The Koga will answer this age old question once and for all right here in off-topic! XP
Here's rally a score board and keep track, and see who wins.. vote which you pefer and why..
Ninja:
Pirates:
Pirates: Johnny Depp and Errol Flynn never used shuriken.
Ninja: 'Cause they work alone, and I do NOT like depending on others to cooperate toward a common goal...especially when they enjoy becoming incapacitated on a regular basis!
I of course prefer ninja pirates. But what do I know
Obviously you know nothing! Ninjas and pirates are universal Geek constants. They are the matter and anti-matter of the universe (much like guns, swords, babes, and robots are the quarks of the universe). You cannot bring both pirates and ninjas into contact with one another, lest the universe itself be undone!
Truly, it is the Age of Worms! ;)
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lest the universe itself be undoneMmmmm.... Sounds good! What about pirate ninjas? Are they OK?
Only if they were bishounen cowboy pirate ninjas! The cowboy cancels out the adverse reaction of the pirate-ninja molecular reaction. =)
Ninja's! my kung fu is greater than your silly sword dance
Pirates
lol, so far that's
Pirates: 4
Ninja: 2.
Aint counting abomonations like pirate-ninja, Final Fantasy is a perfect example of what happens when you try to play God.
Pirate-Ninja=Yuffie. *shudder*
Guns+Sword=Crappy, emo, Squall.
Heck, if you saw Underworld it's like that! Pirates=lycan, Vampires=Ninja. And then that super-freak hyrbid was formed. (The Koga only let it slide because that hot vamp chick willed it.)
To start their career, Ninjas have to find a master, tote endless buckets of water, stick their hands in hot coals and get branded with the sigil of the clan.
Pirates are given a cutlass and a belaying pin and shoved into a melee..."Git in there and mix it up!"
As they progress in the 'life', pirates gain small amounts of booty that they skim off the top before kicking the spoils up to the captain, drink lots n lots of grog and rum, and generally spend a lot of time pillaging and raping...but they mostly smell bad.
Ninjas hardly ever seem to have cash money, but they always have the latest styles in equipment; sword canes, exploding smoke eggs, poison dart blowguns, and ninja-tos.
And while pirates can recieve the black spot on a page of the 'good book', ninjas get sepuku, ritual cutting of fingers, and beheadings.
Sooooo, even though thousands of 4-8 year olds would choose the same, I have to go with ninjas. Unless I also have to be a mutant and a teenager and a turtle.
Ninja:
Ninjas would beat pirates in a fight. If the pirate won, he was a ninja in a convincing disguise.
Pirates get all the booty and wenches, while ninjas have to spend all day training hard.
I'll say "ninja".
Ninja. Pirates have little to no honor and loyalty to there captain only until they think they no longer need him/her. Ninja's are versatile and can lead a normal life along side the on they live in the shadows, while a pirate cannot due to being recognizable. That and while pirates think there all that 'cause they have a blade to your throat, ninjas would sooner kill you, or incapacitate you at least, rather than threaten you for your last bit o' cash.
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Vote me up for pirate.
Pirates have infinitely more character and roleplaying range.
The ninja just kills people at night in their sleep and gets away. How dross.
From a roleplaying perspective, to play real ninja style is the ultimate in railroading. You get contract after contract until you get whacked. I don't see how a real ninja is supposed to fit into a standard character party. It's just a pain.
Pirates, however, can do whatever the heck they want most of the time. Freedom!!!
Vote me up for pirate.
Pirates have infinitely more character and roleplaying range.
The ninja just kills people at night in their sleep and gets away. How dross.
From a roleplaying perspective, to play real ninja style is the ultimate in railroading. You get contract after contract until you get whacked. I don't see how a real ninja is supposed to fit into a standard character party. It's just a pain.
Pirates, however, can do whatever the heck they want most of the time. Freedom!!!
I found the Reply button!! Anyways, I am insulted with your assumption on ninja. Not all ninja are like that. Believe it or not I practise ninjutsu and the arts of stealth and invisibility. Pirates are the ultimate railroading class. they never do anything different!! There is no versitility with pirates and they are easily recognizable wich makes a wanted pirate hard to play in a big city where the guard could care less what his reputation is. You just bluntly put the game in a bad view. Think about it: All PCs do is go around doing stuff for people until they are killed. Actual ninja only go for so long before stopping and training others.
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Pirates get all the wenches they want, all the grog they want, and act any darn way they want.
