> I think what Chris is trying to get at is "narratively how does animist rituals work?" What concrete results do you get from them? Since he is working on some animist materials for Moon Design it is pretty important that he has a good feeling for this so he can describe it in manner that others can easily understand.
Oh sure !!
Part of that understanding though will surely be -- which bits already exist in the rules? and which parts have to be created fresh for the upcoming products? :)
Just to be rock-bottom basic then, the narrative purpose of an animist ritual will be to get some spirit to act to your or your friends'/allies' advantage or to your enemies' disadvantage or to provide some non-target-number related story(line)/plot purpose.
This can take the form of a lingering benefit, of a new spirit ally/ability to be permanently written on your character sheet, of an exhaustible resource usable once/X times, of a storyline development not represented by any target number but by GM descriptions.
The sorts of results available would depend on story reasons, as well as on relative power of magician/group versus spirit(s). X beats Y is a good rule of thumb, but should be modulated somewhat according to need.
Magic items enchantment will be a big item on the typical shaman's agenda, as well as sealing friendships between individual clan members and individual spirits, so that for example Joe Rhino can have his "Thick-Skinned and Mean" spirit ability written down on his character sheet thanx to Fred Shaman's workaday spirit walking.
I really think that the X versus Y contest should be a theoretically equal contest (even though relative power can clearly be imbalanced for various easy/difficult reasons), so that if the magician wins the spirit provides the benefit ; but if the spirit wins the magician will gain some taboo, or task to perform, or lose something ; and if results are marginal some sort of negociated settlement/equal trade may be required to obtain the desired outcome (their part always payable by the players, even if the actual magician is an NPC).
Julian Lord
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