The Old Switcheroo
You’ve got to feel for just a little bad for Bad Cat here. She bided her time. She plotted and planned like a champ. And now, at the culmination of all that scheming, her recreate-the-arcane-accident-that-bodyswapped-me-with-a-catgirl ritual is getting disrupted. She’d been outplayed so expertly… It’s almost as if BBEG was the real threat all along. If only there had been some subtle hint that BBEG was this comic’s BBEG!
Anywho, let’s talk about plot magic more broadly. A little handwavium is perfectly serviceable. In a non-interactive medium, adjudicating unique magical effects with “that’s just how it works” can work well enough. (Scrolls of resurrection cause Freaky Friday weirdness when mixed with hell portals? Sure, why not?) But when you’ve got PCs poking about your storyline, it pays to consider the contingencies. Your players certainly will. And you’ll want to know how to respond when they kill the high priest, steal his ceremonial vestments, and accidentally step on an overcharged ley line in the process.
Our pals at Paizo were kind enough to invent a subsystem for the purpose. Their Occult Rituals provide detailed mechanics for creating exactly this kind of set piece event. You can read up on those rules in full if your curious. But in an effort to make the technique more generalizable, here are some key components to consider across systems.
- Time Table — How long will it take to complete the ritual? Are there methods to speed it up or slow it down?
- Implements — What special bits do you need for the ritual? A special location? Unique items? Cultists? What tangible elements are required, and what happens if you destroy or remove them?
- Technical Bits — In d20 terms, I’m talking range, area, target, duration… The mechanical building blocks of every magical effect. In other words, when this bad boy goes off, how will you describe it in game terms?
- Effect — The narrative side of the coin, this is the big concept of your ritual. It’s the payoff for all the hard work. Whether you’re opening portals between dimensions, reanimating legions of the dead, or raising raising wards around your favorite city, what exactly happens when the ritual goes off?
- Side Effect(s) — What happens to the casters who attempt this powerful magic? Is their life force consumed when the ritual fails? Are they fatigued even if the magic succeeds?
- Disruption — Whether the ritualists fail some kind of check or get distracted by do-gooders poking them with sharpened lengths of metal, there’s a chance that this biz won’t work. How do you determine whether the ritual succeeds? How can it be stopped? And when in the process does the GM get to yell, “You’re too late! Now I am invincible!”
As you can see, ritual casting can become a full-on game design challenge. If it’s one you’re looking to try out, I find it’s better to think in broad terms first. What kind of effect am I looking for? Once you’ve got the concept in mind, filling in the details is a case of game design Mad Libs. Just remember that whether you’re releasing a sci-fi pulse, conjuring a eldritch horror, or trying to create your own dragon, it pays to know the details.
So if you’re feeling frisky, give us your best shot in today’s discussion! What is a good contender for the “ritual magic” treatment? Do you have a clear picture of all its component parts? Tell us about all your favorite demon summonings, altar consecrations, and artifact destructions down in the comments!
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The first thing to come to mind is the Sorcerous Workings system from Exalted 3e.
If you’re not familiar with that edition, it includes a system for custom sorcerous rituals (as opposed to named spells). It’s a mechanism you’d use if there’s nothing more specific, the thought being that sorcery can do almost anything if the sorcerer is willing to put the effort in… whether that’s something as simple as warding a settlement against fire, or as complex as creating a pocket universe. Setting-wise, anything really weird done by First Age Solars was probably done with sorcerous workings… it’s the ultimate expression of “a wizard did it”.
Mechanically, it’s basically an extended action based on how ambitious it is, how much fine control the sorcerer wants (as opposed to leaving details to the GM), and what means they have possess to make it easier (relevant abilities and spells, competent allies, suitable infrastructure, time to spend, etc). Lesser failures along the way (extended action) result in complications that will add some unexpected factor to an otherwise-successful outcome — or if you *do* manage to make a mess of the entire thing, well… the example used in the book is a Frankenstein reference…
One aspect I like about the Exalted Sorcerous Workings rules, is that it also has rules for what happens if some of those various implements and infrastructure get’s lost along the way.
What I like is that those rules that are more involved than just “the ritual fails, possibly spectacularly”. Specifically you lose the bonus they’d have given AND you automatically get one of those flaws you’d otherwise get for failing the roll.
I like that this allows for interacting with the working on the way to completion without that interaction being an all-or-nothing stop the ritual style affair.
Another thing I really like about the system is that it is clearly set up to allow players access to a lot of it and invites them to show some agency in deciding on what they want to make and how to go about it.
That’s a pretty rare thing for “A Wizard did it” level magic, despite how common it is to be allowed to play a wizard.
So give me an example. If you were to run a sorcerous working of your own, what would it attempt, and what would a good consequence for failure look like?
Well, the example in the core book is of someone wanting to imbue her workshop with “limited intelligence and mobility”… and since she opted for middling finesse, both the player and GM get to make up some of the details. The result is that she ends up with a workshop that walks around on mechanical legs, and is animated by a fire elemental bound to the forge.
However, on that example, the player suffered a single botched roll along the way — not enough to ruin the project, but the result is that she’s ended up with her workshop animated by an elemental that’s hopelessly in love with her. And that would be typical — the Working was a success, it does exactly what the player wanted… but they’ve also got an odd twist that shouldn’t weaken their accomplishment, but can provide roleplaying fun. Strictly it’s the GM alone who comes up with the complication, but I’d certainly treat it as a collaboration, since both players and GM need to live with it.
