Rituals

Humble Beginnings

Roughly 9 or 10 years ago, I played a session or two of D&D online with some people I knew. I couldn't tell you what edition, but I created a Warforged Wizard who was on an adventure to search for their creator, who had gone missing.

Brand spankin' new to the concept of TTRPGs, and my giddy little nerd brain was thrilled at the idea of being able to cast magic.

My giddy little nerd brain also could not grasp how to properly use magic. The descriptions were vague, abstract. "You create a flame within a 5' cube."

What? What does that mean? As I was trying to make my character, I sat there with the PDF open, baffled by the description and unable to visualize what it meant. I was imagining literal cubes in which the flame could appear because that was the most concrete piece of the description. It was also the most irrelevant.

I so badly wanted to play a spellcaster, but without the ability to actually visualize what spells could do or how their manifestations looked, it seemed a fruitless endeavor. Still, I did my best, and then the group fell apart after two sessions.

Skip forward to 2019 or 2020 when I started watching the Mighty Nein campaign of Critical Role. Matt's GMing style and Liam's descriptions for Caleb's spellcasting made everything click simultaneously in my mind of what TTRPGs were supposed to be.

So that's how you cast spells! This is how you role-play with a group! It all made sense now!

A year later, while I was still living in Japan, my partner started setting up a Pathfinder 2e campaign, and I already knew I wanted to play a spellcaster.

And oh the spells, rich with description. Why, just take a look at Telekinetic Projectile:

Telekinetic Projectile

Attack Cantrip Evocation 

Source Core Rulebook pg. 377  

Traditions arcane, occult  

Cast [two-actions] somatic, verbal  

Range 30 feet; Targets 1 creature

---

You hurl a loose, unattended object that is within range and that has 1 Bulk or less at the target. Make a spell attack roll against the target. If you hit, you deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage—as appropriate for the object you hurled—equal to 1d6 plus your spellcasting ability modifier. No specific traits or magic properties of the hurled item affect the attack or the damage.

Critical Success You deal double damage.

Success You deal full damage.

---

Heightened (+1) The damage increases by 1d6.

"You hurl a loose, unattended object that is within range...at the target. [...] If you hit, you deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage..."

The description was just concrete enough to give my mind a playhouse to envision the rest, and all was right with the world.

Yet over time, as I became more skilled with the system of Pathfinder 2e, I began to notice areas where the spells irked me. Oh, the descriptions were still fine, but the effects themselves felt increasingly more constrained and restrictive, downright counterintuitive sometimes. Like what do you mean the spell can't go off if the area isn't wide enough? I have to have a feat to control certain aspects of the spells?!

What initially felt like freedom was starting to feel like a prison. I became increasingly dissatisfied with how shackled spellcasters were in this system. For all the spells they could cast, hundreds upon hundreds of spells, most were just...mediocre. The system had quantity, for sure, but quality was questionable much of the time, and having to spend 2 out of 3 actions to cast in combat severely limited what the spellcaster could do.

Although never explicitly stated in the book, as time went by, it became increasingly clear that the best spells were not attack spells but spells that buffed allies or de-buffed enemies. Wanna be a blaster caster? Well, be prepared to never be as good as the Fighter. Oh, and there won't be many mooks for you to obliterate, because "math is tight," which means if hoards of enemies are thrown at you, they're probably too weak to be of concern anyway. Oh, and good luck de-buffing the boss when they have a +1 to their saves against magical effects.

I could get into a whole spiel about this, but really, it's just better at this point if you go watch Knights of Last Call's videos about Pathfinder 2e, specifically the "All Spells Ranked" series.

Despite my gripes, however, PF2e was imperative in my learning how to imagine the manifestation of various spells and abilities, and there are moments where I miss the crunchiness of the system.

That said, I was more than happy to migrate the campaign over to Daggerheart, difficult as it has been at times to match everything to the system. There was only one glaring flaw: in Pathfinder 2e, Cael was beginning to dabble in Ritualist magic, and in Daggerheart, no Ritual system exists.

By this point in time, I've had some experience with other systems such as Fabula Ultima, which has a robust Ritual system that relies on filling clocks and/or using precious resources and making difficult checks. I looked at other TTRPG systems that had Ritual magic integrated into the game mechanics as well.

Time, resources, checks...many of them boiled down to these basic principles, yet there was something missing. Why were Rituals always so difficult or expensive to cast? It didn't matter if you cast, for example, Teleport as a Ritual for the first or 20th time: the resources required never changed, and the sense of "progression" was simply your own character level.

But what if...?

