When to homebrew and when to use the system?

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Naruto is an anime set in a very alternate world. It has ninja who live in isolated villages where they are apparently taught to leap before thy can walk.

Though these ninja frequently have superhuman physical and martial arts abilities there main source of power is their "chakra" an internal energy identical to what is called "chi" more often in other settings.

They use this chakra to power magical abilities that are called "jutsus". The main characters will know many jutsus and some of them are incredibly powerful.

The title character (Naruto) has as his signature ability "ShadowCloneJutsu!" (you have to shout out the name of your jutsu when you use it) which maps well to the Gurps Power of duplication. If Naruto exerts himself he can make dozens or even hundreds of shadowclones. Definitely a multi-thousand cp character.

Flexibility of Powers isn't really an issue so much as the power level/cp cost of characters in the setting. This is a very high level setting even for Supers.

That's one of the first things to not get caught up in. Focus on the effect, not the fluff.

If someone has what appears to be duplication but does not use the proper extent of what duplicates would provide then duplication might not be the right way to approach it.

For instance 'making thousands of clones' ;
Are they real, or just shadows (could be illusions)
Can they do seprate actions or are that all linked to a single action (could be extra arms with range, with the bodies being special effects)
Do they have noncombat uses (if no then a special effect on an innate attack may be applicable)
Is there some way to identify the 'real' pc (if so then duplication will likely not apply at all).

I would expect someone who can make thousands of course if themselves to be able to accomplish essentially any task, with just light carpentry skills they should be able to almost instantly erect massive structures and build bridges, read thousands of books simultaneously clean their house in seconds (or just build a new one when the existing one gets dirty). Via the grappkibg rules they should be unbeatable in combat against any foe they actually can damage or hold. If that's not this power I don't think it's duplication.