The first question everyone has once they’ve spent their starting XP is, of course, what about breakfast? Becuase of course they’ve had one, but what second breakfast? Elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper?
And the answer to that is detailed below.
Roleplay is interacting with others while playing as your character. Do note that this does have to be with other people; playing with yourself may be fun, but claiming you should be rewarded for it is just silly.
Every half hour of in-character activity awards 2 XP. You must remain reasonably active throughout this. Thus, if you were playing for an hour and a half, but had to take a twenty minute break in the middle for whatever reason, you would get 4 XP, counting only the hour and ten minutes during which you were actually RPing.
When in doubt, use common sense.
As highly-trained (well, in theory), supernaturally-powered fighters, ninja can learn a lot from combat, testing their abilities against one another. Most of the time this is (semi-)friendly practice rounds, or spars. Sometimes it’s, well… not.
You get 2 XP for every 30 minutes the fight lasts, though you do not accumulate RP XP during that time. Additionally, you may receive bonus XP for your fight depending on how things went. Consult the lists below!
Bonuses:
Penalties:
-2 per Fatigue level you begin the battle at and -1 per Wound (regardless of level) you start the battle with.
After fighting someone, you may not gain XP for fighting that person for 20 hours. If are in a spar with them and other people (who you haven’t fought in the past 20 hours) you still gain XP, however. Wounds acquired from Genjutsu which are not real, and fade after the fight is over, do not grant XP.
Although the game revolves around the PCs, the world they’re in does not. Things are constantly going on off-screen, separate from casual role playing. Sometimes, GMs will make this known through an event.
These are often missions which the characters are sent on by their village, with clearly defined objectives such as delivering an item or protecting a person. However, this is by no means the only type of event.
You do not get XP for RPing during events, nor do you get XP for any combat which takes place as part of one. Instead, the GM who ran the event will tell you how much XP you have earned.
It’s assumed that your ninja keeps themselves busy somehow when off-screen. Maybe they’re doing missions for their village, maybe they actually training, or maybe they’re just laying in a hospital bed reflecting on their mistakes. Realistically, however, you’re not going to go over all these things when playing the game; after all, your character is always a ninja, but you have a real life to worry about.
Whatever the reason, your character gets a small amount of XP for each day the game’s been going, representing this; with the way this works, it also helps characters made later in the game catch up.
Because it can get a bit convoluted (but look on the bright side: free XP!) this has its own node; check “Training”, for details.
You may get XP in some other fashion. Usually, this will involve a GM telling you how much you got, and for what reason.
XP can be spent to increase any of your five basic attributes. Starting out, the cost to do this is 4 XP per 1 point in any single attribute.
The primary restriction on this is the poorly-named ‘rule of 3’. What this means is: the amount you have increased an attribute may not be more than 3 points higher than the next highest amount you have increased an attribute by.
Because an example will make it clearer: You could raise your STR by 3 points (for 12 XP). To raise it to 4 points, a single other attribute would need to have been raised by at least 1, for a total of (4+1)*4 = 20 XP.
Say you had raised your STR and RES by 12 each, your CHA by 9, your AGI by 6, and your DEX by 3. You could raise your STR or your RES to 15 right away, but to raise both of them to 13 you’d need to raise your DEX, AGI, and CHA by 1 each (in that order).
And, to be clear, only the amount you have raised an attribute by using XP matters; its starting value, or bonuses from uniques (or any other sources), is not part of this limit.
Aside from that restriction, raising attributes summons from a degree of diminishing returns. The first 50 points in an attribute cost, as stated, 4 XP; the next 50 cost 5 XP per +1, the next 50 cost 6 XP per +1, and so forth. Thus, to raise your STR by 62 points you would have to spend a total of (504 + 125) = 260 XP… not counting what you’d have to spend on other attributes to satisfy the ‘rule of 3’.
Finally, you may spend no more than half your total XP on stats. So, if you had 1000 XP, you could spend no more 500 XP on raising your stat points.
The full details of spending XP to learn abilities are discussed in Chapter 4. But, in brief: it varies from one ability to another, with the costs being listed in individual abilities.
A ninja who intends to be successful would do well to have a wide variety of techniques at their disposal. The actual restrictions on what you can and can’t learn are discussed in detail in Chapter 6. Once you meet the requirements to acquire a jutsu you want, to learn (or ‘purchase’) it you spend an amount of XP determined by its rank, as listed… below:
Anything else you can spend XP on will likely explain the rules for doing so in its description.
Clanless characters, and certain clans (which will say so in their description), get what is called an experience bonus. This is an amount beyond your Total XP which you can spend.
