RPM Rituals: Official, Semi-, Quasi- and Un-official

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Icelander

For the purposes of Higher Purpose (Tradition), how broad should the tradition of the Nommo fish-men be?

Their magic is primarily useful for manipulating water and things that are found around islands, hunting, traveling and suchlike, but they also know Elder Signs and rituals to keep away the Things From Beyond that intrude into their world.

It's basically an aquatic variety of Druidic tradition, albeit a pretty dark and frightening one, and with a pretty self-serving goal, i.e. avoid being destroyed along with everything else, not a required ethos of protecting nature, like Druidism.

It seems like it's bordering on a broad scope Higher Purpose. I would probably charge 8/level for it. Elder Signs and Rituals is one Higher Purpose all on its own IME. The water magic and such would be another one. So charging for a Broad Higher Purpose and slipping in some extras seems fine to me.

Originally Posted by Icelander

According to the rules on 'stacking' spells, ritual magic cannot give a bonus to spellcasting, bestow Magery or Ritual Adept, etc.

What about skills that ritual magicians often learn, but which are not directly used for spellcasting, such as Alchemy or Symbol Drawing?

Can you enchant a Charm or Elixir that, smeared on a knife, makes it carve runes more precisely, deeper and clearer, for a bonus to Symbol Drawing?

Or use a ritual to make glassware perfectly attuned for certain concoctions, giving a bonus to Alchemy?

No. Magic cannot help with magic. The only thing I would (and have in the past allowed) is the enhancement of Places of Power to temporarily focus the energy giving a larger bonusd than normal.

You can use the rules for Traditional Trappings (GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic, p. 19) for things like that though. Perhaps even using Decanic Trappings (GURPS Thaumatology: Ritual Path Magic, p. 36)

I also wrote up "magic foci" in Pyramid #3/82: Magical Creations (p. 24). That allows you to spend cash on items to increase your magic skill. From a single spell to all spells, they are pretty customizable. You can even get foci that give you ritual adept for the magic it covers.