Welcome to Afterera.com's Play By Email Naruto RPG. If you aren't familiar with PBEM games, I'll give you a quick explanation. Essentially you make a character for the virtual world your webmaster sets up, send an email every update day with what you want to do with that character, and the webmaster updates the site at the end of the day and has everybody do what they sent in actions to do. Eventually there will be missions and fighting, which get written on the page, and in addition you can do all sorts of roleplaying stuff on the message board. It's pretty fun, and I hope you enjoy your stay here. But before you get started, you need to read the rules.
Overview
The world of Naruto is a pretty simple one. Your role is that of a 12 year old graduate from the Konoha, or Hidden Village of Leaf, ninja training academy. In Naruto, ninjas take the place of a military force, and teams of them fight with different styles and chakra techniques, called Jutsu. Currently there isn't much of a storyline to the game, but one may develop, and for now simple missions and character interaction is the main focus of the game.
Email-Update Rules
The RPG will update Monday - Thursday with actions, and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday I'll accept joining applications. The email is naruto@afterera.com. Please have some way of organizing your email so I can understand it. The email deadline is officially 7 PM Pacific, but if you're 15 minutes late it probably won't matter. Depending on the day I might not be home until 8, that'll be when I start the update.
Roleplaying Rules
Roleplaying rules are pretty simple. All the roleplaying is done on the message board, and the generic rules are to be politically correct on the OOC boards, not go too crazy on the IC boards, never god mode, and remember that your character doesn't necessarily know all the information about other aspects of the game that you yourself know. It's pretty self explanatory, really.
Your Ninja
This section is devoted to what makes up a ninja in the game. Aside from personality and how they're roleplayed, each ninja has seven factors which make them unique and different. Your method of combat will depend largely on these statistics. There are many possible variations on how to have a good ninja, and I largely encourage you to think up interesting ideas, but before you do you need to learn what each statistic is for, so read up.
Taijutsu
Taijutsu is your ability in hand-to-hand combat, both with skill and with prowess. It measures your individual speed, strength, accuracy with thrown weapons, and discipline in whatever martial arts you choose to use. It doesn't mean you necessarily have to be incredibly fast if you have a high Taijutsu, your characters fighting style may not work that way. But as a general rule, the higher your Taijutsu, the better you are in hand to hand combat. The scale for this statistic goes from 0 to 10.
Ninjutsu
Ninjutsu is your ability and understanding at chakra molding for Ninjutsu techniques. It doesn't mean you know any Jutsu, but it regulates how much chakra your Jutsu take to perform, as well as the overall effect of them. The scale for this statistic goes from 0 to 10.
Genjutsu
Genjutsu is your ability at performing illusionary techniques, as well as resisting them. While Ninjutsu will regulate how much chakra it takes to perform a Genjutsu technique, your Genjutsu stat will tell how difficult it is to see through. This will not always be the case, but think along the lines that if you have a higher Genjutsu than your opponent, they will not be able to resist your Genjutsu, but you will be able to resist theirs. Remember though, that's a generalization, it will not always come out that way. The scale for this statistic goes from 0 to 10.
EXP
Experience is my way of making sure people don't just train 24/7 in order to get better. It doesn't matter how disciplined you are with your abilities if you don't have the real world wisdom to understand an actual combat situation. You get EXP for being in actual combat, and while it doesn't pertain to anything in specific, the more EXP a person has the better off they will be. A ninja with a lower Ninjutsu than his opponent, but with 200 more EXP, may still be more effective with their Jutsu, just because they know the time and place to use them effectively. The scale for this statistic is rather unlimited, the more combat you're in, the more EXP you will get.
Stamina
Stamina is a melding of most RPGs Hit Points and Magic Points. It works on a scale going from 1 to 100, and you have both a "current" and "maximum" stamina score. Being hit in combat, using a particularly draining technique, or a variety of things can drop your current stamina, and if it ever hits 0 bad things can happen. In addition to Stamina working this way like health, the higher your stamina, the more chakra you can put into your techniques. Uzumaki Naruto is the perfect example of somebody with a lot of Stamina - even though he is crappy at Chakra molding, he can create more Bunshins than anybody else, because he has so much Chakra to put into the technique.