Experience Bonuses are given in percents–for example, Clanless characters have a 10% XP Bonus. Take, for example, a clanless character who’s earned 100 XP from RP, 100 from fighting, and 23 from events, on top of his starting 100 XP. This means that his Total XP is 323, just like any normal character.
However, he also has a 10% XP bonus; this means that his bonus XP is 32. Thus, in his Spent XP log (you’ll read more about logs later in this chapter) he would record XP Total as 323, “XP Bonus (%)” as 32 (and change the % to 10%), and “Total + Bonus” as (323+32) 355.
Your total amount of XP spent can go up to your Total + Bonus.
However, your bonus is not actually part of your Total XP. Many things are based on your Total XP, such as bonuses to Genjutsu rolls, your Skill Points, and Talents. XP bonuses have no effect on these.
Because of this game’s constantly-ongoing nature, a lot of people will join after it starts; also, you might get tired of a character and make a new one. To that end, characters created later on in the restart (around, roughly, the 75 day mark) will begin to accue a small amount of “Double XP”, which is simply an amount of XP that, when you earn XP (through spars, fights, participating in events, etc), you’ll earn XP at twice the rate until it is deplenished. It is done automatically in your sheet, so you’ll put the normal amount you’d earn from any given activity, and if eligible for double XP, it will do so! The math behind it is to simply take the difference between how Training XP is currently calculated (detailed below), and ten times the number of days the restart has been active: that is the amount of Double XP you’d have when you first make your character. If that is all confusing to you (and trust me, it can be), then the good news is simply that you’ll have a bit of extra XP, and the sheet will handle it all.
Sometimes you will become unhappy with the character you’re playing, or simply see something that interests you more than what you are playing: While it’s highly encouraged that you try to stick with a character once made (as it’s highly difficult to establish and maintain meaningful in-character relationships and personal connections to the game’s story/plot when changing characters repeatedly, as new characters may not ‘take the place of’ old characters in any sort of fashion), you are allowed to keep some of the EXP you’ve earned on a character if you decide to change to a new one (or if they are killed by some unfortunate circumstance): 40%, to be exact, which does not include the starting 250 XP every character starts with, or the passive Training XP (see below) that all characters gain over time: It is solely based upon the EXP you gained through play. When remaking, you will need to submit your new character in the character submissions channel to get them approved like normal, and simply mention along with the link the old character you are remaking from into this new one; in ‘The Log’ section of the sheet, you’ll list this amount of XP as a ‘GM Award’ type, and put in the notes ‘Reroll XP’.
Training XP is a small but consistent amount of XP that represents your character’s off-screen training and efforts to improve as a Shinobi. To that end, your character gains 10 EXP per day the game’s been going, -1 per 1000 Total EXP, to a minimum of 3 per day. (Thus when you have 1-999 XP, you’d earn 10 per day passively, from 1000-1999 you’d earn 9 per day passively/etc) This is, thanks to the work of some math ninja, calculated by the sheet automatically! As long as you put your character creation date in properly on the sheet (cell I19 in the Character Profile tab, which is the first one you see), the sheet is properly equipped to automatically calculate your Training XP without you having to do anything at all.
There are two ways to gain more Unique Points after creation: The first is by ranking up, earning yourself a promotion from Genin to Chuunin, from Chuunin to Jounin, or a few other ranks, detailed below. The other way to gain additional Unique Points is by having a certain amount of XP, as indicated by on the following chart, which shows both Talent growth and Unique Point acquisition:
1000 Exp - Talent Point 1
2000 Exp - Unique Point 1
2500 Exp - Talent Point 2
3000 Exp - Unique Point 2
4500 Exp - Talent Point 3
5000 Exp - Unique Point 3
6000 Exp - Talent Point 4
6000 Exp - Unique Point 4
7500 Exp - Talent Point 5
9000 Exp - Talent Point 6
Because of the potential to both rank up and earn enough XP for additional Unique Points, there is a caveat: The first and second Unique Points earned by XP (at 2000 and 3000 XP, respectively), do not stack with those earned by any Chuunin: That is, even if you’re a 3k XP Chuunin, you’d have a total of +2 Unique Points, not +4. Similarly, the Unique Points earned from ranking up to Jounin do not stack with those gained at 5000 and 6000 XP. The Unique points gained from other ranks stack with any earned from XP, however, you can only have a maximum of +4 Unique Points from Rank and XP Total, ever, which also means the maximum Unique Points you could ever have is 9.