Rituals in Daggerheart

Daggerheart treads a fine line between narrative and crunchy. Combat, for example, contains more mechanics and rules than it might in a more narrative game, but it's not nearly as dense as a game such as Draw Steel or Pathfinder 2e. Most of the time, the rules make sense, but it seems like every system I've played struggles in some way with incorporating magic, where the general line of thinking goes, 'Yeah, magic exists. Uhh, here are the ones who would know how to cast it, but as to how they cast, well, here are some arbitrary rules.'

Magic receives especially odd treatment in Daggerheart: "...the action you’re trying to perform must be within the scope of the spell. You can’t just make up magic effects that aren’t on your character sheet or cards." (pg. 96 of the Core Rulebook)

This implies that under no circumstances can the spellcaster utilize any type of magic outside of their cards, which, to me, seems a rather odd limitation in a game that's all about, "You can certainly try."

There was so much promise, so much potential in the idea of Rituals, but I didn't want to just slap on another system's like Fabula Ultima's. The game and story deserved more care than that.

After some digging, I found this Ritual implementation ruleset that someone else had created on Reddit, and it inspired much of my own thinking.

Yet there was still this niggling.... What's a "Minor" Ritual or a "Massive" Ritual? What does that mean in the context of the world? What would scholars actually call these Rituals? They wouldn't use such generic terms. They'd used something like, "Theoretical" or "Formulated", wouldn't they?

Not only that, but as someone becomes more accustomed to casting Ritual magic, Rituals that are cast more often should show signs of progression. They'd become easier. They'd require fewer resources as the spellcaster becomes more efficient. Time would still be a factor, but a Ritual might go from taking half an hour to cast to only a handful of minutes.

Thus, the aforementioned guide became a stepping stone for the system I thought might prove a satisfactory hybrid between Pathfinder 2e, Fabula Ultima, and Daggerheart.

Aefala's Ritual System

General Rules of Thumb

• Knowledge of how to cast the Ritual must make sense within the narrative.

• The Stress cost listed can be distributed among participants.

  • The primary spellcaster (the one initiating the spell) must always mark Stress equal to or greater than those actively participating in the Ritual. For example, if another spellcaster marks 2 Stress to aid in the casting of an Experienced Ritual, then the primary spellcaster must mark 2+.

• A beginner spellcaster shouldn't be able to even conceive of "Theoretical" Rituals, so each section of Rituals is locked behind the game's Tier system. As the character gains more experience and knowledge, the greater their ability to start theorizing or finishing half-theorized Rituals. The first couple Tiers represent the idea of "You don't know what you don't know."

• Difficulty is up to the GM: the first time a Ritual is cast, it may be on the higher end of the Difficulty; by the 3rd time it's cast it might be on the lower end.

• Anyone can assist in the completion of a Ritual as long as it makes sense in the narrative. It doesn't just have to be other Spellcasters. Assist mechanics match the Core Rulebook.

• If a spellcaster attempts to cast a Ritual in a high-stakes situation such as in combat or in a sealed room flooding with water or amongst an increasingly agitated mob, fill out a separate Clock to determine how long the Ritual will take to cast.

  • Clocks, for those who don't know, are basically pie charts that get shaded in when certain events related to that clock occur.

• Rituals cannot be cast to provide permanent mechanical benefits or cause direct damage to adversaries

• As always, GM has the final say. For example, the GM may determine that the spellcaster could learn certain Experienced Rituals near the start of Tier 2 levels but leave others closer to Tier 3. A PC can't reach level 5 and say, "Okay, I know how to cast Teleport as a Ritual now!" It may require the player to find a scroll first or take the Domain Card when they reach the appropriate level.

Intuited or Everyday Rituals

• Available from Tier 1

• 0 resource cost

• Minimal narrative impact, does not require a spellcast roll, requires minimal effort

• Used for everyday activities (Prestidigitation or Unseen Servant); occasional jokes (something like Figment from PF2e); relaxed castings

• Pretty much anyone with the capability to cast magic can conjure these minor effects

• Some Rituals may be more specialized in nature, such as Cael's use of shadow puppetry in small forms

• Makes some of the card abilities a moot point, but those abilities can be amplified to have actual narrative impact; these are obvious magical effects that wouldn't fool anyone

Mastered Rituals

• Available from Tier 2

• 1-3 Stress cost

• Rituals that can easily be learned by students of magic (not just wizards, but those who study magical arts such as a Witch in her coven or a Druid listening to the natural world)

  • Includes those the spellcaster has practiced often

• Very basic formulas: easily learned, easily practiced, easily mastered

• May require common components: chalk, incense, bundles of dried spices, etc.

