Ritual Magic for OSR-style games

"Ahu Akivi Trio" by gregpoo is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

"Calling something ‘ritual’ is a sort of a joke amongst archaeologists" (1) It's easy to understand why. Without the context of how finds were used, who made them, or what daily life was like, it's easy to say that anything out of the ordinary was that way because of ritual use. If our ancestors spent time to carve detailed human figures on the ivory handle of a flint knife then it must have been to honour the Gods, right? (2)

Perhaps not everything out of the ordinary held ritual significance, but we definitely have the feeling that our pre-historic ancestors did an awful lot of odd things which would make more sense if their lives were steeped in mysticism and ritual magic. Classic examples might be Stonehenge, the pyramids of Egypt and Central America, or the Moai stone heads of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.

In RPGs that use Vancian magic systems (3) there is a sense that spells are cast by consuming their pattern which was memorised by the spellcaster at the time of preparation. For Clerics and Magic-Users the system is pretty similar, although each has requirements specific to their own form of magic, which is also expressed in the form of different spell lists. Clerics pay homage to Divine or Immortal beings and receive spell-casting abilities, whilst Magic-Users study the hidden machinery of the Universe to unlock arcane secrets which they store in their spell books.

This "every day" magic is great for roving adventurers, who may be sleeping in taverns, camping out under the stars, or resting quietly in dark corners of dusty crypts. However, it doesn't explain some of the more long-lived or powerful dweomers which are often portrayed in campaign settings. For example in the E of BECMI Magic-Users, Clerics and Elves could create new spells or magic items through magical research, the cost of which was time, money, and rare materials. Boiling down this to the essentials we can see that there is a sense in which greater magical feats may be achieved through "sacrifice" of physical (money and materials) and metaphysical (time) assets.

One thing about this system frustrates me, it's entirely a bookkeeping exercise. I would much prefer ritual magic to require creativity on the part of the players, as well as provide hooks for potential adventures to obtain rare materials. I used to have great fun "LARPing" at the Gathering (4) and similar events. In their Ritual Magic system players had to get a group of a dozen or more contributers and put on a 10 to 20 minute show as well as potentially sacrificing magical items or regular spell casting power to provide sufficient fuel to power the desired magical effects. Conforming to the in-setting magical rules as well as being entertaining to watch provided bonuses. A judge would score the ritual using a hidden set of criteria, and the ritualist would learn later what the effect of the ritual was. The system proposed here takes elements from this to give a guide to Referees introducing ritual magic into their OSR-style games.

Sympathy, Theatre, and Sacrifice

Each of these categories are scored from zero to a maximum of the level of the character leading the ritual, hereafter referred to as the ritualist. In regular settings I would expect that only primary spell-casters like Clerics, Magic-Users, and Elves would be able to lead ritual castings, as always at the Referee's discretion. This gives a Ritual Score from zero to three times the level of the ritualist.

'SYMPATHY' is how well the theatre of the ritual and the sacrifice used to power it conforms to the in game magical rules of the setting, up to a limit of the ritualist's level. For example if the crystal core of an Earth Elemental is used to try and create a flying sailboat, and the ritualist's player spends the whole time explaining how cool similar creations are in their favourite anime, forgetting that they are playing in a grim, dark-ages style setting then this score would be particularly low. Conversely, if they had bottled an Air Elemental to be housed within the ship's tiller, and described how they were imploring the divine beings that control sky, storms and trickery to look favourably on their working, they may well score well here.

'THEATRE' is a score of how entertained the Referee and other players were with the ritual performance, up to a limit of the ritualist's level. Rituals should be marked down here if they take too much time at the table without holding the attention of the players. Referees could open the scoring of this up for contribution from the Players, being conscious that some unscrupulous players may lean to awarding high marks here to help the ritualist along. (Or low marks to spite them!)

