Questions & Suggestions

[Ma121_Hunter]

Me and my friends have been playing Naruto D20 for the past year and
a half or so, and while we've managed to play, we still find it quite hard
in some aspects.

Character creation seems more like a chore than it should be. Because
of our schedules, we some times go months without playing. We've had
to restart several campaigns because of this, and it always takes a lot
of time and effort to start over. Mind you, we don't have a whole lot of
hands on experience with playing DND much less Naruto D20, but A
Hints & Tips section would be helpful.

Secondly is the Techniques. Jutsu are one of the core elements of the
game, they also happen to be one of the most frustrating elements.
They're overly complex and really drag down the flow of game play
during the most crucial and exciting parts of the game. I've read on the
forums about using note cards or using links for PC users, but these are
only minor solutions to bigger problem.

Thirdly is the way the book is constructed. I understand that this is a
pet project so I won't be too critical here. With DND they break down
the core rule books into three units. Players Handbook, Monster Manual
and Dungeon Master's guide. If you can't / won't organize the books
better, could you at least separate them into their own PDF's? It would
at least help make things a bit easier to find. Perhaps Players Handbook,
Monsters, Dungeon Masters Guide and a Technique Guide?

I know I'm mostly complaining, and I apologize. I really like this game,
its just, no game should give you a headache trying to play it if you
haven't been able to play in a while. I guess what I'm trying to get at
is that the game needs to be a little more user friendly.

[Keldon_Draconian]

[Athildur]

[Elon]

Well, I guess it's just me, but I've played for years to this game and I haven't found it frustrating. I agree with Ath.

Making a character is a matter of minutes if it's first level. It takes me up to 20 min if it's a high level one and I don't use the npc generators posted here (which you could use too). Just a matter of getting used to it.

The fact is you need to get used to it. As a player, you must know perfectly how your justu work, as a gamemaster you must have selected wich justu your npc has, and perfectly know how they work. At least, a couple of describing lines, so you don't have to stop and look in the book every 5 min. Just like as spells back in D&D (yeah, I know, you don't have experience playing D&D). Also, Frankto was working on adding some description to the jutsu index (or something like that).

And bookmarks are plainly useful, as search function is. This game's as complicated as D&D could be, except for the perform/convert thing.

I'd like to know more about your difficulties cause everything you stated is a problem in D&D and isn't even solved there. Nothing you couldn't speed up by getting used to it.
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[Frankto]

The only thing I can say to that is "Play videogames instead"
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[Dokuga Kazu]

It seems all these things you're having trouble with can be corrected with exposure.

Creating characters is a chore, when you first start out. I had trouble making them and it used to take me a long time to finish one. However, I can now make a character relatively quickly.
There's also tools here to help you that members of the community have supplied, like the Stat Block Generator, that cut character creation down to mere minutes (not including Techniques). I highly suggest that since you haven't had much experience with D&D, you find one of these generators. I believe there is 3 (1 Downloadable, 2 Web Based), someone correct me if I am wrong.

For techniques, in a game, it is generally not needed to have COMPLETE understanding of the technique, have a general idea of what happens, maybe some notes for damage and saves. Though from the sounds of it, Frankto might be editing the file to help make battle more smooth, but I haven't really had many major upsets with the system as is.
There is also an Online Techniques Data Base somewhere in the forums, to help you better find techniques quickly and by rank, yet another tool I suggest you find, as it will make things easier on you.

As for layout, I haven't had any difficulty with that either. They have book marks, and for the copies that don't you can just as easily mark on a piece of paper what pages have what for what you need. Not to mention Control+F to open up the Search Function to locate exactly what you need, and the fact that you have the forums to give you answers you can't find.

Just expose yourself to the system more, make NPCs for the heck of it to get a better understanding of how things opperate, chances are one or more of that army of NPCs will end up in a campaign and it means less work for you in the long run.
Or you could have your friends do a Battle Royale to help you get the flow of battle using your newly created NPCs as tutors. Have a 1 on 1 Kumite, a 3 on 3 team match, or just let them tear each other apart in a free for all. Sure, they'll probably want to make characters of their own, but from the sounds of it, a few practice rounds for everyone could really help out.

The more you play and get used to it, the easier it will be to utilize.
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[Ma121_Hunter]

I'd say you're all right actually.

I apologize again, to all of you and especially you Frankto. It was really
late the night I posted this, I was frustrated over creating another char
and I reacted immaturely by posting a complaint here with no real
evidence to back up the "problems" that I presented to you all.

It's like Dokuga Kazu said, it's nothing that can't be fixed with a little
exposure. I should have did some more lurking in the forums before
I even posted this. I'll be looking into the stat block generator and
the character creator, I'm sure they'll be infinitely helpful.

Again I'm terribly sorry about this.