Ninja in the Naruto universe have an advantage which real ninja lacked: namely, magical chakra-based powers that let them perform superhuman physical feats, stand on water, and breathe fire. Even so, a wise ninja, magical or not, will equip themselves with a wide variety of tools. True, you could create a thick bank of fog instead of throwing down a smoke bomb–but that smoke bomb’s faster, and less taxing.
Every piece of equipment has a cost in Ryo, the world’s most commonly-used currency. You can get Ryo in two primary ways, the Money: Requisition and Money: Savings abilities.
Items bought with Requisition can be traded in and replaced whenever you visit your village. Items bought with Savings are yours forever, for better or worse; if you lose them, they won’t be replaced.
Items can be divided into two broad categories: Consumable and non-consumable. Consumable items are gone once you use them. These are things like smoke bombs, poisons, and explosives. Used-up consumables can be restocked when you get back to your village, if they were bought with Requisition. It is generally unwise to purchase consumables with Savings; if you do, once you use them they are gone forever. Non-consumable items can be broken, destroyed, or lost, but usually aren’t. These are things like ropes, weapons, and lockpicks. Ranged weapons are not destroyed on use (hit or miss).
In some cases, equipment weight will come up. Weights are listed below.
(Speed 3)
Weapons are typically carried attached to one’s person somehow; swords have sheathes, a pair of tonfa might be tucked through belt holsters, a fan could be strapped across your back, and so forth. Drawing a weapon is retrieving it from wherever you have it stored and placing it in your hands. At this point you can use it to attack, parry, or whatever else you please, with the downside being that your hands aren’t free for, say, handseals. You may also draw a weapon at the start of combat (when you roll initiative), without taking an action to do so. If you wish, you can draw two weapons as a single Speed 5 action. Note that you only need to Draw weapons you intend to hold and use in melee. This Speed to attack with thrown or multi-thrown weapons includes the time needed to retrieve them from holsters. The same is true for Bows.
Be aware: While holding one or more weapons, you can still make basic unarmed attacks. You cannot, however, use Unarmed or Combo jutsu. Grappling is still possible as long as you have at least one hand free.
(Speed 6)
You put a weapon you’re holding away, in some secure fashion. If you’re holding two weapons, you can put them both away at the same time.
(Speed 1, or Speed +2)
You drop or toss aside a weapon. Done normally, this is a Speed 1 action. However, it may also be used alongside an Interrupt (such as a defensive ninjutsu technique) by increasing that action’s Speed (after AP reductions) by 2.
(Speed 5)
You pick up a weapon on the ground. This can be your weapon, or someone else’s, as long as nobody’s currently holding it. You can only pick up one melee weapon at a time with this action, and must be able to physically reach it (which may require you to move first). You can also pick up DEX/10 used throwing weapons and holster them appropriately.
(Weapon’s Speed +4)
You use a weapon you’re holding to knock an enemy’s out of their grasp, usually by hitting it at such an angle, and with enough force, that it becomes physically impossible for them to hold onto it. This is a basic weapon attack that does no damage, but if it hits you knock their weapon STR/10 yards in any direction (if straight up, the weapon lands at their feet but cannot be retrieved for STR/10 IC). Trying to Parry a Disarm attempt has a -3 penalty. Small weapons cannot disarm Large weapons, and Large weapons lack the finesse to be used to disarm at all.
Next to a weapon’s name are various characteristics of the weapon, useful for determining what kind of wounds it inflicts and what jutsu it may be used with. Of particular note is the “Two-Handed” descriptor, meaning the weapon in question may only be used by holding it in both hands. When being used two-handed, the weapon increases its user’s Damage Bonus by 25%. This multiplication only applies to the STR/15 (or similar stat-derived divisor, if it’s somehow changed), and does not apply to abilities or jutsu which add to or subtract from your damage bonus.
A weapon which sees more use in martial arts than among ninja, the bo staff is traditionally six feet long, though ninja scale their staves to their users. The bo is, essentially, a hard wooden pole, sometimes tapered at the ends.
You can add the “Dual” tag for a Bo Staff when attacking, losing its Two-Handed tag and Accuracy bonus to do so, along with its ability to avoid effects dependent upon being in melee.
Large fans with reinforced wooden slats, these were originally used by generals to signal soldiers on battlefields. Then some ninja was looking for a way to be unique, got ahold of the idea, and, well… the usual. Though they’re several feet long, these fans do (impressively) fold.
A weapon that consists of an adapted kama on a narrow metal chain with a heav, typically iron, weight on one end. Some shinobi have been known to replace the kama with a heavy metal spike.
Grappling someone with this weapon does not impose a penalty on your own Dodge or Parry interrupts, though the ball end of the weapon can not be used for anything else while a grapple is maintained, Ignite statuses do not transfer between grapplers, and you must keep ahold of the weapon to maintain the grapple. The person you’re grappling can not move further away from you than this weapon’s range: if they would do something that would move them further, you are moved as well (and vice-versa), and either may attempt to restrain the other (as described under Grab). You can always elect to end the grapple by simply discarding the weapon (see the Discard weapon action), whether or not you are in control of the grapple. Once someone is grappled with this weapon, you can perform any Grapple jutsu of C or lower rank on them, with the exception of Headbutt, Suplex, and Pressure Point. Joint Lock uses the weapon’s damage instead of unarmed attack damage. The weapon is considered to have unlimited limbs.
