Editing Rising Sun Eternal: Magic (section)

=== Powering the Ritual ===


The description of a ritual should outline the type and number of personal attribute points that must be sacrificed to provide mental energies that fuel the supernatural effect.

The most common form of sacrifice is Willpower Points – to create relatively minor effects might only require 5 or 6 WPs; a substantial effect might require 15; a vastly powerful effect might require 30; and a truly cosmic-level effect might need 100 or more WPs. 

When a Protagonist makes a deliberate sacrifice of WPs, check to see whether the new total carries any effect upon him or her. In particular, remember that reaching a WP total of 1 or 2 indicates a mental collapse of some kind, and reaching 0 WP causes unconsciousness.

Whenever a sacrifice of WP is called for, a participant in the ritual may always choose to sacrifice points of permanent POW instead – each such point is equivalent to 10 WPs for the purposes of fueling a ritual. Such sacrificed points do not refresh, but Protagonists can attempt DOWNTIME activities to try to get some back.

Some rituals also call for a sacrifice of Hit Points, either from the participants or from elsewhere (animal, human, or other living entity). Note that Protagonists who knowingly harm another person, or even cruelly harm or kill an animal are likely to be subject to Sanity loss due to VIOLENCE (see page 66). So are any other participants in the ritual - if they are from cultures that do not accept the principle of sacrifice of living beings to deities or spirits.

Depending on the nature of the specific ritual, it may be possible for several people to cooperate in the performance. For especially large effects this may be the only way to generate enough mental energies. While the leader of the ritual must have learned it in full (using the process described in the previous section), helpers can be instructed through simple notes and rote learning. Each assistant chooses for themselves how many points of attributes they will sacrifice.