Ritual Modifiers (Magic Vegas)

v60e Chapter 2 continued
=== Ritual Modifiers ===
Magic is the defining feature of a Magic Vegas campaign, and rituals are the defining feature of the path magic system, distinguishing it from the standard magic model with modifiers that represent time and effort, at least, and roleplaying opportunities at best. However, that can go too far and get in the way of play, so this campaign abstracts some potential modifiers to Symbol-Drawing skill. Otherwise it uses the standard modifiers of elements (time, space, and tools), parameters (Complexity, Damage, Duration, and Area or Quantity); magical “laws” (contagion, sympathy, and names), sacrifice, assistance (from acolytes or initiates); and the new mechanic of Skepticism. The Ritual Plan (Appendix III) summarizes these modifiers, but a few require special attention: 
Identification: Anyone can bestow a name (“full legal name”) good for a +1 bonus or a secret name good for +2, if the one so named accepts it. In fact, knowing any unique secret about a subject is good for the +2, and that includes a social security number. A DNA sequence gives +3 (see below for how to get one), and note that the sequence – the data – is separate from the sample itself, for instance blood or saliva, which gives a contagion bonus. A true name gives +4 and must be awarded by Religious Ritual skill either upon a willing Believer or upon a blood relative of the namer. A deep Secret (represented by the disadvantage) is also worth +4. See the Ritual Plan (Appendix III) for a summary of other modifiers. A target can also be indicated by pointing, by a less specific name like a nickname, or by circumstance (that guy in the salon wearing a hat) at no penalty. 
Ley Lines: If a location lies directly between a pair of sacred spaces that confer +5 to ritual magic of a given tradition, then that location confers +1, a 20-year head-start on further consecration. If it happens to reside on a nexus directly between multiple pairs, each confers +1. General knowledge of ley lines comes with Thaumatology (or a relevant Expert skill), and many are mapped or subtly marked for a knowing eye, but in the absence of such clues, finding the position of a ley line requires Mathematics (Surveying). 
Pathos: A form of Sympathy generated by harm, granting +1 to affect any target that the magician has injured, +2 to affect any target he has permanently crippled, and +3 to affect the ghost or corpse of anyone he killed. He can also assign a True Name to the ghost of anyone he’s killed, and this makes it an Allied Spirit of his tradition (see below), giving it the ability to understand his language. 
Sacrifices: A small libation (spilling a drop of wine) or the like is often de rigeur; a sacrifice must have a value of at least $10 to confer a +1 bonus (incense, bottle of booze), incremented for each order of magnitude up to +4, for instance, +2 for an expensive bottle of booze or small animal, +3 for a large animal, +4 for a prize bull. Human sacrifice doesn’t count against the usual limit of +15 for bonuses from all sources, and typically gives +5 but may be +6 if high quality (virgin of marriageable age) or just +4 if feeble (including a late-term abortion). Traditions which eschew material sacrifices (mostly Monotheists) still get a bonus for spiritual ones, +1 per 5 points in Disciplines of Faith. Sacrifices are never necessary; when magicians talk about magic having a cost, they’re referring to the dedication their lifestyle requires, but all traditions have some notion of a multi-fold pay-off for the effort. 
Supernatural Assistance: While spirits have supernatural powers, they can’t use Ritual Magic, because flesh of their own is necessary to establish a channel for magic to flow into the world. At best, the ghost of a magician can teach magic to a living heir or coach him through a ritual (granting a bonus, typically +1, as usual for assistance), or perform ancillary functions like Symbol-Drawing; likewise, Luck or Visualization with the enhancement Blessing can affect the ancillary skill rolls but can’t affect path skills directly. A ghost who can’t materialize can still perform Symbol-Drawing with the aid of a careful assistant who rolls against Will or any suitably meticulous skill like Housekeeping to get it right; otherwise deduct the margin of failure from the spirit’s Symbol-Drawing. 