A pair of wooden handles attached by a length of rope or chain, a single nunchaku is generally wielded by grabbing one handle and using it to spin the other and bludgeon someone. Paired they do the same thing, except twice as much.
A martial arts weapon, the sai consists of a single main, dagger-like spike, with two prongs extending from the handle. The points of this weapon are blunted, and the prongs reinforced; it’s a primarily defensive weapon.
Rarely used among ninja, except ones who want to demonstrate how overpoweringly strong they are, the tetsubo is a large wooden pole, often with iron studs on the business end.
Originating from a small island off the shore of fire country, the tonfa began as a martial arts implement, which ninja have seen fit to ‘borrow’ and upgrade. A single tonfa is essentially a wooden bar the length of the wielder’s forearm with a handle 1/4 of the way from one end. Typically wielded in pairs, they’re an unorthodox but sometimes-effective weapon.
Yes, umbrellas. Ones used in combat are reinforced with metal or hard wood, making them semi-decent bludgeoning weapons, and most have a sharp, pointed tip added at the end.
Farming tools used by the ninja of old, back before they had awesome chakra-powered pyrotechnics. A kama is pretty much a short wooden handle with a slightly-curved blade at a right angle to it on one end.
A small, light-weight straight-bladed sword with a traditionally square-shaped handguard, the ninja-to is, as its name may suggest, favored by shinobi.
A straight-bladed dagger, usually double-edged, between six and twelve inches long. Good for stabbing people! Popular among reasonably wealthy civilians for purposes of self defense.
An infantry weapon among mundane armies, the Yari is about as simple as a polearm can get: wooden pole, straight wooden blade with a sharp point that you stick into other people.
The traditional samurai sword, with a slightly curved blade and wavy design along the edge due to its forging.
A weapon almost as traditional as the katana, and even more rarely appropriated for use by ninja, the naginata is essentially a wooden pole with a sword-like curved blade on the end.
A massive curved sword, it is functionally a two-handed version of a katana made longer in both handle and blade. It is a weapon made to test the limits of practical weapon sizes, which means every blacksmith makes their nodachi differently.
A small war fan, used, much like their larger counterparts, to signal troops in combat. Or, if you’re a ninja, to kill people with. The tessen, as used by ninja, is a handheld folding or non-folding fan with, at the very least, a sharpened metal edge.
Essentially knuckle dusters with the blunt or knobbed front replaced by a serrated blade which extends several inches past the end of the fingers. They are most often used as a pair.
Among samurai, this is the traditional partner of the katana. The wakizashi has a blade about a foot and a half long. It’s a relatively small sword, which makes it easier for follow-up attacks in concert with its heavier partner.
Zanbato were created as a result of the nodachi’s historied lack of specificity; at some point blacksmiths began to compete with one another to see who could create the most oversized sword. The result is the Zanbato, which border on impossible to utilize effectively, though where there is a will..
One of the two mainstays of ninja armed combat, the kunai is a small metal knife, shaped like an elongated diamond. On the short end it has a handle just long enough to wrap one’s hand around, typically wrapped in cloth to improve the grip, and a metal ring on the end of that.
The other classic ninja weapon, even more famous than the kunai, shuriken are small, flat four-pointed metal stars thrown at opponents to distract and mildly injure them. Like kunai, shuriken are black, making them less reflective and generally harder to spot in low-light conditions.
Large metal needles, traditionally used in acupuncture. Rarely, particularly skilled shinobi will use these with devastating efficiency. Frequently, particularly overconfident shinobi will use this with depressing ineptitude.
Fuuma Shuriken (Large, Slashing, Thrown)
A fairly complex device, a fuuma shuriken is four curved blades that can fold together and be used as an improvised blade in melee combat, or unfolded and locked open, taking on a pinwheel shape, to be thrown.
The name is about as literal as it could be: it’s essentially a shuriken many, many times larger than a normal shuriken, up to four feet from the tip of one point to the opposite. It generally sees limited use in combat due to its cumbersome size.
A large bow, generally bigger than its wielder at six feet or so high. The upper ‘half’ is actually 2/3 or so of the total length. As most ninja find these near-useless in combat, they tend to see more use in assassination missions.
Technically, it’s called a hankyu, and kyudo practitioners would be horridly offended to hear shinobi calling all bows of this sort ‘yumis’. However, ninja hardly care! The yumi is a much smaller bow, typically not more than four feet long.
These are necessary to use a bow in combat! Specifically, arrows are the ammunition for bows, and each attack you make with a bow requires you to use an arrow. Arrows can usually be retrieved after battle. Arrows are expensive not because of their construction, but because ones of the quality that chakra-using ninja need are hard to come by; shuriken and kunai are competitively mass produced, arrows are not.