Jutsu
Jutsu are the techniques you know. You learn techniques by studying with the various trainers situated about the village. Some trainers will require specific things of you before they teach you, and some Jutsu will require that your other statistics be at a certain level before they can be learned. There is no limit to how many Jutsu's you can have, but remember that having an excess might be a bad thing, as it will detract from your training time in the other statistics. Most of the Naruto characters only have 2-4 Jutsu, which cover most of their bases as is.
Equipment
Equipment in Naruto is usually a pretty minor thing, but it deserves to be explained. Ninjas use simple weapons a lot - kunai and shurikens and exploding tags and the like. Each ninja will start with a weapons pack that will contain these basic things. However, some ninjas might have special equipment that will give a significant advantage in combat, such as Temari's fan or Zabuza's sword. It's hard to give this section an adequete description, but it is something that gets taken into account in combat so you need to pay attention to it.
Bloodlines
Finally, some people in the RPG may have Bloodline limits. Bloodline limits are genetic traits inherited by members of a specific clan, that produce advantages in combat. It is possible to join as a character with a bloodline, or under very rare circumstances have one implanted into you. But for the most part, this is the sort of thing that cannot be learned. A description of the bloodlines and what they do can be found on the Lore page, while the rules for joining as a character with one can be found in the Joining section.
Training
There are different rules for training the different statistics, which will be gone over here. Training a statistic counts as your action for a day, as it usually pertains to a large amount of time spent practicing in whatever way people practice. Below are the different methods used to train each of the different statistics.
Taijutsu, Genjutsu and Ninjutsu - These stats all go on a scale from zero to ten, and are trained in a similar way. You send in your action to start training the statistic, and it will take a number of days equal to the new number the stat will be. For example, if your Taijutsu is 5, increasing it to 6 would take 6 days of training. You don't have to do the training all at once, you can do a portion of it, then go on a mission, then come back and do the rest. But your skill will not actually improve until you finish the training.
EXP - EXP will be rewarded for going on missions, fighting with people, and other things. There is really no way to train it, and it will not be awarded for learning techniques or training statistics otherwise. It's one of the incentives of actually going out and fighting.
Stamina - Training stamina also counts as an action, as it involves becoming both mentally and physically fit to push your body harder. Unlike Tai/Gen/Ninjutsu however, training Stamina is a little bit more simple. Training this for 1 day will give you 1 more point of maximum stamina, up to the max of 100. How to repair temporary stamina damage will be explained in the Death and Dying section. It is important to note though, that with excessive injury your maximum stamina can actually go down, so it may be important to train this from time to time just to keep it at the same level.
Jutsu - If you meet all the requirements to learn a Jutsu, and to be taught from the trainer teaching it, and are at the trainers location, you can start training to learn the technique. Different techniques take a different number of days, and while you are training to learn a technique you cannot stop midway. If you do you have to start over again from the beginning once you return to the trainer.
Equipment - You cannot "train" equipment. Normal equipment that can be found in the Armory page can be requested at the Armory location on the map. Whether or not you will get it will depend on your status in the village. Special equipment needs to be worked out between you and the webmaster (myself), and may have different rules depending on the item.
Your Ninja Team
Upon joining the RPG, your ninja will be moved into a team composed of other Gennins in the RPG, paired with an NPC Jounin teacher (often one of the trainers from the trainer list). You don't have to always act with your team, but it is suggested that you all RP together frequently and train together from time to time, as eventually you'll be assigned missions, and have to go on them as a group. A team always consists of 3 Genins and a Jounin teacher, until you improve in rank.
Ranks
There are five ranks a ninja can become, and being promoted incurs more freedom in what you do in town and with trainers. The ranks will be briefly gone over below.
Genin - Genins are the first class of ninja, straight out of the academy. This is what everybody starts as.
Chuunin - After completing the Chuunin exam, the nations of the world may vote a Gennin to Chuunin. Many squads will be led by Chuunin, as they are supposed to be the more well rounded and responsible ninjas.
Jounin - Those Chuunins who show exceptional skill in combat will be promoted by the Hokage as Jounin. Jounin are basically always squad leaders, often act on their own, and often teach other ninjas their abilities.
Anbu - Anbu are the ninja police, taking orders directly from the Hokage only. It is their job to make sure other ninjas don't go astray, so they are usually the ones who have the best combat skills, although possibly not the most moral of the bunch.
Hokage - There is only one Hokage, and all ninjas of the village answer to him. The Hokage is the strongest ninja in the village, and hopefully the wisest as well.
