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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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Not to be too critical, but I think these mechanics just don't work well for Infiltration or stealth. It's save or fail. One single mistake on potentially dozens of rolls, and the whole thing fails. Giving the high variance in rolling dozens of d100s it bound to Come up that you fail a roll. In combat that means injury and as long as you're ahead on average you win.

But for stealth/deception you fail once and they see through you completely. No suspicion or potential come back, just one and done you fail. So what works better? Straight combat with multiple chances and planned terrain or an all or nothing stealth combat with an auto fail on a single nonperfect roll. Of course Infiltration would always fail.
 
Cariyaga said:
Nah, Mari's fine at it. Just not the "sneak in" kind of infiltration that she's good at. Her specialization is social infiltration.

Things might have gone differently if we'd asked her to, uh, distract Joutarou and his other companion while we infiltrated.
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eaglejarl said:
"So while Noburi and I keep them distracted up front, sensei and Keiko will sneak in through the bedroom window and--"

Inoue's hand shot up. "Oooh, ooh, Criminal Mastermind Sir? How do we get through the locked window?"

Hazou froze, flummoxed. "Um...you pick the lock?"

Inoue gave an exaggerated "what?!" expression. "How do I do that?"

"But...you're a jonin," Hazou said, floundering. "A ninja. And a jonin. You know how to pick locks...."

"Shikigami didn't pick locks," Inoue said. "The Mizukage doesn't pick locks."

"But...you're an infiltration specialist," Hazou said. This conversation really was getting away from him.

Inoue laughed. "Sweetie, I'm a grifter, not a thief. The target opens the door for me. I have no more idea how to pick locks than how to bake a cake."
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Basically, this.

Edit: On the other hand...
eaglejarl said:
"What is it? What do you want?" Kagome asked nervously, settling into his chair but sitting only on the very edge. "Why did you want to meet in the shield room? Is Leaf about to attack? I knew we couldn't trust them! We should—"

"Actually, no," Mari-sensei said. "There's no attack. We want to prevent one if we can. First rule of battle, though: make sure you know what's out there."

Hazō frowned. "Sensei, I thought the first rule of battle was 'Don't ever let them know where you are'."

She shrugged. "There are other schools of thought. Anyway, for right now the first rule of battle is to know what's out there. Kagome, you once mentioned that you spent several years in the cryptography and analysis department. You know more about what's out there in the world than I do—than any of us do—and I've been dumb to not ask you about it." She pushed over a plate of cookies and a trio of small cakes that she had taken out of the oven ten miutes before the meeting. "Also, would you try some of this and let me know what you think? I'm not sure I got the balance right on the ginger and the chocolate."

Kagome-sensei had been about to launch into a panicked diatribe but the offer of sweets seemed to derail him. He blinked a few times, then reached out and grabbed one of the cakes. He sniffed at it suspiciously, nibbled, then chomped out a giant bite.

"'s good," he mumbled, crumbs spraying everywhere as he reached for another cake.
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Wait, what the hell.
PurposefulZephyr said:
That confirms it- Ami's a summoning scroll, and the marriage is actually a ploy to make Hazou sign her. (;))
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I promise I didn't mean to steal this joke, I just independently reinvented it.

Which only strengthens its validity, of course. Independent discovery means there's something to it, right?
faflec said:
Basically, this.
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But she's clearly misleading us! She knows perfectly well how to bake cakes, she'd convinced us she's a horrible cook just to get out of the chore. Note that she never denies she can pick locks, it's all rhetorical questions and conditionals.
 
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huhYeahGoodPoint said:
[x] Action Plan: OPSEC Breach Cascade
[X] Action Plan: Voices of the Out
[X] Action Plan: Continuation


the real reason for the timeskip was so that Hazou and the other ninja of his generation had time to catch up and get to elite-jonin/S-Rank already, so there's no real problem lol

also this is super not serious so sure why not I mean there are very good, rational reasons for why Honoka would be selected to be one of the Universal Travellers that involves the fact that she would likely be one of the most consistent testers of the CHAOS suit as they evolved through KAOS and eventually into the GUTS suit, giving her experience with the suit that can compensate for her otherwise comparatively lackluster skills. Moreover, her...inexperience also means that her chakra footprint is lighter, and thus can allow the group as a whole slightly more error margin with regards to chakra drain and dimensional travel. :p
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Sweet!