Arrows with narrow steel tips that excel in penetrating armor and the like. These ignore the effects of enemy armor when dealing damage, but lose something in terms of killing power due to creating smaller wounds.
A large scroll. Most of the time these are carried rolled up to save space. They’re useless, aside from the fact that a few sealing jutsu make use of them.
These pills contain a peculiar mix of chemicals that, when consumed by someone capable of using chakra (such as a ninja) will allow their body to rapidly replenish lost blood. When you take one of these pills you regain RES/10 HP (but not Vitality) each IC, for 50 IC. During this duration you take only one third damage from poison, and no damage from effects caused by bleeding (such as certain wounds). Using a Blood Pill is a Speed 10 action.
Small bits of metal that are basically just four short spikes attached at a center; no matter how they land, there’ll always be a metal spike pointing upwards. The typical use is to scatter them across the ground to impede movement through an area. As a Speed 10 action you can throw them up to STR/6 yards to cover an Area 5 in caltrops. Anyone moving through the area going at more than half their maximum movement speed takes 1d4 damage for every IC they spend moving through the area; this damage has no Damage Bonus component, and cannot inflict wounds. Caltrops are considered to have the ‘Environmental’ tag when placed.
Broad, sturdy cloth that looks like bandages, or perhaps mummification wraps. This comes in large rolls of up to 200 yards; carrying more than one roll inflicts a -1 immobilization penalty for each beyond the first (not due to weight, but because they’re bulky). Confine Scroll Seals can carry one roll each.
A container, usually a gourd, clay jug, or waterskin, commonly worn at the hip. One container can hold 2 gallons of water or another substance. For every two small containers or fraction thereof beyond the second, you suffer a -1 penalty to dodge due to encumberance.
A large gourd or other sort of container, several feet long and usually worn on the back. It’s heavy and bulky, but not quite enough to restrict the mobility of a well-trained shinobi. It can hold up to 8 gallons of water, but you can only carry one with you (due to its size!).
Flash bombs are devices which, when ignited, produce brilliant flashes of light. Anyone within Area 10 of the location they’re thrown at suffers a -4 Visibility penalty for the next 10 IC. It is a Speed 4 action to throw one, and you can throw them up to STR/5 yards.
You may also drop a flash bomb when dodging, in which case your dodge’s Speed is increased by 4, and it is dropped at your feet, affecting everyone within Area 10 of you except yourself.
High tension 16-gauge wire. It is generally only available in ninja villages, and comes in spools with various lengths of wire.
I refuse to explain what this is. Individual lengths of rope can be purchased up to 300 feet (100 yards), but there’s nothing stopping you from tying a few together. Tying somebody up requires 10 yards of rope, and the person in question to not be resisting.
You can tie someone up with ropes. If so, roll Espionage +10 to see how good your knots were. The result, or 20, is the difficulty of escaping. The user can try to slip the knots (Espionage skill roll, +DEX/10) which takes 5 minutes to attempt (they can hide that they are doing so via an opposed Espionage roll). This can be attempted repeatedly.
You can also attempt to snap the ropes using brute force. This calls for a roll of 1d20 + (Athletics /5) + (STR /10) against a target of 30, requires a Stamina 25 roll, and is done instantly, but repeated attempts cannot be made (either you’re strong enough to break the ropes, or you’re not).
Paper balls small enough to be easily held in one hand, when thrown at the ground they burst and release wide clouds of smoke. Smoke bombs have a range of STR/5 yards, and can be thrown as a Speed 4 action. When thrown, it releases a cloud of thick smoke that causes a -6 visibility penalty to all people within its 10 yard radius, for 20 IC. These clouds of smoke have the ‘Environmental’ tag.
Sturdier than regular smoke bombs, and much more dangerous, these are filled with some manner of poisonous vapor. They’re used like regular smoke bombs, but have a 10 yard radius, a -4 visibility penalty, and persist for 25 IC. When you buy a poison smoke bomb, select a poison (from the Poisons section) which has Inhalation as one of its possible vectors of delivery. When you throw the smoke bomb, make a Toxicology roll. Anyone who passes through the area must make a Resistance roll against that Toxicology result, or be poisoned. The cost of the poison smoke bomb is 100 Ryo, plus the base cost (unreduced by buying multiples) for one dose of the chosen poison. Like with Smoke Bombs, they have the ‘Environmental’ tag.
The proper name is ‘military ration pills’, but the term soldier pill is more commonly used among shinobi. They’re less rations than fast-acting performance-enhancing drugs. Though every village has a slightly different recipe, the pills are all marble-sized and black or dark brown. When eaten, they have the approximate flavor and texture of sawdust.
These pills are essentially just condensed stimulants and nutrients; taking one immediately lowers you a Fatigue category, and gives you +5 to Chakra Exhaustion and Stamina rolls for the next hour. Doing so is a Speed 10 action in battle. You may only take one per battle, and no more than RES/50 per day.