• Typically affects a small area within Close Range

• Difficulty: Easy to Average Difficulty

• Effects that can be used in the moment where success or failure creates some form of narrative consequence:

  • Putting out a fire

  • Blocking a passage

  • Creating a rudimentary "cozy cabin" to camp in at night

  • Setting up an alarm to alert you of potential intruders within Far Range

  • Creating an illusory creature

  • Intuited Rituals like Figment may require 1 stress if used in a high-stress, tense situation

Experienced Rituals

• Available from Tier 2/3

• 4-6 Stress cost

• May require uncommon materials: specific gems, special ink, rare incense, silks, etc.

• Typically affects an area within Close to Far Range

• Difficulty: Average to Hard Difficulty

• Rituals that have been cast previously; theories are sound and well-tested

• After each casting of a specific Ritual, fill out a 4-6 Clock to progress the Ritual from Experienced to Mastered

  • For example, if you've cast Teleportation 5 times, and the GM said you needed to fill a 6 Clock, you'd only need to successfully cast it one more time for it to move to "Mastered."

• Effects that require more time:

  • Teleportation

  • Setting up an Illusory Scene

  • Replaying the moments leading up to a recent tragedy

  • Creating a Telepathic Communication within the group until the next Long Rest

  • Calming or stirring a crowd through words/music/etc...

  • Summoning a (common) creature from another Plane (it might not obey you if you roll with Fear!)

  • Detecting the presence of others within the area

Formulated Rituals

• Available from Tier 3

• 7-9 Stress cost

• Hard to Very Hard Difficulty: formulas exist but haven't been tested extensively or have failed in the past

• 8+ clock progression to move from Formulated to Experienced

  • Then, a 4-6 Clock from Experienced to Mastered

• Requires longer casting time and rare but not unique artifacts: a dragon's scale, a chimera's venom, the tears of a unicorn

• Create long-term, detrimental consequences on failure:

  • Planar travel

  • Demi-plane creation

  • Temporary weather alteration

  • Curse removal from forests/towns

  • Raising undead armies

  • Teleportation networks

  • Massive performances for large crowds

Theoretical Rituals

• Available from Tier 4

• 10-12 stress

• Difficulty: Nearly Impossible

• No clock: once-in-a-lifetime cast

• Theories have not been tested and may contain errors

• Requires unique artifacts for completion

• Takes significant time

• Consequences can be earth shattering

• May require succeeding a series of smaller Formulated Rituals first

• Examples:

  • Altering the climate permanently

  • Ascending to godhood

  • Reversing death

  • Imprisoning a god

  • Acquiring immortality

  • Reversing a major cataclysm

  • Rewrite history

It's a Ritual World

A possible concern with the above system is how much tracking it requires from either the player or the GM. The number of Clocks used to mark the Rituals that can progress to Master could potentially become unwieldy, but in my experience, those who are wanting to play spellcasters tend to enjoy the greater complexity and tracking.

Whether or not this system would work anywhere else in its current form outside of our campaign or would need more tweaking, I cannot ascertain, though I'd place my bets on the latter, since I developed it specifically for Aefala. I do believe, however, that it would function well as another stepping stone to inspire others to create their own Ritual systems, granting spellcasters the freedom of imagination while still working within the confines of what's possible.

Magic doesn't need to deal a ton of damage to adversaries to earn its place in a system. Let it be wild and powerful and cool in its own way. For those who struggle to create ideas out of the ether, the GM could handle most of the Rituals the players learn. For more creative individuals who might have characters doing deep research into magic and how it influences the world, the player can be given more leeway in designing their own spells, with the GM acting as the final arbiter.

It's a fantastical game of make believe and storytelling. Let the magic actually be fantastical.

Summary of Notable Accomplishments:

• Phase 3 of the Vault Restoration has been completed

• Built With Science:

  • Upper 2

  • Glutes

  • Mobility Routine

• Finished "The Subtle Knife" & started "The Amber Spyglass"

• Transcribed 122.3, 123.1 & .2, all of 129

• Re-imported the first half of Lynn's Session 0 in from Purpose transcripts; 2nd half pending re-transcribing

• Plumber came to fix/replace some pipes

• Began reconstruction of correspondence between Cael and others for Skies Over Aefala

Real Talk:

• Purely a fun question, but if you could wield the power of magic, what would you want to be able to do with it? From Ghibli to Tolkien to Sanderson and (D&D) beyond, there are all kinds of interpretations of what magic is and how it shows up in fantasy worlds. What flavor of magic would you want to harness?

This Week's Obligatory Cat Pic: Mura