[d20 Modern] Another weird campaign idea...

[JPL]

Am I nuts, or would G.I. Joe Ninja Force be a great freaking campaign?

Seriously.

Combine Spec Ops action [I'm thinking more along the lines of "Alias" than Cobra] with some old-school ninja lore.

On the run from family enemies in Japan, the surviving members of a ninja clan relocate to California in the 1930s. Several of them end up working for the OSS during WWII [better than sitting around in an internment camp, after all] as spies and assassins. Since that time, the CIA has always kept a few of these guys on the payroll. To train with these guys and become a member of the team, you actually have to join the clan and become part of the family. Most of the recruits will be military or intelligence types with a background in the Japanese martial arts [though there are exceptions].

This would work great with Blood & Fists/Guts. In the alternative, I could see making a Ninja class that was a gestalt [from Unearthed Arcana] of Martial Artist and Infiltrator...sure, it's overpowered....they're NINJA!

 

[JPL]

What made the ninja stuff in the old G.I. Joe comics work was writer Larry Hama's flair for detail. I have no idea whether he was just making it up or whether his family were ninjas, but there was a sense of verisimilitude. That's what I'd like to see in something like this...some real attention to the history of the clan, its philosophy, its enemies.

 

[DMScott]

It can certainly make for a fun campaign - I've run a campaign like that in Hero (Ninja Hero mixed with Dark Champions in 4th edition) and played in a similar sort of campaign in Feng Shui (though we were kung fu-ers instead of ninjas). Palladium's Ninjas and Superspies game is pretty much tailor-made for that genre. Any way you slice it, it's a ton of fun.

To do it in d20 Modern, I'd recommend finding some more detailed martial arts rules. Martial Arts Mastery by the Game Mechanics (published by Green Ronin) is pretty good, don't know about any others. For background info, I personally would probably take a look at the 5th edition version of Ninja Hero - I haven't actually read it, but all the other Hero genre books I've seen are excellent sourcebooks, even if you don't use Hero rules, so to me it's worth checking out.

 

[barsoomcore]

Hey, JPL, come over here so's I can smack into NOT being frickin' brilliant every time you open your mouth.

OF COURSE GI Joe Ninja Force is a great idea. It's GI JOE NINJA FORCE, for crying out loud. What, you gotta draw pictures or something?

Come here. Come HERE.

*smack*

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

Hmm. How about ninjas and masked Mexican wrestlers (luchadors!)? El Santo has fought just about everything else but ninjas.

 

[JPL]

Hey, JPL, come over here so's I can smack into NOT being frickin' brilliant every time you open your mouth.

*smack*

Barsoomcore...you complete me.

Nuke, I did have an idea for a one-shot Mexican wrestling game...basically, a "Desperado"-style spagetti Western, but with lucha instead of guns. Not unlike a kung fu movie, really.

But this would be ninjas played fairly straight...ninjas as the original Special Forces. A family with five hundred years of guerilla warfare expertise, playing games of deceit and death. These guys understand the benefits of both a silenced H&K and a poisoned arrow, and they use whichever is appropriate.

 

[Roudi]

So... the Ninja AdvC in Blood & Fists II: Hong Kong Knights wouldn't work?

B&FII also covers Lucha Libre (Mexican masked wrestling) as a martial arts style. If you're serious about this idea, I'd recommend both Blood & Fists books.

 

[JPL]

So... the Ninja AdvC in Blood & Fists II: Hong Kong Knights wouldn't work?

My first and only playtest credit is for B&F2, and I am a big fan. It would work fine, although some tweaking might be in order to represent this particular clan's style. A Ninjitsu Master [from B&F1] would work, too.

The gestalt idea would be if, for whatever reason, B&F weren't being used, and if it seemed appropriate to make a level of Ninja [or "Ohara Clan Ninja" in particular] just plain better than a level of anything else [not normally something I like to see in d20 games, but appropriate to the "ninja genre"].

 

[JPL]

Martial Arts Style: Ohara Clan Yamabushido

The Ohara clan style can be traced back to the Kamakura era of Japan [1185-1333 AD], although family legend hints even earlier origins among the original yamabushi ["mountain warriors"], Chinese refugees who settled in southern Japan's forested mountains around 700 AD. Centered in the southern Iga province, Clan Ohara produced a long line of spies and assassins. The style came to America in the late thirties in the form of Toshiro Ohara, who started the family's long association with the Central Intelligence Agency. The style has evolved greatly in the past sixty years and integrates techniques from a broad variety of martial arts and military combat styles, but maintains its traditional emphasis on quick thinking and quick reflexes.

Prerequisite: Combat Martial Arts or Defensive Martial Arts

Effect: You are proficient in punching attacks and are considered armed while making such attacks. Ohara Clan Yamabushido is an adaptable style. This feat adds Hide, Move Silently, and Knowledge: Tactics to your list of class skills. Ohara Clan Yamabushido is an external style whose attacks are modified by Dexterity.

Mastery: Accurate Punch 1, Dirty Tricks 1, Dirty Tricks 2, Dodge Mastery 1, Dodge Mastery 2, Hard Punch 1, Hard Punch 2, Shadow Mastery 1, Shadow Mastery 2

 

[barsoomcore]

Oh, and JPL? Just to answer your initial question:

Yes.

You're nuts.