Ninja: Death Wears Black Pajamas

[rdanhenry]

Having made up a "minimal" ninja TP, I find it is a bit overpowered according to the guidelines, with the low cost (for Warrior Monk) coming in at 50 DP (as it happens, it only hits a maximum cost of 70 DP, which is a lot less than some). Of course, if I did actually use it, it'd be with a bunch of additional strings attached. Still, I had to ask myself, "Is this the proof that the Ninja needs to be a Profession (or just say that ninjas are Magents, but I wanted a "real" ninja without spells)? Or should I go back to their origin in rebellious peasant clans and make it a cultural background?"

The TP also takes 147 months, which is over 12 years, so it probably wouldn't be problematic in a humans-only world. Or maybe I shouldn't watch ninja movies before making a ninja TP. Anyway, here's a poll to see what others think on the subject.

[Grinnen Baeritt]

Other, of course

It all depends upon what you want to try and achieve.

Ad&D Oriental adventures had it about right, allowing the class to multiclass giving a variety of options dependant upon the clan that the character came from. So, in this respect I'd say it should be just a TP (albeit an expensive one) based on the culture (and clan) that the player is exposed to. What this might mean is that you may need more than one TP to represent a "Ninja", one that represents the "basic" (or Genin) level, then another one to reflect a particular clans speciality (In this case, I'd suggest this is a lifestyle one, since the "secrets" wouldn't be taught to outsiders).

All in all there are as many ways to deal with this as there are ninja. They are sneaky little gits...