Antidotes to several of the more popular and lethal poisons which shinobi use are widely available, for somewhat obvious reasons. A single dose of an antidote costs half the amount for a single dose of a poison; multiple doses cost half as much as the first. So, buying 2 doses of antidote for Black Adder venom would be (40+20) 60 ryo, and buying 4 doses of antidote for Yew toxin would be (60 + 3 * 30) 150 ryo.
Taking a dose of an antidote is a Speed 6 action, and immediately cures you of the poison in question and all its lingering effects. Antidotes that act quickly enough to be useful in emergencies, such as combat, aren’t gentle on the body, with each applying a -2 penalty to your Accuracy and all d20 rolls for 100 IC. However, for that duration you are immune to the poison in question.
A small, typically handheld device that has a needle inside a metal case (with a glass cover, so it can be seen) that points, approximately, to magnetic north when held level. These aren’t exactly precise, but they’re good enough most of the time. Notably, they can have trouble working underground or if they get zapped by a lightning jutsu. When trying to navigate the wilderness, having a compass gives a +2 bonus to any Survival rolls. If you also have a map of the country you’re in, this is raised to +4.
A collection of bandages, ointments, and antiseptics. First aid kits can be used to stop bleeding from Wounds, as a Speed 10 action per category of wound. They can also cure the status effects Burns or Bleed, with a Speed of (Status Severity * 2), ending one of those status effects. A single first aid kit can do each of those once before being expended.
Alternately, it can treat a wound (in the sense of, “this wound has penalty X until treated, and then only penalty Y”). This is a Speed 15 action per wound category, and completely consumes the first aid kit.
A handy little pyrotechnic device, a cylinder usually a bit too large to fit comfortably in the palm. When lit (most have built in starters or strikers, to avoid the need for matches) they shine brilliantly, enough that it can be painful to look directly at them without squinting, and become blisteringly hot. They burn out quickly, within half a minute.
The vast majority of flares are projectiles, with built-in propellant. Aimed upwards, they’ll launch into the air. During the day, this is typically unnoticed if you’re doing anything other than staring at the spot it’s launched up waiting to see it, and know exactly where it will be. In twilight and darker conditions, however, a flare can be seen for a considerable distance; they’re often used for signalling, though suffer from not being too discrete.
Flashlights are popular because ninja like to be able to see in low-light environments! They’re also useful because they can be turned off, or on, as needed. Quite handy for staying hidden when you hear unwanted company approaching.
Flashlights have a battery life of about half an hour. A spare set of batteries (for another half hour of use) costs 20 Ryo.
A transparent small (around six inches long, usually) cylinder filled with chemicals that, when mixed, glow brightly. A swift blow to the stick (usually striking it against one’s knee; simply bending it with enough force will also work) will shatter the internal glass dividers, mixing the chemicals and producing a pleasing illumination.
A glow stick will glow for about an hour; it cannot be turned off once activated, short of breaking it completely and letting the luminescent fluid inside it drain out (in which case you just have a glowing puddle). They’re available in a variety of colors, with the most popular ones being green and blue.
A map of a given country. It’s usually a really, really good for at least one person on every ninja team to have a map of any country they expect to be going through. These have only basic information about terrain, landmarks, and settlements.
Maps come with scroll cases for ease and safety of transportation. A map gives a +4 bonus to any Survival rolls made in the appropriate country, within reason (they would help tracking someone, or finding shelter, but not exploring the inside of a cave).
This is a small ‘mask’ that covers the wearer’s mouth and nose, and is held in place by elastic bands which form an airtight seal. Rather than filtering air out, it has two possible fixtures (usually one on each side of the mouth) for an oxygen tank to be attached. When wearing the mask, the user has a -3 penalty to all Stamina rolls, as it takes a slight effort to breathe through it. Putting this on in combat is a Speed 5 action.
Wearing an oxygen mask with at least tank attached makes the wearer immune to external suffocation penalties (being inside an unbreathable cloud would not affect them; being physically choked would) and provides a +8 bonus to Resistance rolls against statuses that would be inflicted by breathing something in (such as poison mist); the mask is not perfectly air-tight.
Tanks of compressed, breathable air, usually strapped to one’s back. They’re basically useless by themselves, but each comes with a hose that can be attached to an oyxgen mask. Each tank provides 30 minutes of breathable air.
Everything you need to blend in with the environment, like a truly sneaky ninja. These come in four flavors: forest/plains, desert, mountainous/rocky, and ‘other’ (covering anything not one of those). A kit may only be used in its corresponding environment.
Using a kit takes 15 minutes, and is enough to conceal a person at level 3 Stealth; the stealth roll is made after they’re fully hidden. The exact contents are fairly nonspecific, but regardless, each kit is good for only one use.
Cameras are rare devices, and ones suited for use by ninja even more so. Styles vary, but they are all small, and usually handheld. However, they are large enough that they cannot be effectively concealed while in use. The exact designs may vary greatly, though Sunagakure is fond of a model worn like a circlet on the head, with the lens covering one eye.
