Meeting Complexities

[computerking]

A few questions about Meeting the Complexities of a thaumaturgical spell:

I understand that you can do a “mini-scene” and set up aspects via declaration to meet the complexity of a spell, but I’m a little foggy about how far you can go with that. Can you do this multiple times per Skill, or are you limited to using any particular skill only once? Also, does a declared Aspect roll for a ritual have to net enough successes to be Sticky so it stays around beyond the initial “tag” (I'm assuming that the free tag is represented by the +2 boost toward meeting your complexity requirement)?

This last question may be a little bit off topic, but if any of those aspects are Sticky (irrespective of the answer to the above questions), do they remain on-scene during the ritual, available for Fate point Invokes in case a control roll fails?
These answers will greatly help me visualize how Thaum works, so thanks in advance.

PS, one more question. Are those same aspects available for antagonists to invoke for Effect? ("Oh, he's using Oil of Palm for his ritual? How about he spills a little and slips in it on his next control roll!")

[Richard_Chilton]

Most times casting a spell is a scene, not part of one.  It's the caster and his assistants (if any) off alone...  A great example of that is near the start of Proven Guilty where Harry takes step after step after step to get just the right mindset for the spell - then the phone rings and he loses all those aspects he was going to tag as he answers the phone.  That's the shift from the "Harry casting the spell" scene and the "Harry and Molly talking" scene, and none of the aspects survive.

Rich Neal, one of the early playtesters (he has his own entry in the index) did up a great list of examples of ways to generate aspects to tag.   He gives 5 possible aspects for each skill and type of consequence and reading those can get your mind working on others.

The list is at:
http://www.rickneal.ca/?p=639

Actually, if you go to http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/downloads/ you'll find 17 - 19 well written articles from his blog that really help explain the game.

Richard

[UmbraLux]

A few questions about Meeting the Complexities of a thaumaturgical spell:

I understand that you can do a “mini-scene” and set up aspects via declaration to meet the complexity of a spell, but I’m a little foggy about how far you can go with that. Can you do this multiple times per Skill, or are you limited to using any particular skill only once? Also, does a declared Aspect roll for a ritual have to net enough successes to be Sticky so it stays around beyond the initial “tag” (I'm assuming that the free tag is represented by the +2 boost toward meeting your complexity requirement)?

I don't think the book limits it to one aspect per skill - but I tend to do so.  Specifically, I request a limit of one aspect per skill from each character.  It prevents endless versions of "Focused Mind", encourages use of skills which may not be your primaries, and forces teamwork for truly complex spells.  The last is important to me...I don't want one character taking significant amounts of screen time away from the others and I prefer to avoid single character "I win" buttons.  The group might still create that 40+ shift "I win" spell, but it will be a group effort!

This last question may be a little bit off topic, but if any of those aspects are Sticky (irrespective of the answer to the above questions), do they remain on-scene during the ritual, available for Fate point Invokes in case a control roll fails?

Most have to be sticky.  Thaumaturgy is time consuming - a fragile aspect probably won't be around when they get around to actually powering the spell (and using the aspects).  So yes, they should be around to spend fate points on...and to be compelled.   

A smart wizard will try to set up a couple of extra aspects to assist with unexpected casting complications.  That helps since wizards tend to be terminally low on fate points. 

These answers will greatly help me visualize how Thaum works, so thanks in advance.

PS, one more question. Are those same aspects available for antagonists to invoke for Effect? ("Oh, he's using Oil of Palm for his ritual? How about he spills a little and slips in it on his next control roll!")

Yes...they're valid compel targets.  Antagonists may be able to use them, that tends to be situational.  After all, they may not even know the wizards is casting a spell.

[Vairelome]

crusher_bob has a set of Thaumaturgy tweaks and house rules that I really like, and would recommend as an augmentation/clarification of the RAW.

http://dresden-sanfran.wikidot.com/sample-thaumaturgy

He uses a time/skill-based limit on Declarations that I'll summarize briefly.  In 5 minutes of ritual preparation, you can make one Declaration for each skill you have at Great (+4) or higher (Great Conviction?  1 Conviction Declaration).  In a few hours of ritual preparation, you can make skill-2 Declarations per skill (Superb Lore?  3 Lore Declarations).  If you have days to prepare, you can make a number of Declarations per skill equal to your rank in that skill  (Fair Scholarship?  2 Scholarship Declarations).  More details at the link above.

[Sanctaphrax]

I generally let people make as many Declarations as they want with each skill. But the difficulty of the roll involved increases with each one.

I'm not certain about aspects sticking around to be invoked later, but I figure they probably should. More interesting that way.