No matter what ranks or combination of ranks you obtain, you may only acquire a total of 4 Unique Points from ranking up. Thus, if you were promoted to Chuunin, then to Special Jounin, and later transferred to full Jounin status, you would have 2+1+2 = 5 -> +4 UP from your rank.
Every ninja village has its own ninja academy. It’s a lot like you might expect a modern grade school to be, except instead of learning math the students learn how to mold chakra, and instead of mandatory sports programs there are mandatory mock battles.
The ethics of training children of single-digit ages to be effective killing machines is dubious at best; however, it’s been shown that shinobi who begin training from a young age (younger than 10, older than 6, is the typical rule of thumb; any younger and they risk stunting their development) have significantly higher potential than those who begin later.
Players do not begin as academy students, though it’s presumed that their character was one beforehand, and only recently graduated. The rank is included here for the sake of completion.
After graduating from their village’s Ninja Academy students are promoted to the rank of Genin. This is when they’re given a forehead protector with their village’s emblem, worn to identify them as ninja. They’re also entered into their village’s Ninja Registry for identification purposes.
At the rank of Genin they will finally begin performing actual missions for the village, usually of E- and D-rank, though sometimes higher with supervision. Genin are trusted to go on missions outside of their village.
While genin are typically the weakest ninja in their village, it’s a rank, not a measurement of power. It’s quite possible for a genin to be more powerful than their superiors.
Genin can learn E-rank Taijutsu and Ninjutsu techniques.
Chuunin are shinobi who have proven themselves capable leaders within their village, able to coordinate effective strategies during missions and make intelligent decisions for themselves and others, and make up the bulk of the village’s combat-ready forces.
The villages organize a semi-annual Chuunin Exam, with candidates from all villages participating. This is used both for the ninja involved to prove their worthiness of advancement, but also as a way for the village to show off the talents of their shinobi; Chuunin Exams are relatively public affairs, with many nobles and potential employers attending.
While rare, at times exceptional shinobi will demonstrate their ability consistently in missions and other situations, and the village will choose to promote them without waiting for them to pass the Chuunin Exams.
Chuunin are all issued, and most choose to wear, special flak jackets when they’re promoted. These identify them as qualified as shinobi, and for many ninja wearing one is point of pride. Some opt not to, instead preferring more distinct robes or capes.
Promotion Requirements: Be able to use D-rank Taijutsu and Ninjutsu. Pass the Chuunin Exams.
Chuunin have access to C-rank taijutsu and ninjutsu techniques. Upon promotion to Chuunin, you gain 2 Unique Points.
Considered the elite ninja of the village, Jounin are ninja who prove themselves exceptionally capable shinobi. Jounin Exams do exist, but they are not as public or prestigious as Chuunin exams, which are meant to be a show to the country’s daimyo of that village’s potential. They are sent on high-priority A- and S-rank missions, regularly dealing with life-threatening situations.
Jounin are often given squads of Genin to lead, training the next generation as they had once done for them. While it varies between villages just how important this process is, usuually a genin’s sensei is a lasting confidante and, at times, someone to measure themselves against.
Promotion Requirements: Be a Chuunin. Never inflict a critical on a fellow village shinobi during training. Be able to use D-rank Genjutsu. Pass a Jounin exam or be selected for advancement.
Jounin have access to B-rank techniques. When you’re promoted to Jounin to receive 2 Unique Points, and may choose two of the following rank benefits.
Special jounin occupy distinguished positions in their village; Genin and Chuunin typically think the rank is ‘below’ jounin, while most jounin respect a special jounin’s expertise.
Every special jounin has one field in which they excel. When someone thinks of a special jounin they typically imagine interrogators, trackers, and med nin, though many work behind the scenes as strategists and administrators (a few of them even have fearsome custom administrative ninjutsu techniques).
Sometimes Jounin are promoted laterally to Special Jounin status; similarly, ANBU may temporarily or permanently ‘retire’ due to the psychological stress of their work, and become Special Jounin so that the village can still use their talents. It’s even possible for Chuunin to be promoted directly for Special Jounin status, if their skills are valuable enough but their overall performance doesn’t merit Jounin status.
Promotion Requirements:
Be selected based on your specialized skills. Already be Chuunin or higher rank. Special Jounin have access to C-rank techniques.
Additionally, for a single category (such as Medical Ninjutsu) they have access to B- and A-ranked techniques. Upon promotion, Special Jounin receive 1 additional Unique Point to spend.
The black ops division of every village, ANBU (Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai) are the most elite, competent, and ruthless of their peers. They serve as the Kage’s bodyguards, and are entrusted with the most sensitive missions. ANBU identify themselves (or, rather, hide their identities) by wearing a unique face mask, white with a pattern in some secondary color to make the mask resemble some type of animal.