Missions
As the game goes on, there may be available Missions for your squad to go on. They're ranked from D class to S class (D, C, B, A, S) and each squad will be allowed to go on certain class missions. In addition, every once in a while the Hokage may give you a mandatory mission to go on, so watch out for that sort of thing.
Movement
At the current point in time, the only location to visit is the Hidden Village of Leaf, or village of Konoha, which, while it has locations, is small enough to assume you can go to all of them in one day. As the world of the RPG becomes larger, however, specific movement rules may have to be set.
Combat
If you want to fight a ninja outside of a mission, have both you and your opponent email me saying you want to have a duel. If you want to ambush somebody, email me and say you want to ambush them. Combat is really as simple as that. A battle will be written, people will fight, and people will get hurt. Planning helps a lot in battles, so be sure to describe a plan of action in your email. Teamwork and coordination are important.
Death and Dying
As you fight and get injured or use draining techniques, your current stamina score will drop. For every 10 points your current stamina drops in a battle, your maximum stamina will also drop by one point. If your current stamina drops to 0 you go unconscious. After this, if your friends don't get you out of the fight quickly, you can still get attacked by your opponents. Each point of stamina damage you take after your current goes to 0 will come directly out of maximum stamina. When that drops to zero, you die. Death sucks, because you have to make a new character.
Healing
After being in combat and taking damage, you probably want to know how to heal at the end of the day. Certain techniques will heal a ninjas stamina, but the standard way to heal up is just by resting. Spending one update day resting will heal 20 points of temporary stamina. Even if you don't rest though, you automatically gain 5 temporary stamina each day you don't engage in combat of some kind.
Joining
To join, you need to send an email to naruto@afterera.com with the following information. Note - please don't send it to ryan@afterera.com, as that is my personal email. If you have non-RPG things to discuss, use that address.
1 - Name of your character
2 - Email address you wish to use (if left blank I'll use the email it was sent from)
3 - Board account name you wish to use.
4 - Character History - You need to write a brief history of your character, including two things. A physical description of them, and at least a single paragraph describing their backstory and personality. My English professor says a paragraph needs to be at least 8 sentences, so I'll say so too, although multi-page histories are always welcome. Once you're on the roster you'll be required to post this history on the Profile section of the message board.
5 - Starting statistics - Here's the way this works. Your character is given 50 "points" with which to make their starting stats, where each point confers a single days action. Your statistics start at 0 Taijutsu, 0 Genjutsu and 0 Ninjutsu, 25 Stamina, 0 EXP, and with no equipment or Jutsu. After this, you use your 50 points to train your character just like you would training after you join the game. The 50 points confers 50 "days" training, as it were. Also note you can spend one of these points to gain 10 EXP.
A note - Some skills on the trainers page are taught by two trainers, one being taught faster than the other. For these skills, you need to pay for the more expensive version. In addition, you cannot have "The Power of Youth!" at starting.
If you're going to be from a clan with specific clan Jutsu's, like the Abumaya's with their bug control, you need to mention as such, and pay the points to get their initial clan Jutsu. (Restrictions and requirements for specific existing clans and bloodlines are on the message board.)
Here's an example of how to do your points for character creation.
Taijutsu - 4 (1+2+3+4) = 10 points.
Ninjutsu - 4 (1+2+3+4) = 10 points.
Genjutsu - 3 (1+2+3) = 6 points.
Simple Weapon Tricks, Henge, Bunshin, Kawarimi - 4 (1+1+1+1) = 4 points.
10 extra Stamina - 10 points.
Enhance Weapons, Suiton: Suikoudan, Water Clone (3+3+4) = 10 points.
Total - 50.
It is also possible to start with a bloodline, either the Sharingan, Byakugan, the water manipulation bloodline Haku has, or the bone manipulation bloodline Kimimaro has, or something you make up yourself. However, in the interest of fairness, people who start with bloodlines will only be given 30 points to train their character at starting.
As far as learning Jutsu's from difficult-to-find trainers, or specialty equipment goes, just assume you can get things from any trainer for these starting points, and include whatever equipment you like. If I think things need to be editted I'll contact you and work it out with you. A note though - You can not start as a person sealed with a tailed demon, or Jin Chuuriki. It is possible to become one over the course of the game, but not start as one.
