Ritual Magic

Ritual Magic in GURPS is both a system and a skill and should not be confused with Magic Rituals, a component of basic spell casting. The system requires the learning of the Ritual Magic or Thaumatology skill.

Ritual Magic (system) in 4e

Magic use depends on a single “core skill,” typically Ritual Magic or Thaumatology . Each college of magic is an IQ/Very Hard “college skill” or “path” that defaults to the core skill at -6. College skills have the core skill as a prerequisite and may never exceed the core skill.

The main difference from normal magic is ritual mages can cast spells at default. Each spell is a Hard technique with a default to the associated college skill. For each prerequisite the spell or its prerequisites would have in the standard system, the default is at a cumulative -1 (e.g., a spell with one prerequisite that itself has one prerequisite defaults to college skill-2). To raise a spell past its default level, the mage must have at least one point in the college skill, but he can ignore the spell’s prerequisites under the standard system. Spells cannot exceed the associated college skill.

Magery adds to core skill, college skills, and spells.

In a setting where standard and ritual magic coexist, normal Magery and Ritual Magery are separate advantages.

Ritual Magic (system) in Classic

Ritual Magic appeared in Classic: Spirits and was a generalized version of GURPS Voodoo's magic system and was not dependent on mana (a point hammered home by the fact Magic Resistance provided no benefit) Rather it used Power Investiture, Divine Favor, or the spirits did the magic.

Related advantages were:

• Mystic Symbol [10/level]: A mystic symbol is an object that acts as a focus for your will.
• Ritual Adept [10/level]: One can ignore the need for some or all of the components of ritual magic. For each level in this advantage (up to a maximum of three), a person can ignore the need for one ritual magic component, chosen when they perform the ritual.
• Ritual Aptitude [1/level] A person is particularly gifted in performing ritual magic. Most people have a -5 penalty to skill when performing rituals, but each level of this advantage buys off 1 point of penalty, up to a maximum of 5 levels, which allows the person to perform ritual magic at no penalty.

Ritual Magic (skill)

This skill requires specialization

Ritual Magic (IQ/Very Hard) is a skill whose details have changed from Classic to 4e.

• In Classic it had No Default and Must Specialize as criteria in basic set
  • in Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game the need to specialize was overlooked though: no specialization was mentioned in NPC examples or the skill description
• In 4e it has Religious Ritual (same)-6 as its default though it retains the Must Specialize requirement.
  • note that this would make the Overspecialization quirk possible if allowing Optional Specialties, like for example "one college" or "non-casting". This normally changes -2 to -5 (extra -3) but since the starting point is -5 defaults, this would change it to -8: "this extra -3 also reduces related skill defaults."

"The equivalent skill for the more direct, flashy magic of fantasy is Thaumatology; knowledge of religious rites associated with a tradition is Religious Ritual."

In both versions Ritual Magic specialties default to one another at -5.

The Wildcard Skill equivalents are College!, Magic!, Theurgy! (Power Investiture), and Wizardry! though each wildcard skill has advantages and disadvantages when compared with the Ritual Magic skill.

Defaults note

Defaulting note: Religious Ritual defaults to Theology (same).

It is possible to have a generic non-specialized version of Theology called Theology (comparative) listed "alternatively" to the "must specialize": it is NOT a specialty in the way GURPS uses the term.

While Religious Ritual (comparative) much less Ritual Magic (comparative) cannot exist Anthropology (Comparative Religious Ritual) and Thaumatology ("Universal") most definitely do and effectively fill the same roles But neither of them are the skill Religious Ritual defaults from.

For those skeptical that someone would have IQ-6 skill in ALL theologies (how do you even know stuff about religions you never heard of) one might consider that it should take a similar approach to Thaumatology where there is no default in it if the subject (magic, or religion) doesn't exist on your world, or you're not aware of it existing.

For this reason "Comparative" could be the only skill with a default, because "Theology of any religion routinely studied by scholars in your game world" defaults to that skill. If you can't process religion, ANY religion rolled against this might have Incompetence -4 penalty.

For someone who's never heard of religion, an exception could be made to the "no double defaults" policy: instead of lacking all the other religious skills, you would default them at -5 to the IQ-6 default (IQ-11 to understand) even if you haven't put a point into Theology (comparative).

For those who know slightly more about some religions than others (but not enough to have an entire point dedicated to it) they could use Dabbler to buy up defaults from Comparative as a starting point.

• a full point is needed in Theology (specialized) to actually default Religious Ritual from it though
  • similarly a full point is then needed in Religious Ritual to default Ritual Magic from it
    • just as a full point is needed in Ritual Magic to default "Path of X" skills from it

The "no double defaults" rule isn't entirely necessary though: if it was allowed then the penalties would add up to such extremes that they would function like a soft cap for people with realistic IQ levels, only adding utility to those who are inherently geniuses like IQ 40+

• especially since there's a rule where the default you enjoy in a skill only benefits from IQ up to 20

Additional Material

• Ritual Magic for GURPS Fourth Edition (04/07/2006)
• GURPS Thaumatology
• Paths and Books - also known as Ritual Book Path

See also

• Technique Mastery
• Initiation - Classic: Voodoo varient.