Common Rituals

[Sanctaphrax]

It's possible to cast rituals without a Power, using the Common Ritual trapping of the Lore skill.

But nobody seems to do this. Or at least, I've never seen anyone do this.

So...have you ever used a common ritual?

My theory is that most people ignore common rituals because they aren't fleshed out in the rules and no cool examples exist. And because their most prominent users are inexplicably statted as actual spellcasters.

But I could be wrong.

[Ophidimancer]

Granted I only have experience with my own game, but I haven't ever seen it used nor used it myself, though I have possible theories about it.  I would model very basic stuff like Butters making an empowered circle as a use of that Trapping, though I think it would model better as just a Maneuver and an Aspect Compel against ephemeral creatures.

[ways and means]

The common rituals we saw in the universe were actually pretty powerful, If I remember correctly there was a +20 shift entropy/ outsider summoning curse which was carried out by non practitioners in one of the books.

[Sanctaphrax]

According to OW, that was a normal ritual. Or at least, the people who did it have the Powers for a normal ritual.

Which seems really odd to me, honestly.

[Mrmdubois]

Yeah, Butters seems like the best example.

(click to show/hide)

If you've read Ghost Story he also seems to be able to draw up the schematics for more advanced stuff but can't actually perform them himself.

Common rituals are probably stuff like blessings, mundanely executed exorcisms and the like.  They require calling on an outsid power to affect things on the metaphysical level.

Calling up HWWB in Blood Rites could possibly be considered a common ritual if it weren't for the rule book example and the fact that the people performing it were practitioners.  Harry says stick in the quarters get the result.  Maybe the practitioners for that ritual were using their power to substitute for some of the ingredients that would have been "quarters.". Complex common rituals could possibly also be modeled with debt, since they require some power outside of the caster and are essentially pledging a variety of allegiance in exchange for the effect.

[Mr. Death]

We haven't had any, unless you count a valkyrie making a circle or two (she's got Rune magic, but not regular magic).

Yeah, in Dead Beat, Butters is definitely using Common Ritual. But by

(click to show/hide)

Ghost Story, I wouldn't be very surprised if he had Ritual (Crafting) on his stat block.

[UmbraLux]

"Common ritual" is just a trapping for gaining temporary spellcasting powers.  If you've used temporary access to Ritual you could have phrased it as a common ritual. 

Don't think we used it for anything more than a defensive circle - but that may be partially because most of the arcane books the group grabbed as loot were related to necromancy.  They did use the one on wards though. 

[admiralducksauce]

With a lack of actual spellcasters in my game, I let players roll Lore for basic effects, kind of like what they get up to in Supernatural.

[Sanctaphrax]

Calling up HWWB in Blood Rites could possibly be considered a common ritual if it weren't for the rule book example and the fact that the people performing it were practitioners.

It's the definitive common ritual, I have no idea why the heck they gave those two characters Ritual.

Thomas is that one side story does something common ritual-esque too.

Anyway, it looks like they do get some use. Just not much.

Also the rules for common rituals do differ slightly from the normal temporary power rules.

Is anybody else slightly surprised by the fact that common rituals use Conviction and Discipline? I figured from what Harry says that they require no real strength or talent.

[Mrmdubois]

I would think Discipline and Lore make more sense.

Lore would be knowing what to use and how.
Discipline for keeping the right mindset during the ritual.

Conviction I would take out, just think of all those stories where they're doing a ritual for kicks and holy crap a demon!

Although there are also plenty of examples of at least one of them really believing.

Only Madge should have had Ritual in the HWWB example, she was the only one with a talent, she typically loaded the "gun" and had two others one to aim and the other to pull the trigger.  Although obviously she felt confident she could do the whole thing personally.

[Mr. Death]

I think in that case, it was that the practitioners were able to control and direct it better. The one of the three had no real talent, and when she was directing the spell it was random and unfocused and ended up A. giving Harry time to deflect it, and B. resulted in things like waterskiers being hit by trucks and poultry descending from the heavens.

[Sanctaphrax]

Then why do all three of them have at least one spellcasting Power?

[Mrmdubois]

Because the rule books aren't always consistent.  Come on, that's a frequently reoccurring topic.

[UmbraLux]

Also the rules for common rituals do differ slightly from the normal temporary power rules.

Is anybody else slightly surprised by the fact that common rituals use Conviction and Discipline? I figured from what Harry says that they require no real strength or talent.

Common rituals use the "temporary access" rules from YS289, not the temporary power rules.  Though there are similarities.

As for skills used, I'm not convinced any thaumaturgy requires strength or talent.  They just need declarations.  That's one issue with those rules.  :/

[GryMor]

Common rituals use the "temporary access" rules from YS289, not the temporary power rules.  Though there are similarities.

As for skills used, I'm not convinced any thaumaturgy requires strength or talent.  They just need declarations.  That's one issue with those rules.  :/

To perform Thaumaturgy safely takes a modified discipline of 5, be that from raw talent or having done enough preparation, above and beyond that needed for complexity, that you have tags and aspects to handle the low rolls. To do it quickly without melting your brain, you also need reasonably conviction. To do it really quickly takes high conviction and a willingness to eat consequences just to control it.