Ritual Magic in the Pentacle Campaign

A lot of magical abilities that you would normally see in a Fantasy High Magic world is not present in
a normal FAGE game. Such as Teleportation, and many forms of summoning. I choose to introduce
this kind of magic as Ritualistic or Cooperative Magic. A ritual need not be found in printed Green
Ronin material. I will handle it as INTENT, what is the intent and then allow a ritual to be designed
for that intent.

Example “Teleportation” is the intent so there would be a T-port ritual. Yet, there could be many
variations on this theme. A focusing of the intent for instance. Teleport any thing in the circle, to
perhaps teleport only those people of a certain bloodline (family); or only teleport elephants, or only
teleport intruders. I hope you get the idea.

Mage’s Circle
The Mage’s circle is the foundation for Ritual Magic. It is the metaphorical window that allows power
into the “intent”. It is rarely used alone, although this would allow grater variety in the use of the
circle, the power is unfocused by the “drawing”. This forces the focus of intent to be done by the
participants. This makes it more difficult on the people doing the ritual. This has two mechanical
effects in the game. More people are required and the TN goes up considerably.

If the intent can be focused by the “drawing” then this relieves the stress on the participants and
eases the power flow. Therefore the magical circle usually has “points of contact” from the center, the
“focal point” to the edge. This allows the circle to be focused.

Think of it as a window used to heat a bowl of water. Just letting the light in through the window
may heat the water but, it will consume a lot of power, much of it not “aimed” at the bowl to heat the
water. But say someone now uses a magnifying glass to focus the light to a point in the water. It will
heat much faster, this speed would depend on the size and focusing power of the glass.

Magic circles will work the same way. The more geometrical, the more shapes, symbols that are used
to focus the power the greater things that can be accomplished. Also, the greater the chance for
mishap as things get to complicated.

I fully intend not to design specific circles to specific tasks. This I leave to the designer of the
“Intent”. So some circles may do the same thing but look different because of the number of
participants and or the “intended” effect.

Basic Circle example. Remember this type is almost never used.

Examples follow of well thought out circles with focused drawings. The more complex the greater the
focus, but also the greater the chance of introducing a flaw. Flaws will allow the circle to have a
mishap, which is totally under the GM’s purview.

3 points of contact – meaning 3 “people” used to do the ritual. Many lines of focusing the power.

4 points of contact
5 points of contact

6 points of contact

8 points of contact, this is usually the limit as the circle becomes to complicated, and to easy to
mess up.