Combat Roleplay Rules

Naruto Origins: Clans at War is a statistical RP site that has a system of rules that makes GM, cheating, admin/mod favoritism literally IMPOSSIBLE even if someone tries it. Heck, you don't even need the admins and mods. Think of it as a video RPG game (like Heroes Of Might and Magic or Final Fantasy Tactics) except you write words instead of using a controller/keyboard/mouse. Best thing about it is that, unlike in video RPG games, you have complete freedom. And you don't follow a preset story, you shape it as it goes.

• Stats and Battle Points
  
• Growing Stronger
  
• Money, Missions and how to obtain jutsus/skills/equipment
  
• Genjutsu Guide
  
• Advanced Combat Rules and Tactics
• Other Stuff

There are always 2 issues that are at the root of all roleplay related arguments. How strong is a ninja and how many actions is he allowed to make in 1 post? People usually say "use common sense", but when 2 or more people who have different opinions on what "common sense" is...well that's when fights break out and a mod/admin is forced to come and resolve the dispute (or close the topic).

By clearly defining these 2 parameters, GM and meta-gaming and admin favoritism and all other forms of cheating not only become difficult, but impossible (unless someone is capable of bending the laws of mathematics, in which case we have bigger problems than RP cheating).

-STATS
Stats are meant to represent a ninjas physical and mental capabilities. There are 4 physical stats(PS) (Stamina, Strength, Agility and Perception) and 4 knowledge stats(KS) (Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Kekke Genkai(KG) if he has one). In the spoiler below you will find a detailed description of what every stat does or what it reflects:

Spoiler:

-So how do these "Stats" influence the actual gameplay?
Simple. All fighting is done using jutsus (even basic actions like dodging and throwing weapons are represented with jutsu) and these jutsus will have variables. Take this jutsu for example:

Name: Simple Melee (un)armed attack
Type: Basic action
Description: A single or a small combo of punches and kicks or stabs and slashes with a held weapon.
Stamina cost: 1
Attack power: Str+½Agl+¼Prc

So all you do is replace Str, Agl and Prc with your ninja's Strength, Agility and Perception stat. Lets say your ninja's Stats were 12, 10 and 4. That means the attack power of this jutsu would be 18 (12+5+1 = 15). There are also defensive jutsus with "defense power" instead of "attack power" that are used to defend yourself and they work in the same way. Just replace the variables.

When an attack and defense type jutsu clash (and the attack is stronger), the difference between the 2 becomes "damage". Bear in mind that this was just a simple jutsu, more powerful jutsus (such as tai, nin or genjutsus) also require knowledge stats and may have other effects.

-BATTLE POINTS
1 post lasts about 10~20 seconds in real time (not counting anime-like monologs or flashbacks or inner thinking). Battle points (BP for short) represent how many actions a ninja can make in 1 post. Though it wasn't mentioned in the example above, every jutsu costs a certain amount of BP (Ex: throwing Kunai 1 BP, casting a C rank ninjutsu 4 BP, ect...).

In the next post you can find how to improve a ninja's Stats and BP.

-NINJA LEVEL
On this site ranks are just titles, the ninja level represents how powerful someone is (Naruto is still a genin yet he's one of the most powerful ninja in the manga/anime).

As you train, role play, complete missions, defeat enemies, ect... your ninja gains experience points (EXP) and once it has enough EXP the ninja "levels up". Whenever thins happens the ninja gains an additional 10 PS and 5 KS which you can allocate any way you want (you can put them all on 1 stat or spread them around).

Whether because of skill or nerves, its logical that inexperienced low level ninja would perform fewer actions than battle hardened high level ninja. Below is a list of how much BP, based on his level, a ninja gets at the start of every post:

Spoiler:

There are some enemy actions and jutsus which can reduce your BP, but no matter what BP can never fall below half of the BP you gain from your ninja level. Up to 2 unused BP from 1 post can be transferred into the next.

Ninjas are human (powerful humans, but still human) which is why each Physical stat has a cap of 150 points and each Knowledge stat a cap of 100 points. Bonus stats from equipment/jutsus/skills/ect... don't count towards the cap. When you first create your ninja you start at level 0 and all your stats are 0, except for stamina. You start out with 50 stamina and the cap for it is 200 instead of 150.

-GAINING EXPERIENCE
In the spoiler below is a list of ways of earning EXP as well as required EXP before a ninja can level up:

Spoiler:

-SKILLS
In addition to Stats, every ninja can also have skills, which will allow you to further customize and make him one of a kind. These skills have varying effects such as: the ability to perform handseals faster; increase resistance to genjutsus; allows you to perform handseals with 1 hand ect... The list of all the skills invented so far is here.
There are 3 types of skills: Free, Regular and Prestigious.
-A ninja can have as many free skills as he wants, but their effects are usually nothing special.
-Regular skills have powerful effects, which is why a ninja can have only 9 of them.
-Prestigious skills are EXTREMELY powerful. A ninja can only have 1 Prestigious skill.

