While the essence and fluff of magic remains the same, the practicalities of magic in this game were designed primarily for the Summit. As such many of them will work differently for player events. The only one that will remain unaffected is Blood Magic as it has no direct effect on resources or projects.
Flavour wise, these differences are due to magic being amplified in the presence of the Leyline convergence and also magic is a finicky bitch that doesn’t always like working the same way.
Petty Magic
As with the main Summit rules, a lot of magic exists beneath the abstraction layer. This holds true here. Small bits of magic are absolutely allowed and anything in the skills can be flavoured as being magical to an extent.
Binding and Oaths
With there being no projects to make worse, the consequences of breaking an oath should instead be much more personal or centralised. An easy way is to simply give a harsh roleplaying effect or curse to the oathbreaker though you may also consider escalating dangers of your plot (this can be difficult to manage however). Binding magic should never lose its true potency so do not be tempted to just let broken oaths slide. The effect should always be quick, decisive and obvious.
Divination and Omens
Due to these intending to be player run, there is obviously no option for characters to collect a set of cards to get a question about the setting. We instead encourage any game runners who intend to use divination cards to instead use them to give clues and hints about the story they are telling. If you still like the idea of a set to be collected then we first encourage a smaller set to collect (a 3 x 3 grid rather than 4 x 4) and allow only questions that pertain directly to the event or an npc that you are running. They can be a very fun way to seed plots.
We suggest that characters with the Investigator skill start the game with a randomly selected Omen card hinting at your chosen plot.
Energy and Leylines
It is highly unlikely that a true Leyline convergence with all four types will appear at your event. Play around with just one, two or three colours and how these would interact with the setting of your event. Remember that the elements are metaphysical as much as they are literal. Perhaps a place of great bloodshed has a fire line tearing across it, or perhaps the ruins of a factory or technological centre is circled by an earth line.
As there are no projects or resources and oblation tokens cannot be gained, leyline alterations should be specific to what you want to do for your event. For example, perhaps there are certain ritual spells that need certain leyline attunements so the players must seek out a strong leyline point or convergence to do this. Whatever the case is, create a custom sequence of pulls required to shift the setting for your event in some way.
We encourage the use of jenga but understand that this is not practical for all setups so simply encourage that it should be some form of physical puzzle for the players to solve in a variety of ways. Give the players the chance to mess up with the leylines, collapsing them. Use this as an opportunity to escalate the plot, give negative roleplaying effects or generally make things worse.
Fixing the leyline should involve a ritual with somewhat difficult to get resources. Make it possible but impractical to do repeatedly.
Petty Rituals
As oblation tokens do not last between Summits, most rituals are not available to be cast. You can instead find a list of petty rituals at the end of this document that will interact with the skills system. Each skill will give players access to two rituals related to that skill, there will also be five general rituals that are available to everyone. A player can only cast each ritual once per day. All players can cast all general and skill rituals they have access to.
Feel free to introduce your own rituals for specific things to your event but ensure that they are limited in scope e.g. a ritual to bring a tree to life should only work on this specific tree not every forest in England. This is easy to do with ritual texts that you can give to players.
General Petty Rituals
These rituals are available to all players.
Raise the Bloodied Wards
Requirements: Spilled blood, 4 wardstones, presence of an Architect
Effect: Creates a two metre by two metre ‘safe zone’ that monsters cannot enter. Multiple casting can be done to create linked squares (they must have separate wardstones). These safe zones must be clearly marked by wardstones at the corners. The safe zone lasts for one day.
Petty Curse
Requirements: Something belonging to the target (curse takes effect when it is returned)
Effect: Curses a target and gives them one of the following roleplaying effects:
- Curse of the Beastial Voice: “You struggle to form coherent sentences longer than a few words long. You prefer to communicate in grunts, growls, barks, or other animalistic noises”
- Curse of the Rosehip: “You are constantly uncomfortable and itchy no matter what you do. You struggle with any tasks that require sitting still or concentration.”
- Curse of Pantalaimon: “You experience intense distress if you stray more than 5 metres from a specific person (chosen by caster)”
The curse lasts until the end of the event. As per these rules, curses cannot be removed except with the Create Izanagi’s Purifying Waters ritual (see below in Primordial Rituals) but you are free to introduce an item that can do this. These items do not work on permanent Summit curses.
Forge the Guiding Star
Requirements: Presence of a Traveller, a crystal (that must be left at the sight of the beacon)
Effect: Places a magical beacon that the ritualists will always know their way back to. Beacons last for one day.
The Restless Chime
Requirements: Salt that is placed in a line across the opening, a bell
Effect: Creates a magical alarm on an opening (such as a door or window) that alerts the ritualists when an individual crosses it. A password may be set that, when said aloud before hand, will not trigger the alarm. The alarm lasts for one day.
