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

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Are you using Natural Caster to help with those?

If any PC wants it. So far, the two completed ones have specialised Talents from the 'A Talent for the Arts' sub-section in 'Ritual Path Specialists' in Pyramid #3/66 instead.

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Why not consider allowing practiced casters to purchase something like "Ritual Adept (Anchored, One Site, Movable, 1 minute, -50%) [20]" Anchored is borrowed from Warp and in this case would allow the caster to function as an adept in one place, but could move that to another place with concentration and such. If you wanted the time to go up more, figure the price as for Immediate Preparation Required and subtract 20 from the final cost.

If I allowed it, I'd want it to function only within a Threshold that the caster can treat as his own, either due to living there himself, or the owner taking part in the ritual and explicitly allowing whatever he was doing.

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Interesting. I assume that is a feature of the setting vs. a limitation you've added to magic. This for all magic?

It's informal, as I always assist players making their characters, and so it doesn't need a write-up and can be done by feel. But what I do is adding Disadvantages to characters who have magical powers.

And no, it's not for all magic, theoretically, in that there can potentially exist some strange magical effects that coexists with technology, but a) They are not available to PCs and b) The magic might instead warp reality in other ways.

Practically speaking, PCs can avoid most ill effects by having only fairly limited magical gifts, using them sparingly and tending toward somewhat tried-and-true technology, without any failure-prone electronics. Also, Signature Gear is somewhat protected (and exempt from giving TL penalties to casting), due to the attunement with the character and emotional attachment.

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

You may wish to look at Pyramid #3/78: Unleash Your Soul (p. 30) - I wrote up a tech bane anti-talent that may be of use.

Ok, another Pyramid I shall buy instanter.

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Where did you get that number from?

I used -1 per TL above TL 4. In the past, I've used 1/3 (round down) penalty for a single small item, 1/2 (round down) for a few, 2/3 (round down) for a hefty assortment and full penalty for full battle-rattle of the latest gadgets.

Note that I mis-remembered what I did in the last campaign and it should be -1 per TL above TL 3 instead, so the maximum penalty is actually -5.

Environmental technology lowers effective Mana Level around it instead of being a penalty to the individual caster.

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Also note that Symbol Drawing can be used to consecrate a space and let you ignore penalties for that. So it's a good investment.

In baseline Ritual Path Magic, does Symbol Drawing do anything that Thaumatology cannot also do?

In my campaign, at least, it shall have its full Basic Set effects, with the bonus applying both to rolls to gather energy and to cast spells.