Getting more ninjutsu related skills will make him a ninjutsu specialist, getting more taijutsu related skills will boost that area. If you get 3 regular ninjutsu, 3 medic nin and 3 puppetry related skills then your ninja will be good at using ninjutsus, healing and puppets but NOT AS GOOD as someone who took 4 puppet and 5 medic related jutsus (but that person wouldn't be able to use ninutsus like you do). It all comes down to to how envision your ninja, what you want him to be.

NOTE: Skills and stats have a close relationship so try to match them. Getting taijutsu related skills would be a waste if your Strength and Taijutsu knowledge were low wouldn't it?

Money, the True Power

-What do I need money for?
Rather than spend hours of writing long topics for each jutsu (which no one is ganna really read anyway), on this site money is going to be used for obtaining jutsus, items, skills, and other stuff. Whether you rent a scroll or buy a weapon from your village's shinobi shop OR you invent a jutsu, learn a skill, craft something yourself, there will still be a price to pay. If the latter doesn't seem to make sense because "you did it yourself" then think of the money you spent on it as everyday expenses (like food, apartment rent, clothes, furniture ect...).

-Quick question: Why buy stuff (jutsu) from the shinobi shop rather than doing it yourself?
Stuff in the Shinobi shop are much, much cheaper than if you do it yourself. The down side is that the variety of jutsu and items is limited, so you may not always find what you're looking for.

-How to obtain money!
Being a full time Ninja means you get salary, so every week (if you are active) you receive money from your village's council. Successfully completing missions is a much faster, but more dangerous way of earning money.

Spoiler:

-MISSIONS!
There are 2 things you need to know about missions:
1) The admin staff creates the missions. If someone doesn't like the choices laid out he can create his own mission which will have to be approved by the staff before they can be executed.
2) You cannot spam missions. After accepting a mission there is a cooldown period before you can accept another one:
-D Rank: One Day
-C Rank: Two Days
-B Rank: Four Days
-A Rank: Six Days
-S Rank: Eight Days

Missions are [important] topics, but if a high rank mission is taking way too long to complete, you may accept another low rank (D or possibly C) no-risk-involved mission in the mean time in a [casual] topic. The timeline of the low level mission will be treated as if it had happened before the high ranked one.

B, A and S rank missions are particularly difficult so don't take them lightly (the chances of running into PC ninja is very high). If there is more than 1 PC ninja on a mission then the reward money and EXP is split among themselves (unless the village council decides to give them extra reward money).

NOTE: There is no "minimum word count" for missions (regardless of their rank) because it isn't necessary.

Genjutsus have "attack power" just like tai and ninjutsus but they don't inflict damage. Instead it just determines whether the jutsu was successful and how long it will last.

-How to deal with genjutsus.
Every ninja has an innate "resistance" to genjutsu, but if the jutsus attack power is greater than this "resistance" then the jutsu was successful.

Resistance = Gen knowledge + 1/2Perception

The more powerful genjutsu have a trigger (eye contact, hearing a sound ect...) which can be avoided by deliberately reducing your own perception (closing eyes, shutting ears ect...), however most of the time genjutsus cannot be avoided.

Before you say "well if I can't avoid it then I'm screwed" know that there are ways of dealing with genjutsu even after you are caught in one:

Spoiler:

If you have multiple genjutsus on you (from different enemies) then only the one with the highest Gen power affects you. If they are from the same enemy then he chooses which one affects you. A single Kai dispels all genjutsus that would normally fall within the scope of its negating effect.

-Exhaustion
A tired and injured ninja is weaker than a rested one, no?
Once your core Stamina points drop below 90% of its maximum, for every additional 10% drop your core Strength, Agility and Perception are also reduced by 10% and you lose 1 BP. Exhaustion penalties don't start in the same post the breach was exceeded, but rather in the next post.

-Range
Range is the distance between you and your opponent. This is important because most jutsus have a range restriction and won't work very good (or at all) if the distance between you and your opponent isn't just right (especially for taijutsus). The ranges are:

Melee = 0 meters (0 ft)

Close = 0~5 meters (0 to 16 ft)

Mid = 6~20 meters (19 to 65 ft)

Far = 20+ meters (65 ft +)

Basic movement actions allow you to decrease or increase the distance between you and your opponent by 5 meters at a time, while evasion/displacement jutsus might do so even more. Running sideways around your opponent will not decrease or increase the distance between you, but such repositioning may have other strategic advantages (read "Cheap Shots" for more info).

