The future of Ritual Path Magic

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by PK

Just to be clear: I meant, "We'll note that some of the regulars here were keen on the idea." In no way was I implying that said proposal would be especially likely to be accepted or approved. (Unfortunately, checking for preliminary support for a product via such a "show of hands" method has been proven to be a horrible way for us to get actual marketing data.)

I know that. :-) But it's still kind of cool to know that it'll also be noted.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by PK

Just to be clear: I meant, "We'll note that some of the regulars here were keen on the idea." In no way was I implying that said proposal would be especially likely to be accepted or approved. (Unfortunately, checking for preliminary support for a product via such a "show of hands" method has been proven to be a horrible way for us to get actual marketing data.)

I suspect that sales of the actual RPM book might be a better indicator..

[PK]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I suspect that sales of the actual RPM book might be a better indicator..

That is an excellent point. The real Powers That Be (e.g., our bosses) don't look at forum chatter when deciding whether to let a product go ahead -- they look at sales of related products (when possible). Thus, anyone who wants a theoretical "RPM Grimoire" to exist at some point in the future should spread the word as much as possible.

"But how?" you ask?

If you're on Facebook, you can share this status. (Don't just "Like" it, "Share" it!)

If you're on Twitter, you can retweet this announcement.

I don't Tumblr, Instagram, etc., so if anyone's posted a link to the e23 page (http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG37-1653) on one of those sites, let me know.

[Greg 1]

Terrific supplement! I've wanted something like this for a long time and I wasn't disappointed.

I hope to see further support. I would like:

A book of spell examples.

More advantages to allow wizards to specialize in particular effects.

Modifiers for non-Kabbalistic traditions.

Ritual Path magicians in DF.

[Refplace]

What I would like to see in future RPM supplements are the following.
1) A Grimoire and organized by Path as suggested up thread. Or even better organized alphabetically but with a chart by Path at the end.
2) Compatibility with other systems and using a mix in the game.
3) More Paths involving different concepts.
4) My main issue with it is that there is no real incentive to specialize and most casters will look too much the same. Just put 1 point into each Path and keep bumping up your IQ and Magery. So various ways to deal with that would be nice. The Higher Purpose was a nice start but really does not go far enough.

[PK]

Regarding specialization, one thing I've considered doing was writing up a series of 5-point Talents, each of which included two Paths and 3-4 other related skills. (Because a 5-point Talent that encompassed 4-6 Path skills would just be way too munchkiny.) Then include a way for said Talents to boost effective skill caps as well -- I have an idea on how to implement this in a fair way, but don't want to give it away just yet.

I just might do this as a Pyramid article. Thoughts?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by PK

Regarding specialization, one thing I've considered doing was writing up a series of 5-point Talents, each of which included two Paths and 3-4 other related skills. (Because a 5-point Talent that encompassed 4-6 Path skills would just be way too munchkiny.) Then include a way for said Talents to boost effective skill caps as well -- I have an idea on how to implement this in a fair way, but don't want to give it away just yet.

I just might do this as a Pyramid article. Thoughts?

Sounds good.
Talents are limited to 4 levels typically and it is a limit I like to stick with.
However a +1 to +4 can go a long way in RPM and it gives more variety and a different feel then Higher Purpose.
A Ranger talent for Body and Chance plus a few outdoors skills would cover most of the classic Ranger and they still can use other Paths if they want but would have a niche.
I like Niche design myself, even if not using Templates as players tend to gravitate that way if they can do it and not feel cheated.
It might be good to up the number of Conditional Rituals as well so as to remove the need to bump Thaumatology and Magery.

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by PK

Then include a way for said Talents to boost effective skill caps as well -- I have an idea on how to implement this in a fair way, but don't want to give it away just yet.

Talents normally include a Reaction bonus. Power-Ups 3 introduced the idea of alternate benefits, replacing the Reaction bonus with a unique bonus flavored by the particular Talent. Perhaps for Path Talents they could just include +1 cap for the covered skills? That's roughly equivalent to a Perk, and seems in line with the other benefits of Talents.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by PK

Regarding specialization, one thing I've considered doing was writing up a series of 5-point Talents, each of which included two Paths and 3-4 other related skills. (Because a 5-point Talent that encompassed 4-6 Path skills would just be way too munchkiny.) Then include a way for said Talents to boost effective skill caps as well -- I have an idea on how to implement this in a fair way, but don't want to give it away just yet.

I just might do this as a Pyramid article. Thoughts?

I could dig that.

[Mathulhu]

Originally Posted by PK

Regarding specialization, one thing I've considered doing was writing up a series of 5-point Talents, each of which included two Paths and 3-4 other related skills. (Because a 5-point Talent that encompassed 4-6 Path skills would just be way too munchkiny.) Then include a way for said Talents to boost effective skill caps as well -- I have an idea on how to implement this in a fair way, but don't want to give it away just yet.

I just might do this as a Pyramid article. Thoughts?

I found this a while back, it might be a useful starting point.

http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/...ual_Path_Magic

I really like Talents for establishing and preserving niches, they go nicely with the +1 IQ [30] mod that has been mentioned on the forums.