Ninja World Travel:
Space/Time Travel Rules: Space/Time techniques that allow one to travel throughout the Ninja World have been granted some leniency; before, these techniques could
not allow one to teleport to any landmark freely. You must have traveled to the landmark you wanted to teleport to beforehand. With these changes
one is able to now teleport to any Marketplace, even if they haven't visited it, as well as their village landmarks or Clan Sanctuaries. Rules for landmarks that are not Marketplaces remain in place, requiring that they have traveled to these landmarks within the same Arc before teleporting there.
Automated Travel: Automated Travel has been made a permanent addition to the Ninja World travel rules. I wanted to take a moment to remind everyone about the
basic requirements to use Automated Travel.
- Times listed in itinerary must be adjusted for Eastern Standard Time (EST).
- Standard 45 minute time for travel is increased to one hour
- Travel time cannot be reduced by artifacts, or any other means.
- One cannot travel over Ocean Landmarks using Automated Travel; their travel is strictly confined to the continent they are on, either the Mainland or Tobusekai.
- Automated Travel can only be used when crossing a minimum of five landmarks
- While in travel techniques cannot be activated, and one cannot gather natural energy through any means.
Ninja World Arenas:
The Witchwood Arena: Witchwood has seen significant updates to its format and rules. The most significant change is the addition of Witchwood Arena Rulesets. Rather than have rotating rules each arc, which would lead to fluctuating activity, these rules can be selected at any time for each individual fight. Combatants must agree on a ruleset, and if they cannot a Ninja World Moderator is to be contacted to choose for them. Please read the entire Witchwood Arena rules in the Ninja World Rules thread, but below major changes can be found:
- Standard fight timelimit in the Witchwood Arena has been increased to 48 hours.
- Added Witchwood Rulesets; these are sets of limitations or engagement rules that can change a fight. Both combatants must agree on the ruleset for a single fight.
- Witchwood Prizes have been revamped. All previous prizes have been replaced by Kumi. Establish a long win streak to earn progressively higher Kumi rewards.
- Added the Witchwood Leaderboard in the Ninja World Arenas thread.
The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower has been added as a Ninja World Arena with the purpose of a PvE Arena to fight against proctors for a chance at rare artifacts and items.
Arena changes will be arriving with Arc 15, rather then when these rules are posted.
Village & Clan Systems:
Colonial Income: Reduced Colonial Income from Tobusekai landmarks from by 200 Kumi per landmark, a 60% reduction. This adjustment represents a drain on Tobusekai's natural resources, now becoming more scarce than they had been originally when the Western clans had made their incursion in the East in Arc 8. Village Kumi allocation to missions has been capped at 10% (meaning an S-Rank can only offer up to 1,650 Kumi now, and so on). Village Kumi still cannot be directly allocated to members of that village.
Bounties/Bingo Book: Bounties that are funded by Village Kumi and Colonial Income can
only be issued on other roleplayer's heads. This means that these bounties cannot be made against NPCs, or any other fights that can be scripted.
All bounties issued in this system must be approved by the Ninja World Head Moderator.
Clan Levels: Reduced the time required to hold Level Four and Five clans for their respective upgrades (Level Five & Village Status) by one month each. Reduced the time required to hold a Level Two clan by two weeks (now currently two weeks) to achieve Level Three. Increased all Clan Level allocation points by 5. Time required to obtain a Level Four clan reduced by one month.
Landmark Upgrades: This is less of an update and more of an announcement. Landmark Upgrades for villages and clans will be coming in Arc 16. These upgrades will allow villages to purchase, with their Ryo, powerful additions to their currently claimed landmarks. These upgrades include structures, barriers, traps, blessings, and other official modifications to a landmark that can hinder enemies, slow down travel, or speed it up. These are powerful additions meant to protect important locations; their cost will reflect their value. Mentions of Landmark Upgrades and some of their rules, as they will be when available in Arc 16, can be found in the new rule thread. Some upgrades will only be available to villages, while others will be available to both, though clans must be a higher level to purchase them.
Independent Banks: Increased the amount of Ryo an Independent Bank can carry to 100,000 Ryo.