-PHASES!
Your post is divided into "defense phase" and "offense phase". Defense phase comes first and is the part in your post where you respond to your opponent's attacks. Once you've dealt with the last attack you enter Offense phase, which is the part in your post where you launch your own attacks. Technically speaking, you CAN attack during a defense phase (attack at the same time your opponent attacks instead of defending), but doing so has its own ricks and advantages (read Reaction Time for more info).

-Reaction Time
Is it the same if the enemy is far away and uses a jutsu that requires a lot of handseals and if he's right next to you throwing a really fast punch? No, if he was far away them you'd have more time to cast your own jutsu, if he was close then you couldn't use a jutsu with lots of handseals. Rather than using "common sense", which as we all know can be interpreted differently, we use Reaction Time (RT for short) to measure how much time you have to respond to enemy attacks.

-How does RT work?
When you use a jutsu, 1 BP = 1 RT. This means if your available RT is 4 then you CAN'T use a jutsu that costs 5 or more BP (because the enemy jutsu would hit you before you can complete your own jutsu). You CAN use 1 jutsu with 4 BP cost, or 2 jutsu with 1 BP and 3 BP cost, or 4 jutsus with 1 BP cost each, or even just 1 jutsu with 1 BP cost if you think it'll be enough.

There is also one last risky option. Instead of defending, you attack while your opponent is attacking you. The system is not perfect so this will be treated as if you had used it during the Offense phase, however that attack will reduce your opponent's RT during his clash by the same amount that you sacrificed from your own RT during your own clash. Like I said, this is risky because it leaves you with less time to defend yourself, but if you can pull it off the payoff could be big.

-How to calculate RT?
RT = BP cost of enemy's attack + 1 per 5 meters range difference between you and the attack's point of origin + half of the unused RT from the previous clash

Some things can increase or decrease your RT, but no mater what, RT can NEVER go below 1. There are no auto-hits on this site.

-CHEAP SHOTS!
When (smart) ninjas battle they will often attempt to reduce their opponent's perception with smoke bombs, genjutsus, explosions ect... because if they manage to reduce it enough and position themselves right, their attacks might receive "cheap shot" bonuses. List of "cheap shot" bonuses:

Spoiler:

-Its easier to flank and get behind "Dazed" ninja.
-If the ninja is attacked from the flank, reduce Prc by 25% (visual penalty).
-If the ninja is attacked from the back, top or underneath, reduce Visual Prc by 100%.
-If Visual Prc is reduced to 0%, the ninja is "Blinded".
-If Auditory Prc is reduced to 0%, the ninja is "Deaf".
-RT can never go below 1, but if it would then that attack receives an extra 25% boost.

The average ninja relies mostly on his sight and somewhat on his hearing to get through a fight. Statistically, the average ninja's Perception Stat is composed 75% on visual and 25% on auditory awareness, meaning that if your Prc was, lets say, 40 then 30 of it will be visual and 10 auditory. So if an enemy jutsu that says something like: Reduce enemy Perception by 100% (auditory penalty), then that means you will only lose 10 Prc rather than all of it because only 10 of it was auditory.

Skills such as "Enhanced senses", "Vigilance" and "Total Awareness" greatly reduces the chances of an enemy obtaining a cheap shot bonus by increasing your Prc and converting part of your perception from one type into another (50% Visual, 50% Audio, or 50% Visual, 25% Audio, 25% Olfactory. Your opponent will have to reduce multiple senses instead of just focusing on visual, which is the easiest to manipulate.

-RP CIRCUMSTANCE
The combat system is not all mathematics and no creativity. If your opponent makes an rp mistake, something you can exploit, then once per post you are allowed to add an "rp circumstance" bonus to some offense or defense jutsu. The bonus cannot be greater than your ninja level and if its abused (used too often, used when there was no rp mistake to exploit, always using maximum value, unable to justify its usage when questioned ect...) a mod or admin may take away this privilege or even impose a penalty on your current battle as punishment.

Examples of when it can be used:
-If your opponent's ninja is of a higher rank/level/strong clan/ect... and arrogantly says he doesn't think you'll be a worth challenge, or that you stand a chance against him, or w/e, you can add a circumstance bonus in your next attack because he was underestimating you, thus wasn't expecting such a skillful attack.

-If your opponent says his ninja is steaming with rage, you can use this as an excuse to add an rp circumstance bonus to the gen power of your next genjutsu because its easier to manipulate those who aren't in control of their emotions.