What is a Ninja?

[OgreBattle]

other than a miserable pile of secrets

A minigame I play with any appropriate game system, I try to make a ninja. Sometimes it's a psychic, sometimes it's a cyborg, sometimes a magic user, sometimes a sneaky guy in black.

What makes a Ninja a Ninja for you? As an NPC, monster, or PC. I'm not so much interested in "well historically they are X but Y", I'd just like to know your personal favorites out of that bunch, and in what game systems if possible.
Do you NEED to see 'Ninja' in the ____ next to 'class' to feel like a Ninja, or do you Frankenstein something together?

My favorite sort is the 'Mystic Ninja', somebody who sneaks and stabs and uses magic(ninjutsu). It can be as subtle as hypnosis or as flashy as launching a huge fireball. Shadow images are a must, and super swift movement/teleportation that leaves a log to take the hit is class defining. If I can't do that, then I'm just a reflavored Rogue (which still works, but it's lower case 'n' ninja).

So, what separates Ninja from 'reflavored rogue'? Or are you totally fine with that?

[echoVanguard]

other than a miserable pile of secrets

drat!

echo

[Desdan_Mervolam]

A glass-cannon melee character centered around stealth and using stealth to deliver large chunks of damage in one swing.

[Maxus]

...With a bent on mysticism and supernatural tricks in popular imagination.

In real life, a ninja was more likely the guy who looked perfectly allright and normal and peasanty until he stopped using his sledgehammer to drive a post and instead knocked your head out your ass.

This was deemed extremely dishonorable. Because of the whole 'blindside attack' and 'they could be ANYWHERE dammit!' nature of their operation.

--------------
As an aside, whatever its inanities, I did like the explanation of Naruto's ninja thing. "A bunch of people with the ability to utilize the setting's flavor of magic who all have wildly different tricks and specialties, available for hire."

[CatharzGodfoot]

A ninja is someone in black pajamas and a ski mask.

[Josh_Kablack]

1. Japanese assassins who use stealth, martial arts, unusual weapons and secret skills (which can be either magic or just propaganda) to kill their victims and advance their clan's agendas

2. Speed and/or trickery based characters in arcade fighting games. Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Vega, Taki, etc.

3. An internet meme as the archrival of Pirates. ( Which means the St Louis Cardinals )

4. As an RPG character, generally any focused primarily on stealth and quick takedowns from stealth and secondarily on oddball utility. Especially if the character borrows flavor from any of the preceding definitions.

My recent favorite take on this has been the shapeshifting martial artist - which is broad enough to encompass such diverse characters as the X-men's Mystique (movie version), Mortal Kombat's Shang Tsung or the T-1000.

[Seerow]

They flip out and kill people. And fly. I'm pretty sure there's something about swallowing Frisbees too.

[Damocles]

Ogre Battle 64 is my favorite game ever.

Anyways, they're disposable, effective, efficient, and silent killers, whether it be with a blade or with words. Ninja will use literally anything to get the job done and done well. They tend to be emotionally hardened and, as seerow has said, swallow frisbees whole.


That is a ninja.

[PoliteNewb]

This

[Desdan_Mervolam]

I'm willing to accept a mystical/magical facet to ninjadom, but I don't consider it essental.

[Maxus]

I'm willing to accept a mystical/magical facet to ninjadom, but I don't consider it essental.

Well, feats of stealth and, to a lesser extent, speed and agility which look magical, made possible by intense and constant training and practice.

I once had a tongue-in-cheek idea based off the 'constant practice and training', with there being a group of monks and a group of ninjas which had once been the same order but had a schism. Now they maintain a rivalry and glare at each other, which isn't hard since the ninjas built their ninja fortress on the next peak over. Much like the crimelords in Lucky Number Slevin.

[Chamomile]

To me, a ninja is mostly just someone who sneaks around and kills people with weird weapons. Magic stuff optional. Differenty-flavored rogue works pretty well. Tome assassin works better.

[tzor]

Eastern style assassin / secret agent type character. Is that sort of generic enough? The oriental version of James Bond, only without the booze, gambling and women.

[BearsAreBrown]

Naruto popularized the idea that ninjas are fast wizards in insane costumes. I'm okay with this.

[Mask_De_H]

Naruto popularized the idea that ninjas are fast wizards in insane costumes. I'm okay with this.

God, that makes me feel old, because Ninja Scroll and Final Fantasy 3/6 did this for me but with more blood, tits, and animal companions.

