Samurai Job Spec Sheet

[Gatz]

This is a spec sheet for the Samurai Job. Before you read it, make -sure- to read this part about spec sheets! I often make spec sheets before I code up large systems, it makes it easier to prepare and organize how you want it to work before hand. However, things can change! The reason I'm posting this is I personally like the idea of a samurai job but, in order to make it interesting, it takes some liberty with Naruto. Now, you must understand, any game has to take liberties because a 100% accurate representation of any reality is impossible, but how much liberty you take is debatable and based on fun factor. This is a very prototype -idea- and so I'm hoping you can vote in the poll and also post, this thread won't be locked for posts, ideas and other input. I also don't want MUD Chat to be used for ideas above GB 2, however, the spec sheet was large and it is easier to read here.

Spec for Samurai Job

Job Name: Samurai

Ranks:
Ronin (Starting)
Bushi (Once You Acquire a Lord)
Shogun (Top General To Lord)

Acquired:
Go to some office somewhere and pay a small fee to receive basic training and cover your sword(*) fee.

Advancing Ranks:
Ronin:
Given.
Bushi:
Once a ronin has gained a certain popularity/favor, then a Lord who lives in some country will offer them a contract.
Shogun:
Bushi who has met certain requirements for that Lord can be invited to be
a Shogun and receive a certain size fiefdom possibly.

Quests:
Ronin:
Ronin basically can do basic ‘wandering samurai’ stuff.
Bushi:
Basic samurai underling stuff, protect nobles to kill bad guy X.
Shogun:
Various upper level samurai tasks. Training Bushi possibly, high level
combat jobs that might require taking a small squad. Maybe requesting
help from Hidden Ninja Villages formally?

Quiting Job:
Must go to a samurai job office/area and pass in their sword. Different
than quiting working for a specific Lord.

Interaction With the World:
Samurai are not like ninja, but still interact with them. Samurai are not part of Hidden Villages like ninja are, however they still hail from the country that that
Hidden Village is part of.

(*) Sword Information:
A samurai’s sword is considered to be their ‘soul’. When one becomes a samurai
they get a sword which they can give a special name to. This isn’t just a normal
sword that can be purchased anywhere. It has a statistics and can be leveled up.
All swords start at level 1 and can advance to level 100, and depending on what
month they were forged take on that attribute of that month.
Sun
Moon
Fire
Water
Tree
Gold
Dirt
As the sword leveled up, it’s owner could use skills with it. However, the skills
are totally bound to the sword. If it breaks or is lost, the samurai has to go out and
get a new sword which starts out at level 1. A samurai can only possess one sword
at one time. So, some sort of convention could be used to make it so a samurai
could reclaim his sword. Also, if the sword ran out of HP, it would break and be
un-repairable.
If someone was able to steal it, the sword’s power would be ¼ of it’s real power
when not used by it’s real owner. When a samurai deletes, his sword is deleted
with him. Also, a history command could be in place so a samurai can track
all the swords he has had over the course of his life.
Swords could gain experience in a similar fashion as players, based on damage
given and received and possibly commands put in place to train outside of
combat.
Different blacksmithes produce different quality swords which
provide different growthes for a sword's power. Samurai would have to hunt
down the best swordsmithes and do whatever they require to recieve
that sword. Also, a command to destroy their sword would be implace.

One last small note, this was spaced nicely in MS Word, but silly forums ruined it. =P

(Small Update: Fixed some typos)
(Update: Blacksmith Information Added)

[Keisu]

Well, I like the idea that Samurai are like a rival job to ninja. Obviously there would be competition to get jobs from people. The shinobi would want the job for themselves, and the same for the samurai.

This could open up darker quests or groups of shinobi or samurai that hunt down their rival counterparts...

Edit: Lords should also have their own set of... requirements and rules. Like, a "good" Lord would require you to follow a Samurai Code (Don't attack innocents, for example). If you break the code, you'd acquire, uh... Outcast points, I guess you could call them. If you gather too much, the Lord would Outcast you, and order any other Samurai to kill you on sight.

As an Outcast, very little Lords would want to hire you -- but maybe some (evil Lords) would require you to be an Outcast? Over time, though, you would slowly lose your Outcast title.. and eventually become Ronin again.

Also, would Samurai be able to use weaker Ninjutsu? I think they should be allowed to have lower level Ninjutsu for defense against Ninja. Like Suijenheki. If they are allowed to have Ninjutsu, then that could be another limitation involving Lords.

Some Lords may not like Ninja, so they would not hire Samurai who know Ninjutsu or use it. Part of their own Lord Code thingie.