Most models include a flash that allows blurry pictures to be taken in the dark. Each image uses a single piece of film, acquired separately. Facilities to develop the film are rare, but exist in all major shinobi villages, along with trained staff who will do so overnight for urgent matters, or within a week for personal needs.
These are specially treated, light-sensitive pieces of paper. Due to the lack of standardization among models, pieces of film generally cannot be exchanged from one camera to another. These are usually stored inside the camera itself; if exposed to light before capturing an image they become useless, though afterwards there will be no effects from direct light on the paper.
A three- or four-pronged sturdy metal hook. The typical use is to attach it to the end of a rope then throw it over a wall, up a tree, or across a small chasm, and hope it catches on something (such as a piece of architecture, a branch, or a appropriately-shaped rock). The user then climbs the rope to get to their destination!
These see limited use among experienced ninja, who typically have ways of easily doing the same thing, but beginners often find them useful, and they can be situationally helpful even for more advanced shinobi.
A set of small tools, easily carried in a pocket, used for opening locks in absence of the key. These allow an Espionage roll to be made to open a lock, and also provide a bonus to said roll. That bonus has a maximum of +5, or the user’s Espionage skill ranks, whichever is lower; you have to actually know how to use them to get any benefit. These are reusable, though a roll of 5 or lower on the Espionage check means they break in the attempt (which may still be successful).
The pinnacle of technological advancement in the ninja world, these are small wireless radios. They’re typically worn as headsets with an ear insert and a microphone held suspended near the wearer’s mouth. Normal comm devices can be tuned to transmit and receive on any of a dozen frequencies by the user, allowing any set of devices to be synchronized with one another. Though each village also has a few sets of specially made comm devices built to operate on “secure” frequencies, these are not typically given to shinobi on missions.
Commonly used in missions that require precise coordination or infiltration, these always receive, and are touch-activated to broadcast. They have a range of half a mile.
Be aware that while these are generally a secure means of communication, it’s (theoretically) possible for enemies to find your frequency if you’re making continual use of the comms, they know you’re using them, and they’re actively trying to do so.
If you suffer a Major or greater Head wound while wearing a comm device, it breaks as a result of the damage. A comm device broken this way is too badly damaged to be repaired, and will need to be replaced.
A small pocket telescope, which telescopes out from two inches to close to six. It allows you to effectively see what’s going on up to five hundred yards away, and read reasonably sized text (assuming you have clear line of sight) up to a hundred yards away. Mechanically, this means that any Awareness rolls at a distance up to its maximum (to, say, see when a guard leaves his post) have no penalty.
Poisons are nasty business, and one of the murkier aspects of ninja tactics. Certainly, before the days when shinobi had discovered the secrets of chakra manipulation, poisons were a vital part of their arsenal. The proper use of poisons, however, is hard to learn, and in most circumstances just isn’t as useful as being able to shoot fireballs and run up walls.
Some ninja, however, still find uses for them. This section is for them!
Poisons are measured in doses. Each poison has a listed price. The first dose costs that much; subsequent doses cost half that much, each. This is, essentially, a limit on how many times you can use that poison before running out.
Each poison has a listed Toxicology rating. Your Toxicology skill ranks must be a minimum of that much to use that poison.
One dose of poison is enough to coat the business end of a weapon.
As a Speed 10 action you can apply up to 1 + Toxicology/10 doses worth of poisons to your weapons, in any combination. For instance, if you applied 4 doses, you could poison:
etc. Each time the weapon hits something, it loses one dose. If you apply a new poison to the weapon (even another dose of the same type), any remaining poison of the previous dose is wiped away.
Poisons have four possible vectors: Contact, Injury, Inhalation, and Ingestion. Contact poisons can be applied to any blunt or slashing weapon, while Injury poisons can be applied to slashing or piercing weapons.
Whenever you’re hit by a weapon with Contact poison, or damaged by one with Injury poison, you roll Resistance against the poison user’s Toxicology. If you fail this roll (which does receive the benefits or partial defense), you have been poisoned. You’re afflicted by the poisons status effects (Poison of some value, and sometimes other effects, described in the individual poison) for its Duration. If partial defense applies, it reduces the Duration, not the severity.
Ingestion poisons are effectively useless in combat, but can be used to lace someone’s food. Inhalation poisons can only be used effectively by deploying Poison Smoke Bombs.
No matter how many poisons you’re afflicted by, their effects do not stack. Thus, if you had Poison 4 for Duration 25, and Poison 2 for Duration 50, you would take 4 damage per initiative count for 25 IC, and then for the next 25 you’d take 2 damage per IC. Any additional effects apply regardless, as long as they don’t overlap (Paralysis 1 and Paralysis 3 is just Paralysis 3, as normal).
Poisons which inflict Suffocation do so when first poisoned, and then again 20 IC later until the Poison’s duration ends (which ends the Suffocation immediately).
