Just had my first session and it went down pretty well! Most of it was character gen (I have a very distractable group), but we managed to get through the first scene before one player had to leave.
One question which came up was about Rituals. One of my players is a Whisper, and for her first special ability she has chosen Ritual. We went around the group spit balling ideas for what she could do for her first ritual. It ended up going as follows:
What effect and how is it weird?:
Once complete the ritual can be used to have X people walk through a single wall. It’s weird because it leaves behind a burned image of the person(s) that walks through (my group decided this could be how they leave their calling card when they pull of a heist).
What is needed?:
X human sacrifices where X is the number of people wanting to walk through a wall once the ritual is released. A pentagram drawn in the sacrifices blood, and the bodies to be burned in the centre via electroplasm. (The player wanted to play a murderous and creepy yet “cute” psychopath, this was the result of spit balling amongst the party)
What is the price?:
She feels the pain that would be felt of the people other than herself going through the walls (I.e. feels like bricks are being dragged through her) [level 1 harm: pain (per party member)]
New drive:
Murder.
The question asked was, do they need to make a roll to perform the ritual? Or just gather the materials and say she does it? Is there any further issues such as a stress cost?
I suspect there may be a few rolls involved in obtaining human sacrifices. đ
Good question. Iâm no expert, but it seems to just cost stress based on the magnitude, and then you do it.
Another matter is that it is stated that rituals are usually done as a downtime action, which would complicate a support/utility ritual like that. But a possibility is to do the ritual as a prepared thing before time, and then just trigger the effect when you need it, which again makes it more versatile imo.
Seems like a pretty hefty cost to replicate a move the lurk can accomplish with a few stress. They need to get human sacrifices AND the whisper is taking enough harm to seriously injur him/her? At that point I’d give it to them without a roll or any further cost. As is I think the PCs will start looking for doors or buying some explosives after a few uses.
Mark Griffin Yeah I figured the cost was hefty, but the player really wanted to be a murderous psychopath and this was what the group came up with. I might make a few amendments to make it more fair, any suggestions?
What if it was a “travel trough the ghost veil” ritual, and not just walls? That could make it more evocative and full of story potential instead of just utilitary.
The stress cost should be low (look at the lurk ability for comparison). I’d remove the harm altogether: the pain of passage can be flavor for the stress cost. I’d make it explicit that there is a Heat cost for gathering human sacrifices.
Morten Halvorsen What would travelling through the ghost veil mean exactly?
Will Scott Thanks! I’ll probably end up doing that!
Well, the boring answer is that it will mean whatever you and your players find out it means.
I was thinking of a sort of shadowy demi-plane where ghost roam around in magnitudes. The “physical plane” of the ghost field. The human sacrifice thing could be appropriate as a necessary gateway to enter the ghostveil. I’ll admit I might have been influenced by Stranger Things. But hey, why not steal from the best of sources?
1 stress per party member seems fair (the lurk has to pay 1 stress for just himself using Ghost Veil), but this ritual still seems like small potatoes. In the blood letters game there have been two rituals so far. The first prevented deathseeker crows from noticing any deaths in an entire building for several hours (there were many deaths). The second gave the whisper a permanent familiar with it’s own stress track, and maybe other powers? They’re significant is my point, so let your whisper know he can think big if he’s willing to pay the cost (it seems like he is).
Alternatively, leave the costs as they are and bump up the power of the ritual significantly. Let them pass through lightning barriers. Let them pass through 1 wall per sacrifice. Let them pass through a wall and end up on the other side of the city. In addition to passing through walls make everyone mildly insubstantial and give everyone a free armor box. Let it replicate all the various things ghost veil can do (only do this if no one is playing a lurk). Just encourage your players to think bigger.
Since they pay such a significant cost during the ritual (sacrifices, plus harm) and the effect is pretty certain, when it is used exactly as described I would probably not have them roll at all – it just happens. If there is uncertainty, make a fortune roll or action roll as usual to resolve any uncertainties.
I don’t agree with the one sacrifice per person affected, or the harm which also follows; seems too heavy a cost for the effect given. Consider making it more effective if you keep that cost
This strikes me as an example of spending 10 years and $1B to develop a machine to avoid paying $1M in taxes.