he was a mechanical mistake, not something to be emulated.