[DF12] Where is the nunchaku?

[Onkl]

Hey all

In DF12, on page 7 under the Weapon Master advantage, the nunchaku is mentioned as a ninja weapon yet the template misses the flail skill which - as far as I can remember - should be the correct skill to use when wielding a nunchaku?

So, what gives? Why was the nunchaku overlooked in the template... or did I just miss it?

Cheers

Onkl

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Onkl

So, what gives? Why was the nunchaku overlooked in the template... or did I just miss it?

It's not there. The template doesn't give every possible weapon skill, just most of them. Flail isn't listed, but it could have been. Just add it in, with the same points/difficulty/level as Kusari.

The weapon itself is in BASIC SET.

[Stone Dog]

There is also that the DF Ninja is primarily an assassin, right? While you CAN kill somebody stealthily by whacking them in the head with a bit of wood on a chain, it isn't the best way to do it.

[Onkl]

Ok, thanks a lot for your explanations...

For me, the nunchaku is the iconic ninja weapon and I was a bit baffled that it is not mentioned anywhere in the template.

But you are right of course, I could add it myself and there are a lot deadlier weapons around...

Onkl

[Flyndaran]

Really? I always thought of the hidden tanto as the definitive ninja weapon and nunchaku as the peasant or monk weapon.

[Gurps Fan]

Ditto. As a native denizen of the country of ninja, samurai and magical girls, I'd nominate shuriken for the iconic ninja weapon. Nunchakus are mainly for martial artists.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Onkl

Ok, thanks a lot for your explanations...

Not a problem. It didn't get excluded for any special reason, I just never added "flail" to the template and no one who saw the draft ever commented on adding it. It's not like it isn't a classic 80's ninja craze weapon (and yes, I lived through that). I'm all for nunchaku-armed ninja here if they make your game more fun. Go for it.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Really? I always thought of the hidden tanto as the definitive ninja weapon and nunchaku as the peasant or monk weapon.

In reality, there isn't any compelling evidence that there ever was such a thing as the 'Ninja'. Their historical existence is less attested than many explicitly fictional creations of later periods.

The ninja of popular culture have nothing to do with historical Japan. Consequently, an Okinawan peasant weapon is strongly identified with ninjas, not because anyone in real history calling himself a ninja would have wielded one, but because ninjas in 80s movies did.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Icelander

In reality, there isn't any compelling evidence that there ever was such a thing as the 'Ninja'.

This isn't true. There's quite a lot of documentation that during a portion of Japanese history certain Samurai were trained organized, and employed specifically for intelligence (in all three scales of war), counterintelligence and wet work. I'm sure that Peter can more easily site sources than I can to support this; if he doesn't, I'll see what I can find.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

This isn't true. There's quite a lot of documentation that during a portion of Japanese history certain Samurai were trained organized, and employed specifically for intelligence (in all three scales of war), counterintelligence and wet work. I'm sure that Peter can more easily site sources than I can to support this; if he doesn't, I'll see what I can find.

That's not the same thing.

In reality, probably all human cultures with complicated social rules and struggle for position (i.e. most everyone) had spies and assassins. But that doesn't mean that there were ever secretive clans in the mountains answering the title of 'ninja' who made their living from nothing else than spying and assassinations comissions and trained their family members from birth in these things.

Understand, there's no proof that there weren't. But most of the received wisdom about 'ninja' comes from a single source that is not necessarily credible.