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

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Can you use the Thaumatology skill to detect the level of a Threshold that you are in, whether a place is a Bad Place and what the local Mana Level is, whether it is Aspected, etc.?

In other words, without casting any kind of ritual, what does a magician know about the local modifiers to magic?

No, Magery 0 doesn't let you detect magic in the area nor does Thaumatology. And neither of those will let you figure what power the Threshold is or Bad Places. Magery 0 removes the -5 penalty to work magic that non-mages suffer. That said, you do know if you are in a place of power or a descreted place as soon as you start to gather the energy for a spell.

That said, you could charge a +20% enhancement to be able to sense such things - just as Standard Magery 0 does. If you want the ability to detect thresholds and Bad Places as well that's a 10-point Detect. So to do all that you'd need 10 + (5/5) = 11 points. Honestly, I'd round that off to 10 points and call it Magery 0 for your campaign. Seems workable enough to me.

Originally Posted by Icelander

If he needs a ritual, what kind of ritual would do it? How much information does Lesser Sense Magic give?

Lesser Sense Magic would do it by itself. In general, for Sense effects treat them as Detect. Lesser effects reveal the same information as Detect with Vague, while Greater effects would leave out Vague allowing a second roll against your Path skill (or IQ if better) to get more information.

For example, a Greater Sense Magic effect would tell you the local mana level, if it's aspected, etc. on a second IQ or Path skill roll. You would automatically know if you could cast there or not.

Perceiving a threshold or bad place would be Path of Spirit and do the same.