And final subject... how would one become a Samurai? Would everything be changed to where you don't start off as a Ninja Student, or would it be just like becoming one of the Ninja? Meaning, choose Samurai at the start. You'd still need to get your sword forged, of course, by some good blacksmith before becoming a Ronin. You'd be, basically, a Student Samurai =P

I like the idea of starting off as a normal person, and having to go apply to become a job. For instance, as a Ninja, you'd have to go to the Ninja Academy (making more use of the Academy) and go through it to become a Ninja. To be a Samurai, you'd have to, say, see the Blacksmith on the western Island and do something for him. Gather materials, probably. The better the materials, the better the blade, eh?

When we get into the Beta, this would require people to go to the village or blacksmith they want most. Some blacksmiths would be able to work with certain materials, while others can't... And people who want to be ninja would have to go to one of the village's Academy (Mist, Leaf, Sand, Stone, etc..) and apply to become a Student.

[Gatz]

Right, I had forgotten to mention Blacksmithes in the spec I posted, but Keisu, you got the idea I meant to put in. Different Blacksmithes had different qualities. I'll update the spec and post a small update note at the bottom. Also, I'll only update the spec for poorly phrased things and minor things I meant to put in but forgot. All your ideas and such won't change what my original spec was but what it will become, if it is decided to be a good idea.

Also, I had planned on adding a new 'unique' ability to Ninja, that being Ninja Tools. Samurai would get 'Swordsmanship' as their unique ability. So they'd have access to all three 'Jutsu' but not the 'Ninja Tools'.

[Zan]

The thing is, if both classes share ninjutsu/taijutsu/genjutsu and the only difference is swordsmanship vs. ninja tools... I don't really see much difference between this class and the standard ninja, minus the sword.

If you think of the anime, there are plenty of ninja who fit this samurai archetype. There are plenty of ninja who wield swords and there are just as many ninja who serve various lords or are loyal to their own masters. The ONLY thing that seems to differentiate samurai from ninja in this situation seems to be the magical nature of the swords.

My own suggestion is that you just make samurai a separate ninja clan of sorts. Much like in the anime, there are ninja who are loyal to their Hidden Villages, but there are also many different unique factions(Akatsuki, Orochimaru's group, etc.) all struggling for power. To make this MUD more in-depth, I suggest encouraging clans or groups (player-run or not) with Samurai being one of them. They can have their own code of behavior and their own rules and their own perks (such as the forging of their personal soul-sword).

I think this kind of clan/group based society would make it a lot more fun, especially RP-wise, as long as we all have the same basic skills (ninjutsu/taijutsu/genjutsu). You can give different groups/clans unique skills or options as well as unique RP rules/perks. However, ultimately, it would be up to the player.

This also makes a lot less rigid than making Samurai a totally separate character class from Ninja. Class systems are a bit unrealistic anyway.

What do you think?

[Gatz]

Well, I had been knocking back if Samurai should get any 'Jutsu' at all. I don't think they should, honestly one ability could house a large variety of skills. However, when switching jobs I don't want folks to lose all they got in that job. So maybe the Samurai skills could just go to level 300 and Samurai's would have to put their ability points in it and not anything else.
I think I like that idea. So then, they could simply unlevel those ability points if they became a Ninja and invest them into Ninja Jutsu things. Combat level would be combat level regardless. Battle Abilities would be earned no matter what your job was, as long as you had the right combat level.

(Edit: Forgot to say, Samurai's 'jutsu' abilities would be derived from their sword's natural type. So if the sword was of the 'fire' type it might be able to let the user harness their Chakra to channel it through their sword to do a fire attack or something like that.)

[Zan]

The thing is, I don't see why it has to be "removable" at all. Picking a life-path should be a serious choice. I can see a lot of reasons for the unprac/untrain/unlevelup in alpha, but I feel there should be more restrictions on these things as we move into beta and the final version. Otherwise, I see people just unprac/re-distributing AP and skills just to follow the new hot trend or whatever, rather than working on making their individual characters make the most of their strengths and weaknesses.

Likewise, choosing a village or joining some other group/clan/faction should be a serious thing. And leaving that same village/group should be just as serious. What you can do is have some basic taijutsu and other battle abilities available to everyone, skills like kick/punch/double kick/the various combat styles. Then have specific clan/village-specific skills. The unique skills/powers make clan-choosing a very serious decision, but it's also important because you shouldn't be ablet o just join and leave any village/clan you want -> each village or clan wants to defend it's secrets closely.