Mystic’s Stupor: Some magicians utilize intoxicants to make Belief easier, such that while the Affliction penalizes most actions, it provides a slight benefit to magic (Afflicted Casting from Magical Styles, p. 21). The actual mechanic is to halve the penalty to magic caused by drug-induced Afflictions (rounding down), but give a like bonus to Will, no net modifier for Tipsy but ±1 for Drunk, Euphoria, or disorienting Hallucination. Two levels of Magery, less 1 for the Affliction, accompanied by +1 bonus Wills, works out to a net +1 bonus for a 5-point metatrait (the “Drunk” lens found in Appendix I), cheaper than any other means raising effective path skills. By sustaining certain rituals that raise his HT, alleviate Affliction penalties, and heal damage faster than he self-inflicts it, a magician can utilize this method continuously with little fear of the consequences most addicts would suffer (until an enemy Dispels these protective measures). Drunken Fighting (from Path of Heroes as described below) doesn’t stack with the bonus from Grace, but it still alleviates the penalty for intoxication. House rule for heroin: Doses less than required for complete incapacitation cause Euphoria (1hr), followed by Drowsy (2hr) and Nausea (3hr), double duration for HT below 11. 
==== Symbol-Drawing ====
The law of sympathy applies to more than the subject of a ritual; it also applies to the effect that ritual has and to the manner in which it is executed. The skill of Symbol-Drawing represents these applications of sympathy and typically includes the scribing of symbols, for instance a magic circle and the sigils within it, but it’s not limited to that and may include the placement of candles, sprinkling of holy water, stabbing a likeness of the subject for a curse, or otherwise deploying the contents of a ritual kit or workshop. In particular, for traditions where astrology matters, it incorporates holidays (don’t apply a separate bonus). All dates are propitious for something (every day is a feast day for some Catholic saint or other); the trick is to incorporate that something in a beneficial manner. In any case, the net benefit for rituals is half the margin of success. 
The base time requirement for Symbol-Drawing is half an hour, but taking extra time gives the usual benefit (+1 for 1hr, +2 for 2hr, +3 for 4hr). A well-stocked workshop grants +2, computer-aided ritual design grants +1 or +2, and an Equipment Bond with a ritual kit grants +1. Clerical Investment is itself a symbol, granting +1. Assisting skills depend on the tradition but could include performing arts (Dancing, Singing, or Musical Instrument) or ritual vices (Carousing, Erotic Art, or Gambling). Actually, rituals may involve many such acts, as they’re a good way to involve acolytes, but the GM decides which yields the bonus if successful. In lieu of effective Symbol-Drawing, such a skill may provide a +1 bonus to the ritual directly. 
==== Tools and Technomagic ====
Just like technology, magic requires tools. Ritual kits follow the usual rules: $400 and 2 pounds for a “mini” toolkit consisting of the symbols for Countermagic and each channeling path, meaning that each symbol costs $50 and weighs on average ¼# counting its container. Each path symbol is the bare minimum to perform a ritual of the corresponding path, at -2, but a Fine symbol ($200) halves the penalty and a Very Fine symbol ($1,000) wipes it out. A full portable kit costs $1,200 and weighs 10#. It includes all the components of a mini toolkit plus additional symbols sufficient to perform rituals at no penalty, even the Path of Allies, and it can also be used for Religious Ritual and Symbol Drawing, and in conjunction with Alchemy, it can be used to identify an elixir without consuming or activating it. Otherwise, successful Scrounging may permit the use of Symbol-Drawing at -2. In conjunction with a portable kit, a Fine or Very Fine path symbol yields a net quality bonus of +1 or +2. A well-stocked workshop costs $15,000 and weighs a ton (filling several trunks when moved), but it gives a +2 quality bonus to Symbol-Drawing skill, and it includes a portable kit with a set of Very Fine path symbols. An Equipment Bond Perk with a path symbol benefits its path, and one with a full kit benefits Religious Ritual and Symbol-Drawing. 
