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Rules for Purchasing Rituals through Experience and Freebies
Topic Started: Jan 12 2018, 04:53 AM (5 Views)
TheStranger
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The following is an excerpt from V20 - Rites of the Blood (if you're a magic-type character, I strongly suggest you have this book, as it expands on vampiric magic a great deal) - page 137, specifically.



Quote:
 
Optional Rule: Purchasing Rituals through Experience

The default assumption is that all rituals are free for the player but must be obtained through in-game
activities, whether through research or horse-trading. However, individual Storytellers may not wish to
devote a significant portion of game time to one character’s efforts to learn a new ritual (particularly if
the character is the only blood magician in the coterie and her efforts to learn a new ritual monopolizes
the group’s time). Accordingly, the following optional rules allow for the player (with Storyteller
approval) to simply purchase rituals with experience to represent knowledge obtained during downtime.

For loyalist Tremere, learning a new Thaumaturgy ritual costs ritual level x 2. The same rules apply for
any character who has Necromancy as an in-Clan discipline and who wishes to learn a new Necromancy
ritual. For all characters for whom Thaumaturgy and/or Necromancy are not Clan-favored, the cost is
ritual level x 3. If the ritual is completely foreign to the vampire’s blood magic school, the experience
cost increases to ritual level x 3 for characters for whom Thaumaturgy and/or Necromancy are Clanfavored
and to ritual level x 4 for all other characters, to represent the complications inherent in
adapting foreign rituals.

The Storyteller may require the player to make some additional rolls before allowing the purchase. For
example, she may require him to roll Charisma + Politics to represent his character sucking up to the
Regent of the chantry or Intelligence + Investigation to represent research performed during downtime.
Alternatively, she may require the player to roll his unmodified Mentor or Contacts rating as an incharacter
explanation for how the character obtained the ritual. Assuming these rolls are successful (and
remember, these are matters for Storyteller discretion), the player then need only pay the experience
cost to gain the ritual’s benefits.



We will be using this optional rule with some modifications, so I want to be very clear how it will work in our game.

First and foremost, mortal magic of any kind, including rituals, does not work for Kindred. This includes hedge magic. The fragment of divinity in a human soul (if this were Demon, they'd call it Faith) allows even non-mage mortals without Avatars to make use of things like hedge magic sometimes. Kindred have to make all of their rituals work through the power of their vitae because their souls are corrupted by the Curse of Caine. Mortal magics are closed to all vampires.


So with that said, there are lots of rituals open to the various vampiric forms of magic (Thaumaturgy, Necromancy, etc.). Normally when you start the game with a magic discipline, you know 1 ritual of 1st level automatically. That remains unchanged. However, if you want to start the game with additional rituals, you may purchase those rituals with freebie points according to the following rate schedule. Additionally, if you wish to learn rituals in game using XP, the same rates will apply for XP expenditure.



Base price to purchase a ritual is 2 x the ritual's level.

This rate can be modified by the following factors (these are cumulative):

• If the school of magic that the ritual belongs to (Thaumaturgy, Necromancy, etc.) is not an in-clan discipline for you, increase the factor by 1.

• If the school of magic that the ritual belongs to is not one you possess dots in (i.e. if you have only Thaumaturgy and want to learn a Necromancy ritual), increase the factor by 1.

• If the ritual enacts an effect that is not thematically consistent with your chosen path(s) from your blood magic school (i.e. a ritual that destroys a stake upon piercing your flesh would be considered consistent with Hands of Destruction, but it would be considered somewhat alien to the Path of Technomancy), increase the factor by 1.





Additionally, the following restrictions apply:


• If you wish to learn a ritual from your known school of blood magic by spending points, you may not purchase a ritual of higher level than the rating of your Primary Path.

• If you wish to learn a ritual from a different school of blood magic than one you know by spending points, you may not purchase a ritual of higher level than the rating of your Primary Path -1. [If you have Necromancy 4 and no Thaumaturgy - you cannot purchase a Thaumaturgy ritual higher than level 3].

• If you wish to learn a ritual by spending points and do not have dots in any of the schools of blood magic, you may not purchase any ritual higher than level 1, and that ritual will cost you a flat 5 points.




So, for example, say you are a Giovanni with 3 points in Necromancy (Path of Bones), and you want to learn a Thaumaturgy ritual that causes you to be temporarily immune to blood bonds, a 3rd level ritual. A 3rd level ritual would cost you 2 x the ritual's level, so 2 x 3 = 6 points. However, you are a Giovanni, so Thaumaturgy is not an in-clan discipline for you, so the factor increases by 1, so it's now 3 x 3 = 9 points. But wait, the ritual is also from a different school of magic than the one your possess (you have Necromancy and the ritual belongs to Thaumaturgy), so the factor goes up by 1, so now it's 4 x 3 = 12 points. Oh, wait... it gets worse. The ritual gives you power over Cainite blood (like Path of Blood would do), but path of Bones in Necromancy gives you power over dead bodies, not vampiric vitae, so the factor goes up by 1 more, so now it's 5 x 3 = 15 points. And to top it all off, you can't even buy it because it's a level 3 Thaumaturgy ritual and you only have 3 points in Necromancy, so the highest level non-Necromancy ritual you can learn would be level 2 for now.

Ugh, bad all over, right?

But what if you wanted to learn this same ritual, but you're a Tremere with 3 points in the Path of Blood? You could buy it for 2 x 3 = 6 points because Thaumaturgy is in-clan for you, you know Thaumaturgy and it's a Thaumaturgy ritual, and the effect it generates is thematically consistent with something the Path of Blood would be able to do.


Here's the point. This system gives you some ability to purchase rituals that you wouldn't normally get access to through the course of the game, but the further you stray from what you're trained in and naturally talented at, the more it's going to cost you, and then still there are limits to what you can do.



Now, a word on narrative justifications.

• If you're buying rituals at a factor of 2, then you can get away with saying you figured out the ritual on your own through private study and experimentation.

• If you're buying rituals at a factor of 3, then you can still say you figured it out on your own, but it took a lot of trial and error, hard work, and frustration to get there.

• If you're buying rituals at a factor of 4, then you're going to need some sort of instruction. It doesn't come naturally to you and it's above your head to just figure it out. Someone probably had to help you figure it out, though they don't necessarily have to straight up teach you how it works. Calling in a consult or asking a question of a contact, perhaps?

• If you're buying rituals at a factor of 5, you better have a really good explanation as to who showed you how the ritual works and where you found all the time to do this. It's not impossible, but it needs to make sense. This is a big investment, potentially. But this can make an opportunity present itself that might not have otherwise presented itself.




Lastly, a word on why. Why do this? Sometimes you're going to run across rituals as you play the game, and you can learn them for free from people. Free in terms of points, at least. You'll likely still have to earn them somehow through roleplay. Save the Regent's unlife? Maybe he/she teaches you a ritual in return. But maybe you gain the ire of the Regent's apprentice in the process. Who can say?

This system, however, allows the players to seek out rituals they might want on their own and guide their characters to something that the story might not normally present on its own. That's great, and I fully support that.

I don't, however, support any idea which allows characters to easily step on the toes of another clan/character, at least without some cost associated with it. You want to be a Necromancer Giovanni with Kodunic Sorcercy? You picked the wrong night to not be a Tzimisce sorcerer, then. Sure, you can do it, but it's going to cost you. And while you build your character in that direction to diversify, other characters are making their own decisions. Maybe some are diversifying, as well. Maybe some are specializing. That's entirely up to you and them, and there will be positive and negative consequences across the board. Choose your path wisely.


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