Editing Ninja (section)

==Legend of the Five Rings==
[[File:Ninja Legend of the Scorpion Clan.webp|left|thumb|Also it's own boardgame.]]
[[Legend of the Five Rings]] is mostly about samurai shenanigans, but ninjas both exist and are potential sources of PCs .  Only two of the Clans in Rokugan have ninja on the payroll (well, technically, only the Spider have ''ninja'', the Scorpion are very insistent that they have ''shinobi'' -- the two are written the same, but differ in how you pronounce the characters).  Ninja are theoretically regarded as somewhat mythical: actively talking about ninja like they exist in a court setting will lose you honor and result in lots of scorn and ridicule from the stuffed-shirt courtiers.  In practice, most samurai do know they're real, so don't hesitate to tell people you trust in more-private and less-open settings when there's an assassin on the move.

Scorpion shinobi are, hilariously, probably the most level-headed and moral people in their crazy clan of manipulative assholes and anti-heroes.  They actually start out running the Gauntlet, a series of tests that involve dressing like a "traditional" black-pajamas ninja and essentially running interference, attracting lots of attention while the ''actual'' ninja that's probably been posing as a manservant or courtesan for months does the necessary sabotage/wetwork/spycraft/etc.  Those who survive get to learn to be REAL operatives.

The ninja of the corrupted Spider Clan are... less theoretically-benign.  They're ordinary people who have traded away bits and pieces of themselves to the Shadow Dragon, a manifestation of the Lying Darkness whose malign power seeks to consume the world.  They're probably better at outright assassination than Scorpion shinobi, since their powers are practically supernatural instead of just realistically good, but they often have very little personality or initiative of their own.  It makes them good at not being noticed, or at pretending to be other people, but when the mask slips, they won't have the skills to talk their way out.  Scorpion ninja can be good at lots of things, but most Spider ninja know only how to kill and steal.

In 4th Edition, the "Ninja" school tag was used for one advanced school in the Crane: the Daidoji Harriers.  The Harriers were an extension of the Daidoji Scouts, though strictly speaking ANY member of the Daidoji family could become a Harrier (including even shugenja since it only has the Ninja tag).  The Harriers were primarily saboteurs, and were infamous for their use of gunpowder ("gaijin peppler"); their use of the forbidden substance led to them becoming so secretive that even the rest of their clan didn't even know they were acting on their behalf.  However, they were disbanded when the Dragon Clan proved to the Crane champion that the Harriers existed and were using the forbidden powder (which had prompted an otherwise-unexplained Dragon attack on the Crane).  In addition, there is a possibly-apocryphal tale of a vassal family of saboteurs in the Phoenix Clan, the Sesai; they get an alternate path with the Ninja tag, but they were never part of the core plot and were added in during the d20/2nd Edition era in Way of the Ninja.  As such, they may or may not be part of your game world.