[Yoritomo]

Skirmish System Skirmishes Overview While the Great Shinobi Wars are the conflicts of legend and receive the greatest amount of focus from much of the world, experienced shinobi understand that just as important, if not more so are the numerous skirmishes that occur across the world in any given year. While shinobi villages are relatively numerous throughout the world, there are still more countries that lack than then have them. It is often in these nations where small proxy wars of a sort play out with the shinobi villages of the world maneuvering to influence or at times control them. The reasons for this are many ranging from pure monetary gain, for strategic access to specialized resources or services, for the mere prestige that such influence gains or even just to prevent another from having their way. Whatever the reason, those who manage to come out on top of a skirmish rarely regret getting involved in the situation. While war is a relatively rare event, the skirmishes are extra shift at work of the world for shinobi. Something that everyone with the job has to deal with eventually. A Skirmish happening between villages revolves around multiple villages attempting to gain control or influence over a country that does not have its own shinobi village. A skirmish begins when a village attempts to take some active action against a nation and in doing so may attempt to reap some sort of reward (to be covered further down) in doing so. The initial aggressor may be countered by their rival village(s). Countering villages may try to deny the aggressor from accomplishing their goal or alternatively they may try to achieve the same goal before the initial aggressor. However, as it is generally much easier to work with the non-shinobi nation's forces; acting to just prevent the goal from being accomplished will be easier than attempting to accomplish the goal themselves. The attempt to "win" these skirmishes consists of three threads, with the three threads consisting of three missions that run concurrently. The first of these missions is the "Primary Objective" that revolves around the main goal they are going for. The other two missions consist of "Secondary Objectives" which will revolve around assisting the Primary Objective or may consist of some secondary goal that also relates to the improvement the aggressor village is hoping to gain from this skirmish. Potential Outcomes There are a few potential outcomes of any given skirmish. These outcomes depend on which sides win the Primary Objective and Secondary Objective missions as well as if the Opposing Village was attempting to just prevent the Aggressor Village from succeeding or if they were trying to complete the Primary Objective themselves first. The possible outcomes are as follows and keep in mind, that there can be more than one outcome at a time potentially.: Aggressor Succeeds For the aggressor to "win" the skirmish, they must complete both the Primary Objective as well as at least one of the Secondary Objective missions. Opposition Succeeds For the Opposition to "win" the skirmish, they must complete the Primary Objective Mission and both Secondary Objective missions. This is to account for the increase in difficulty given that the idea of a skirmish is the Opposing Village gather intel after the Aggressor has laid plans to pull off this job and the Opposition is rushing to counter it without the cooperation of the Non-Shinobi Nation involved. Opposition Defends For the Opposing Village to successfully deny the Aggressor Village a victory they must either complete the Primary Objective or must complete both Secondary Objectives. Aggressor Saves Face If the Aggressor completes at least one Secondary Objective, they manage to at least minimize the fallout from failing to successfully complete the skirmish. Opposition Saves Face If the Opposition completes at least one Secondary Objective, they manage to at least minimize the fallout from failing to defend the Non-Shinobi Nation. If they attempted to commandeer the Aggressor Village's plan, then their attempt still becomes publicly known, but the failure penalty lessens compared to a Catastrophe outcome. Catastrophe A very unlikely outcome, but possible none the less. If both the Aggressor Village and Opposition Village fail to complete any objectives it will lead to repercussions for both villages. This could be rating penalties or possibly needing to complete a separate compilation of missions to undue to the damage caused by so spectacularly failing the skirmish. Skirmish Requirements 1.) The posting requirements for most missions in a skirmish thread will be double the typical value for a normal mission of the same rank. This is partially to account for the majority of threads having twice the number of participants as well as to account for the greater impact skirmishes have on their villages. The only exception to this are "Secondary Objective" missions which are not directly countering the opposition's mission. These will instead have their post requirement increased by half. 2.) The mission that is considered the "Primary Objective" of the skirmish must be either A or S rank. Naturally the task should be something to warrant a ranking this high. 3.) The mission considered to be the "Primary Objective" must have random mission scenario enabled. 4.) The mission considered to be the "Primary Objective" must have at least three player characters participating from each side. 4.) Missions considered to be "Secondary Objectives" must be C rank or higher and typically should be a lower rank than the mission which is considered to be the "Primary Objective" of the skirmish. 5.) Missions considered to be "Secondary Objectives" will automatically become at least B rank if they will be in direct opposition to one another. 6.) Skirmishes must be signed off by the village ruler. In cases where a village lacks a ruler, staff may decide to green light the mission on their own. 7.) Skirmishes must be approved by two staff members (plus an additional staff if village leaders are missing) 8.) Teams for any of the three missions may not exceed four members for both sides. In total this means twelve shinobi for the aggressors and twelve for the defenders. This is in totality and regardless of how many villages may be participating on one side of the skirmish. 9.) In the event that one side of the skirmish has less participants than the other, then staff may agree to NPC Mods filling the gaps. 10.) To prevent NPC Mods from having to fight out an entire skirmish on their own, at least five player characters are required from each participating side. This is to ensure that the "Primary Objective" mission has the minimum three from each side with at least one player character being left over for each "Secondary Objective" mission. 11.) A village may only be participating in one skirmish at any given time. This is to give some reprieve to NPC Mods as well as Core Staff who will be reviewing these threads at their conclusion. Reward/Punishment Examples While skirmishes will always affect a village's rating to some degree, there will often be secondary rewards or punishments. These may extend to either those directly involved or potentially to any inhabitant of the participating village. Below are a couple examples of both punishments and rewards, but other such benefits or detriments could potentially occur. Punishments Reparation Missions In the event of a loss, a village may be required to complete a series of missions put in place by the staff. The nature of these missions may vary, but failure to complete the missions may lead to further loss of village rating as well as a potential event being initiated that will adversely affect the village and its inhabitants. Random Scenario Penalty After losing a skirmish it may be decided by staff that all missions being performed by villagers of the losing village(s) are automatically turned into random scenario missions and all random scenarios will be either directly or indirectly related to the lost skirmish. This might be mercenaries hired by the non-shinobi nation involved in the skirmish showing up to hunt shinobi, refugees from the non-shinobi nation or so on. The chance of a random scenario are much more likely to be a negative one. Rewards Unique Materials A successful skirmish may lead to a village gaining access to a rare material. These materials can vary, but could impart unique properties to items created from them or due to the fine quality provide an additional SA to the equipment. Participants in the Skirmish would automatically have access to this material, but non-participants may still gain access by completing required threads set in place by the staff. Typically this would be a thread traveling to the country providing the material and a thread in which they have the equipment commissioned and practiced with. Village rulers may impart other special requirements to make use of this material such as rank and/or positions among others. Unique Repeating Mission After successfully influencing or assuming some level of control over the non-shinobi nation, a unique mission may become available for the winning village(s) mission board. This mission would be repeatable and pay out additional xp for those who undertake it. An example of this would be body-guarding the daimyo of this non-shinobi nation or overseeing some project in the region.