Aptitude Measurements in Seishin

Character Parameters

In Seishin, many of the characters' profiles contain Aptitude Measurements, which displays parameters of their mental power and skills. Scored from 1 to 5, they are calculated in three categories plus two miscellaneous traits.

Categories

Ninjutsu

Ninjutsu (忍術) represents the amount of knowledge and skill one has in the versatile ninja way. Ninjutsu is a mixture of martial arts, various warfare strategies such stealth and espionage/spying, guerilla, sabotage, and a pure way of viewing life. Ninjutsu also encompass a person’s skill in jujutsu, intelligence, manipulation, infiltration, nature technology and study, poison making, disguises, etc. It is connected with "heart" (see below) and needed for survival. Children are trained at an early age, learning the basics of self-defense and hiding themselves. Those who are well versed in ninjutsu are the majority of Jōnin and some of the Sōke (Family head master).

Knowledge

Knowledge (知力, chiryoku) measures overall mental capacity, and the amount of information or data that can be gathered and recalled to memory. It is important in scheming and political strategy. Chiryoku also means "intellect".

Battle Ability

Battle Ability (戦力, senryoku) is martial art capability, or battle potential in total. Because the ninja best trained in how to confuse and inhibit attacks, they are not built as a high-class military like the samurai army and cannot fight on par against their weapons and armor. They is also the danger of the samurai battling in swarms. However, there are exceptions to ninja committed to battle. Those of samurai and warrior monk (or Shugendo yamabushi) descent have high training in combat usually by default. Hanzo Hattori is an example of a person who served as a samurai. Training in martial arts also help when taking up disguises. Those of farmer or other classes must be drafted in by a teacher or family with such battle training.

Heart (Seishin)

Heart (精神, seishin) is the correct soul or will of a person, representing inner strength. It is attached to wisdom, loyalty, concentration, resolve, truthness (sincerity) to self, and may be a part of etiquette. This must become innate to make a strong person. Inspired by the Bansenshukai, which explains about the "correction of the heart", and mention that purity is important.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous shows the diverse nature of the characters and range from important to trivial. They could be strengths or weaknesses.