All types of Poison are considered to have the ‘Internal’ tag, even if the method of their application is often external (in the case of poison types except for ingested; once it’s in your system, removing it from you does little good against it.
When you or someone else has been poisoned, it’s possible to identify the venom just based on the symptoms. You may do so after 1/10 of the poison’s total duration has passed. At that point, you can roll a Research, Toxicology, or Medicine skill check (your preference) against 20 + the poison’s Toxicology rating. Success means you’ve identified the poison.
If you fail, you may take a Speed 6 action afterwards to try to identify the symptoms, which you may repeat as many times as you like.
Giant centipedes aren’t actually all that venomous, though their venom causes significant discomfort, and a pervasive sensation of weakness. Centipede venom cannot harm HP, only Vitality. A person afflicted has their physical damage bonus reduced by (0.5, +0.1 for every two points they failed their Resistance roll by) for the rest of the day, even if the poison is cured. However, centipede venom has a -2 penalty to the Toxicology roll used to inflict it. Multiple damage bonus penalties from centipede venom don’t stack; the highest one replaces any lower ones.
Snake poison, and not a particularly troublesome variety of it. There’s intense pain and significant swelling at the point of contact, but that’s the worst of it. Hours afterwards, there will be a lingering, full-body pain, but nothing life-threatening. However, your Toxicology roll to poison a person with this has a +3 bonus.
Only relatively dangerous in its normal form, the yew’s toxin has proven its value to ninja by being versatile, easily refined, and easy to get ahold of. Unlike poisonous animals, trees don’t tend to be small or wander around. While poisoned, any time your Stamina penalty increases, it increases by an additional 2 points.
Stings from the bark scorpion aren’t typically fatal; ninja weaponizing the venom distill it to improve the lethality. Despite being exceptionally painful at the point of entry, it’s not likely to kill someone, though the lingering numbness and spasms are certainly unpleasant to deal with.
A family of brightly-colored, excitingly-patterned snails, the worst of these produce a venom which is a compound of hundreds of different toxins. Aside from pain and swelling at the point of impact, the venom can easily cause respiratory failure.
There is no antidote to cone snail venom. If you’ve been poisoned, when your Fatigue levels increases your Stamina penalty is halved, rather than being reset to 0. You may not Rest or lower your Stamina penalty in other ways.
Despite the name, one of the world’s most venomous scorpions isn’t all that lethal to humans. As with most scorpions, being envenomated is excruciatingly painful, far out of proportion to the actual threat posed.
The death cap is one of, if not the, most poisonous mushrooms in the world. Mercifully, there’s no way to process it into a weaponized form. In addition to its Poison rating, every 10 IC which pass a victim loses 1 point of RES. These recover at the rate of 1 per week which passes (double with medical treatment). Someone who reaches 0 RES simply dies.
A shy, tiny spider, the brown recluse none the less has an especially dangerous venom, especially to civilians; to shinobi, it’s only severely threatening. The poison is slow acting, but still dangerous.
This infamous little spider’s venom has quite the unpleasant, and largely well-deserved, reputation. For the poison’s duration, your Chakra Exhaustion and Stamina rolls all suffer from a -4 penalty.
A poisonous plant known also as monkshood, the least of one’s worries are a severe burning sensation at the point of injury, the abdomen, and the face. The more severe ones are staving off paralysis of one’s heart and lungs. Wolfsbane has a -2 penalty to its Toxicology rolls if delivered through injury, or +4 if by ingestion. When poisoned by Wolfsbane, your Stamina rolls use the higher of your Stamina or Chakra Exhaustion penalty, and your Chakra Exhaustion rolls use the higher of your Stamina or Chakra Exhaustion penalty.
Nothing about this tree isn’t inimical to human life. The sap and bark are poisonous, the fruit is absurdly toxic, the leaves are sufficient to poison water supplies. Tying people to the tree overnight is a brutal, highly effective method of execution. In practice, ninja use the sap as a toxin, as it keeps best.
Envenomation results in severe full-body irritation and shortness of breath. It’s painfully distracting enough to inflict a -2 penalty to Accuracy and d20 rolls.
One of the world’s deadliest snakes, the king cobra’s venom is a neurotoxin that quickly leads to blurred vision, disorientation, and muscular paralysis. While poisoned, you have a -4 penalty to all skill rolls other than Resistance, and a -5 penalty to Stamina and Chakra Exhaustion rolls. King cobra venom has a +3 bonus to its Toxicology rolls.
Also known as devil’s berries, belladona’s poison causes delirium, hallucinations, and weakness. For its duration, your physical damage bonus is halved. Anyone is able to hide from you, regardless of your visibility penalty, if they double the Speed of their Hide action, though in this case you get a +5 bonus to your Awareness roll. If eaten, its Poison value is doubled.
Not only is it one of the most dangerous spiders, it’s one of the most aggressive ones, and won’t hesitate to attack humans. The venom is a neurotoxin.
While poisoned you suffer from -3 Accuracy. Any time your Chakra penalty increases, your Stamina penalty increases by half that much, and vice versa.