'SACRIFICE' should be scored as the HD of monster, including special ability bonuses, it would probably take to obtain the item, creature, or power sacrificed. For example if a heart of an evil dragon were being sacrificed, then the HD of the dragon it came from would be the Sacrifice score used up to a limit of the ritualist's level. Referees may wish to give some thought as to how many relics of powerful monsters they feel can be used to power rituals, I would suggest only one from each killed.

Ritual Difficulty Classes

The ritualist will state before the ritual what they would like to accomplish and the Referee will assign a one of three difficulty classes to the desired magical effect:

'SIMPLE' for effects which do not impact the game greatly and are in keeping with the daily responsibilities of the caster's class and level. For example: a Cleric asking for their divine patron to bless the village harvest, reducing the chance of incidental blight or unseasonal weather; a Magic-User enchanting the broom in his study to sweep the floor clean each morning; or an Elf calling forth ancient recipes and subtle magic to bake a batch of waybread.

Simple effects require a Ritual Score of at least the half ritualist's level.

'UNREMARKABLE' for effects which have game effects, but would not seem strange for a caster of the ritualist's class and level to accomplish. For example: a Cleric blessing a graveyard or crypt so that bodies laid to rest within cannot be raised as undead so long as regular prayers are said in the adjoining temple; a Magic-User enchanting a writing desk, pen and ink to copy any book laid upon it into a provided blank tome; or an Elf performing a ritual around the boundary of their forest home which enlivens the trees to whisper a warning to the elves when non-elf humanoids cross the threshold.

Unremarkable effects require a Ritual Score of at least the ritualist's level.

'EXTRAORDINARY' for effects which are at the upper limits of what a caster of their level could expect to accomplish, and have significant in game effects, any creation or effect which is permanent without intervention is likely to require an extraordinary casting. For example: a Cleric blessing a reliquary or holy icon to allow non-Clerics wielding it to Turn Undead as a Cleric of the ritualists' level; a Magic-User creating a summoning circle which bars summoned spirits from escape unless they bargain services or secret knowledge to the ritualist; or an Elf enchanting a crystal flask of pure spring water to shine with the light of the dawn whenever uncovered.

Extraordinary effects require a Ritual Score of at least twice the ritualist's level.

Conclusion

At the heart of this system is the idea that it should be interesting and entertaining, not just for the ritualist, but for the whole group. Ritual Magic should require time and effort, but provide interesting and free-form rewards for the PCs and their communities.

Please have a go with this and let me know how you get on.

References

(1) https://www.quora.com/Do-archaeologists-have-a-tendency-to-simply-label-artifacts-of-unknown-purpose-ceremonial
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebel_el-Arak_Knife
(3) https://dungeonsdragons.fandom.com/wiki/Vancian_magic_system
(4) https://lorientrust.com/

Primitive Tools and Materials

“Halaf style female figurines Mesopotamia or Northern Syria 6000-5100 BC Louvre Museum”
is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Looking at the Neolithic Period in the history of mankind on Earth (1), we can see that there were many materials used for tool and weapon manufacture. Flint, of course, may be the first one that comes to mind, as flint artefacts have best survived to the modern day. Translating this over to a fantasy world, however, creates many more options. Here I list out the materials that I think could be useful for Neolithic explorers in a fantasy world, then next time some of the ways these materials could be used within OSR d20 based systems.

I think it’s important to say that primitive does not equate to simple. The ingenuity of our Neolithic ancestors was primarily limited by the amount of effort it was merely to survive. The reason I am most interested in telling stories in this epoch of a fantasy world’s development is seeing how inquisitive players can shape the development of religion, culture and magical understanding.

Stone

There are many different types of stone which would be useful to people at a Neolithic stage of advancement. Flint can be knapped using a harder stone to form very sharp edges. When dulled from use they can be chipped down to form smaller but still sharp tools. Using glue made from pine resin or tar made from burnt tree bark small flakes of flint can be attached to wooden shafts to make composite tools like arrows, or hand scythes for cutting grasses or crops. Bone or antler can also be used as a punch to break off very small flakes, these can also be embedded in wood to make composite tools.

