You play a shinobi whose choices matter more than a fixed combat rotation. A session moves between missions, relationships, investigation, training, and conflict. You describe what you want and how you try to do it; the GM answers from the established fiction and only calls for a roll when the outcome is uncertain and a setback would force a new choice, cost, danger, or position.
The opening scenario begins at @Missing file. @Missing file and the rest of the team are not expected to defeat their jonin instructor by trading attacks. The exercise is built around noticing habits, creating leverage, coordinating with allies, and deciding when an opening is real enough to commit. That rhythm continues throughout the campaign.
Say what you are trying to achieve
State an intent, not a button: “I want him looking at me so Hana can move behind him,†“I test whether the wire is bait,†or “I use Transformation to pass the checkpoint without starting a fight.†Your method matters because techniques, terrain, information, relationships, and power differences determine what is possible before dice enter the conversation.
The game does not require a roll for routine actions. If you have time, the capability, and no real risk or consequence, you simply do it. When a roll is required, use 2d6 plus one relevant rating.
| Result | What happens |
|---|
| 10+ | Your declared intent succeeds fully. |
| 7–9 | Your intent succeeds, and a real cost, exposure, loss, or complication follows. |
| 6− | The situation turns against you and moves forward; you do not repeat the same roll unchanged. |
A mixed result is not “almost.†If you tried to get across the courtyard unseen and rolled 8, you get across unseen. The consequence might be lost time, spent chakra, separation from your team, or new danger on the far side.
Fiction comes before numbers
A good roll cannot make an impossible action possible. A genin cannot simply decide to overpower a vastly stronger shinobi because the dice came up high. You first change the fiction: learn a weakness, force bad terrain, combine techniques, bait a commitment, exploit a relationship, or create another form of leverage. Once the action is possible, the roll decides how cleanly it goes.
That is the core promise of play: observe, understand, create an opening, then commit.