Though they’re not the deadliest of sea creature, they’re what most people will imagine when thinking of that. Affliction with this venom results in convulsions, and before long will send a victim into shock.
The convulsions make it exceptionally difficult to act. You can’t take any action with a base Speed of 20 or higher, -1 for every 5 points you failed the Toxicology roll by.
There are multiple varieties of hemlock, with this being by far the most unpleasant. The plant’s sufficiently lethal that coming into contact with it purely by accident in the wild can cause death. It’s a powerful stimulant, leading to intense pain, tremors, disorientation, dizziness, fever, hallucinations, tingling, dilated pupils, respiratory difficulty…
While poisoned, you have a -4 penalty to Resistance and Awareness rolls.
The most venomous fish in the world, it’s commonly agreed upon that having an injured limb amputated is less agonizing than enduring the pain. Though there will be a slow necrosis of flesh around the injury, the real risk is quite immediate.
A small, unimposing creature, it’s still one of the world’s most deadly animals. Its venom is a cocktail of more than a dozen toxins that will kill within minutes. Thankfully they’re rare, as no antidote exists.
Continual first aid provided by someone else (specifically, forced respiration) will prevent the Suffocation from being inflicted while it’s maintained, but not the Poison damage (or other effects).
A rare, deadly animal only known to be native to Rain Country, the golden dart frog’s poison is so potent that most stories about it are believed to be exaggerations. The venom can remain potent for more than two years, and simply touching a surface the frog has crossed can be enough for small animals to perish.
Attempts have been made to raise the animal in captivity, and failed. The common theory is that some part of their diet is what makes the poison coating their skin so deadly. That, combined with their rarity, makes this poison exceptionally difficult to come by–which is a good thing. It shuts down the nervous system, leading to numbness, paralysis, and ultimately heart failure.
Rectangular slips of paper inscribed with special seals, centered around the kanji for “explode”. They’re infused with chakra, but normally inert. A tag can be “primed” by focusing a small amount of chakra into them, at which point they can stick to most surfaces (like walls, or the underside of bridges; tags cannot be attached to people) and are ready to be detonated; this doesn’t take an action.
Detonating a tag is a Chakra 5, Speed 10, Delay X action which requires you to physically touch the tag in question. X may be set anywhere between 10 and (10 + Chakra Control Ranks), and unlike other techniques, you may reduce this action’s Speed below its Delay, and the Delay itself may not be Aborted. When a tag is on its Delay (or ‘countdown’) it begins sparking, smoking, and sizzling distinctively; any shinobi will realize that it’s about to go off, and if hidden, their location is immediately revealed.
Fire will not cause tags to explode, nor will they explode in a “chain reaction”. A tag that is blown up or burnt, even a primed one, is just destroyed, however Tags that have been set to Detonate may not be attacked, and are immune to all damage once they begin their countdown.
Tags do 5d20.open(10) damage, in Area 20. If multiple tags are set off on the same IC (and someone is hit by them all), their damage is combined for determining what wounds they inflict; explosions inflict Blunt wounds. When detonated, tags count as a Speed 8 (+2 per tag) attack that cannot be made faster by any means. When detonated, tags cannot be dodged, though other forms of defenses are generally effective, and they can certainly be blocked; when put up against ninjutsu defenses, they are considered a D-rank General Ninjutsu, using your Ninjutsu Accuracy with a +5 bonus (but gaining no bonuses, or penalties, from temporary effect or wounds, though fatigue bonuses do apply). You can not spend AP or use WP for the Explosive Tags Detonation (though anyone defending against them can). Anyone who escapes their area in time automatically avoids all damage.
Certain jutsu may cause tags to explode immediately; in this case, the explosion may be dodged normally, using the attack’s Speed to determine valid defenses and area-of-effect dodge penalties, if any.
A rectangular piece of metal with your village’s emblem prominently engraved. They’re typically worn on the forehead, but can be strapped to any part of the body. When worn, it blocks the effects of the first Minor wound you receive to the body part worn on (which you should declare when rolling Initiative if not on the forehead), but is knocked off in the process.
A form-fitting metallic mesh, it has overthrown the bulky and, frankly, antiquated armors of old that were typically large, layered plates of metal. Samurai now favor such armor, which for most shinobi is about all you need to say to explain why you shouldn’t. While still encumbering, this more modern style of “fishnet” armor is less intrusive and antithetical to a shinobi’s favored tactics.
Due to shinobi fashion being almost as much about personality as it is practicality, designers have made variants of the armor that can fit any combination of parts of the body the user wishes, or simply be made as a “full-body suit”, though they tend to stop a few inches short of the ankles and calves even so, and never are designed to protect the head (don’t ask).
Mechanically, this is tracked with only three “locations”: Arms, Legs, and Torso (which includes Torso and Abdomen, for wounding location). Armor worn on any given location is assumed to cover both arms or legs, and when damaged, it’s considered damaged on both locations without having to track wounds for left or right. You can only have one type of armor on a given body location.
