I plan to run a game in the setting of the Naruto anime show and manga
series. The PCs would start out as a team of Genin (apprentice ninja)
in a new hidden ninja village, and have the potential of influencing
that new village's future, and the country and countries around it,
for better or worse. I also wanted to give them the opportunity to
advance in rank and skill; in Naruto, an average Genin's skill is
nothing compared to an average Chuunin (journeyman) or Jounin (elite)
ninja.

I'll be using the Naruto Wushu rules I wrote for the Wiki (
http://wiki.saberpunk.net/pm2/pmwiki.php?n=Wushu.NarutoWushu ).
Advancement as written is a simple matter of gaining a couple points
every adventure or so, and distributing those to increase die caps and
Traits (or buy new Traits). It kinda goes against the advice I've
heard considering advancement in Wushu, but I thought the combination
of varying die caps and more limited Traits would play to Wushu's
advantages while still having characters of vastly different skill,
and the potential to advance that skill.

--- In wushurpg@..., "reverendbayn" <dan@b...> wrote:
> I've always found that the key to running long term games
> is to get he players to invest in changing the setting, rather
> than their character sheets. Give them a personal empire to
> carve out and defend, a criminal enterprise to build (and
> defend), a ship to keep flyin', rivals to show up, villains to
> vanquish, and so forth. Something that's bigger and more
> personally important than just a mission or a tavern job.
>
> Most games already feature these things and there's no
> reason they can't be the focus of "advancement."
>
> If you'd like more specific suggestions, tell us a little more
> about your game :)
>
> L8r, --Dan