Ninjas (I'm not talking about modern ninjutsu students. I'm talking about the hidden assassins of feudal Japan.) do the bidding of their masters until they die. I'm an old fart, and frankly that's a little too similar to what I do for comfort. If I am going for escapism I want high seas, sails furling in the wind, cannon fire, treasure maps, and savage jungle islands. I don't want ninja missions. Climb a wall, sneak in and assassinate the daimyo's third cousin, run away from 50 retainers...Pirates for me symbolize freedom; ninjas symbolize toiling away for uncaring masters.
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I found the Reply button!! Anyways, I am insulted with your assumption on ninja. Not all ninja are like that. Believe it or not I practise ninjutsu and the arts of stealth and invisibility. Pirates are the ultimate railroading class. they never do anything different!! There is no versitility with pirates and they are easily recognizable wich makes a wanted pirate hard to play in a big city where the guard could care less what his reputation is. You just bluntly put the game in a bad view. Think about it: All PCs do is go around doing stuff for people until they are killed. Actual ninja only go for so long before stopping and training others.
You may study the combat arts of ninjutsu but you are not training as a ninja. Ninja were hired assassins. Thats it. No morals, no scruples, if they failed in an assignment they were expected to ritually kill themselves to atone for the failure. They were some more powerful warlord's trained dogs. They followed orders, had no sense of self and were relagated to a position of servitude. Their lives were meaning less expect that they were supposed to kill who they were told to, when they were told to. That is the ultimate railroading class. "I kill stealthily." Thats it. Sure the ninja movies always paint a pretty portrait but the reality is they were stripped of any sense of self through brutal, punishing training, and taught how to obey commands and kill without any thought of morality. They certainly could kill in varied and extremely cool ways, but they were trained to have no self-value, individuality or any self-worth. Cool. Like I stated, you may train in the fighting style of Ninjutsu but you are not trained AS a ninja was trained.
FH
Pirates; get to go drinking, wenching; and sing bawdy songs; you just can't beat that for escapism or a role playing genre; and you get to swagger, wear numerous cool outfits; and make landlubbers walk the plank to search for treasure in Davy Jones' Locker; argh, yo ho ho and bottle of rum (Barcardi Superior) lamo ninjas have nothing to compare; same boring outfit; inferior ordinance and weapons; no girls; yuck - sake and you have nobody to tell tall tales of regalia to because your so secretive; pirate brotherhood for me; Tortuga, have at yea.
Sheesh, some ninja stole my post :( Pirates, think about this; how much impact did ninjas have; nobody knows hehe; but how many famous pirates can you name; the terror of the Spanish Maine; Privateers and Buccaneers; a pirate can do anything a ninja can do; probably better with less psychotic training; and still party all night and tell it as a tall tale. Lol I was taught Kung Fu by the stunt doubles for ehem; mutant ninja turtles. Ninjas want to be unseen; Pirates like to be seen; heck they have better outfits anyhow and better ordinance, Pirate symbology is to strike fear into their prey to cower the victim into not fighting. Vote Pirate. hehe; saw my previous post just pop up; sheesh took 9 mins.
Hmm...I play a pirate on a Japanese junk ship in the SCA. I guess that makes me a ninja-pirate? Or something? :-P
If I had to choose just one, it would have to be pirate. The sea, rum, pieces of eight, treasure maps, letters of marque - what's not to like.
Oh, that's right, other countries don't lilke you too much for preying on their vessels...
(FWIW, Offworld Designs has a "Yin-Yarr" t-shirt that covers this very argument. :-D)
http://www.ninjapirate.com/battle.html
http://piratesversusninjas.net/
Despite the fact that the Ninja developed from highly specialized Samurai (originally), it wasn't long before they were considered worth about as much as a horse. However there is a cool factor to ninjas silent arts that I think a pirate just cannot compete with. Ninjas are not 100% Assassins although they do excel at it they can be given marks to kill, threaten, maim or steel from very much like a rogue/thief. But the best reason I vote for ninja is the rogue ninja the one running from his entire clan or society who gets no clan assignments and his only hope is to get as far away as possible or become powerful enough to take over. Maybe his identity was discovered or the Daimyo decided the ninja clan his family has been using for a century is to big a risk and they dispatch assassins to wipe out the whole clan.
Pirates. Like others have said - it's all about attitude. Striking fear in your victims is cooler, IMO, than the victim never knowing what hit him.