The first time you would be wounded in any given location sporting this armor, you reduce the wound severity by one (potentially negating it entirely), and lower the total damage taken (after determining if you’re wounded) by 20. The second time, you reduce the wound severity by one, to a minimum of minor, and lower the total damage taken (again, after determining if you’d be wounded) by 10, after which the armor is ‘broken’, and provides no further benefit (but maintains its penalties) until you can get it repaired back at your village.
While wearing this armor, you take a -1 to your Athletics, Stealth and Initiative rolls per location covered. It is trivial to remove outside of combat, but inside of combat it is a Speed 10 action to remove it from one location, or a Speed 25 action to remove a full suit.
Villages will repair Requisition-acquired damaged armor for free, but frown upon overzealous (or masochistic) shinobi coming in for repairs excessively often, and will thereby only repair any damaged armor once a week (once per OOC day).
Often referred to as ‘chuunin vests’, these are what many a genin strives to be allowed to wear. There’s a jounin version as well, slightly different in appearance but functionally identical.
Any time your torso or abdomen would be wounded, the vest reduces the wound’s severity by 1, and the final damage by 50 (after determining if you’re wounded). The next time, it reduces your final damage taken by 40; then 30, and so forth, until it reaches 0, after which the vest is damaged too badly to provide any protection and no longer reduces the severity of your wounds. You can only have one type of armor on a given body location.
Once someone’s a chuunin, they have enough pull to get these: smoke bombs designed to your own specifications! Very nice, and such. For pricing, first determine the ‘level’ of smoke bomb you want, which starts at 0 and is modified by…
These are considered to have the ‘Environmental’ tag.
A more powerful version of the regular exploding tags, not given to genin because experience has shown, time and again, that genin really can’t be trusted with high-end explosives. Chuunin, however, are more responsible–at least, in theory.
Therefore, they get to play with the big explosions! Type 2 tags function identically to regular exploding tags more regards, though the deal 7d20.open(10) damage and have an Area of 30, and are considered C-rank General Ninjutsu, with a +7 bonus to the user’s Ninjutsu Accuracy. Additionally, they deal double damage to inanimate objects (such as walls, but not including jutsu-based defenses).
Gloves (often fingerless) with a metal plate covering the back of the hand. These allow you to parry weapon attacks unarmed; however, if you do so, any wounds (if you fail) will be applied to your hands (or arms, or whatever, as appropriate for the rank of the wounds).
That said, the first two times you’re wounded doing this, the wound’s severity is reduced one rank. The second time that happens, the guard on the back of that glove will be broken. Thus, if you wear both gloves (100 Ryo pays for a pair), you could do it a total of four times. You can only have one type of armor on a given body location.
You may also block with these guards, with the same wound location and severity effects. This allows you to block weapons without reducing blocking’s effectiveness.
The end-all and be-all of ‘mundane’ explosives, reserved for jounin simply because of how difficult they are to produce, which is in turn reflected in how troublesome they are to get ahold of.
Type 3, like Type 2, deal double damage to inanimate objects. They deal 10d20.open(10) damage, and have an Area of 50, and are considered B-rank General Ninjutsu, with a +10 bonus to the user’s Ninjutsu Accuracy.
Hand-crafted white ceramic masks featuring mono- or bichromatic lines that make the mask resemble some kind of animal’s face. Technically there’s nothing preventing you from changing what animal it is each time you replace the mask, but most ANBU members stick with a single choice and use it as a distinguishing feature.
ANBU masks reduce the severity of head wounds by one rank, a total of three times before being made useless. The mask does crack, break, and fall off during this process. You can only have one type of armor on a given body location.
High-quality cloaks that wrap around a user’s body to obscure them from the shoulders down. They’re practically waterproof, and do a great job of keeping out the rain. Stains– especially blood! –come right out in the wash!
Once per 100 IC you can make an automatic surprise attack with any Small-size weapon, drawing it as a Speed 0 action, as long as you haven’t used that weapon previously in the fight.
They come in black (for most ANBU) and white (for captains). Most ANBU captains stick with the black anyway since it looks better. They’re ANBU captains, they do what they want.
Every village’s Kage has a distinctive hat to go with their formal Kage’s robes. It’s diamond-shaped with a pointed top, sloping low enough to keep the sun from their eyes and occasionally accompanied by a headdress to obscure the sides of their head. If worn properly, it can also obscure the upper half of their face from view, which looks really cool.
The hat is mostly a color corresponding to the country the Kage is from, with a white portion at the front and a kanji indicating their country of origin in the dominant color in that section.
While not useful in combat, it is a VERY nice hat.
Formal attire for Kages, mostly white and off-white, with the lower half (and some highlights on the upper half) being a color corresponding to the village. They look bulky, but they actually breathe very well! The robes are exceptionally comfortable, and while not stylish they tend to swish and swoosh dramatically.
The robes impose a -3 penalty on accuracy, dodge rolls, and Athletics checks. However, because Kages are totally badass they can shed these robes as a Speed -2 Interrupt. And yes, that’s a negative sign there.