	Labs: A suitcase lab costs $3,000 and weighs 20# but allows the use of either Esoteric Medicine or Alchemy at no penalty; otherwise, a well-stocked kitchen (or the wrong kind of suitcase lab) gives -2. A full lab for either skill costs $30,000 and weighs a couple of tons but gives a +2 bonus for quality (or no net modifier to the alternate skill). Adding a mini PCR machine for DNA analysis costs $3,000, but a Biology (Genetics) or Electronics Operation (Medical or Scientific) roll yields from any biosample a +3 Name bonus for rituals (while a Forensics roll may be required to collect and prepare the sample without contamination). 
	Grimoire and Formulary: In order to perform a ritual (or prepare an elixir with Alchemy), a magician must follow the steps. Performing a ritual or preparing an elixir by memory, without a cheat sheet, incurs a -2 penalty (not cumulative with the -5 for fast-casting) unless the magician benefits from a Photographic Memory or has raised the ritual from default as a Technique. The -4 penalty for non-familiarity is likely to apply as well! Steps of a ritual are distinct from those of preparing an elixir, recorded in grimoires and formularies respectively, so a magician might well have access to one version and not the other. There’s no technical reason why this information can’t be stored electronically and copied for negligible cost (but there may be social reasons why the hierarchs of a tradition restrict the distribution of some or all of their lore). Assume that magicians can get a comprehensive database for $500 per path (or just $50 for a single ritual or formula). Encoded or purely symbolic representations stored as image files cost no more to reproduce. 
Computer-Aided Ritual Design (CARD): Theoretically, automated ritual elements can give a +1 or +2 bonus to Symbol-Drawing skill (which grants a bonus to rituals in turn). These needn’t be modern; a wind or water-driven prayer wheel can give such a bonus. However, software on a portable computer may be a little more practical, and it incorporates a Grimoire database. Complexity 3 grants +1 for $1,000, and Complexity 4 (the best that can run on a high-end laptop at TL8) grants +2 for $3,000 to Symbol-Drawing skill with respect to a particular path (except Path of Heroes). Similar elixir design (CAED) programs are available to assist Alchemy and incorporate respective Formulary databases. A conventional laptop that can run Complexity 3 programs costs $1,000, but one that can accommodate Complexity 4 programs costs $20,000.
Graphical User Magic Interface (GUMI): Mechanical aids can also assist with conditional rituals, making it easy to specify complex conditions on multiple effects. An abacus might serve for a weather-working ritual, each row controlling an aspect such as precipitation, windspeed, temperature, electrical activity, and diameter: move more beads along the row to magnify each variable. A mixer like this allows an operator to use a relevant skill to control the effect, or multiple effects, with precision. It’s a good way to edit the “whitelist” of spirits allowed to pass within a Ward, or to choose a preset or independently adjust things like eye, hair, and skin color with a ritual of Guise. In a modern context, a mixer is likely to be software running on a smartphone (using Computer Operation skill). The sophistication of the program actually makes it easier to set the conditions in the first place: Reduce the penalty for complex conditions by the Complexity of a general purpose program (to a minimum of -1): $300 for Complexity 2, $1,000 for Complexity 3 (the best that can run on a high-end smartphone at TL8). A conventional smartphone that can run Complexity 2 programs costs $100, but one that can run Complexity 3 programs costs $2,000. 