In terms of skill and power, ANBU are comparable to jounin. The difference is the kind of missions they are assigned. ANBU are promoted with personal approval from the Kage, and are among the most loyal and dedicated shinobi of their village.
They’re also the ones most likely to be sent on high-profile infiltration and assassination missions. Being ANBU is a mixed blessing: they don’t really have any more authority within their own village, and while they are respected by their peers there’s also a certain stigma attached to ANBU.
Promotion Requirements:
Be a REAL Ninja.
ANBU have access to B-rank jutsu, and access to A-rank jutsu of a single category (such as Combo Taijutsu). ANBU members receive 1 Unique Point.
Not actually a rank, but rather a status. This is the term applied to ninja who have deserted their village (“gone missing”) for one reason or another. Missing nin are, in simplest terms, traitors. Most villages will, once they realize one of their ninja has fled, promptly add that person to their Bingo Books and, if the reason they left was sufficiently severe, or if they knew village secrets, dispatch ANBU teams to hunt them down and either bring them back to the village or kill them.
Some missing nin may defect to other villages. However, even if they’re allowed to (many villages will accept, and then promptly imprison the traitor) they are generally treated poorly and disrespected–once a traitor, always a traitor, and in the shinobi world loyalty is one of the most valuable traits a person can have.
Requirements: Desert your village. Harder than it sounds…
Rank benefits: So, I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news…
The good news: You’re your own boss! Nobody can tell you what to do!
The bad news: Your village wants you dead or captured, and everyone else wants the bounty your village put on your head.
Calling this a rank is dubious, at best. Certainly, it’s not an official one. These are ninja who’ve reached a great level of distinction in their village for reasons other than power in combat, but who are also skilled enough to be more than a match for most other ninja in battle.
Most sennin serve as personal advisors to the kage, and potential stand-ins for the kage; many sennin would be suitable kages (though perhaps not powerful enough, yet), if not for personal issues, such as aversion to authority or a strong preference for field work.
Sennin are often give free reign to leave their village and undertake long-term personal missions–one of the defining characteristics of them is that they’re implicitly trusted by their village to such an extent.
Rank benefits:
You can come and go from your village as you please, without being labelled as a missing nin. However, you’re still expected to answer to the Kage, and not to act against your village’s interests.
The highest rank attainable in any of the major shinobi villages is that of Kage: the lead ninja in the village. Officially, only the leaders of the Five Great Ninja Villages are recognized as Kages: Raikage (Cloud), Hokage (Leaf), Mizukage (Mist), Kazekage (Sand), and Tsuchikage (Stone). The leaders of Otogakure have taken to styling themselves as the Otokages, though they are not officially realized as such.
A village’s Kage is not an autocrat; they are still accountable to their village’s ruling council. However, the Kage is also more than a figurehead. They are one of the village’s most powerful shinobi, but also one who knows when to listen to others and respect the needs of their people.
Though most Genin entertain dreams of one day becoming their respective village’s Kage, they generally manage to outgrow those desires. Being Kage is hard work, and typically painfully dull to the ones capable of doing it well (many Kages have infamously short tempers for paperwork).
A Kage can either be appointed as successor by their predecessor, or nominated by the village council. Once they’ve taken the position, a Kage technically holds the title for life; most step down in their later years and let a younger shinobi take over, remaining Kage in name only.
Rank benefits are specialized abilities acquired when one ranks up. Each rank will have several for you to choose from; you automatically acquire any two of your choice, for free. These represent the fact that while all shinobi of a given rank will have similar overall capabilities, there’s room for different ninja to have widely varying areas of expertise.
Some benefits can only be taken by members of certain villages, as indicated by a label of “(village) Only”.
You’re exceptionally good at properly using and allocating your human resources. When you are the designated leader of a group, you may activate this benefit up to XP/250 times per in-character week.
When you do so, you can give an order to one person (or use multiple activations to give orders to multiple people). They have a +3 bonus to any relevant rolls to following that order. If the order was to perform a specific action, if applicable it will have +3 Accuracy.
These orders must be specific. “Do what you think is best” would not qualify. If you told someone to “hold this position”, that would not give them the bonus to all combat rolls. “Attack that person” wouldn’t qualify, but “restrain them somehow” would.
Generally speaking, a single instance of this benefit will benefit only a single roll or attack.