It's also about individualism, flamboyant expression of self. For the most part a ninja is a ninja is a ninja (chicken pieces parts is parts and parts). Sure the same can be said about low level pirates but for the most part - though they share the same motivations/goals, you never meet the same pirate twice. And the evilness of pirates is kinda downplayed by their campiness, which is much more fun to play than dark silent and deadly.
However there is a cool factor to ninjas silent arts that I think a pirate just cannot compete with.
Are you kidding; pirates skulk, lurk, and do the move silent hide in shadows thing all the time; sometimes as large groups; in movies it is not as overplayed fantasically as ninja movies; but they are definately skilled in silent arts; especially noted in movies and books while taking a city gate; sneakily busting comrades out of prison; and disquise; why Long John Silver was in disquise as a cook for most of Treasure Island. I maintain that the big difference is the booze; women; singing; storytelling; and wealth which kudos all go to Pirates. Privateers are just like pirates; but they have a commission from the crown to despoil non crown shipping and such a pirate with a badge :)
ever play Talisman? The pirate and the space pirate both rock over the ninja imho
A handfull of Ninja could keelhaul a boatload of Pirates, none the less Pirates are cooler in every sense of the word. "Yo ho, Yo ho a Pirates life for me!"
How many Ninjas chill in the carribean? 'nuff said.
Pirate.
The whole Ninja metaphor has been bastardized by Western culture, dragged through the mud of geek-imitation and now lives a half-life in imitation of itself in its waning years, a la Elvis. Actual Ninja weren't exactly commonplace, either; they're more numerous in pop media than in history books.
Pirates have also, become cliched, but their image has actually grown quite stylish since "Pirates of the Carribean" was released; a swashbuckling life in the Carribean has a lot more common appeal, no doubt.
Of course, people aren't taking into account the mortality rate of Pirates, nor the fact that they were criminals (to one crown or the other) and subject to execution if caught by the wrong authorities.
We all know that head to head, a few Ninja would wipe out a shipfull of Pirates, but I'll still prefer romantic era rebellious scum over a debased fantasy warrior any day.
M
I think you guys are gravely mistaken that Pirates can't fight and would automatically lose to a ninja. Pirates were expert and cheating and underhanded vile fighting techniques. They too had many specialized weapons and some were very good swordsmen. It is a fact that European swordsmen seemingly bested the best of the Japanese swordsmen in Japan which directly caused the Samauri to adopt a two bladed fighting style much like the Europeans flourentine style; keep in mind of course that Samauri are at heart Archers.
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I of course prefer ninja pirates. But what do I know?
PS: Bonus points for waffle donkeys!!
But Gary...Donkey died! They done put her in the @ss hole.
Avast ye, Gavgoyle be on record as favorin' th' piratical life. Be it Erol Flynn or Muppets Treasure Island or even the Jolly Garagers (Austin's premier pirate band), the way of the seadog is th' only life fer me, says I. Savvy?
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Obviously you know nothing! Ninjas and pirates are universal Geek constants. They are the matter and anti-matter of the universe (much like guns, swords, babes, and robots are the quarks of the universe). You cannot bring both pirates and ninjas into contact with one another, lest the universe itself be undone!
Gary knows that Myconid ninja pirates are the exception that proves the rule.
Don't remember reading about any Ninjas in "Treasure Island," so the answer must be ....
Pirates!
I feel the need to make a comment for those who despair of a ninja's roleplaying potential due to their stealth and secrecy. Japan, even more than most cultures, seems to have developed an intense pressure on its individuals to conform and perform as a tiny part of their society. Which is why human nature is even more dramatic in such circumstance. Take the ninja for example; they may have been trained to lack personality, to exist only for their profession and to kill themselves after failing. But let's be realistic. No matter how brainwashed a person is, human nature always surfaces somewhere even if it does not directly confront brainwashing. For example, I'm certain that every ninja had some way of relieving the stress of their profession like womanizing, drinking, you get the idea. I am also sure that every once in a while, a ninja did directly question their training and turn against their masters. Ever read or seen the recent story Memoirs of a Geisha? "A geisha's place is not to want"; this is true of ninjas also and what a helluva story it made! As to committing suicide after failing in a mission, it is ridiculous to think that this happened regularly. This idea is on par with the misconception that slaveowners regularly beat the crap out of their slaves. Why would a slaveowner or daimyo encourage the damage or destruction of their property/servants? Surely after a grave mistake such as attacking one's master or being identified after a failed assassination attempt might result in the offender's death. But do you really think a daimyo would encourage his ninja to kill himself because the enemy daimyo is resistant to the poison that the ninja slipped him?