Expert Ritual Control Software (ERCS): Reduce the penalty for a conditional ritual to a mere -1 when it will be controlled by a dedicated expert system, where “dedicated” means that a separate program is necessary for each ritual. In this case, the magician depends upon the expert system to make all relevant decisions with an effective IQ equal to twice the program’s Complexity, plus 4. It could control a Phantom to make it act like a real person, without the magician having to concentrate. Therefore, the program must have access to sufficient input to evaluate trigger conditions, such as the video, audio, and positioning system that a typical smartphone provides. For instance, a bodyguard carries a smartphone with a dedicated app for a conditional ritual of Conjure Flame, and he keeps the camera and microphone turned on. When his principal is attacked, he shouts the activation phrase, and the app covers the area in flame, as if an incendiary grenade had gone off, but miraculously it doesn’t burn the “friendlies” with RFID chips. The program is Complexity 3, so it has an effective IQ 10 for necessary decisions, like centering the effect where it will encompass as many attackers as possible, or failing that, the most threatening attackers, and over-riding the exemption if a chipped employee is one of the attackers himself. Again, a Complexity 2 (IQ 8) program costs $300, and a Complexity 3 (IQ 10) program costs $1,000, while a Complexity 4 (IQ 12) program costs $3,000, but the smallest computer on which it can run costs $20,000. 
==== Skepticism ====
When people see magic done, they are naturally Skeptical, unless they have some form of Magery or the corresponding Belief, or unless they don’t recognize it as magic at all. Skeptics impede magic, imposing a base -5 penalty and a further penalty equal to the square root of the number of Skeptical observers. Thus, a single Skeptic imposes a -6 penalty. This counts as a parameter, meaning that assistant magicians can alleviate the penalty. Circumstances can cause spectators to suspend or intensify their Skepticism; for instance, they may think that the real magic is actually stage magic, reducing the penalty, perhaps to naught. Religious Ritual or Public Speaking skills can make a crowd receptive (or resistant) to witnessing a miracle, and remote spectators can rationalize the unbelievable as a camera trick. Sometimes effects are obvious, but not obviously magical; for instance, some people are beautiful, so seeing a woman whose beauty is the product of magic doesn’t trigger Skepticism. Whenever a magician performs a ritual with a long-term effect, note the margin of success; should he ever face a skepticism penalty higher than the bonus, the effect subsides. That said, if the effect itself doesn’t provoke Skepticism, but its sudden cessation would, then Skeptics can actually sustain the effect beyond its natural conclusion, preventing a Phantom from disappearing or trapping a magician in Skinchanged form.
Skepticism is an active but subconscious and instinctive defense against magic. It is active in that the Skeptic must be aware of the magic on some level. He is always subconsciously aware of any magic of which he is the subject, and his Skepticism may protect him without his conscious knowledge, just as he’s not consciously aware of his immune system fighting germs. He’s also aware of any magic that produces a bizarre effect visible to the senses. For instance, a magician showing up in the form of an eagle won’t provoke Skepticism, but a magician in the process of transforming would. At the very moment the supernatural thing starts, Skepticism kicks in, meaning that if it’s effective, the Skeptic will never see the magician transform and never know that his own Skepticism prevented it. He may have caught a glimpse of a beak-like nose or feathery hair, and when he blinked it was gone, remaining beneath his conscious notice. People often witness incredible events, like at a world-class athletic competition, and when they do, their Skepticism kicks in, but it doesn’t have the same effect on natural weirdness as on the supernatural kind. 
In the absence of Skeptics, a camera can record the magic, but of course the film doesn’t prove that “real” magic happened instead of stage magic. A neutral third party could set up an experiment with too many cameras to fool and promise not to watch, but it wouldn’t matter. He’d be aware that this specific instance of magic was happening, even if outside his line of sight, and his Skepticism would oppose it. 
Willpower determines the strength of Skepticism; Will 12 counts as an extra Skeptic, imposing -7 all by itself. Will 15 counts as 2 extra and Will 18 as 3 extra, but Will 8 or less as one fewer. In the case of only weak-willed Skeptics, the penalty is but -5. Remember that intoxication penalizes IQ and hence Will, so even a large crowd of drunks may impose but a modest penalty. 
Most magicians have learned to suppress their Skepticism fully and habitually, though they can defend themselves with Countermagic (and resist with high Will). However, some are Believers in their own tradition only; they can take Skepticism toward magic of other traditions as a Perk. 
