The Utility of Ritual Magic?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Greg 1

I love the path/book system and am very glad that Thaumatology detailed it as far as space allowed, but I would definitely like it to be fleshed out. We have over 400 spells for the regular magic system and only a handful for path/book magic.

I don't have my Thaumatology with me, but as I recall, there wasn't much in the way of advice for producing your own path/book spells. One thing that would have been helpful was suggestions on which regular spells should or should not have path/book counterparts, and how (vaguely) to convert from one system to the other.

They do give the process but its limited by the very nature of this system as to its usefullness. The trouble is your going to need worked examples or eyeball it in play. Heres a snip of something I posted related to another magic setup that might help as a guideline.
It works for Realm or Noun/Verb but your mileage will vary.
I wanted something that could be used without going to spells and was fairly simple.
Sense -1 skill/1Fp
Shape/Communicate -2 skill/2Fp
Control/Move -3 skill/3Fp
Create -4 skill/41Fp
Extinguish/Stop -1 skill/4Fp
Transcendent/Shift into or out of -10 skill/10Fp

Magery or Manipulation Talent caps the power level and for leveled advantages or dice of damage
Skill penalties from range.
Skill and Fp penalties per SM over 0.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

I haven't... but it does sound sorta comical *g*

I was thinking of the sort of medicine dances you see shamen doing (generally for tourists these days) - most of those started of as magical rituals and involve and awful lot of dancing and chanting.
For cultural balance, exorcism under the Roman rite is quite involved as well - albiet with less dancing and more chanting.

[Riggler]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Another approach would be to start her out with normal Magery, but with the Ceremonial Magery Limitation (p.23) and the Solitary Ceremonial Enhancement (p.28). This will require her to take her time with her spells, rendering them unsuitale for combat.

How much do you trust the player? Instead of the above, you could simply let her purchase spells as normal, and then make use of the "Ceremonial-Only Casting" box on p.82: in short, she gets to make use of the Laws of Magic to get spell-casting bonuses (pp.243-246), but only if she casts the spell according to the rules of Ceremonial Magic. The player could then, strictly as a roleplaying choice, have her start out using Ceremonial castings exclusively; but as the game progresses, have her start going "quick-and-dirty".

To keep things relatively consistent, you might also want to handle the shaman through the standard magic system, by using Power Investiture (Shamanism) as written.

Thanks dataweaver.
Your suggestion above of the Ceremonial Magery Limitation (p.23) and the Solitary Ceremonial Enhancement (p.28) sounds like the route I'm going to go with the mage character. It allows her to do what she wants and yet buy off the limitations when she wants for each level of magery. Yet it's not too far off of the basic system...as a newb gm and players I don't want to get too wacky if I don't have to. Need to learn the basics first I feel.

After talking with the VooDoo player more, he wants to start off as a magic item based user...being reliant on magical trinkets and such that are given to him by a mentor. And then when they "run out" of juice, he'll try to find his own way. But the way he described it to me in more detail the magic-using aspect of his character would be secondary in comparison to his natural sneakiness, rougish nature.