Ritual Elements in GLOG Magic

This is an adaptation of some bits from my Slow Ritual Magic I posted a few months ago.

In base GLOG, wizards get extra Magic Dice from wearing a wizard's robe or using a magic wand. This is fine, in my view—it adds incentive for wizards to not just be wearing armor all the time—but I think it can be done one better. This is a post about using rituals in your GLOG game: ceremonial, performative procedures done to increase magic power. 

There are three things that contribute to the power of a ritual: the site, the trappings, and the performances. 

RITUAL SITES

Sites are physical locations, or aspects of a location, that contribute to the ritual of the spell. For each of the following that's true, add +½ MD:

• You are on hallowed or desecrated ground
• You are in a circle of standing stones (or a square of carved obelisks)
• You stand under the light of a full moon, or the dark of no moon
• There are mystic runes and glyphs permanently etched into the floor beneath you
• The ritual is performed in front of an abnormal plant, such as a tree with a face carved in it
• The ritual is performed as part of a longstanding and important festival, holy day, etc.—one that's been occurring regularly for at least 100 years
• It is the witching hour
• You are at a significant physical natural landmark, such as the top of a mountain or at a spot with river on three sides
• You stand in the midst of a crossroads of at least four roads

For each the following that's true, add +1 MD:

• It is any of the solstices or equinoxes
• The moon is any color or shape other than normal, such as during an eclipse
• You are at a truly standout natural landmark, such as the top of the highest mountain in an entire mountain range or an island on a lake on an island
• The ritual is performed as part of a longstanding and important festival, holy day, etc.—one that's been occurring regularly for at least 1000 years
• You stand in the midst of a crossroads of at least seven roads

All of these can, of course, combine. If you're casting a spell during the witching hour of the solstice while at a fourfold crossroads etched with ancient runes that's been hallowed, that's a free +3 MD. 

RITUAL TRAPPINGS

Trappings are objects, items, accouterments, and other magical bits and bobs that contribute to the ritual of a spell. For each of the following that you spend at least 1 minute properly setting up, add +½ MD:

• Fat yellow candles and burnt incense
• Circles of salt, sand, and earth
• Glyphs and runes drawn in chalk
• Auspicious parts of a spooky animal (like adder's fork or blind-worm's sting)
• Some bit of the intended target(s), like hair or nail or blood
• Strange arcane implements made of silver
• A huge stone basin or black iron cauldron
• A cloak, robe, or coat worn by another magician previously
• A human skull

For each of the following that you spend at least 1d6 minutes properly setting up, add +1 MD:

• A genuine crystal ball
• A cloak, robe, or coat worn by seven generations of magicians previously
• An entire spooky animal, still alive
• An entire human skeleton, plus its heart

As with ritual sites, these combine, but no double dipping (i.e. the skull does not count for an additional bonus ½ on top of the skeleton).

RITUAL PERFORMANCES

Performances are ceremonial procedures, the literal acts taken to perform the spell itself. For each of the following that you do as part of casting the spell, add +½ MD:

• You spill fresh blood, either your own or another person's
• You read aloud (or recite from memory) several sentences in an obscure language (from a spellbook, from runes on the wall, from scriptural prayers, etc.)—I would recommend each spell have its own sequence(s) that must be read aloud. You can take this one step further and require this as part of a spell, thus gating spells known in a more traditional way.
• You purposefully and ceremonially destroy one of your ritual trappings; if it was a +1 MD-tier trapping, get +2 MD instead
• You spend a minute or two drawing complex shapes in the air, using your hands, a staff or wand, bones, a length of silken scarf, or something else similar. 

For each of the following that you do as part of casting the spell, add +1 MD:

• You kill a living creature with a soul and a human level of intelligence; if it's something deeply magical or intelligent, like a wizard or dragon, add +2 MD instead
• You and 2d4 others all stand in a circle and read/recite the same several sentences in an obscure language in perfect synchrony
• You and those same 2d4 others draw one enormous complex shape in the air, using the same implements, in perfect synchrony
• You invoke the name of G-d, the Devil, an outer-realm-void being, or a similarly-powerful extraplanar being, with all the weight and binding that that carries with it (GMs, if your players do this more than once per year-ish, there should be contracts, covenants, and deals made, with appropriate punishments if the terms are broken)

IMPLEMENTING RITUALS

As you've noticed, these rituals are both powerful and significant; they can get your spellcasters a lot of extra MD if they do it right.

I would recommend using with one or more of the following caveats/modifications:

1. You can't get bonus MD from wands/robes/etc.
2. Ritual MD do not return to your MD pool.
1. You could also say that +½ MD triggers don't return to your pool, but +1 triggers do.
3. Ritual MD are smaller, like a 1d4, both so that they're less powerful and more likely to cause mishaps/dooms
1. You could also say that MD from +1 MD triggers give bigger MD, like a 1d8
4. Every ritual step used, be it site or trapping or performance, takes at least 1 round to set up, if not longer.
5. Each spell requires it's own unique combination of site/trapping/performance (or maybe just 2/3 of those), so "learning spells" means organically finding the info for each of those for each spell.
6. There are no wizards or other people who have innate MD—this is just how magic works, and so "wizards" are just nerds who carry around a ton of random magical crap, have memorized a bunch of secret words, and know where all the best random magic locations are. This goes very well with some of the "non-magical magic" classes, like my Sage or Gun Priest, Arnold K's Cleric, Skerples' Monk or Philosopher, and so on. 

You could also just slam this into your game without any of these changes, if you want to really emphasize big elaborate spells with big elaborate rituals. Remember that ritual MD still contribute to mishaps/dooms, so there's always a cost.

As always, these are untested. Let me know if you try them out!

This was made for GLOGtoberfest the 10th: Mechanic.