Sep 03 2009
Rituals: Do We Have to Write the Whole Thing?
Yesterday, I wrote about how to detail out a ritual. But do you really need to know every little element in order to use a social or magical ritual? The answer to that is “It depends”. How much detail is required varies with the purpose of the ritual and, of course, the amount of detail that’s been put into the rest of the world. Each use has a bare minimum of details, ones that are absolutely necessary for that use to succeed.
When the ritual is just there as a limiting factor for its associated magic, you don’t really need much: the minimum would be the limitations, whether they’re time, place, material, skills, or whatever else it might be. Without that, it’s not much of a limiting factor, is it? Explaining the basics of how the limitations are used is also useful, but not required, and beyond that everything is a bonus.
On the other hand, if the object of the game is to use the ritual as an cultural characterization tool, detail is going to be important. In general, you can slant the detail towards whatever point you’re trying to make. If what you want to do is distinguish two different cultures or schools of magic, you focus on the points where the rituals differ; if you’re trying to characterize a single culture, you look at the points of the ritual that particularly relate to the culture.
If the point is to give your audience a chance to study the rituals, play up the most symbolic elements. This lets those who have been familiarizing themselves with the legends and components a chance to identify a ritual from observation, hints at how the ritual itself was put together, and can be used to back-extrapolate the uses of a given component or element over multiple different rituals. In addition, symbolic elements are often the most memorable elements; this kind of approach helps keep the image of the ritual in the minds of the audience even once it’s finished.
And then there’s what happens if you’re running/writing a mystery and a ritual plays an important part in the investigation, either as something the characters have to prevent or something the characters have to identify and extrapolate from. If the former, you’re going to want to play up the elements of preparation; this focuses on the requirements of the ritual, and on the preparations that go into those requirements. If someone’s buying up diamonds, making a point of clearing out a significant location, looking for a boy of sixteen born on a full moon, and the characters know this matters, even if they aren’t already trying to prevent a ritual, they’re likely to wise up and start investigating and maybe interfering. On the other hand, if it’s already happened, what’s going to matter most are probably the effects and the remnants—is there still blood on an altar, charred remains of incense in the thurible, remnants of a design in chalk on the floor, cups and bowls drying by the sink or moved from where they were last seen on the shelf? Unless the cleanup was complete, there’s likely to be some sign that the ritual took place, and that part—the parts of the ritual that the characters can pick up traces of—will be the most important for you.
This doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to the minimum, but it’s important to know what not to be missing. People notice holes in the description; know how to avoid them ahead of time!