Oh, incidentally: If you want to have people use the tallybot, that's cool. Just tag it with (Voyager) at the front:

[x] (Voyager) Firebird Five
 
@eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail Back during Chapter 301 Asuma instructed Keiko to negotiate for more summons if she ran out of them. Given that she had very few at this point due to breaking the Skytower deal (only Pandaa, Panchipaama, Panjandrum, Paneru, Pandour), I would imagine that she would have negotiated for more summons. Could we have a list of the deals she made and what summons she got for them, if possible?
 
faflec said:
@eaglejarl @Velorien @OliWhail Back during Chapter 301 Asuma instructed Keiko to negotiate for more summons if she ran out of them. Given that she had very few at this point due to breaking the Skytower deal (only Pandaa, Panchipaama, Panjandrum, Paneru, Pandour), I would imagine that she would have negotiated for more summons. Could we have a list of the deals she made and what summons she got for them, if possible?
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We don't have a specific list. Are you looking for names, or is it okay to go with something like "She got a bunch of big burly guys who are good at construction stuff"?
 
Tua said:
You don't ask someone like Ami this lest she decides it is a better idea to accident Hazou than have Keiko do it.

Ami is, for all she likes to play pretend to be a normal human when it is beneficial, not unlike Orochimaru in how she evaluates things. But unlike him, she also has political ambitions so she is also good at manipulation.

Either way, don't give Ami ideas.
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Sentient Tree said:
Personally, I think she has an aberrant personality manifold, like Hazō was said to have in the retconned Youthsuit incident. She can contact a set of eldritch beings, much like the hivemind, and much like the hivemind they have some amount of influence on her goals and methods.
Perhaps the only goal that is truly Ami's own is her desire to protect Keiko. It would certainly be interesting.
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Ami is the GM example of what can be accomplished by an optimized, ruthlessly sociopathic protagonist to provide contrast for the players who seem to believe that, "build a charcoal kiln for a random renegade civilian settlement", is progress towards preventing human extinction.


eaglejarl said:
I love the fact that you're worried about what it would do to Keiko, not what it would do to Hazō. (i.e., kill him) :)
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It doesn't seem to involve Kagome- why should we care?


RandomOTP said:
(*repeatedly slams head into desk*)

Damn it, sorry. I spent all that time editing for grammar and clarity but I didn't even catch that. Thanks!

Also, there's still the option that Hazou's made a... "friend" with an Outer entity. I mean, he was rescued from a sealing failure that one time. And (to me, anyway), destroying half of the Leaf's leadership --and trashing a chunk of the village in the process --seems like the kind of thing that an alien, eldritch being would do to help its shortlived, fleshy mortal friend. "Hm, these mayflies are causing trouble and some of these 'friends' seem remarkably flaky. Best to put them down now, before they somehow make my mayfly's life even shorter!"

And, for all we know, the being that helped him with the Rift Incident also saw Hazou in the Out during the Summoning Scroll Incident. And, I don't know about you, but that kinda seems like "Aw, this friendly little stray cat keeps showing up at my front porch! Welp, it's mine now."

Though the Human-Other chrysalis theory is still my preferred (if highly unlikely) idea
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It's all @OliWhail's fault! I knew it!
 
Inferno Vulpix said:
Looks pretty solid, but I'm worried that the inn owner might be upset at us for breaking their inn. Can I suggest that we whisk Hinata away for a nice date in Bear Country to wrap up the plan?
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Reminder that Hinata is <2 weeks from realizing that she can actually kiss a boy without him being mysteriously unpersoned within the hour. Might want to capitalize on that.


roobee said:
[x] Action Plan: Continuing an Old Plan

Get the clan's approval first.
  • Everyone: Iwa's actions are weird. They didn't attack immediately, and are uncharacteristically treating civilians well.
    • Is Akatsuki involved? Maybe they obliterated Iwa, and they're trying to ingratiate themselves to Leaf.
    • Are they trying to subvert the population? How effective would that be?
  • Spend our time helping (and comforting) the current leadership (Asuma, Shikamaru, Chouza). Make ourselves indispensible to them.
    • Mari, what can we do to help lighten the burden of their tasks? Especially Asuma/Shikamaru, they must be at the end of their ropes.
    • Chouza's probably beside himself with survivor's guilt; he's one of the few surviving Clan Heads. Hazou still may be compromised, but someone else can surely check up on him.
      • Give OliWhail carte blanche to write this scene.
    • Suggestions for the top brass:
      • Investigate the relief party's story.
        • Send (airborne) scouts to the border, check what forces are amassing.
        • Find their lumber merchant to verify their story.
      • Contact Suna. They might have been hit too.
      • Leverage Ami, either by demonstrating Mist's already helping or by present a strong Leaf-Mist alliance to deter an attack.
      • Instate Asuma as Hokage, demonstrating Leaf's still unified and capable of fighting back.
      • Reveal Orochimaru's survival, as an invasion would pit him against Iwa.
    • Ask Mari to subtly prime the leadership into favoring the jutsupool idea, if reasonable.
Check up on snake, with clans approval
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Reminder that this only doesn't make sense if you're trying to play at the level of the S-class operatives instead of simply asking who could have brought it about and who benefits.

*Hint: it's Ami.


eaglejarl said:
We don't have a specific list. Are you looking for names, or is it okay to go with something like "She got a bunch of big burly guys who are good at construction stuff"?
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Lots of underrated underclass a la the Nakara Rollers?
 
