D&D 5E Making a real Ninja in D&D

[FitzTheRuke]

,,,okay, I actully watched the video. He knows his stuff well enough.

 

[Chaosmancer]

As soon as you label anything as a "real ninja", be ready for a nerdstorm of epic proportions.

Not if you've followed Gajin Goomba and his series.

He means "real" as in historically accurate. What did they actually do, what equipment did they actually wear, what were the practices and philosophies they actually had in the clans.

For someone who isn't a professional scholar, he is very knowledgeable and polite about the subject (for the most part) and does a really good job breaking things down.

And to sign off

"Real Ninja wear Blue."

 

[FitzTheRuke]

"Real ninja wear whatever was the style for the era depending on what they were doing and how much money they had"

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Just in case anyone didn't know, the Way of Shadow monk explicitly, by name, says it is a ninja.

I understand that it might not be exactly what everyone wants in a ninja, but the impression that I get of some people completely not realizing the game already gives us a ninja just drives me bonkers. Those of you who already knew that, feel free to disregard my pet peeve.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Way of the Shadow monk makes a great hollywood ninja. There's nothing wrong with THAT!

 

[Sacrosanct]

My biggest gripe is not lack of ninja class options in the game, but lack of equipment and gadgets in the game

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't think there is such a thing as a "real" ninja. Even right back at the start the myth was more important than the reality.

 

[Samloyal23]

My biggest gripe is not lack of ninja class options in the game, but lack of equipment and gadgets in the game

There is a TON of material in older editions. Just dig out your older books and Dragon Magazines and update stuff.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Step one of creating a ninja: define the "ninja" you're creating.
Whether you're going for the historical operative skilled in gathering information and creating rumours, with the occasional act of sabotage, but little to no actual combat training.
Or the 80s martial artist wielding ninjato and shuriken.
Or the spellcasters from naruto.
Or whatever it means to you.

I don't think there is such a thing as a "real" ninja. Even right back at the start the myth was more important than the reality.

The person in the video did make the point that they were creating a character inspired by folklore as well as the pure history.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't think there is such a thing as a "real" ninja. Even right back at the start the myth was more important than the reality.

I guess it depends on what you want out of the word "real".

Ninjas certainly existed. BUT... just like spies exist, does not mean they're James Bond. I'm sure some of them were highly-skilled professionals while others were useless fools - because they were people. From a certain place and time, doing a certain job with a certain amount of training.

There aren't any Ninjas in the modern world, because modern equivalents have replaced them, just like Europe's Knights don't exist anymore (well, I mean, it's a title, and there's still career soldiers, but both are different).

Similarly, there are still teachers of "ninjitsu" - some of which are real, in that they teach well-researched traditional martial arts passed down from real people, but they're not "ninjas" either (they are teachers of martial arts for a living). There are also a lot of total phonies.