The Book of Thaumaturgy

The Book of Thaumaturgy

1995

"I shall further the knowledge of the House and Clan and share

with its members all that I find in my search for wisdom and

power. No secrets are to be kept, or given, regarding the arts of

magic..."

-- From the Tremere Oath

Foreword

Almost every single one of these rituals and paths have been modified from

their original submitted form by Mr. Benvenuto for purposes of clear

understanding and better gameplay. Those individuals that have submitted

materials for this document did so with the understanding that their

materials would possibly be modified. No disrespect was intended or should

be implied. Furthermore, all of the Rituals and Paths contained herein are

merely suggestions. They are open for modification by the Storyteller and

Players of the Game. They are not fixed in stone by any means, and only

exist to assist in helping WOD gamers towards more creative and enjoyable

Gameplay. Some words, sections and detail in this document is/are Copyright

White Wolf Games, Inc.

A Guide to the Proper Use and Gameplay of Thaumaturgy

(Also see the Storyteller's Guide to Fun and Balanced Thaumaturgy)

By Darrell Benvenuto

The White Wolf Storyteller System is an excellent gamesystem; it places

quite a bit in the hands of the Storyteller and players of the game. In

most instances, this is good. Concerning Thaumaturgy, however, this was not

quite so good. For all that Thaumaturgy under the Tremere is a regimented,

highly complex and ordered thing, and that the Clan still follows a great

deal of the structure and order of it's original Hermetic past, the rules

that can be found in any of the published books, even the Tremere Clanbook

itself, governing the art and science of Thaumaturgy are sparse, left

mostly to the Storyteller and Magus to work out. It is sad that so much

work was put into other aspects of the Storyteller System, yet this vital,

complex and fascinating area was left to languish.

This brief section, created and composed by me, is an attempt to lay out a

simple set of guidelines for both Storytellers and Players on how

Thaumaturgy works and how it should be handled. These guidelines have been

extrapolated from as many sources as were available to me at the time,

including the Tremere Clanbook and both Player's Guides. They may, as

anything else in this document, be used, modified or ignored by Storyteller

and Player.

The original intent of the developers at White Wolf was that separate

Thaumaturgical Paths would comprise the primary abilities of a Tremere;

indeed, the basic Clan Discipline, Thaumaturgy, is but one of many

Thaumaturgic Paths. However, in actual practice, most Storytellers and

Players feel the reverse is true; Rituals form the base stock of a

Thaumaturgist's abilities, and the Paths are secondary. Clearly, this is

not the case, as one cannot use Rituals of a higher level than one's

Thaumaturgy Rank; so while being able to use Rituals vastly expands the

scope of a Thaumaturgist's abilities, the true road to power lies in

expanding beyond the known Paths and creating new ones, as well as Rituals

designed to work with and complement these paths. Only once a Magus has set

foot upon this road are they on their way towards the upper Pyramid, and

the Inner Circles of Mystery.

Paths draw their energies from the essence of the Kindred -effectively

consuming the energies of the Vitae within the Magus as they are used. It

should be interesting to note that it is the life energy of the Kindred

that is drawn, not the physical Vitae itself. Thus, realistic-minded

Storytellers might wish to have those Kindred that have drunk their fills

and then exhausted their Blood Pools through use of their Paths cut

themselves and allow the drained Vitae to spill out of their bodies before

consuming more; after all, they are only able to consume and contain so

much physical liquid at one time. Thus, sacraficial magic, in which the

entire life force of a victim is available to be used, enables the

sustained casting of high-level Paths (can we say Humanity loss?). Thus,

when a Tremere uses his Level 4 Discipline of Thaumaturgy to "steal" blood

points from a target, s/he is not actually taking physical blood, but

rather life essence, in a vaguely similar way to that which Cain must have

done in ages past (see the Nature of Vampires, as well as the Path of

Nature's Touch and the Malkavian Clanbook). Note that although the book

states that the "source of the attack will be plainly visible" in the

writeup on Thaumaturgy Level 4, it does not describe the visual effect. A

crackle of lurid blue-white energies briefly sparking from the Magus to the

Victim, perhaps? It's all up to the Storyteller, as usual.

It is said that Vampires carry their own Reality around with them (Tremere

Clanbook, pg. 36). For a more detailed discourse on this interesting

statement, as well as the nature of "Reality" and the origin of Kindred,

see my next section, towards the rear of this document. For the moment, we

see that Rituals were intended as a means for Kindred to simulate the "tie"

to Reality that Mortal Mages have (their ability to use the magickal nature

of Reality as manifested in Quintessence to work their Rotes), and enable

Thaumaturgists to work the more potent spells that Paths cannot perform,

without incurring Paradox. It is a Kindred's own special nature that allows

one to work Thaumaturgy; it cannot be done by any other creature (see the

Nature of Reality section).

Rituals, especially the upper-level ones, take a long, long time to

research and create; it is unlikely that any player will be doing so

without a lot of free time on their hands, as well as a disposition to

experiment and the resources to do so. The Clanbook Tremere's admonition

that Storytellers restrict their players' ability to create Rituals seems

at odds to an earlier sentence in the same section which indicates that

Rituals allow Tremere to do almost anything they can imagine. In the

Tremere Clanbook, it states that most Rituals take effect when the

conditions of their casting have been fulfilled. However, there is a

serious trend in those that create Rituals to make them almost like Paths,

in that they require Rolls for everything from Activation to Concentration.

Bear in mind that the Storyteller is the Final Arbitrator in any instance

such as this, and s/he can modify them in any way that s/he feels is

necessary to maintain game balance.

