Naruto d20: what's the attraction? - OG Myth-Weavers

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Naruto d20: what's the attraction?

   
Naruto d20: what's the attraction?

So I kind of dig Naruto- more early Naruto than recent Naruto, when it's become a bit too much Dragonball with ninjas for my taste, but whatever. I want to play games set in this universe, and it seems that many others do as well.

But why on earth do they pick Frankto's Naruto d20 system to do it with? It's a thousand and twenty-four page supplement to another complete, already rather rules-heavy RPG system. Whole bolt-on subsystems interact in complex and difficult-to-predict ways with the existing rules and each other- Chakra, Techniques, Shinobi Skills, Strength and Speed Ranks, the Hostage Maneuver rules, Power Units...it's like d20 Modern with Exalted bolted on. It's insane. I would be ecstatic to play in a Naruto game run in a system that actually makes sense for it, like Mutants and Masterminds. Even D&D 3.5's psionics rules do a far more elegant job of it than that ungodly chunk of rules. What's the deal?

People pick the system they pick because they like the system. If you dont like it, my advice is not to use it rather than just talk about the system's shortcomings. Apparently they arent grievous enough to deter people who use it.

If I had to guess, you dont need to use all of those rules to make it usable. GURPS for example would be far too heavy if you used all the rules across all of the source books your head would explode. You use the rules that you need, and disregard those that you dont.

The majority of the pages are jutsu, not brand new rules. That is something you need to understand off the bat, there is not much new stuff to learn in honesty.

The PU (power units) and other rules are mainly optional, so you need not to learn it really...And in honesty they are simple. The only area I think that would really cause any problems is learning and understanding jutsu, seeing as there are so many types of jutsu and the set up is not the simplest.

I have been playing the system for a while, and DMed a good number of games with it. I will agree it has balance issues but it is not hard to get your head around the new areas, you could easily becoming comfortable within an hour of RL playing.

Going along the same lines are Ozy, don't dig at a system unless you really have played. Which I don't think you have, I think you have simply read the rules and found the page count put you off from the get go giving you a negative response.

Many people don't understand how good rules work or how good rules should look like. All you need is put some good art, some decent writing and say that the system will allow for the games that you want and that will trick most people into thinking that your system is worth a damn when it is really not.

Pretty much as soon as somebody competent makes a Naruto system this current one will be completely forgotten.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dominicius View Post
Pretty much as soon as somebody competent makes a Naruto system this current one will be completely forgotten.
*Points at Mutants & Masterminds.*

I liked Naruto d20, initially, because it's convenient to have a complete ruleset for a relatively obscure (in gaming terms) universe. Over time, I've grown disillusioned. It's needlessly complex and horribly balanced.

But it's good at projecting a unified design theory.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Viletta Vadim View Post
*Points at Mutants & Masterminds.*
M&M does not have the words Naruto written on its cover and unless you specifically tell people that this is the system they want to use for their games most will fail to make the connection between mechanics and story.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ImperatorK View Post
Could Naruto be played with 3.P mechanics?
Not really, no. It would require extensive houseruling, and that's what Naruto d20 did.




 

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