Tools and Technomagic (Magic Vegas)

:Excerpted from Ritual Modifiers (Magic Vegas) v60c
====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.