Clay and its uses are an important discovery of the Neolithic period. The ability to form wet clay into complex shapes, or to imprint pictures or letters into its surface and then harden it by baking often marks a transition from a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a more sedentary agricultural one. Compared to wooden tools, clay pottery is bulky and fragile, but treated well can last much longer. In a fantasy setting it may also be the first opportunity for permanent writing to allow arcane magic to flourish. Clay tablets of spell formulae could form the very first Magic-User spell books.

Sedimentary rocks like sandstone or limestone could be quarried using harder stone tools and used in constructing buildings or as crude tools for working soil or pounding fruit or grains.

The hard stones used to work flint or sedimentary rock were often jade, basalt, greenstone or granite. The hardness of these igneous rocks meant that they were not easily formed into complex tools. They could be polished by lapping them with abrasive stone and water. Polishing would make the surface more resilient by smoothing off potential fracture points. These polished tools could then be used to work sedimentary rocks or flint or attached to handles to make hammers or axes.

Wood

As with stone, there are many types of wood, and even more uses for them. Perhaps the most important use of wood is as fuel for fire (2). Control of fire allows people to stay warm, ward off predators, cook food, work and play into the hours of darkness and to process various materials using heat and flame. For example, sticks that have been dried and hardened at the edges of a fire are much more resilient to compression and can be used to dig soil as hand ploughs. Also, stones that have been placed within the extreme heat of fires can often be cracked apart more easily for tool making.

Wood is probably the most versatile and easily worked material available to Neolithic people and the mastery of working wood with stone tools is likely to be a highly prized skill set. As mentioned above when discussing the use of stone, wood can be used in many composite tools, often as in handles and shafts.

The mastery of shaping and using wood is likely to have been developed prior to the settling of people at the beginning of the Neolithic period. This is because working wood can be done quickly and the end results are relatively light, both these factors would be favoured by nomadic or semi-nomadic people.

Antler, Bone, and Horn

These three similar materials can be used in a variety of different ways, in most cases they are likely to be collected as by-products of hunting or the slaughter of livestock. Antler is an exception to this as stags shed their antlers each year (3), so, in a fantasy world, similar creatures could plausibly do the same thing. All these organic materials share very good hardness and durability, allowing for very sharp points or resilient gouging tools. Unlike wood, they are not found as long, straight, sections, so they are most easily used as small or composite tools, perhaps combined with wood.

Because of their hardness these materials can also be used in the extraction or working of some types of stone. This means that craftsmen can use the by-products of a core activity instead of having to spend additional time gathering material simply to use in the extraction of other material. It is innovations like this which allow Neolithic people to save more and more time as they advance technologically, contributing to the increase in leisure time or specialisation of members of the population away from activities necessary for survival, thus allowing for more music, art or learning.

Skins, Furs and Hide

In a similar way to Antler, Bone, and Horn; Skins, Furs, and Hide are by-products of the core activities of hunting or the slaughter of livestock. If the core race in your fantasy world does not possess fur of its own, then leather and similar materials would allow clothing to be made which would allow expansion beyond the tropical-type regions such creatures would likely evolve (4). Whilst on Earth the use of skins for writing upon didn’t originate until around the Bronze Age, it could be that this developed instead of or alongside writing upon clay tablets.

This could allow an interesting “what if?” scenario to be played out. On Earth the Middle and Near East was the area which saw the earliest development of schools of learning, with mathematics, literature and complex bureaucracies all being seen here first. This may have been because of the early use of baked clay tablets to record language. If inks and parchment was developed first instead, would more temperate or cold climates have seen the first such civilisations?

Wood may be the primary versatile material for rigid components of tools and utensils, but animal hide provides a very versatile material for flexible components. In addition to clothes and parchment, hide could be used in building temporary or more permanent structures, or in making bags and harnesses for carrying things.