To me, a ninja is the catch-all Western RPG term for Sohei, and ascetic monks that D&D Monks don't get to be, as well as Japanese flavored Druids/Rangers (the Legend of Jiraya and his Giant Frog Toad) and sometimes Onmyoji (Final Fantasy/Naruto ninjas with their elemental magics and such). A lot of the OA silliness gets folded into a Ninja class/idea, and I'm okay with that.

Basically, tricksters that use (innate) magic, deceit, and killing fools for the sake of a mission, instead of for themselves like Rogues.

Also, they flip out and are totally sweet all the time. This is non-negotiable.

[darkmaster]

I personally think rurouni kenshin when I think Ninjas. Ninjas are trained killers with awesome tricks (e.g. vertical stripes on their arms, and bags of oil in their guts).

[TheFlatline]

...With a bent on mysticism and supernatural tricks in popular imagination.

In real life, a ninja was more likely the guy who looked perfectly allright and normal and peasanty until he stopped using his sledgehammer to drive a post and instead knocked your head out your ass.

This was deemed extremely dishonorable. Because of the whole 'blindside attack' and 'they could be ANYWHERE dammit!' nature of their operation.

Pretty much this. And the prevalence of ninja historically is somewhat debated.

[angelfromanotherpin]

A ninja is a spy. Like all spies, they sometimes have magical spy powers attributed to them, and in a fantasy setting they might actually have those powers. But the defining characteristic of a ninja to me is a person who does covert operations.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

...With a bent on mysticism and supernatural tricks in popular imagination.

In real life, a ninja was more likely the guy who looked perfectly allright and normal and peasanty until he stopped using his sledgehammer to drive a post and instead knocked your head out your ass.

This was deemed extremely dishonorable. Because of the whole 'blindside attack' and 'they could be ANYWHERE dammit!' nature of their operation.

Pretty much this. And the prevalence of ninja historically is somewhat debated.

It wasn't considered "dishonorable", because honor wasn't invented in Japan until the Tokugawa shogunate when he demanded all samurai turn in their swords and become bureaucrats.

A ninja was just a samurai skilled in black-ops. It wasn't considered dishonorable (the Hatori family were ninjas openly and were well-respected), it was just considered specialized.

In my world, some ninjas are rogues, some are scouts and rangers, some are barbarians, and some are beguilers. Basically, anyone can be a ninja if they were awesome and/or sweet enough.

[Whatever]

Wikipedia has a pretty good summary:

A ninja (忍者?) or shinobi (忍び?) was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations.[1] The ninja, using covert methods of waging war, were contrasted with the samurai, who had strict rules about honor and combat.[2]

The shinobi proper, as a specially trained group of spies and mercenaries, appear in the Sengoku or "warring states" period, in the 15th century,[3] but antecedents may have existed in the 14th century,[4] and possibly even the 12th century (Heian or early Kamakura era).[5][6]

In the unrest of the Sengoku period (15th–17th centuries), mercenaries and spies for hire arose out of the Iga and Kōga regions of Japan, and it is from these clans that much of later knowledge regarding the ninja is inferred. Following the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (17th century), the ninja descended into obscurity, being replaced by the Oniwabanshū body of secret agents.[7]

A number of shinobi manuals, often centered around Chinese military philosophy, were written in the 17th and 18th centuries, most notably the Bansenshukai (1676).[8]

By the time of the Meiji Restoration (1868), the tradition of the shinobi had become a topic of popular imagination and mystery in Japan. Ninja figured prominently in folklore and legend, and as a result it is often difficult to separate historical fact from myth. Some legendary abilities include invisibility, walking on water, and control over natural elements. As a consequence, their perception in western popular culture in the 20th century was based more on such legend and folklore than on the historical spies of the Sengoku period.

[Aryxbez]

Well, feats of stealth and, to a lesser extent, speed and agility which look magical, made possible by intense and constant training and practice.

Hell yeah for that, supernatural stuff in general is always awesome, superhuman even. I dig a ninja as just as any awesome Rogue like character, doesn't use "ki"-magic or whatever necessarily, utiliizes magical items or its equivalent as needed, like smoke bombs.

Although, I did like "Ninja Assassin" main character, and he exhibited some abilities on the like, such as healing up his own wounds through meditation. Having flashy techniques, I'm all for in general, but that's mostly with attacks and the like, than "spells".

Not to mention they have to throw stuff for massive damage (like Excalibur at the final boss of FFIV..), otherwise I would slam down someone like this as my favorite "Ninja" if it counts.