You have a nindo, or ninja way, that you hold as more important than anything else. It gives you strength and guidance when you find yourself in need of either. This can be something like never leaving a comrade behind (even if they promise they can, and probably can, handle themselves) or never allowing yourself to have an unfair advantage (if a stronger opponent is missing their left arm, holding yours behind your back for the entire fight). The GMs must approve your Nindo.
Once per two months (eight real-life days), while actively following our nindo (such as fighting alongside that ally, or in the battle with that enemy), you can activate this benefit. Doing so resets your Chakra Exhaustion and Stamina penalties to 0, and lowers your Fatigue by two categories.
However, if you ever act against your Nindo (even if it’s the best decision to make, or just following orders) you cannot use its effects for three months (twelve real-life days).
You profoundly don’t like to give up; when you set your mind to doing something, you do it as it has never been done before. You can spend multiple points of Willpower (or activations of Limit Break, or things that work similarly) on a single roll. There is no limit to how many times you may do so for one action, beyond how many Willpower you have to spend.
What brings Leaf ninja together and in some ways makes them the strongest of all the ninja villages–though none would admit this–is their comraderie. That they are more or less a giant family and protect one another as such is why the Leaf ninja prospere, because they do so with a passion.
Whenever an ally is Severely or Critically Wounded, or brought to 0 HP, something sparks within you, motivating you in the defense of one another and the village. Starting immediately, and lasting for (maximum Willpower)*5 IC after your next non-Interrupt action, you do not accumulate penalties to Fatigue, and status effects which you are currently afflicted with are ignored. Any Genjutsu which is affecting you is purged altogether, and you have a +5 bonus to defensive Genjutsu rolls in this time. Multiple instances of Will of Fire overlap, but do not stack.
Training to fight in low-light environments is something that every village’s ninja academy and instructors covers at least briefly. Mist puts more of an emphasis on that than others, some say because of the thick, choking fogs that often engulf their island home, others arguing it’s a result of the networks of caverns under the island that students and genin often train under.
Many Mist shinobi train themselves to be particularly adept at fighting with reduced, or even no, visibility. They adapt to low-light conditions quickly, their eyes adjusting or other senses taking over as necessary. Every 10 IC you spend suffering from a visibility penalty of any severity, the maximum visibility penalty you can suffer from is lowered by 1, applied after Blind Fighting, to a minimum of -2. For example, if you were inside the range of a Hidden Mist Technique for 20 IC, and had 3 ranks of Blind Fighting, the maximum visibility penalty (from any source) you could suffer from would be (10-3-2) = 5.
However, every 10 IC you spend not suffering from any visibility penalties, this bonus decays by 1. In the above example, after 20 IC your Mist Born bonuses would have dissipates entirely.
If you have closed your eyes, blindfolded yourself or something similar, Mist Born does not take effect. Wounds and jutsu which temporarily blind you, however, still trigger it. For area-of-effect visibility penalties, you must actually be in the area.
The desert is not a welcoming or forgiving climate. Those who call it home do not consider it an enemy, but also harbor no illusions about just how quickly their homeland will end their lives if they let it. They learn to overcome adversity, because in the desert, there is no other way.
As a Speed 0 action you can activate or deactivate this village benefit. While active, you halve all penalties from Fatigue and status effects. Thus, Immobilization 8 would give you only -2 to Accuracy and -4 to defenses and -40% movement speed; Visibility 6, however, would still allow people to hide from you. This specifically does not apply to any damage dealing effects, such as Bleed, Ignite, and Poison.
You may maintain this effect for a total of 50 IC during a battle.
You’ve been doing this ninja thing for a while, and it’s second nature to you by now. If you could, based on only your DEX and Uniques, reduce the Seal Speed of a ninjutsu you know to 0 , then you can perform that jutsu without needing to use handseals.
Limited use effects (Which mostly have been removed except for some outliers) do not apply to this. So only effects/bonuses that are always active you get. This doesn’t apply to Genjutsu, Sealing Ninjutsu, or Medical Ninjutsu.
It’s sort of expected that jounin will help teach the next generation of shinobi; indeed, that’s why many are given teams of genin to watch over and train. Anyone can explain a concept, but you can actually do so well. You’d make a great instructor, truth be told.
You can train other shinobi. This can be done with jutsu, in which case it takes one week per rank of the technique, during which time you and the student can still go on missions and about your regular business, but must be able to spend a reasonable amount of time practicing. This allows a person to learn techniques of one rank beyond their normal imitation, and can only be done with jutsu that you know yourself.
For example, if you knew a B-rank Katon jutsu, you could teach it to a Chuunin if they spent at least four weeks around you, learning it.
