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

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

I could likely suggest more, but I'm not really sure of the style and genre you're going for. Seems fairly low-magic horror.

Well, 'low-magic' is one way of describing it. That is, the rules are set up to make magic use almost impossible, specifically in order for the world to resemble our own and enable me to use the Internet to look up everything.

Earth ranges from a No Mana Zone to a Low Mana Zone, with most of it hovering in the Very Low Mana Zone area of -10 to -7. I'm using the Facade from 'Mask of Humanity' and Thresholds from 'Safe as Houses'. I'm also using Assisting Spirits, Mandatory and Significant Modifiers, Ley Lines, Sacred Architecture and Spirit Vessels. The distinction between Greater and Lesser effects is largely determined by whether or not the effect could plausibly be rationalized as something other than a supernatural occurance, with blatant displays of flashy magic quickly becoming forbiddingly difficult.

Added to that, the language used for rituals is significant and common languages carry a penalty of -5, with languages like Coptic, Latin, Koine Greek, Old Norse or Gaelic being required to avoid a penalty (and even then, with a corresponding Cultural Familiarity, you're at a -3).

On the other hand, the PCs (and their foes) are powerful enough to be able to absorb all the penalties and actually use supernatural powers. They're 1000 point superheroes and while they cannot take Ritual Adept or obvious supernatural powers, they can be incredibly gifted, skilled and connected. Their Patron is a literal billionaire with extensive contacts and decades of occult study, for example.

But primarily, though, the PCs will encounter and make use of the supernatural in areas where other worlds are bleeding into this one, the Facade is weak, there is no Threshold and where the Mana Level might be 'only' Low Mana Zone for -5 or even, in catastrophic cases, approach Normal Mana. In the Vile Vortices or other Places of Power, linked by Ley Lines to the twelve areas of the Earth where the boundaries are weakest.

The PCs, obviously, want to repair such rifts in reality. Their Patron, J.R. Kessler, assures them that not doing so will eventually lead to the end of the world, at least as we know it.