Rituals take a long time to learn, as they usually consist of complex sets

of symbols that need to be inscribed, objects and items to be burned, blood

to be drawn, word forms to be spoken, movements to be made and the like.

Intelligence is the primary Attribute for a Magus, and with good reason!

Storytellers and Players who create Rituals should bear in mind that the

Casting of Rituals is a complex thing, and rarely easily done or quickly

accomplished. A good guide to how long it should take is an absolute

minimum of five minutes per level of the Ritual; and that is very, very

short. The Magus is not casting a Rote, or using a Path -- s/he is

following an intricate series of steps to bring forth a magical effect. I

know it is difficult to seemingly restrict either yourself or your players

when there are published books by White Wolf on the market that contain

such Rituals as "Puissant Shield", a 4th Level Ritual that creates an

invisible kinetic barrier about the Caster, and provides complete immunity

to all projectile weapons -- yet only takes a strip of cowhide and one

minute to cast. Try and resist the temptation to make or approve powerful

yet quick Rituals; the game will be more fun overall for you and everyone

else as a result.

THE USE OF PATHS

By Darrell Benvenuto

So much confusion has arisen out of the Storyteller's lack of clear

instruction on this point that it is ridiculous. That the process is not

more clearly illustrated in the Tremere Clanbook makes it even more

difficult to understand. On the one hand, it is clearly seen that to use

any Path, one must make a Willpower Roll, but why is it that at Level 3 of

Movement of the Mind, no Roll is required? Furthermore, what do they mean

by the Difficulty of the Willpower Roll is the Level of the Discipline + 3

? And why do they say Difficulty or Successes? The way the thing is

written, it almost seems that the better you get in the Path, the harder it

is to use!

Well, let's see if we can make some sense out of this. Let's deal with the

glaring inconsistency first: Why is there no Roll required to use Movement

of the Mind to fly? Furthermore, if the Magii can levitate and fly

themselves around at will, why is it that they still have to make Willpower

Rolls to use lesser levels of the same Path, such as to move a pencil? And

why does it cost one full Blood Point to move either a pencil or a half a

ton?

As far as I can tell, the no-roll rule on Level 3 Movement of the Mind was

done for convenience's sake. Having your Kindred fail one of many constant

willpower rolls that s/he needs to make in order to fly any distance and

having them fall out of the sky would be ridiculous, and perhaps dangerous.

So let us leave it intact, again for convenience's sake, though certain

Storytellers may wish to make changes or not, as they see fit. The

single-blood-point per use of the Path is in need of change; I would

recommend that use of Path Levels two or more steps below one's current

Level of Mastery of that Path would not only not require a Willpower Roll

to use (like Flight with Movement of the Mind Level 3), but also would only

require a fraction of a Blood Point; only continued, repeated use of the

Path at such a low level would consume a full Blood Point (the Storyteller

will tell you when this point comes).

Again, as far as I can tell, the Spirit Thaumaturgy Path was designed and

came into existence before the Wraith system did. Thus, it concerns more

with Plant Spirits, Animal Spirits, Demons and the like than it does with

Wraiths. An excellent book to bring one into the spirit of such a Path (if

you'll excuse the pun) is "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare. In it,

Prospero, the betrayed Duke of Milan, wields control over several Spirits,

including Ariel, a powerful Nature Spirit. It's a fun way to play the Path,

and both the Storyteller and the Player can derive much enjoyment from

interacting through and with a clever cast of mischevious or mailcious

sprites that they may get to know, or that may take an interest in the

Player(s) and follow them around. The Storyteller must take this Path into

account if s/he is using the Wraith system in their campaign, and make

either modifications to their system or to the Path to compensate for it's

effects.

The Two Systems

Yes, there are actually two ways to use Paths! Confusing, eh? Not really;

your Storyteller will decide which one to use, and stick with that one.

Here they are:

System #1..: The Magus makes a Willpower Roll, using 1 die for every

remaining dot of Temporary Willpower s/he has left. The Difficulty for the

Roll is based on the Level of Effect that the Magus wishes to obtain plus

Three. Note that the Magus cannot achieve a higher Level of Effect in a

Path than s/he has Levels in that Path. One or more successes means that

the effect is generated. A Magus may spend a Willpower Point for an

automatic success, but this means that s/he will have one less Temporary

Willpower Die to use for future rolls in their Paths.

Example: Path of the Lure of the Flames

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Level 1:

Candle...........Difficulty: 4 Level 2: Palm of Flame....Difficulty: 5

Level 3: Campfire.........Difficulty: 6 Level 4:

Bonfire..........Difficulty: 7 Level 5: Conflagration....Difficulty: 8 The

Level of Effect in attacking someone with Lure of the Flames or Movement of

the Mind is also the number of Health Levels (Aggravated and Normal,

respectively) that are delivered to a target (assuming that they hit their

target if an attack roll is required, such as with Lure of the Flames),

which then may be soaked using Fortitude and/or Stamina.

System #2..: The Magus makes a Willpower Roll, using one Die for every

point of Temporary Willpower s/he has remaining. The Difficulty is

determined by the Storyteller, based on stress, circumstances, etc. The

number of successes that are achieved determine the Level of Effect of the

ability that have just been achieved, up to a maximum of the Magus's Level

in that Path. So a Magus with the Lure of the Flames at Level 4, while

under attack by an enemy, could try to create a Level 4 blast of flame, but

roll poorly (reflecting their inability to concentrate in the heat of

battle) and only generate a Level 2.

Now, that was simple, wasn't it?

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