===== Reasonable Denial =====
Consider the extraordinary individual who initiates himself into magic. He’s seen something he can’t explain, looked for answers, found something too incredible to accept and yet it’s the only thing that fits. So he’s spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours researching ancient lore, wrestled with mind-blowing concepts to tame his own Skepticism, and attempted numerous rituals that only left him feeling foolish, yet he persisted and finally made the magic happen, some effect that clearly violates the laws of nature as understood to science, for about 10 minutes at the tail of a 3-hour ritual. Elated, he calls his best friend, the one person who won’t think he’s crazy, for a demonstration. He barely succeeded the first time, and with the penalty from Skepticism, blows it. 
Or maybe he doesn’t blow it. What then? A bigger demonstration, of course. He’s going to revolutionize science with his discovery. He impresses a journalist; the article gets reprinted by a national outlet; and now the world’s watching. Disaster. At some level, the audience always gets big enough to make magic impossible, and even before that point, Monotheist or Rationalist saboteurs will get wind of it. That’s why perfectly reasonable people can deny magic exists at all. 
===== Variant Belief Quirks =====
Some people who aren’t devotees of any particular ritual tradition still accept aspects of the supernatural, with variant Quirks such as Believes in Ghosts, Believes in Psychics, or Believes in UFOs. These variants still negate Skepticism when the Believer is aware of aught supernatural that seems consistent with his Quirk, even if the “UFO” is a manifest spirit or the “psychic” is a Gypsy magician. 
==== Religious Ritual ====
While Ritual Magic influences the world without, Religious Ritual influences the world within, which is to say that its main function is psychological. It can be used instead of Ritual Magic to consecrate a workspace for rituals, but obviously anyone capable of rituals will be able to use Ritual Magic. The reason a non-magician would want to do this, when he can’t make use of consecrated space for magic himself, is to deny magicians of other traditions the ability to do so as well, at least in his church. As mentioned above, it’s the skill used to bestow a True Name, although Ritual Magic yields a poor default, so a magician can get by without Religious Ritual skill at all, but there are a couple of reasons he might want to learn it. 
The first is disguise. Skepticism is an instinct, but a Believer trains himself to suppress that instinct in response to certain cues, and Religious Ritual provides those cues. Belief accepts a certain tradition, that is, a Ritual Magic specialty, and specialties for Religious Ritual correspond to those of Ritual Magic. To fool a Believer in tradition X to accept Y, use the lower of Religious Ritual X in conjunction with Ritual Magic Y (and a penalty per GM fiat if he thinks the traditions are widely disparate in their ritual practice). 
Generally, the advantage of Believers is that they don’t interfere with magic, not that they actually help, but they can serve as acolytes. A trio of acolytes give a +1 bonus to rituals, +1 for each doubling of their number, subject to the usual maximum of +15 for all bonuses to a ritual but also subject to a maximum equal to the margin of success on a Religious Ritual roll. The coordinator of the acolytes need not be a magician. Of course, any Skeptics among the acolytes can wipe out the benefit, so Aura Reading the participants in advance is a good idea. Because of the general maximum, acolytes aren’t much use with a strong connection to the target (name, sympathy, and contagion), but they can make up the difference in a ritual affecting a class of targets like all occupants of a certain hotel. 
