Learning a Ritual
A ritual is a process that causes the human mind to intersect with powers beyond, activating an unnatural effect. To mentally stable individuals, ritual instructions are nothing more than chicken-scratch. Using one elicits no effect. A core belief in the effect’s possibility is necessary for it to manifest. That usually requires a terrifying disconnection of the human mind from everyday reality.
Rituals are most often learned from books. Most books that purport to be grimoires of magic are nothing but nonsense and superstition. One that has truly powerful secrets is a dangerous prize. Such a tome might have dozens of rituals of genuine power, or only one.
However many rituals a given book may contain, each ritual must be learned individually. There is no shortcut to “learn the whole book.”
TIME AND STRESS: Each ritual has a study time and a Stress cost. To learn it, an Agent must devote the study time and fail a Standard Willpower test, suffering the book’s listed Stress loss. From then on, the character can attempt to activate the ritual and has a rough understanding of what it does.
This study time must be uninterrupted and without serious distraction, and with all required resources at hand. In some cases, a ritual can be learned only if the student also has a particular skill.
If the Stress test succeeds, the Agent gains nothing, failing to grasp the reality of the ritual. The Agent may try again as many times as the player likes, each time devoting study time and attempting to fail the Willpower test. If the Willpower test fails, the Agent loses the appropriate Stress , but learns the ritual. Without failing the Willpower test, learning a ritual is not possible. You may understand the process of it, but not the reality. You don’t fully see the truth of the ritual, only the ravings of the lunatic who wrote it.
Penalties to Willpower tests, such as intoxication or fatigue, rarely apply when it comes to learning rituals. The Willpower test for learning a ritual represents a long period of study, experimentation, and weird thought, and depends on the Agent’s innate connection to unnatural realities, not on temporary conditions. That kind of penalty could affect a roll to master a ritual that takes only a few hours to learn, but only if the Referee thinks it’s appropriate.
Many rituals require weeks or months to learn. Those can be learned only between operations as home pursuits, instead of more beneficial pursuits like going to therapy or fulfilling the Agent’s day-to-day obligations. Some rituals take only days or even hours to master. At the Referee's discretion, those could be learned in the middle of an operation.
COMPLEXITY: Some rituals are simple (concentrate on a symbol of power), while others are complex or even elaborate (ritualistically kill 60 people, trace pat- terns in the dirt for two days, and then recite 12 pages of runes). A ritual’s complexity determines its approximate study time. Mastering an especially elaborate ritual may also increase the operator’s Unnatural skill.
The Stress for learning a ritual usually depends on the complexity, but is up to the Referee. It depends on the power of the ritual and its source. An identical ritual can be easier to learn from one tome than from another.
The complexity of a ritual is most often related to the ritual’s power, but not always. Especially clear and concise instructions might make even an extremely powerful ritual simple. Or, more likely, the scribblings and scratched-through notes of a madman may make even a trivial ritual frustratingly complex.
Rituals are most often learned from books. Most books that purport to be grimoires of magic are nothing but nonsense and superstition. One that has truly powerful secrets is a dangerous prize. Such a tome might have dozens of rituals of genuine power, or only one.
However many rituals a given book may contain, each ritual must be learned individually. There is no shortcut to “learn the whole book.”
TIME AND STRESS: Each ritual has a study time and a Stress cost. To learn it, an Agent must devote the study time and fail a Standard Willpower test, suffering the book’s listed Stress loss. From then on, the character can attempt to activate the ritual and has a rough understanding of what it does.
This study time must be uninterrupted and without serious distraction, and with all required resources at hand. In some cases, a ritual can be learned only if the student also has a particular skill.
If the Stress test succeeds, the Agent gains nothing, failing to grasp the reality of the ritual. The Agent may try again as many times as the player likes, each time devoting study time and attempting to fail the Willpower test. If the Willpower test fails, the Agent loses the appropriate Stress , but learns the ritual. Without failing the Willpower test, learning a ritual is not possible. You may understand the process of it, but not the reality. You don’t fully see the truth of the ritual, only the ravings of the lunatic who wrote it.
Penalties to Willpower tests, such as intoxication or fatigue, rarely apply when it comes to learning rituals. The Willpower test for learning a ritual represents a long period of study, experimentation, and weird thought, and depends on the Agent’s innate connection to unnatural realities, not on temporary conditions. That kind of penalty could affect a roll to master a ritual that takes only a few hours to learn, but only if the Referee thinks it’s appropriate.
Many rituals require weeks or months to learn. Those can be learned only between operations as home pursuits, instead of more beneficial pursuits like going to therapy or fulfilling the Agent’s day-to-day obligations. Some rituals take only days or even hours to master. At the Referee's discretion, those could be learned in the middle of an operation.
COMPLEXITY: Some rituals are simple (concentrate on a symbol of power), while others are complex or even elaborate (ritualistically kill 60 people, trace pat- terns in the dirt for two days, and then recite 12 pages of runes). A ritual’s complexity determines its approximate study time. Mastering an especially elaborate ritual may also increase the operator’s Unnatural skill.
The Stress for learning a ritual usually depends on the complexity, but is up to the Referee. It depends on the power of the ritual and its source. An identical ritual can be easier to learn from one tome than from another.
The complexity of a ritual is most often related to the ritual’s power, but not always. Especially clear and concise instructions might make even an extremely powerful ritual simple. Or, more likely, the scribblings and scratched-through notes of a madman may make even a trivial ritual frustratingly complex.
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