You may also teach any talents under the “Capabilities” heading which you already know. Doing this requires ten weeks of training with your student. After training is complete, they learn it normally. However, their next talent must be spent to pay for whatever it was they learned, and they may only be one talent in “debt” at a time. For example, say you were mentoring a student with 1100 XP, who used their first talent to acquire Seal Training. After ten weeks they would be able to learn, for example, Medical Training. At 2500 XP the talent point they’d normally get would be used to “pay for” the Medical Training they received early.
Keep the GMs informed of who you’re training, and with what. There are Infamy gains associated, for both teacher and student. And, notably, teaching members of other villages is looked upon very poorly by your own village and, if they find out, can be tantamount to treason.
Mentor can not be acquired through the Prodigy talent.
All this ninja-ing has given you exceptional resilience. You work yourself to the bone and fight against impossible odds on a regular basis; it’s not even really all that memorable when you do it, any more! Your bonus to Chakra Exhaustion and Stamina rolls from Fatigue is raised by +2 per category (from a default of +5, giving you, under normal circumstances, +7 per Fatigue level).
Pick one Chuunin rank benefit you don’t have. You acquire it.
Choose a single skill which relates to your role as a Special Jounin; Medicine for a medic nin, Survival for a tracker, Chakra Control for a seal specialist, and so forth. You must already have the Specialization ability for that skill. When you roll below a 10 when using that skill, your d20 roll is instead considered to be a 10. This does not apply if you use a Willpower (or effects which follow the rules for Willpower). Your maximum skill ranks are also increased by 3.
You must have GM approval for which skill you take this for. You may take Mastery more than once, each time applied to a different skill.
Whenever you spend a point of Willpower to reroll a skill roll, you also add 5 points to the final result of the roll. You have one point of “temporary” Willpower, which does not count as one of your maximum WP but is recovered normally, which may only be spent to reroll skill rolls.
You take the concept of being prepared to its logical conclusion, and then keep going. You don’t just have the right tools for any given situation, you have more tools than you know what to do with.
Whenever you spend requisition to obtain an item other than Exploding Tags, you get twice as many of that item. Spending 100 requisition on lockpicks would get you two sets of +1 lockpicks. Buying 10 shuriken would instead give you 20 shuriken, and so forth.
Pick a Chuunin or Jounin rank benefit; you receive it. This does not allow you to choose village-exclusive benefits from other villages.
When you attack an opponent who is completely unaware of your presence (you are in Stealth and they do not know you are hiding from them; thus, this cannot be used if you hide from them mid-battle) your attack has +4 Accuracy and +25% damage.
Additionally, you can prepare sneak attacks at twice the regular speed. Thus, when aborting a Prepare Sneak Attack action to perform a Sneak Attack, the duration of your Perform Sneak Attack action only needs to be at least half the Speed of the action you’re using as a Sneak Attack.
It’s impossible to catch you off guard. You react without even needing time to think about what you’re doing, letting yourself process the situation and get your bearings mid-battle. No matter what your Initiative roll at the start of battle, your first action is always on IC 0.
You know the value of a single, decisive blow at the right moment. It ends battles–and lives. When attacking, if partial defense applies to your attack’s damage you may spend 1 point of Willpower and cause all effects of partial defense to be ignored for that attack.
This is declared before you roll damage, and does allow your opponent to, in response, spend a Willpower point of their own on their defense. If this causes them to avoid your attack after all, your point of Willpower is not spent.
This may only be used successfully once per battle. Remember, you can only spend 1 point of Willpower on a single action; thus, if you had already used a point of Willpower to roll your Accuracy, you couldn’t spend a second one for Critical Strike.
You may designate a single person as your quarry. Doing so requires a week to study any available information on them and to, through a mixture of not getting enough sleep and mild meditation, get yourself in the proper mindset.
You have +6 to Survival rolls to track your quarry, and +5 to Awareness and Espionage rolls made against them. Your Accuracy for attacks made against them is increased by 3, and your damage by 25% for the purpose of determining wounds. When fighting them, you have 1 point of temporary Willpower, and gain another point of temporary Willpower every 50 IC.
It takes four weeks of mentally detaching yourself from the hunt to end the quarry status of a person, be it because you’ve killed them or given up the hunt. You may only designate one person as your quarry at a time.
Pick a Chuunin or Jounin rank benefit; you receive it.
The nature of the job is that ninja are seldom well-liked by any village other than their own. Working together with foreign nin is certainly not unheard of, and respect goes a long way in the shinobi world, but trusting someone with your life does not mean you should actually trust them.