Artifacts: Artifacts have undergone significant changes. Before I get into the particular details, I want to take a moment to explain what the initial vision for Artifacts was. When the Ninja World as it is now was first conceived between 2017 and early 2018, ZK and I had discussed artifacts at great lengths; we both had agreed that artifacts, while they could have
limited viability as tools for battle, should
not become Custom Weapons. It was a difficult balance between us wanting roleplayers invested in the Artifacts they earned and created through missions, or ones purchased at the Marketplace. But in the roleplay today, if something does not have a practical application in battle, it might be pushed to the side. And so, overtime, I gradually loosened the restrictions on submissions for artifacts. The rate at which players could earn them through missions was remarkably high, which eventually saw to a significant decrease in their drop rate. But people complete a lot of missions every week; and even if something has a 10%, or a 5% drop rate, you could still see a lot of them submitted over a long period of time. So eventually, after so many submissions, Artifacts simply became tools and weapons almost
exclusively for battle. This deviated considerably from the original vision for them; we wanted items that could have some use in battle, but were mostly supplementary and primarily designed to be used in the Ninja World itself. Items that could increase travel speed, erect barriers in landmarks, and set up traps in a clan's claimed territory. Not items that increased healing over time, gave damage boosts, or whatever else.
The second issue is that Artifact power scaling became ridiculous. Probably around the time of the Doubles Tournament during the Season of the Rose do we see this happen. Artifacts morphed into rare tier 5 items that were absolute game changers in battle. And while this is fine in a vacuum, it just became too much. It accelerated that pace at which people submitted items that were more like Custom Weapons instead of Artifacts.
And so with the release of Arc 15, Artifacts are going to see some fairly radical changes. The first, and most important change, is that all Artifacts, with the exception of Sage Weapons (though Sage Weapons are not considered Artifacts in the first place), will be
phased out. After the beginning of Arc 15 all Artifacts that were obtained between Arcs 1 and 14 will be removed,
after two full arcs or
four uses in the Ninja World; whichever comes first. This means that, even if they go unused, all Artifacts from between Arcs 1 and 14 will be removed by
Arc 17. This is a gradual phasing out of Artifacts, giving everyone a chance to use them before they go.
A brief summary of the changes going forward:
- Custom Artifact rewards from missions will see a reduced drop rate.
- All Artifacts obtained between Arcs 1 and 14 will be phased out by Arc 17, or after four uses in the Ninja World; whichever comes first.
- Biographies can now only carry three total artifacts; of these, only one battle related Artifact, down from two.
- Going forward, Artifacts cannot give damage boosts, increase the effective rank of techniques or their chakra, increase an individuals speed, reduce an enemy's speed, mold elemental chakra, interact with spiritual entities, or create spiritual entities. Moderators hold discretion on certain aspects of Artifacts that are deemed too battle oriented, not necessarily explicitly listed here.
- Artifacts can increase one's travel speed in the Ninja World (note that this does not stack with other sources of increased travel speed, selecting the highest). They can create barriers and other obstacles in landmarks that slow others, they can create structures, modify landmarks, and other Ninja World supplementary tools.
- Artifacts can still have purpose in battle, but these typically will be obtained in the Dark Tower or from other special events. You can submit battle-related Artifacts as well, but their utility should be unique and significantly separate themselves from the standard Custom Weapon or battle tool/item.
Biography Rules/Story Arcs: Updates and additions were made to the Story Arc rules, including adjustments and additions to how certain abilities in the RP work within Story Arcs. I would also like to remind all roleplayers that only an approved biography can be used in the Ninja World.
Landmarks: Various landmarks throughout the world, primarily in Tobusekai, have been updated to reflect changes in the world, in particular the mysterious and sudden disappearance of the Great Mother Cult.
Sage Missions: Sage Mission applications are going to open soon. Review the requirements before applying. I will be taking one, potentially two, applicants for this cycle.
Quoting Rules: Quoting in the NInja World has been significantly updated and clarified. Note, this does not apply to quoting in the Witchwood Arena. Those remain rules that diverge from standard Ninja World fights. In Standard Ninja World Fights (not including special events or Witchwood Arena), when a valid quote is made the timelimit is paused. This gives combatants time to discuss their move, post in the resolution thread, and then contact a Sensei as necessary. Once a sensei as issued their verdict, time limit is unpaused. Timelimit can only be paused again once a second Sensei has been contacted to issue a second verdict. This pattern repeats with the third check, the moderator deciding check. Please see the rule thread for exact details on Quoting and the Timelimit.