And yes, as vegetalss4 notes, one possible cause of complications is if you lose access to some of your supporting resources (“means”) along the way… allies don’t stay allies, exotic components are lost or stolen, or you come under time pressure partway through the working. Those losses won’t automatically fail the entire Working (though an overall failure obviously becomes more likely), but having to revise your plans halfway through the ritual does guarantee some quirks…
Of course, if you *do* manage to fail the entire Working, the consequences will be less forgiving. Workings are still a form of Exalted sorcery, and letting Third Circle demons loose on the world by screwing up a Solar Circle Working won’t make you many friends.
What I appreciate about this setup (as opposed to the Pathfinder version) is that it’s willing to be more fluid. Complications are baked into the flow of RP rather than needing to be baked into its own specific spell.
Indeed… and the book is clear that the intention is for complications to be “narratively interesting difficulties for the players to work around”. They’re not punishing mechanical penalties… it’s more like “you’re attempting to rewrite reality… expect some weirdness”.
Besides, I’m a software guy, and “sorcerous workings” are a pretty good representation of my day job… complex projects that nobody understands, but which usually deliver more or less what was asked for, if never going completely according to plan, and occasionally catastrophic results. I can’t always rely on fellow “sorcerers” as my means, but can sometimes make do with junior occultists…
Since the GM gets to step in with unexpected complications, I wonder how much of this gets described by the player and how much gets interpreted by the GM? I’m sure that’s different at every table, but it’s always an interesting scenario when a player gets to take on some of the “describe the setting” duties that normally belong to a GM.
Wait, did BBEG had gems for eyes before?
or we have classic case of upgrade where he went from lich (I assume he was a lich) to demilich?
Also Miss Gestalt looks as charming as always. <3
The gems appeared for the first time back here:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/evil-abides
I’ve always been a big fan of the PCs finishing a fight with cultists to discover that a) The summoning ritual had been completed, b) “Your eldritch horror is on backorder and will arrive in [___] turns,” and c) in their zeal for battle, the heroes have scuffed the containment circle that was meant to bind the critter when it arrives and killed the very folks who might have known how to fix it in time.
I also had a party once somehow soft-lock themselves into a dungeon after splitting the party three ways. In order to avoid flooding the upper levels of the dungeon, one PC inadvertently sealed two teammates in a flooded room with no way to open the door (key on one side, keyhole on other). In order to save the drowning party members, another PC had to free dive down to an altar/control panel and attempt Disable Device on the controls to open the locked door. As DM, I allowed it, but ruled that the door controls were now all broken (Luke Skywalker would be so proud). Smashing open all remaining doors allowed them to retrieve their objective, but they now had a time limit as they had now irrevocably flooded the entire dungeon complex (and eventually changed an entire ecosystem, since the water kept flowing, but that’s another story…).
> a) The summoning ritual had been completed, b) “Your eldritch horror is on backorder and will arrive in [___] turns,” and c) in their zeal for battle, the heroes have scuffed the containment circle that was meant to bind the critter
Like any kind of action, it’s nice when Plot Magic has consequences whether it succeeds or fails. “Bad thing just doesn’t happen,” is a bit dull. “Bad thing is doesn’t happen, so Ritual Leader becomes a conduit for explosive ley line powers” is still exciting.
Players like agency. When they can see their impact on the game world, they’re happy campers.
Well, well. I thought Bad Cat might find someone else occupying her throne… but I hadn’t expected it to be BBEG. This is a well-played trap – and he already knows Gestalt could defeat Bad Cat’s body when it’s at full power, which I doubt it is after the beating AP gave it.
I did not expect BBEG to be this cunning. In my defense, he didn’t get really scary until he roped Team Bountyhunter into, in hindsight, helping him to lay the groundwork for this very situation.
I’m curious where this will lead.
So many chess moves ahead! After all, who was it that killed Magus…
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/to-catch-a-killer-part-5-job-offer
Hired Ranger and Inquisitor for the price of a rez scroll…
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/to-catch-a-killer-part-6-an-offer-they-cant-refuse
And then gave it to them at the most opportune moment?
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/unhallowed-rites-part-8-plz-rez
Hey, have you played Cultist Simulator? The ritual system is quite interesting. Each ritual requires certain components, either tools, followers, influences or ingredients and what you get from each ritual comes from what aspects and on which magnitude you combine them 🙂
Slightly different beast than the TRPG version. More “immediate satisfaction recipe” than “creative satisfaction game design challenge.” Still sounds like a blast though.
So what happens next?
Magus gets back into her body, Demon Queen ends up in BBEG’s skull, and BBEG gets the Demon Queen body? Or will Gestalt be part of the chain?
Let’s go to the big board:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M4dUj7vZJc&t=221s
So when did BBEG lose his body? I think I missed the scene where our heroes decap… errr… debodied him.
Another good system for this sort of thing is Thaumaturgy from the Dresden Files RPG. There are clear rules for defining how big of an effect you want to create, and the bigger the result you want the more complex the ritual needs to be. Then you can “pay off” that complexity either by making skill rolls to collect various ritual components or by sacrifice (either personal or of others, and one thing I like is that sacrificing your sanity, ruining your social life with obsessive research, or getting into debt to the Queen of Darkness are all just as valid as literal blood sacrifice). Then there’s actually gathering the power to cast the spell once you’ve put the ritual together, and if you lose control (either by botching the control roll or because someone put a knife between your shoulderblades), you either have to take a big wad of backlash damage to keep control of the spell or else all that power gets released as magical fallout for your GM to play with.
The system mechanics don’t really scale up enough to handle plot-level world-reshaping magic (about the highest-level spells this system is set up to handle are “kill someone instantly from the other side of the continent”, but it’s great at handling low- and mid-level rituals and you can extrapolate the principles to cover the really high-end stuff with some degree of consistency.