Also part of the nature of the job is that anyone who distinguishes themselves begins to get some sort of reputation; you can be either obscure, or successful, and despite how stealthy ninja try to be, being both has throughout history proven to be an impossibility.
That is what Infamy is: how well and widely known you are, the strength of your reputation. Infamy is a curse and a blessing, and more the former than the latter. It can, sometimes, be useful, especially if you have a reputation for being honorable and need to convince suspicious adversaries that you’re trustworthy.
Most of the time, however, it’s an albatross around your neck. The more famous you are, the more every other village wants you dead, because then you’ll be one less advantage possessed by one of their potential enemies.
To be clear, Infamy is fairly abstract. If you go on an E-rank mission, chances are no foreign ninja are going to see you doing it–but you still gain Infamy for it. If you kill someone and nobody finds out about it, you still gain Infamy for it. These Infamy gains are meant to be representative of your character’s overall renown, not the actual effect of one specific action.
Completing missions awards infamy; the more active you are, and the higher-profile the tasks you’re completing, the more likely it is that somebody’s going to hear about you, or that you’ll develop a reputation.
Completing a mission awards 1 point of Infamy per rank; 1 for an E-rank, 2 for a D-rank, and so forth, up to 6 points of Infamy for an S-ranked mission.
Although characters are assumed to be frequently going on missions appropriate to their skill level off-screen, this only applies for actual missions run by GMs. This is awarded regardless of success or failure.
For every rank other than genin you obtain, you get +5 Infamy. If you’re somehow demoted, you do not lose that Infamy, and you do not get it a second time if you’re repromoted.
Thus, someone who was promoted to chuunin then promoted to jounin would have +10 Infamy (total) from rank. Later, they’re selected for ANBU, and after a few years of that retire to special jounin status; they’re no longer a jounin or ANBU, but still have a total of +20 Infamy from ranks.
The exception is Missing Nin. If you desert your village, you acquire +15 Infamy. If you manage to be accepted back into your old village or join a new one (good luck with that), and then go missing again (…seriously?) your Infamy once again increases by 15; for a total of, in that example, +30 from having gone missing twice.
The more talented you are, the more likely you are to stand out and be remembered. Accordingly, for every 500 XP you have, you get a cumulative +1 Infamy. At 500 XP you’d get +1, at 1000 it’d be +2, at 1500 it’d be +3, for a total of (+1+2+3 = ) +6.
If you kill a player character with at least half your Infamy, you gain 25% of their Infamy.
GMs may award Infamy at their discretion for reasons that don’t fall into any of the above categories.
One notable thing that can result in Infamy: Certain jutsu, abilities, and special techniques not necessarily listed in the PHB may require “Training”–they’re rarely, often closely guarded secrets. Knowing one of these is like adding another ring to that bull’s-eye on the back of your head: it’s one more reason for you to be an advantage your village has that everyone else would just love to neutralize.
Set values for that do exist, but they are S-E-C-R-E-T. Notably, if you obtain those kinds of things through the use of Talents you don’t suffer that increase in Infamy.
The biggest effect of Infamy is that it contributes to your bounty, should you ever wind up in the bingo books of one or more villages… and chances are you will wind up there, eventually. Even if you don’t do anything particularly unforgivable, with high enough Infamy they’ll probably just add you as a matter of principle–though, by that point, just to get your Infamy that high you’ve probably irritated them a few times too many anyway. Bounties are, by default, (Infamy * 40) Ryo, once you actually have one.
Once you reach 25 Infamy, it’s possible that anyone who encounters you and learns your name (and has a bingo book) has heard of you; a result of (35 - your Infamy /10) or better on a Research roll means they know basic information like your village, rank, and bounty, and possibly a general idea of your reputation. Infamy can also attract other sorts of… unwanted attention.
Logging certain things in this game is mandatory. It’s unfortunate, and undesirable, but it’s also necessary for everyone’s sake. Below are instructions on how to properly fill them out.
Partly, this is for your own benefit. It helps you keep track of things your character has gained, and makes it easy for you to go back and check your work.
Also, as an unfortunate truth, some people will, when they can’t be held accountable, cheat. It has happened before, frequently enough to necessitate the use of these logs. This isn’t saying that we distrust any one person in particular–but rather, that the only fair way to handle this is to hold everyone to the same standard.
This log tallies how you’ve allocated the XP you’ve earned. It’s divided into two columns: Categories, and each category’s responded “Allocation”–which is how much you’ve spent in that category.
So, if you’d spent 200 XP raising your attributes, you’d write “200” in the Allocation column, across from Attribute
The total XP you’ve spent on all your abilities, both standard and clan. It should be autocalc the total on your sheet.
