Boil and Bubble: Ritual Path Magic Miscellany V

Like my previous four installments, today’s post are compact little rules to help spice up your Ritual Path Magic game.

Better Rules for Working Together in Effect-Shaping Ritual Path Magic

Working together for standard energy-gathering Ritual Path Magic is straightforward: all assisting mages roll their skill and pool the energy. In Effect-Shaping RPM it’s simply a flat bonus of +1 on success (+2 on critical success). If the GM wants to make working together more attractive this bonus could be extended to 1/2 the margin of success on the assisting Path skill roll.

Complementary Skill Rolls for Charms

Creating charms using a specific crafting skill might garner a bonus of +1 (+2 on a critical success) to casting rolls to enchant it with a spell. For example, using Artist (Woodworking) to ritually carve charms of wood to gain a bonus to the charm’s casting roll. Alternatively, the GM might allow half margin instead, making such crafted charm vessels a fantastic deal.

Magical Languages Cost

The rules for using Magical Languages (see p. 88 of GURPS Thaumatology) might not be entirely balanced if used as is. Instead, the GM can charge an Unusual Background for languages that grant a bonus to magic rolls equals to 2 points x the granted bonus. Since most casters will use their best language for the highest bonus it’s likely unneeded to add additional points if you know other languages. Alternatively, it might make sense to treat certain languages as having more power of aspects of spellcasting than others. For example, Ancient Egyption might give a bonus to all Path of Magic effects, spells affecting the dead (but not undead), and weather-related effects. For such a language ignore the bonus it gives in GURPS Thaumatology and instead figure its cost just as if you were buying it as a Higher Purpose (Tradition) advantage whose levels cannot exceed the listed bonus in Thaumatology.

Picking Over the Bones

And that’s another installment of Ritual Path Magic Miscellany. Should I do another or move on to more interesting subjects? Tell me! I want to know.

 

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4 Comments

  1. Considering I’m gearing up to using Incantations (which are kissing cousins with RPM) soon, I’m far, far more intrigued by what you have to say about RPM than most other topics. Unless you decided to expound upon Incantations…

    • I’ve written a bit about both incantation mgic and RPM on my blog. Use the keywords to find posts. That’s what they are there for. Or just look at the Boil and Bubble page – it lists everything for these two topics.

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