The discovery of substances which could tan hides, like faeces or tannin from trees, could lead to rudimentary chemistry, and is made more possible in non-nomadic communities.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Revolution
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_fire_by_early_humans
3. https://sussexpast.co.uk/learning/learning-at-lewes-castle/prehistory-what-is-it/antler-pick-neolithic
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_hide_materials

10 by 10 by 10 Creation Stories

"Bowl Depicting A Human-Headed Winged Quadruped, Possibly Buraq" is licensed under CC BY 3.0 

1d10	What came before?	Who or what?	To what end?
1	Nothing	A tremendous creature laid an egg	Understanding
2	Chaos	In a battle two giant creatures smashed things apart	Survival
3	Pure Light	A force for order pulled the elements together	Love
4	Pure Darkness	The first person awoke	Order
5	Fire	Two siblings competed with one another	To be the best
6	Ice	An unlikely love between two different beings	Unstoppable creativity
7	A great featureless plain	A benevolent spiritual patron	As a weapon
8	The eternal forest	The trickster stole something	A superior being took pity on lesser beings
9	Endless ocean	A collision of continents	To escape or set right an injustice
0	The sun-scorched desert	A gift from the heavens	To escape destruction

Three examples of creation stories from the table above:

442 Pure Darkness, The first person awoke, Survival

Before the first people woke up from the great sleep there was only eternal night. As the people woke up with the dawn of the world they found that their land was dangerous and full of predators. Many of the first people fell off cliffs, died of cold, or were eaten by great beasts before the greatest of them discovered ways of shaping the world to their needs. Stone spearheads were used to slay the beasts and the people put on the claws of the beasts to help them climb the cliffs, and wore their skins to keep warm in the night. The first fears were defeated by the dawn of the people's ingenuity.

931 Endless Ocean, A force for order pulled the elements together, Understanding

A vast stormy sea was all that there was before the grandfather of woodpecker convinced the great fiery mountain to climb high up out of the waves. The grandfather of woodpecker had found some seeds floating on the currents and had rescued them from being swallowed by the ravenous fish. He planted the seeds in the black sand of the fiery mountain's shores and trees sprouted up. This land would become our home, the first land born out of the ocean by the strength of the fiery mountain, and the woodpecker's need for trees to peck. Thus it is that we understand that there is a place for all things, even if we must work hard and get help from volcanos and seas so we can peck at wood.

087 The sun-scorched desert, A trickster stole something, As a weapon

Before there was any green in the world the sun burned down upon the earth and turned the mountains to sand. One desert spirit was tired of being hot and dreamed of drinking the clouds, so they made for themselves a tower of sand and rock. For countless centuries the spirit worked at their tower, forever being called silly by the other desert spirits for wanting to change the reality of endless burning heat. Eventually, the tower reached up to the sky and the spirits of wind and cloud spoke kindly to the desert spirit but warned them that they will have to blow down the tower for bringing the earth up to the sky. The desert spirit explained that the earth had been where it always was and asked if the wind and clouds were confused to be flying so low. This pushed the wind and clouds higher and higher until they crashed into the sun. The clouds burst and the winds were scattered bringing rain and lightning. The desert spirit's tower crashed back to the ground, but where there was once desert now was the first oasis and they felt the rain on their face. Having been up high in the sky the desert spirit had become immune to the effects of wind and cloud, but the other desert spirits weren't. For calling the tower builder silly they were melted by rain and buffeted by wind, no longer the powerful spirits that they were, they must follow the commands of the great spirit that climbed. That great spirit became our protector and even now you can hear their laughter booming across the sky whenever there is lightning, reminding all the other spirits of their power.

If you use this table and have any feedback, or want to share your experience of using it, please email them to primevalepiphanies@gmail.com.

Code for the generator was created using the tools at paperelemental.blogspot.com