Whisper on the Wind
Requirements: A written message, a feather, dust
Effect: Quickly sends a message of up to 50 characters to a named PC or NPC at the same event. The other person cannot reply (unless they perform their own version of the ritual).
Combat Petty Rituals
These rituals are only available to those with the Combat skill.
Forge The Resilient Shield
Requirements: A piece of armour, presence of a Survivor, stone
Effect: Casting this ritual gives the subject three uses of the call ‘Deflect’ for the rest of the day. This negates the damage of a weapon before it hits armour. This does not work against environmental damage.
While you still have a use of ‘Deflect’, you gain the roleplaying effect: “You feel it is your responsibility to protect the others around you.”
Forge the Quickened Blade
Requirements: A weapon, presence of a Killer, blood
Effect: Casting this ritual gives the subject three uses of the call ‘Pierce’ for the rest of the day. This allows a target to ignore armour when hitting them with a weapon. This does not ignore the ‘Deflect’ call.
While you still have a use of ‘Pierce’, you gain the roleplaying effect: “You revel in the spilling of blood.”
Crafting Petty Rituals
These rituals are only available to those with the Crafting skill.
The Ringing Hammer’s Rhythm
Requirements: A tool, a raw material, presence of an Architect
Effect: Casting this ritual gives the subject three uses of the call ‘Fix’ for the rest of the day. This allows the user to immediately repair a piece of broken armour by touching it.
While you still have a use of ‘Fix’, you gain the roleplaying effect: “You are convinced that you can fix anything and anyone if only you have enough time.”
Seek the Knowledge of Hephaestus
Requirements: A broken object, an oath to repair it, presence of a Visionary or Architect
Effect: When this ritual is cast, the ritualist will be able to learn exactly what components are required to fix a broken object that they are holding.
Healing Petty Rituals
These rituals are only available to those with the Healing skill.
Call Upon Miach’s Wisdom
Requirements: Presence of an Innocent, clean water, a flame
Effect: Casting this ritual heals all Injuries in a 2 metre area. If used on an Incapacitated person they will become Injured instead.
All people healed in this way gain the roleplaying effect: “You feel as though a great weight has been lifted from your shoulders.”
Touch of Chiron
Requirements: Medicinal plants
Effect: Casting this ritual gives the subject three uses of the call ‘Heal’ for the rest of the day. This allows the user to immediately fix an Injury by touching the affected person. If used on an Incapacitated person they will become Injured instead.
While you still have a use of ‘Heal’, you gain the roleplaying effect: “You feel the pain of those you heal as if it is your own.”
Investigation Petty Rituals
These rituals are only available to those with the Investigation skill.
Revelations within the Ashen Coils
Requirements: Presence of a Spy or a Visionary, a written question agreed on by the ritualists, smoke.
Effect: The ritualists may ask the plot team any one question about either an object they are holding, an npc they are with, or an area that they are in. The question may only be answered with ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Unclear’. The answer must be truthful.
Don the Seeker’s Guise
Requirements: Presence of an Explorer, a compass, a drawing of what they are searching for
Effect: When casting this ritual, the ritualists will name an object they are looking for. Specificity can range from ‘a spoon’, to ‘a red diamond with three scratches on the left corner’ but the qualities described must be inherent to the object itself. A ritualist cannot request ‘the last thing Tom was holding’.
Once the ritual is complete, the plot team will tell them the location of such an object if one is within the area of the event. If multiple versions of the same object exist, then they will be told the presence of the nearest one.
Primordial Petty Rituals
These rituals are only available to those with the Primordial skill.
Create Izanagi’s Purifying Waters
Requirements: Clean water
Effect: The caster instils their inhumanity into water and washes away all roleplaying effects or curses upon a single target.
The target gains the following roleplaying effect: “Something hollow exists within you now and you are unsure if it will ever be filled.”
Extend the Protections of Revelation
Requirements: Ribbon
Effect: The caster may choose up to two targets. While they are touching them with a hand, the target is immune to environmental or magical damage and roleplaying effects. As soon as touch ends on a target, the protection ceases for that target.
After the protection ends, targets gain the roleplaying effect: “You feel that you have made contact with something unnatural and unknowable.”
How to Make a Ritual
The two important things to think about when constructing a ritual are the requirements and the effect. All rituals must have requirements to incorporate, whether this is components or the presence of a specific Archetype, the players must always require tangible things to cast.
The effects of rituals must always be specific. A very clear direction of X does Y. If you want to create mystery, you do not need to automatically reveal the effects of these rituals to the players but you must have them properly worked out beforehand.
When naming a ritual, remember that they are named by people living in our world (up to 2004). They are allowed to reference pop culture of the time, real world historical events or occult literature. Think about what YOU would name a ritual.