This way, I can see various factions/groups struggling for power and for recruitment of young adventurers. Also, it's more realistic because if a young man joined the Samurai, got his sword, and bounced... he's walking out with a powerful weapon and the secrets of his order. He would most likely be hunted, wanted, etc.

[Keisu]

The idea of being able to unpractice, untrain, and leveldown is to have a forgiving system. For instance, a Genjutsu fan could come on and level up Intelligence, Constitution, and Genjutsu... only to find out that they will get their asses beat down.

Intelligence is the only thing they can honestly use in combat. It helps them hit more, but that's it. Constitution doesn't help anything, and Genjutsu doesn't have any combat skills.

If there are people who spend hundreds of hours to get up somewhere, to find out that they get stuck because they need more taijutsu then ninjutsu... then they can switch. It allows people to change to their own style without needing to start over and waste those 100s of hours.

And yes, I like the idea of Samurai having -some- weak jutsu abilities available to them. It would all depend on their Lord, though. As I said in my post, their Lord may hate Ninjas and make Ninjutsu illegal.. While others may want their Samurai to know it so they can defend themselves against Ninja. By knowing about the shinobi's abilities, they can prepare themselves better for them and even use the jutsu to counter (suijinheki to stop some big fire attack against them). They would not be, however, allowed to have something as powerful as Suiryuudan, Daibakufu, Karyuu, etc...

And about Ninjas being able to use swords.. yes, they can use swords. But this would be different than a samurai sword. A Samurai Sword is bound to the Samurai's soul and life. It is forged specifically to be an extention of their own body. To most Samurai, it is more important to them than their own life. If they lose it, they do not deserve to live.

The Samurai trains extensively on the sword, excelling in it and knowing every inch of it... A shinobi wouldn't have the time to do this, because their have their own Ninjutsu/Genjutsu/Taijutsu.

[Tak]

What you have so far is interesting and definitely good, Gatz

We've already seen some form of samurai in the anime, in the whole Zabuza arc. Those two guys who went to chase down Inari and his family. Both of them were probably highly skilled samurai-ish warriors, but neither of them had any skill in nin/gen, presumably.

I don't think samurai should need any nin/gen at all, though. They're walking a totally different path that involves the sword, and only the sword. Of course, they'll have their own sword techniques and things like that (like throwing a sword on a curve and having it come back to them like a boomerang...Captain America, but with a sword), and they'd probably have some sort of defense against weaker ninjutsu like maybe some sort of armour. However, I disagree that they should get things like Suijinheki/Kajiheki. That sort of stuff takes Chakra mold, which is from an entirely different walk of life. Samurai, by no means, should be crippled against Shinobi, but they should have an entirely unique skillset.

That being said, samurai will always have taijutsu. Taijutsu is hand to hand combat, and samurai are all about hand to hand weapon styles. . They'd be able to learn things like Suiken, of course, but they'd be more limited because that's not a sword style.

Of course, this leads to LSC. They'd only be able to do pushup/situp/shadowbox, no?

[Gatz]

Well, I always felt that they were 'jobs' and not 'classes'. By definition a class binds you to something, but a job makes you more of a 'jack of all trades'. Like a garbage man can be a computer genius, but he still is a garbage man. So if you had some ninja abilities and decided on being a samurai, you wouldn't lose them but you'd still be roped into the 10 practice points only.
Also, it makes it harder to fight someone because they could pull something out that you weren't prepared for. Like a samurai who could do a genjutsu on you, or something like that. By the by, the anime clearly has samurai, in cannon Naruto they are mentioned.

[Keisu]

Yeah, I like the idea that they -can- have nin/genjutsu if they want, but it'd cause their Samurai abilities to lack. This way, they can have their own unique character. I mean, it's not set in stone what people can be.

While it may be disgraceful to quit/not take your job seriously, it can still be done.

[Gatz]

If you watch the second movie Temujin is sort of along the lines of what I thought the Samurai job could be like. It is very loose, obviously, but the rough idea is there, namely with his sword fighting in the beginning with Naruto.

[Gatz]

Looks like there has been no overwelhmed responce not to have it. Can I safely say this is a decent enough spec to go through with?

[Alon]

Yes you can, gimme katanas!;)

[Tak]

Doooo it. Bring on the samurai!

[Gatz]

However, I just thought of a kink in the plan. Should female characters be allowed to be Samurai? I already plan on putting in certain sex-exclusive elements in the game, but known as big as locking Samurai to male-exclusive. I think it'd make more sense to make it male only. If I did that then I'd probably make something for females only at a later time, drawing on my FFT love...it'd probably a dancer class or something.