Ninja Burger: the RPG 2nd Edition

On one of my many birthdays I have received a gift from a martial artist. This gift (see what I did here, Chris?) consisted of two roleplaying books. One of which was Ninja Burger!

In Ninja Burger you take the roles of honourable employees of Ninja Burger. It is a fast food restaurant chain that caters to the ever increasing demand of high profile people who need food fast, in like 30 minutes or less. Your inability to deliver the order in the required time requires you to commit seppuku.

Ninja Burger uses the Prose Descriptive Qualities system, also known as PDQ. While most systems I'm used to use some kind of Attribute/Skill mechanic, PDQ approaches character creation quite differently. Instead of a set list of traits you get to make them up. So your ninja can have any trait you want, though they all start with Ninja [+0] and the appropriate profession: Chef, Deliverator, Driver, Navigator, Spotter and Dispatcher at [+2]. The numbers in brackets serve as the level of your capabilities within the field. It usually ranged between [-2] and [+6] this number is added to a 2d6 roll and compared to a target number to see if an action has been successful.

Out of all the roles mentioned above all but one are available to the players. The one role that is solely for the Game Master is the Dispatcher. Ninja Burger proposes this character to be treated like any other, with a personality and a role within the team. You should roll for the Dispatcher to look through the plans of the mansion the team is currently infiltrating and hacking the security systems while the rest is fighting off pirates. It reminds me of a GMPC in some way but due to the character not being physically present with the rest, there is very little chance for the Game Master to steal (even by accident) the spotlight from out of a player's nose.

The system is fairly easy to learn and doesn't take long to explain. The lack of a clear list of traits you could choose from can be a bit daunting to new players but sample "character sheets" are provided for each role. It should also be noted that the system does not use traditional health levels. Instead failure on a test (whether it be a simple task or combat) results in having to lower one of your traits by 2. These are called failure ranks and damage ranks, the only difference being when they go away.

The simplicity of the system is nice but for those who like something a little bit more complex, it provides you with a mechanic for Upshifts and Downshifts which allow you to get a positive or negative modifier to a roll. My favourite though is Ninja Magic. Nine special abilities which come in two variations. One for more or less realistic games (get a modifier on an action) and another for very cinematic games (walk on water).

Finally, I come to the advancement system.  Normally a game rewards players with a number of points that they can then spend on raising their character's capabilities. Instead of Experience Points that we are so used to, Ninja Burger uses a Honour Score. This number represents how honourable a ninja you are. The score is a guideline of how others will interact with you and you're allowed to spend the points to act in a dishonourable way but by doing so, you gain a bonus on your die roll. Between sessions, you are also allowed to spend Honour points to raise your traits. Thus you are given a choice of either being seen as a paragon of honour or get more numbers to add to your dice. I should also mention that if your Honour Score goes too low, you will commit seppuku out of shame.

That's all I can think of about the rules so let's move on.

The book itself is written in a very humoristic way and is laden with pop-culture references. It provides the Game Master with the setting of San Francisco, including a map of the city and information on various districts. Where the book really shines, however, is in the random table generators. It is full of them for anything from fleshing out your character to generating obstacles for the ninja crew and delivery ideas. It makes for an excellent aid if you're good at improvisation and just need to make a game on the spot.

Catching all the references to films is just an added bonus. The examples provided in the book gave me ideas on how to change some film plots into games by adding "feed the main character! while he is in danger and busy with other things!".

Finally at the end of it all we're give five (definitely not three) scenarios to play though. Fill Bill is possibly the longest and may very well be turned into a campaign depending on how much detail you're willing to add. Many are more action oriented, like Diet Hard or The Meatrix, but there's also one, Burger She Wrote,where killing everyone in sight is probably a bad idea. Which in turn shows you not every Ninja Burger game has to be the same old plot of fighting your way through to the customer.

I enjoyed reading through the book and it gave me a lot of laughs.
Thank you for the wonderful birthday gift!

Buy it Now on Amazon : Ninja Burger: The RPG 2nd Edition
Buy it Now on Amazon : Ninja Burger: The RPG 2nd Edition

Note: For those of you who don't know German, gift means poison...