Lailoken said:
It doesn't seem to involve Kagome- why should we care?
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<3

Lailoken said:
Lots of underrated underclass a la the Nakara Rollers?
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Which part of "we don't have a list" was unclear? :p

Lailoken said:
Reminder that Hinata is <2 weeks from realizing that she can actually kiss a boy without him being mysteriously unpersoned within the hour. Might want to capitalize on that.
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Yeaaaaah, about that... Have you read Rule 6? It covers at length what is and isn't okay in terms of sexuality and violence, especially where minors are concerned. Unfortunately, it's so vague as to be useless for helping an author understand what is safe to write, so it basically boils down to "don't do anything that has minors in any situation even vaguely sexual or sexual-adjacent." You'll notice that in four years we've had Akane and Hazō hold hands once or twice, there was one (I think?) on-screen kiss between them, and there was a passing reference to offscreen kissing. That's it.[1]​ A pair of teenagers in constantly high-risk situations (adrenaline does a good job of imitating sexual desire), and that was the extent of it. Nor has Hazō, a 14-year-old boy, ever had any sort of sexual thoughts aside from "She's pretty." This isn't by accident.

It would make our lives a lot easier if y'all would just leave anything vaguely romance- or seduction-related out of your plans for the next four in-game years.

[1] Actually, I forgot one: Hazō and Ikeda danced together without leaving room for Jesus and there was a resulting reference to a momentary feeling of desire, which instantly went away because Hazō was having baggage for someone else.
 
Lailoken said:
Reminder that Hinata is <2 weeks from realizing that she can actually kiss a boy without him being mysteriously unpersoned within the hour. Might want to capitalize on that.
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Step 1: get mental consequence by being (repeatedly) exposed to various jōnin auras.

Step 2: go try to seduce social/battle spec clan heir with opposing political and worldview ideals.


I think that if this idea ends up in winning plan Keiko will obliterate us "because its clearly an Out influence"

eaglejarl said:
It would make our lives a lot easier if y'all would just leave anything vaguely romance- or seduction-related out of your plans for the next four in-game years.
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Wait, so political marriages are OK (Noby-Yuno, Keiko-Shikamaru) only as long as there is no love involved? I hate SV even more now.


Also, burning underage people alive or burying them under collapsed buildings to slowly suffocate while expiriencing severe bleeding and multiple fractions is fine. Allowing them to kiss on-screen? "we've a decent place here! Take this perversion away"!

:(
 
Love is fine. Romance is fine. Just nothing explicitly sexual. Aka if you wouldn't do it in public don't. You can imply teens slept together, and discuss fallout of such. But not the actual event. Because romantic drama is allowed.

I find it pretty straightforward.
 
Roomba said:
...It's very possible much of this is drama she invented wholesale...
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I'm warming up to this interpretation.
By the way, I really appreciate your thorough analyses!
It can be hard to keep up with the thread, let alone stay on top of the shared knowledge of the active playerbase, so sometimes it's nice to have things spelled out explicitly :)
 
eaglejarl said:
It would make our lives a lot easier if y'all would just leave anything vaguely romance- or seduction-related out of your plans for the next four in-game years.
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This made me wonder about a sealing failure causing everyone to suddenly be four years older, and I can't decide what the most horrifying aspect would be: 8 year olds with the brains of 4yos? Pregnant women around the world suddenly POPPING open as their now toddler-sized foetuses burst them open from the inside?
 
KaGoGoGadgetMe said:
This made me wonder about a sealing failure causing everyone to suddenly be four years older, and I can't decide what the most horrifying aspect would be: 8 year olds with the brains of 4yos? Pregnant women around the world suddenly POPPING open as their now toddler-sized foetuses burst them open from the inside?
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faflec.response?
 
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MMKII said:
Three and a half in-game years!
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Yes, because countdown timers to someone's age of majority are in no way creepy. :p

Cariyaga said:
I believe we could make a deal that involved us happening upon spinny wheel eyes in exchange for this. :whistle:
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Done. Pain attacks tomorrow.

TarzanNn said:
Wait, so political marriages are OK (Noby-Yuno, Keiko-Shikamaru) only as long as there is no love involved? I hate SV even more now.
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At the risk of sounding cynical: love, sex, and marriage have nothing to do with one another.
Byzantine said:
Love is fine. Romance is fine. Just nothing explicitly sexual. Aka if you wouldn't do it in public don't. You can imply teens slept together, and discuss fallout of such. But not the actual event. Because romantic drama is allowed.

I find it pretty straightforward.
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Have you ever chaperoned a high school dance and seen what teenagers get up to in public? I find it not at all straightforward. Also, four hour interrogations/shaming sessions can make one a little gun-shy. Sue me.


EDIT: That came off more aggressive than intended, sorry. It was not intended as such.
 
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