Colors of the Ninja Garb

[Faxanadu13]

MalignantT, have you haerd of the war of Tensho-Iga-No-Ran? In this battle Nobunaga Oda attcked the village of Iga to exterminate all ninjas. You know why? Because the ninjas were working to protect the buddhist temples that Nobunaga was destroying. The warrior monks were fighting christian Nobunaga samurai who were trying to conquer all of Japan! Now do you see that ninjas can be protectors and defenders. Almost all ninja were destroyed in Tensho-Iga-No-Ran. And the so-called christians used superior numbers to stamp out buddhism and ninjutsu forever.

[MalignantT]

To Bloody:

The Omicrons were guerrilla fighters on alpha prime, but in Vahalla they are part of the regular rank and file.

A Ninja would have needed to do something like that before s/he came to Vahalla.

I think a Jandar ninja would almost need a bio like Moriko, someone who refused to take a life. Oooh! Oooh! Or better yet, was used for a job and refused to carry it out (kill a kid, or a bohdisatva or something), and instead died protecting the target from other assassins. (Or rather would have died if not whisked away by Jandar at the last moment)



To Faxanadu:
I always wondered how much Nobunaga really converted. I mean, sure he could have lied, "Yeah, Sure. I'm a Christian." Then the Portuguese say "Hey, great! Here's some more guns. Have fun conquering the country."
Granted, he could have really converted (I don't think it's that big of philosophical leap from Buddhism to Christianity, and vice versa, it's just a theological leap), and was taking out pockets of theological opposition along with the political opposition.
Although, removing all opposition, theological, ideological, political, military, economic, etc..., is another implementation of SunZi, take out potential advesaries when they are weak. No point in letting them gather force behind your front lines.

edit: I think historically the Buddhists and ninja's came out of that all right, because Buddhism is still strong in Japan, and Ninja's were around until the end of World War II.

[Faxanadu13]

Originally Posted by MalignantT

Response to faxanadu13

Yeah, I got too wrapped up in Ninja's as assassins to remember Ninja's as spies.

how would I get it to work? d20 roll.
Maybe a d20 roll after initiative, but before turn 1
have it apply to figures all figures adjacent to Jandar Ninja

or "if order marker 1 (or X) is on _____ (Jandar Ninja), d20 roll"
and it could target a figure x spaces away from ninja.


Actually, combined, that sounds a lot like Red Skulls "Dust of Death" ability.
That's how I would do it. With slightly lower numbers.

I like it, how about this one:

Ninja Spy Ability
If the ninja is adjacent to LOS blocker and/or on higher terrain
at beginning of round and can see another players figures within 7 hexs, than the owner of the ninja can look at that players order markers.

[guido]

I found Jandar's ninja!

[Faxanadu13]

Originally Posted by MalignantT

To Faxanadu:
I always wondered how much Nobunaga really converted. I mean, sure he could have lied, "Yeah, Sure. I'm a Christian." Then the Portuguese say "Hey, great! Here's some more guns. Have fun conquering the country."
Granted, he could have really converted (I don't think it's that big of philosophical leap from Buddhism to Christianity, and vice versa, it's just a theological leap), and was taking out pockets of theological opposition along with the political opposition.
Although, removing all opposition, theological, ideological, political, military, economic, etc..., is another implementation of SunZi, take out potential advesaries when they are weak. No point in letting them gather force behind your front lines.

I did not mean to imply that Nobunaga was christian at heart. Of course he was simply donning the mask of a christian so he could get support from the Portuguese. Not the first time christianity would be used as a wolf in sheeps clothing. Consider that Vlad the Impaler took the christian title for a time before he was excommunicted. But back to my real point:
the ninjas had to defend from annihilation from so-called Jandar-types.

[MalignantT]

Originally Posted by Faxanadu13

But back to my real point:
the ninjas had to defend from annihilation from so-called Jandar-types.

Well, that's just the hypocrisy of the self-righteous.

However, it also depends on your point of view.

An army out conquering its neighbors, they must be bad.

An army out liberating its neighbors, well they must be good.

[Faxanadu13]

Couldn't have put it better myself.

[Faxanadu13]

Back to Heroscape,

I would like to see two things to complete the ninjas in Heroscape. At least!

A Commander ninja (Jonin)
Common Ninjas squad

Thats more important than another ninja hero in my opinion.
If we had that then who cares if Jandar gets a ninja?!

edit: The ninjas DID NOT come out of Tensho-Iga-No-Ran alright in my opinion. Many of the ninjas arts were lost forever due to the extintion of many of the schools. I understand that If I were a hated despot conquering the land it would be prudent to eliminate the threat of assassination. But what a pity...

[MalignantT]

He should have put them on pay-roll.

[Faxanadu13]

I CAN"T resist answering this... The latter Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu did!
He hired Hanzo Hattori to protect him from samurai and ninja attacks! And Tokugawa was the last shogun to rule Japan before the modern era. Andother example of ninja as Protector.

Summon the Jandar NINJA!!

[MalignantT]

And Tokugawa Ieyasu was such a nice guy.

Granted, all the self-romanticism of Bushido really came out in this era when there wasn't hardly anybody to fight, but implementing the caste system, and heavy handed rules about bearing arms and land ownership were also introduced.

Though I can't dump all that Ieyasu, but his descendants sure didn't seem to mind keeping everybody else in their proper place (and making extra sure that they kept their own, at the top).



edit: Which makes me wonder during which period do the Heroscape Samruai come from. The Ashigaru Harquebi see pretty obvious, but everyone else? Enh... doesn't really matter that much.

[Faxanadu13]

Well Japan was much more aware of the outside world at this point. Tokugawa had to lay down an iron fist in order to establish order in a country that suffered from 400 years of civil war. And of course their were corrupt means for doing this. But political rule is always utilizing "neccasary evil" for maintaining control. If Japan continued to war with itself it would only be that much easier for Korea or China to conquer it with mechanized warfare. Tokugawa was not a nice guy, but nice guys don't rule countries well.


EDIT: I am sorry if we got off topic on the color of ninjas outfits, but it was such an enjoyable tangent to go into. Thanks for everyones patience in this.