==== Alchemy ====
==== Use this skill (specialized by tradition) to delay activation of a magical effect. Besides the obvious benefit of having prepared magic available for use at short notice, this is a convenient way to package magic for custom and realize economies of scale; see the section below on Commerce and Prices, specifically Commissioning Elixirs. ====
Preparing an elixir takes an hour, modified as usual for haste or extra time, in addition to whatever time the ritual itself takes. The intended subject (or object) must be exposed to the elixir, typically by consuming it, or anointing his skin, but it is also possible to make a flammable pastille (or cigarette) which affects those who breathe the smoke. In this case, an unintended subject might be exposed to the elixir, in which case it can still have an effect, but bonuses for contagion, sympathy, and name won’t apply. Compare the margin of success of the Alchemy roll against the ritual parameter table for duration; that’s the shelf life, and the clock starts on actual duration of the magical effect once it takes effect, 1d seconds after exposure. This makes field alchemy iffy, good for immediate consumption only, but routine circumstances grant +4 as usual, so a typical magician can usually manage a week, and professionals deliver a 3-month shelf life. Preserve Food doesn’t work on elixirs (because magic can’t enhance magic). 
Modifiers for tools apply, ranging from -2 for a kitchen to +2 for a special-purpose laboratory. A well-stocked Alchemy lab will have the necessary ingredients on hand with a roll against the Housekeeping skill of whoever maintains it; otherwise they’ll cost $25 per dose. For a skillful magician or one with assistants, this can be a real bargain: Prepare a large batch of elixirs with a single ritual, taking the corresponding penalty for Multiple Targets, and activate that ritual piecemeal. For this purpose, a single individual counts as a new target each time he consumes an elixir, even from the same batch. Ingredients vary by ritual and may be scrounged, grown in a garden, or found easily in a well-maintained lab, or they may only be available for purchase in bulk such that a single dose can't be made more cheaply than a large batch; $25 is merely the average. 
Consuming the elixir requires a HT check at +2; failure indicates an irritating condition consistent with the margin of failure for 1d times ten minutes, for instance coughing on failure by 2, nausea on failure by 3, severe pain on failure by 4. (This is a mundane effect of bizarre unregulated ingredients, so magical HT bonuses apply.) Whoever consumes an elixir becomes either the subject or object of the underlying ritual, specified at the time of casting. For instance, an elixir of Lust could cause the drinker to feel lust toward or to inspire lust in the first person of the opposite sex with whom he makes eye contact. 
==== Spellslinging ====
A typical duel arcane is a slow-moving affair, with each participant seeking to learn the name and obtain sympathetic and contagious connections to the target, then performing rituals in private to overcome the defenses of a distant foe, or perhaps one magician aspires to curse a target while another protects him. However, some duels with magic look more like a gun fight at 20 paces. Fast impromptu rituals take a -10 penalty, half for lack of time (just 1d turns) and half for lack of consecrated space. Furthermore, there’s no time to use a ritual kit or Symbol-Drawing or even to learn the subject’s name, but assuming he’s present, sympathy grants +4, and there’s no net penalty for tools with a Very Fine path symbol. Fast-Draw it to save a turn and smash it as a sacrifice for +3 more (unless you practice strict Disciplines of Faith). This nets a roll at -3 less the ritual’s base difficulty and target’s Skepticim, assuming no other parameters, requiring a Fetish on standby to sustain the effect for any duration. Casting on self grants +7 for contagion and True Name, net +4, a better bet in the face of high base difficulty or Skepticism. To be truly proficient fast-casting a difficult ritual, improve it as a Technique. 
Daredevil is invaluable for the would-be spellslinger, granting +1 and protecting against critical failure, and luck is valuable for multiple shots at a low target, but Adept isn’t available (because it’s a Supernatural Advantage other than Magery). With high skill, the right advantages, a spellslinging duel is feasible, but most magicians resort to the Path of Heroes (abilities like Power Blow) or elixirs when they need magic urgently. 
Desperate Measures: Fast casting takes penalties and may be subject to Skepticism, so anyone attempting must be good at it, or maybe not: The penalties can reduce skill to the point where critical failures become likely. While this is never a direct benefit to the magician, it can potentially invoke any combination of worldlaws accessible to the source path, perhaps over a large area, and a magician familiar with that path might be able to find an opportunity in these conditions. A character with Daredevil may waive his protection from critical failure and even use his +1 bonus to shift the result on the critical failure table should one occur.