TS
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Well, according to Comedity, Pirate beats Cowboy, Cowboy beats Ninja, and Ninja beats Pirate.
So the real reason, I think, that there can be no such thing as a Ninja-Pirate is that his nemesis would, by necessity, be a Cowboy-Ninja, which is the sort of villain that nobody could possibly take seriously.
On a slightly more serious note (but only slightly), I prefer Ninja over Pirates myself... but that's mostly because I personally prefer efficiency over drama. That, and I can hold a casual conversation in a public place without risking the wrath of the CR 17 Horde of Depp Fangirls.
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I feel the need to make a comment for those who despair of a ninja's roleplaying potential due to their stealth and secrecy. Japan, even more than most cultures, seems to have developed an intense pressure on its individuals to conform and perform as a tiny part of their society. Which is why human nature is even more dramatic in such circumstance. Take the ninja for example; they may have been trained to lack personality, to exist only for their profession and to kill themselves after failing. But let's be realistic. No matter how brainwashed a person is, human nature always surfaces somewhere even if it does not directly confront brainwashing. For example, I'm certain that every ninja had some way of relieving the stress of their profession like womanizing, drinking, you get the idea. I am also sure that every once in a while, a ninja did directly question their training and turn against their masters. Ever read or seen the recent story Memoirs of a Geisha? "A geisha's place is not to want"; this is true of ninjas also and what a helluva story it made! As to committing suicide after failing in a mission, it is ridiculous to think that this happened regularly. This idea is on par with the misconception that slaveowners regularly beat the crap out of their slaves. Why would a slaveowner or daimyo encourage the damage or destruction of their property/servants? Surely after a grave mistake such as attacking one's master or being identified after a failed assassination attempt might result in the offender's death. But do you really think a daimyo would encourage his ninja to kill himself because the enemy daimyo is resistant to the poison that the ninja slipped him?
TS
Kamikaze pilots gave their lives quite frequently for their beliefs. If a ninja failed to do the "honorable" thing they were hunted relentlessly by their peers and killed in horrible ways. It was less painful to take ones own life. It is hard for us westerners to understand the eastern philosophy of duty and honor. The Japanese culture has an intensity level that is almost unheard of in western society. They tend to work hours that would cause most westerners to cring. Statistically they have higher achievement rating in business, school, and personal ventures. It's like a Floridian trying to understand why someone would want to live in a cold environment. It's not something that is easily grasped unless experience first hand or through some dedicated study of the situation. I have read up extensively on the asian cultures in general and most of the stories that I read that were based in fact showed that the level of intensity displayed by the ninja, samurai, and other varied oriental groups was extreme and usually followed a set of traditions passed down for generations.
As a side note, Samurai warriors usually had male sex partners which was not considered "gay" or strange. Male comeraderie was treasured in the Samurai lifestyle as a way to bond with other samurai. They also practiced the art form of flower arrangement. Their wives were usually trained as dangerous warriors in their own right also.Just a bit that I have culled from studying the varied societies of that portion of the world.
FH
Gaar! Time for some thread necromancy, me hearties!
Is this really even a question?
Ninjas get little metal star, hid in the dark and kill thing with stealth.
Pirates get a nifty ship, Rum and Wenches and kill things with cannon fire.
Let me restate "Rum and wenches"
That is all.
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I of course prefer ninja pirates. But what do I knowObviously you know nothing! Ninjas and pirates are universal Geek constants. They are the matter and anti-matter of the universe (much like guns, swords, babes, and robots are the quarks of the universe). You cannot bring both pirates and ninjas into contact with one another, lest the universe itself be undone!
Truly, it is the Age of Worms! ;)
So sort of like WD-40 and Duck tape?
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I never saw this thread before and thus I felt it necessary to state if no one knew this already. Pirates rule ninjas ...well they hide and stuff whatever.
I have pistols and cutlasses and a ship and I drink rum and I have wenches and all that stuff, plus I get to hang out on a cool ship on the ocean. I can stop off at nay beach I want hang out and when I need something I can raid a another ship and take it. I answer to no one since I am both a captain of my ship and well an Orc God (in case you did not know).
So +1 for pirates.
Ninjas have shuriken, pirates have scurvy. Done.
*Smoke-bomb!*