I very much like the DFA ritual magic approach.  But I found it disconcerting that there was a potential for the character to assume conditions and costs without having actually completed the ritual.  That didn't feel, to me, like it was in keeping with how the books presented ritual magic.

So, I propose a couple of tweaks:

First, Separate the potential costs/complications into three categories: 

Pre-Requisites		Activity Costs		Outcomes
components assistance special circumstances		time character Resources special circumstances		altered effects drawbacks attention

The original step-by-step looked like this:
1) Name the ritual
2) Describe the effect
3) Roll for the spell
4) Pay the costs

This could potentially result in requiring a special component (ie symbolic link) or assistance from a higher power/faction after the ritual had been performed.  That seems kind of weird to me.

I propose changing the step-by-step to look like this:
1) Name the ritual
2) Describe the effect
3) Assess the spell costs (roll and negotiate, as usual)
4) Pay the preparation costs (ie, find the symbolic link, petition the higher power, etc.)
5) Perform the ritual (narrative device to indicate that the character assumes the active & outcome costs)

This process would allow for a character to figure out what would be necessary to do a ritual, then balk at the cost and decide not to complete it.     

Is this unbalancing?  I don't think so, but I'm told I get tunnel-vision sometimes.



Your thoughts?



 

The reference for Soulfire is listed under Harry Dresden's character sheet.  I think the rules for Indebting oneself (Pp 117) provide an appropriate framework for what it costs.  I'd suggest that Hellfire acts pretty much the same way that Soulfire does,  but rather than marking off the character's Doomed condition, the player mark off boxes on the Indebted Condition instead.    This will force the character to start committing possibly-deplorable acts in an effort to get rid of the debt... slowly forcing the character down a path of increased destructiveness.    This would probably require the introduction of a NPC who can act as the power-broker for the Hellfire.

The Paranet Papers expanded on the sponsorship contract to allow patron-sponsored power to affect more than just straight attacks...   Might be worth exploring for this, too...

Currently discussing something with a player.

Character is telekinetically "shooting" a handful of iron nails at a Sidhe.  She has performed a 4-shift air evocation for a total effort of 6-shifts, successfully sending the nails flying...  Sadly, said Sidhe rolled poorly for defense. 

I read it like this:
+6 Evocation effort (4-shift effect)
-2 Sidhe defense of +2 (it did bypass the catch, after all)
==============
+4 Effort-Damage
+4 Weapon Value (4-shift declared as effect-power)
==============
+8 shifts Damage

Her player is suggesting that there should be an additional shift because it's Iron, and would do damage anyway.

I'm very tired and not thinking real straight right now.  Am I thinking this through right?

Thank-you for the quick responses.  I accept that some may go faster, some slower as it relates to dramatic tension, but I did feel the need for a baseline conception of the time-frame involved.

@crusher_bob: Your link is awesome.  I'm planning on mining it for some details.  It falls pretty in-line with my own thoughts...

So, I was recently going over some character-generation with someone and came across the fact that Conviction, Endurance and Presence at Superb give an additional Consequence of the appropriate stress-type (Mental, Physical, Social). 

I was of the impression that there was only one set of consequences, regardless of which stress-track fed in to them.  Now, I'm not so sure.  Are there three consequence-tracks of Mild, Moderate, Severe and Extreme or only one, to which the Mental, Physical and Social stress-tracks feed into?

Should it be:

Mental	O O O	Mental Consequences:	O O O O
Physical	O O O	Physical Consequences:	O O O O
Social	O O O	Social Consequences:	O O O O

Or

Mental	O O O	Combined Consequences:	O O O O
Physical	O O O
Social	O O O

It's late and I'm tired.  I looked, but I didn't scour the book.  Still, if I'm able to add an extra Mild mental consequence ranking, I'm thinking that there is a separate consequence track for each stress-element.

What's the official word?

So... I'm a new GM.   Wondering about something I read about rote spells...  

YS 257:
A rote spell... has the same power level, places the exact same aspect, etc. Any change in the parameters of the spell disqualifies it from being a rote.

This is cool.  I get this.  

A caster with Conviction 3, Discipline 2 casting a 3-shift attack spell will consistently pay 2-stress and suffer 1-shift of backlash or fallout.  

But then there's this:

YS 258:
Aspect invocations and other such trickery may be used after the fact, just as if you had rolled a zero and then wanted to invoke something.

So, I must have the same aspects or it isn't a rote spell, but I can add aspects after the fact?  What constitutes after the fact?  Can someone give me an example here?

Hey, I've been up for 30 hours or so...  Not everything is making perfect sense right now...  Any help would be appreciated.