Alright, so based on my experiences with other RPGs, both Naruto and not, all focused too much on stated gear and leveling, hindering player RP and interaction, because the players were all too preoccupied with trying to out level each other, instead of RP. My idea would be to remove levels, similar to Age of Wushu, and force players to explore new places to find new jutsu, weapons, and masters. Along with a chance of perma-death, players would be forced to squad up and never venture too far alone. To supplement the need for leveling, players could be given a skill point of some sort over x amount of time to purchase skill upgrades. These upgrades would be like a talent tree, where players could have a choice of specializing in Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, or Taijutsu. Additionally, you could specialize in Healing, Sensory, or Kenjutsu, but you could also obtain these through other means, in a respectively weaker version. I was also thinking about having players actually train themselves like target practice, using training dummies, or just using Taijutsu on logs, Rock Lee Style. By doing these training sessions, players would periodically gain skill levels on the particular skill they are working on. Ex: When one first gets a scroll on how to perform shuriken jutsu, their accuracy and efficiency will be considerably low, nearly ineffective, but as they train it on dummies, it will level up, and eventually, they will be able to hit their target nearly every time. Ranks would just have faster rates at obtaining such things,still allowing lower ranked players to be on the same players as higher ranked ones-sorta. ---------- Amen to that ^. And about the whole perma-death thing, just make it in safe zones that require a RP to kill those are perma-kills. And when your out in a Danger Zone a kill will only take you to the hospital. But there should be a rule in place to make it to where people cant just run from someone when there trying to RP kill them in a save zone, they'll have to respond accordingly and/or rp escaping.