Dealing consequences for rituals.

[Belial666]

A few questions on the matter;

1) Does the way you deal the consequences matter for ritual magic? You could cut someone up and get their blood, organs or life. You could do depraved sex acts. You could torture or cause fear. We know these work. But what about shooting someone to fuel your magic? Would it work? What about a black vampire sorceror? Would crushing somebody's mind via domination fuel your magic? Could you use evocation to kill them if you were a warlock?

2) Does the occasion you deal the consequences matter in a ritual? I.e. having someone sacrificed on an altar or magic circle works. What about killing random people in the street serial-killer style? What about actual combat?

[MijRai]

Well, as far as shooting someone, no. It isn't a ritual to shoot someone, it is disconnected. Not intimate enough. Domination or Evocation might be able to do it, I don't know.
As far as just killing someone in the street, again no. No intimacy, no preparations, etc.

[Belial666]

I want to make a soul-eating abomination that has the ability to eat someone's soul (or part of their souls) and use the energy towards a ritual. Would adding a special enhancement to the soul-eating attack it already has be required?

[WillH]

The only requirement is you accept or inflict consequences. They can be any type of consequence, and you can inflict them any way you want. There is no requirement to be connected or intimate. Magic is a personal thing based on belief, so what works for one wizard may not work for another. A who was raised on B movies or cheesy White Wolf RPGs might think shooting someone isn't appropriate for a ritual and it wouldn't work for him. Another wizard may have no issue there and shooting someone would work just fine.

[devonapple]

A few questions on the matter;
1) Does the way you deal the consequences matter for ritual magic? You could cut someone up and get their blood, organs or life. You could do depraved sex acts. You could torture or cause fear. We know these work. But what about shooting someone to fuel your magic? Would it work? What about a black vampire sorceror? Would crushing somebody's mind via domination fuel your magic? Could you use evocation to kill them if you were a warlock?

I think it would depend on how it was presented. Follow the Rule of Cool: if it would make an entertaining or compelling visual, maybe allow it.

Using Magic to kill sacrifices would be more of a logistical no-no than an actual no-no. Bonus points for driving home those Lawbreaker ranks, but minus points for using up precious Stress to cast Evocations or Mind Magics in the middle of a Ritual.

Personally, I would rule that performing Evocation effects during a Ritual would cause significant disruption to the delicate Spell Construct being created, ending the Ritual.

But with the right Stunts and the GM on your side, perhaps it wouldn't be so impossible. Sponsored magics would also be a good way to grease the wheels and justify such spellcasting excesses.

2) Does the occasion you deal the consequences matter in a ritual? I.e. having someone sacrificed on an altar or magic circle works. What about killing random people in the street serial-killer style? What about actual combat?

As others have noted, magic is greatly delineated by the caster's worldview and style. Again, follow the Rule of Cool.

I can see this being an exciting spectacle for the players to watch and confront: a soul-eating monster gathering power into itself to perform some diabolical ritual, functioning as its own ritual space, running around and committing mass murder with guns and soul-crushing magics to fuel its ritual with dark energies, as the tortured souls of the slain surround it in a winding vortex of keening shadows. Can the players figure out how to disrupt its ritual? Or will it reach critical mass and complete its eldritch purpose?

[MyNinjaH8sU]

Example, if it helps:

My players recently enacted a ritual to bind/exorcise an old Native American ghost/monster from the body of a young girl. It was very time sensitive, and took place within the creature's own Demesne.

The Wizard laid the ground work with a circle made of Ghost Dust. He rolled a declaration with Lore, stating that "He knew what he was going to have to do and prepared accordingly."

The Native American police detective reminded me that her mother was the (supernaturally active) medicine woman on her reservation for much of her life, and began a traditional Ghost Dance to fuel the ritual, adding a maneuver for the Wizard to tag.

Then, the consequences:

One of the characters is a Scandinavian Were-bear of the Viking persuasion. He screamed a battlecry, and opened his wrist, spilling his blood upon the rune-carved stone floor. He accepted a moderate physical consequence, Weak From Blood Loss.

Another character, a soldier from many wars, threw his dog tags on the blood, offering his hartbreak, rage, shame, and very identity into the mix, accepting the mild mental consequence, My Soul Is Bared.

Using all of these bonuses and a liberal amount of Fate he had left over, the Wizard completed the ritual in 2 rounds, while outside the circle the last of the party, a White Court Vampire, distracted the creature, ending up with Exposed Ribs and getting Gutted before they could bind it.

Hope the example helps! 

[Jack B]

A few questions on the matter;

1) Does the way you deal the consequences matter for ritual magic? You could cut someone up and get their blood, organs or life. You could do depraved sex acts. You could torture or cause fear. We know these work. But what about shooting someone to fuel your magic? Would it work? What about a black vampire sorceror? Would crushing somebody's mind via domination fuel your magic? Could you use evocation to kill them if you were a warlock?


2) Does the occasion you deal the consequences matter in a ritual? I.e. having someone sacrificed on an altar or magic circle works. What about killing random people in the street serial-killer style? What about actual combat?

I would say it would work but you have to be careful. For one thing thaumaturgy takes place on a much slower scale than evocation (except of course thaumaturgy at the speed of evocation).  So If you shoot someone you're probably going to start combat time which will not benefit the caster.  Someone with a power to crush another's mind would work to as long as it's not through evocation (like devonapple said, no evocation during thaumaturgy).  Of course if you do either of these actions you need to treat it like a supplemental action (shoot the target or activate your power).  If they're not helpless you need to succeed.  If you fail then it's going to suck.  Say you're at the apex of a complicated spell.  You've got 15 power in it already and you want to put in the last 4 through your target's moderate consequence.  You shoot him but he dodges more than you thought he could (he was just waiting for the end of the ritual and spent a few fate points to tag some aspects), so you are now stuck not being able to fuel the spell as required so either you take a 4 shift hit in backlash or a 15 shift hit from the spell falling apart.