[Basic] Skill of the week: Occultism, Ritual Magic, Symbol Drawing and Thaumatology

[johndallman]

Occultism is the IQ/A skill covering the history and folklore of the supernatural. A real-world occultist would know about mythologies, mysticism, psychic phenomena, ancient religions and rituals, and similar matters, and they don't necessarily believe these things are factual. In settings with magic, or other supernatural or paranormal powers, Occultism is knowledge about these powers and their users, and the common beliefs about them, but not the technical details about how they work. If there are several separate kinds of powers, Occultism may have required specialisations, such as (Demonology), (Pneumatology) - the study of spirits - and (Vampirology), and those would be plausible optional specialisations in settings where they aren't required. In settings with secret magic, knowledge of Occultism can be useful as a cover for real magical knowledge. In settings with publicly known magic, Occultism may be a very common skill. The only default is IQ-5, and Fortune-Telling has a default to Occultism. The skill appeared at GURPS 1e.

Ritual Magic is the IQ/VH skill of doing magic via spirits and/or extended rituals. Specialisation in a particular tradition, such as (Golden Dawn), (Vampiric Blood Magic), (Voodoo) or (Witchcraft) is required. The only default is Religious Ritual for the same tradition at -6, and Exorcism, Religious Ritual and some kinds of Symbol Drawing have defaults to Ritual Magic. On a successful roll, you can understand the purpose of a ritual, the type of entity being summoned, and so on. The skill also serves as the "core skill" for some ritual magic systems that don't explicitly use spirits or Thaumatology, such as Path/Book Magic. Magery may act as a talent, or a skill cap, for this kind of magic system, but that's a world-building decision. Ritual Magic appeared in GURPS Voodoo for 3e.

Symbol Drawing is the IQ/H art of drawing magical symbols. The importance of this varies widely between magic systems. Some have no use for a separate skill. Systems where symbols are significant representations of magical forces often allow a roll against Symbol Drawing before a ritual to add a bonus of half the margin of success on Symbol Drawing to the ritual roll. Such systems allow Symbol Drawing for a tradition to default to Ritual Magic-4 for the same tradition. In systems where the symbols themselves are the magical forces, Symbol Drawing caps the skills used for rituals. The listed modifiers are penalties for using non-traditional means to mark the symbols and/or placing them on non-traditional surfaces. The Non-Iconographic disadvantage makes it impossible to learn this skill, which first appeared in GURPS Voodoo for 3e as Vever Drawing, and was generalised for 4e.

Thaumatology is the IQ/VH academic study of how magic actually works. No skills default to it, and the only default is IQ-7, for characters in a setting where there is real magic that's dependable enough for systematic study, and this is known to the character. Magery acts as a Talent for this skill, although non-mages can learn it. Its uses are as a "core skill" in some ritual magic systems, such as Ritual Path Magic, magical research, where it can be used with the inventing rules in place of Engineer, identifying unknown magic if you see or otherwise detect it being used, working out how a magical item would be constructed, and so on. Use of Thaumatology at -5 may offer you insight into magic done with Ritual Magic, Religious Ritual, or Theology. The skill appeared in Compendium I for 3e.

The presence of these skills on templates depends on the setting. For example, Action and AtE have no magic, making most of them pointless; characters could have Occultism, but it wouldn't be much use. Banestorm is a public magic setting, where some people have Occultism for knowledge about magic, and properly trained wizards have Thaumatology. DF works the same way, and both skills are important for identifying traps, monsters and other hazards, including curse-like diseases. The Creatures of the Night series has plenty of uses for Occultism and Thaumatology, and a new form of Symbol Drawing. Fantasy has plenty of material about these skills, especially Symbol Drawing, and Madness Dossier builds much of its "magic" around Symbol Drawing (Anunnaki). Metro of Madness has Ritual Magic (Rail Shamanism) and Worminghall's teaching of magic includes all of these skills. Low-Tech Companions 1 and 3 describe alchemists, including Occultism. Magic covers all of these skills, mostly under inventions, enchantments and alternative magic systems. Monster Hunters uses Thaumatology for RPM casting, and Occultism as the general knowledge skill about the supernatural. Power-Ups volumes 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 all have examples for some or all of these skills, and Powers and The Weird have applications for them. Psionic Powers and Psis point out that Occultism is broad enough to cover psionics. Social Engineering: Back to School covers learning magical skills, and Supers has a ritual magic school based on Sleight of Hand. The Thaumatology series has far too much about these skills to summarise, and they're useful in creating or fighting Zombies.