The total XP you’ve spent learning all your jutsu. This may be modified by some uniques; use the actual, modified total here.It should be autocalc the total on your sheet.
The total amount of XP you’ve spent raising your attributes. It should be autocalc the total on your sheet.
Anything else which you’ve had to spend XP on. Your sheet doesn’t automatically keep track of this, but you should!
The total of how much XP you’ve earned. You’ll calculate this in the “Total XP” log; just copy the number from there over to here. If you have an XP Bonus, you should make a note of that instead, though keep in mind that your actual total is important for calculating some limits. If you had 200 XP, and a 10% bonus, a good way to fill this out might be “220 (200+20)”. That way, you know how much XP you have to spend (220), and also your normal Total XP (200), to use when determining things like the max amount you can spend on attributes.
How much XP you’ve spent on everything put together. This is the total of your Ability, Jutsu, Attribute, and Other values in this category.
This is how much XP you haven’t spent on anything–you can hold onto it as long as you wish, or spend it as you please. Subtract XP Spent from XP Total; the result is what you’ll put here.
How you can keep track of your infamy!
Each entry should be fairly self-explanatory once you’ve read the Infamy node in the PHB. In “Missions”, use the total from the Missions grid to the right. “Rank”, “Experience”, and “Kills” are all explained in the Infamy node. “Other” is anything which doesn’t fall in those categories, such as GM awarded Infamy. And finally, “Total” is the sum of all those boxes.
A short list of official missions you’ve completed for your village. # Completed is exactly what it sounds like; how many missions of that rank you’ve done. “Infamy” will be the number of missions in that category multiplied by the Infamy per-mission for that rank.
Total has a box for your total number of missions completed, and the total amount of Infamy earned from missions.
In short, it’s an explanation for who you killed, and when, to get Infamy (and how much it was), and a list of any “Other” Infamy acquisitions. The GMs who awarded those, regrettably, don’t have perfect memories.
If a spar, list the people involved, if a mission, get the name from a ST. If a RP, same as spar, list who was involved.
RP, Spar, Mission, or Other.
The Village or outside the village the country unless ST specifies.
The room on discord this took place in.
The start/end times, please list your local time (CST,EST,etc)
And so we come to the end! Here you’ll find a column of categories, and, opposite them, a column in which to enter numbers!
For Battle, RP, Event, and Other, take the most recent “Total XP” entry from the respective categories in XP Logs, and copy them over.
Similarly, Training is just the “Total” number in your Training Log.
Creation should pretty much always be 100.
XP Bonus is only important if you have one. Unless you are a Clanless, a Juugo Suto, or a person with the Super Novice unique, you probably don’t have an XP Bonus.
You should rename “XP Bonus (__%)” to the actual percent you have; for example, “XP Bonus (10%)”. In the accompanying box, multiply your Total by that percent. 10% of 131, for example, is 13.
Total + Bonus is your Total XP, plus your XP Bonus.
By default, you can only create and play one character at a time, as we want to encourage you to build up a character that is both mechanically and aesthetically complex and attached to both other characters, and plots, to engage in the world more with a character you’ll stick with and grow to enjoy alongside others. That said, once you’ve hit the cap of how much XP you’re allowed to have spent, it can be demoralizing to be waiting for day rollovers to have XP to spent and to feel like you can’t really engage with the game as much as you’d like, so second characters are allowed to be made–with some restrictions.
Firstly, to create a second character, your first character must not just be at the XP Cap, but be 100 XP past it in order to create a second character. At present, third characters are not allowed to be created, though this may at some point change.
Next, your second character can not be from the same village as your first: This both helps to create more diversity and increase player population within each village, and also helps protect against the next thing..
.. Which is that your second character can’t be related to or meaningfully know about, your first character. Being ‘aware of their existence’ is fine, but your characters should never be said to, and are not allowed to, ‘meet’. Neither of your characters can aid or give or receive help from the other, be it Doctoring, Savings, items of any kind, Mentoring, or any other mechanical benefit. If you’re found to be using one of your characters to aid another, you will lose your second character.
Finally, you can only be in-character with one character at a time. This means you can not spar with one character and RP with another simultaneously: we want people who you interact with to have as much of your attention as is needed for a scene, which means no multi-tasking by playing both at once, to show respect to your fellow players.
The sheet at present tracks whether you are eligible for a second character automatically, so be sure to check ‘The Log’ tab and look at M22 (as of the most recent sheet) to see whether you are eligible for a second character.