Alternative magical ritual thoughts

[Whitewings]

I'm thinking of implementing this in a setting under development, but I'm not sure what the effects might be.

Magical rituals under standard rules have four classes: Song and Dance, Word and Sign, Word or Sign, and None. My thought is first, to add a new level, Production Number, which multiplies normal casting time by twenty. Second, by "stepping back" the ritual, the mage can reduce energy cost by 1 per level of "stepping back." At the extreme, going from None to Production Number would reduce cost by 4.

This is obviously just in the first stages of development and consideration. Some effects are obvious, such as spell casting becoming generally more flamboyant and much easier when time's not a concern.

[dataweaver]

You might want to look at how this fits with Ceremonial Magic, as that's what's usually employed when you have plenty of time.

[Whitewings]

Well, one big difference is that this doesn't require or even allow outside contributors (other than a Powerstone), or affect effective skill.

[dataweaver]

Fair enough. I'm just pointing out that Ceremonial Magic provides a benchmark that you should compare your own rule to. (Note that there's a minor variant of Ceremonial Magic that uses the same numbers but works off of a solitary caster.)

[Whitewings]

Where was it printed?

[dataweaver]

Thaumatology, I think. Yeah; page 28 gives a +10% Enhancement that lets you perform Ceremonial Magic by yourself.

[Whitewings]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Thaumatology, I think. Yeah; page 28 gives a +10% Enhancement that lets you perform Ceremonial Magic by yourself.

I can't help wondering how much benefit that gives. You're less likely to fail if interrupted, which is very niche, and can boost your effective skill by spending a lot of energy, which I doubt is going to matter in actual play more that very rarely, given that spells are skills and skills used under low-stress conditions usually get +4, if the GM even requires a roll. See B171, column 2.