What have you done with these skills that was extraordinary? How have they worked together, or failed to?

[ericthered]

I'm fond of building magic as powers systems, and I essentially always use Thaumatology as the controlling roll for stunts. If you want to do something hard with magic, what other skill would you use?

I'm also fond of using Thaumatology with optional specializations: Thaumatology (Illusion), Thaumatology (Pyromancy), and so on.

[(E)]

Symbol drawing gets a lot of affection from me as a GM. Using the reverse of symbol drawing's ability to help casting has been a house rule for a while. That is to say using symbol drawing to penalize an opponent's casting (several variations of the house rule used so far)

I have an empire in my main fantasy world that has a centralized mana source. The "wiring" that moves the power around the empire is written (and hacked) with symbol drawing.

The interaction between symbol drawing and language is a source of a lot of flavour. An ancient and cunning bard hiding the specific wards for the big bad in a nursery rhyme.

Noun verb spell construction and how it interacts with symbol drawing deserves a mention too.

One of my players has a long running character who has at four different languages of symbol drawing. His speciality is rewriting magical traps and defences.

[whswhs]

In my Worminghall campaign, I made a lot of use of Symbol Drawing. I premised that eight hours of instruction was enough to gain familiarity with a particular spell, after which you could use it at default of IQ + Magery -5 (or -6). You could not take extra time on spell casting. But if you took one second to draw a suitable magical diagram—on your wax tablet, or in sand at -2, or in the air at -5—you could roll vs. Symbol Drawing and gain a bonus to your ability to cast the spell; and you could take extra time on Symbol Drawing. So a beginning student would take 30 seconds to set up a diagram with everything just so, and gain a fairly decent bonus when they actually cast the spell. I saw multiple uses of this approach, but also some spells cast in haste without benefit of Symbol Drawing. I thought it added well to the flavor, and was pleased at how it worked in running an actual campaign.

[Railstar]

Pyramid Thaumatology, Ceremonial Magic made easy. Gives LOTS of easy bonuses to ritual spells, and lots of extra energy.

A successful Ritual Magic roll gives +1.
A successful Symbol Drawing roll gives +1.
A successful Thaumatology roll gives +1.
Reusable materials or tools gives +1.
Consumable materials or tools gives +1.
Sacrifices (like a chicken, relatively cheap) gives +1.

That is a +6 bonus, which can be traded for extra energy.

Suddenly big spells like Summon Demon, Skull Spirit, Mass Zombie, or even Zombie (for Improved Zombies), Powerstone, Bind Spirit & Enslave become a lot more feasible. Even minor spells like Summon Spirit have pretty high energy costs. For instance, one big deal with Summon Demon is the energy cost often leaves the caster so drained that they are in no condition to defend themselves if the attempt to control the demon fails.

Obviously this was for a necromancer character… but the preference for ritual spells made these skills very useful. Being able to send out 2 skull spirits and still have energy left over when her lair was under siege was very handy, being able to prosecute the siege herself by summoning a demon to fly into the town and cause havoc there was also very useful.

Another Pyramid article covered the Quartermaster Mage, which relied heavily on ceremonial magic… Reverse Missiles is an awesome spell when you can gather the energy to cast it on an entire pirate ship (repelling a cannon broadside can be a pretty awesome moment). Of course, being able to generate at least some energy without the crew to assist in a ritual is also a bonus.

[Tallor]

In my opinion, I'd consolidate Occultism, Thaumatology, and Ritual Magic into a single Average or Hard skill with a required specialty for particular colleges or cults.

I'd like to hear if anyone's had that idea. It can't just be me!

[Tallor]

Originally Posted by Railstar

...
Another Pyramid article covered the Quartermaster Mage, which relied heavily on ceremonial magic… Reverse Missiles is an awesome spell when you can gather the energy to cast it on an entire pirate ship (repelling a cannon broadside can be a pretty awesome moment). Of course, being able to generate at least some energy without the crew to assist in a ritual is also a bonus.
...

Don't forget to make a cannonball that casts Fireproof on the vessel it hits. The flintlocks will jam, the cannons won't fire, and the ship won't catch flame while you board! :D

[simply Nathan]

I put Occultism on the wizard templates I write and Thaumatology on my wizard PCs. I've never rolled against either as of yet.

[whswhs]

The other skill that plausibly belongs in this list is Hazardous Materials (Magical).

[SionEwig]

Originally Posted by whswhs

The other skill that plausibly belongs in this list is Hazardous Materials (Magical).

One of my favorite books by Turtledove - The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump.