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Old 02-09-2020, 08:20 PM   #151
Prince Charon
 
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Default Re: RPM Rituals: Official, Semi-, Quasi- and Un-official

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Yes, though that can cause major paradoxes.
I would assume so, though I wonder how the paradoxes would be dealt with. Is there a system, or is it all up to the GM?

One idea that occurred to me that I might use in such a setting (if I even allowed the Path of Nonexistence at all, which I'd prefer not to) is that someone is gathering energy for a global Greater Create Nonexistence ritual that would retroactively cause the setting to have need a no mana worldline all along, thus removing most or all of the monsters (assuming a Monster Hunters-style setting) and potentially turning it into a Homeline echo.

(If the PCs fail, I'd inform the players that they're all sitting around a table at the end of their latest GURPS game...)
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Old 02-09-2020, 09:15 PM   #152
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Default Re: RPM Rituals: Official, Semi-, Quasi- and Un-official

Well, one thing to remember about the Path of Nonexistence is that every failure is treated as a critical failure and critical failures are even worse (reality prefers to keep things the way that they are). Global changes would probably result in the practitioners being unwritten from existence. For example, removing Napoleon from history would likely require 1000s of points of energy, meaning that even the most skilled magicians would die horribly before they got halfway.

One possibility is that the Path of Nonexistence was the first magical Path and the rest of the Paths came about because magicians erased the rules that forbade them. In order to prevent infinite recursions and other paradoxes, the Path of Nonexistence should not be able to remove the effects of the Path of Nonexistence from reality or remove the Path of Nonexistence from reality. In any case, it is a really powerful Path that is really dangerous.
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Old 02-10-2020, 04:39 AM   #153
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Default Re: RPM Rituals: Official, Semi-, Quasi- and Un-official

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Well, one thing to remember about the Path of Nonexistence is that every failure is treated as a critical failure and critical failures are even worse (reality prefers to keep things the way that they are). Global changes would probably result in the practitioners being unwritten from existence. For example, removing Napoleon from history would likely require 1000s of points of energy, meaning that even the most skilled magicians would die horribly before they got halfway.
Agreed.
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One possibility is that the Path of Nonexistence was the first magical Path and the rest of the Paths came about because magicians erased the rules that forbade them. In order to prevent infinite recursions and other paradoxes, the Path of Nonexistence should not be able to remove the effects of the Path of Nonexistence from reality or remove the Path of Nonexistence from reality. In any case, it is a really powerful Path that is really dangerous.
That's a really interesting theory!

I will certainly have an occultist propose this once the PCs start investigating and researching the Path of Nonexistence.
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Old 02-14-2020, 08:48 AM   #154
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Default Olvido ('Oblivion' or 'Ending of Memory') Ritual

A cultist of the Keepers of the Last Hearth recently had occasion to use a ritual that removes all traces of herself and her friends from memory. The twist is that she's using a version of this ritual (which is a specialty of hers) that works on external memory, i.e. storage media.

The metaphysical explanation of how the ritual works is that it intensifies the interference between magic and technology and causes this interference to destroy any parts of the record that contain 'memory' of the caster or other chosen things.

What Path do you use for this ritual? It's very closely related to a Path of Mind ritual that does the same to living people, but it's also clearly not exactly the same thing.

I'm envisioning this as something that people who are good at Path of Magic are good at, because this is fundamentally taking an aspect of how magic works in the setting and turning it to your benefit, by deliberately triggering a technological malfunction (which will all too often be an accidental side-effect of magic anyway). But is just using Path of Magic enough? Or do you need to use another path with it?

Would that be Path of Energy or Path of Matter?

I don't want to have to roll against the worst of three Paths or something, as this is not supposed to be all that major, as rituals go.

Indeed, I imagine that this should not be too difficult to perform, given that the first thing most ritual magicians in the setting tend to notice is how their magic can cause technology to start malfunctioning, so intensifying and controlling that effect should be a fairly modest trick.

Would anyone care to essay a try to write this up in ritual terms?
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Old 02-14-2020, 12:10 PM   #155
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Default Re: RPM Rituals: Official, Semi-, Quasi- and Un-official

It would probably either be a Path of Matter and Path of Mind (impacting both machines and people) or a Path of Nonexistence (removing the impressions that the individuals made). In the former case, it is likely a Greater Effect. In the latter case, it is likely a Lesser Effect, as they are removing current memory rather than retroactively removing past memory.
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Old 02-14-2020, 01:22 PM   #156
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Default Re: RPM Rituals: Official, Semi-, Quasi- and Un-official

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It would probably either be a Path of Matter and Path of Mind (impacting both machines and people)
This is an area where the division into Paths doesn't really provide an exact fit to my metaphysical conception. Ideally, I'd want this to fit within the same Path as other effects that deal with knowledge, memory and psychic residue.

In GURPS Magic terms, I see this as being a Knowledge spell. In Path/Book terms, it's definitely both Path of Cunning and Path of Knowledge.

The problem with having it be Path of Matter is that I can see occultists who never perform any of the other rituals that might fall under Path of Matter who are good at this spell. Those who are good at this spell should be good at Path of Mind and Path of Magic, because that's mostly what I see them doing here, they are manipulating an innate property of magic in the setting and releasing it to destroy only parts of a technological device, specifically those parts which Path of Mind discovers as having come in contact with the psychic residue of the targets, i.e. having recorded the things that you want removed.

It's a metamagical trick to use a Path of Mind trick on something which can't directly be affected by Path of Mind.

Ideally, of course, this would fall under a hypothetical 'Path of Knowledge' , but I don't really want to rework the entire RPM system.

Edit: Ooh, I could use an Attribute Substitution Perk to allow the use of Path of Mind for affecting digital memory!

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or a Path of Nonexistence (removing the impressions that the individuals made).
Yes, I know that would work.

However, given the potential disastrous effects of using the Path of Nonexistence, I was hoping there was a reasonable alternative using the ritual magic that various occultists with the cult may have known before they were initiated.

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In the former case, it is likely a Greater Effect. In the latter case, it is likely a Lesser Effect, as they are removing current memory rather than retroactively removing past memory.
To maintain setting integrity, I would like to interpret the RPM rules so that effects that run in the face of a secular, scientific worldview are extremely difficult and expensive to create with magic, but effects that take advantage of the Facade and serve to conceal the supernatural are as easy as possible.

Basically, for unknown reasons, the universe (or at any rate some relevant part of it) seems to be reacting against magic that violates the worldview of the majority (theories differ on how that majority is figured, whether that's global or local, etc.). People who encounter evidence of the paranormal or even directly see supernatural things will often prefer any rationalization over believing their own eyes.

Also, technological complexity, artificial materials and artifacts made in any process where they are alienated from the personal craftsmanship of the maker (e.g. factory-manufactured goods) appear to interfere with magic and magic seems to cause malfunctions in complex technological devices.

Rituals that make use of these setting features should, if at all possible, be interpreted as Lesser Effects, while any magic that cannot be explained as coincidence, natural occurrence, psychosomatic or with another mundane explanation should require one or more Greater Effects.
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Old 02-29-2020, 06:19 PM   #157
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Default Magical Zeroed Ritual

Ok, Teddy Smith wants to tattoo the Girl with the Kaleidoscope Eyes (Gisella Esther Cortèz Rojas, a.k.a. 'Gwen Delvano') so that her fellow cultists can't find her with magical means. In metaphysical terms, we're removing any magical residue of her (and moving it to the ringer pig, but that's a totally different ritual).

I guessed that changing the way something responds to magical divinations was just Path of Magic. Call it Lesser Transform Magic + Altered Traits: Zeroed + Subject Weight + Duration. Should come to about 30 energy.

Does that sound right?
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Old 02-29-2020, 07:54 PM   #158
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Default Re: RPM Rituals: Official, Semi-, Quasi- and Un-official

Is this a continuing effect?
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Old 03-01-2020, 03:48 AM   #159
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Default Re: RPM Rituals: Official, Semi-, Quasi- and Un-official

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Is this a continuing effect?
Supposed to work until the next dawn.

For setting reasons, any magical effect with a longer duration is a Greater Effect.

Oh, probably should have mentioned that for the temporary effect, the 'tattoo' is painted on. Teddy is going to prepare further before making a permanent tattoo, because that is going to be a lot more difficult to do.
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Old 03-01-2020, 04:17 AM   #160
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Default Re: RPM Rituals: Official, Semi-, Quasi- and Un-official

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Supposed to work until the next dawn.

For setting reasons, any magical effect with a longer duration is a Greater Effect.

Oh, probably should have mentioned that for the temporary effect, the 'tattoo' is painted on. Teddy is going to prepare further before making a permanent tattoo, because that is going to be a lot more difficult to do.
That could work. You could also add Altered Traits, Obscure too I suppose.
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