The Premise
Magic, excuse me, hypergeometry, is supposed to be weird and scary. These rules exist to add a bit of mystery and tension to the existing mechanics of Ritual Activation rolls.
Basic Overview
Ritual Activation rolls critically succeed on a success with matching dice or a roll of 01. The operator loses the maximum amount of SAN listed for the ritual and the effect is stronger. Activation rolls fumble whenever they fail with matching dice or roll a 100 (00). This carries negative consequences dependent on the specific ritual activated. If a character spends a point of POW to force a connection to the unnatural, fumbles become critical successes. Assistants are partially insulated from the raw power of critical Ritual Activation rolls. They only roll for normal SAN loss and can roll INTx5 to avoid the negative effects of fumbles.
Optional Rule: In the Throes of Madness
At 0 SAN, characters are no longer affected by SAN loss from unnatural, though helplessness and violence can still shock them if not adapted. Critically successful activation rolls are an exception. If the max SAN loss of the ritual is 5+, the operator has to make an INT test or go temporarily insane, -10% for 10+ SAN, -20% for 20+ SAN, and -40% for a 40+ max SAN loss.
At 0 SAN, characters are no longer affected by SAN loss from unnatural, though helplessness and violence can still shock them if not adapted. Critically successful activation rolls are an exception. If the max SAN loss of the ritual is 5+, the operator has to make an INT test or go temporarily insane, -10% for 10+ SAN, -20% for 20+ SAN, and -40% for a 40+ max SAN loss.
Optional Rule: Ritual Cost Rebalancing
The RAW for activating rituals in the Handler’s Guide can be a bit rough at times, as rituals often cost more than is reasonable for the benefit they grant. Though, what’s more frustrating to me (and easier fixed), is failing a Ritual Activation roll. As is, nothing happens and you’re just tired out (by the WP loss). That’s not an interesting failstate. I propose that failed activation rolls don’t have a reduced cost beyond SAN1 (though fumbles might), and forcing a connection to the unnatural doubles the non-SAN costs of the ritual. My reasoning is that 1 permanent point of POW is too steep of a cost, but there still should be an increased cost. Forcing a failed activation roll might require POW, but it’s not guaranteed. For normal human operators, forcing any ritual that costs more than 9 WP will always require the expenditure of POW. If the operator has time, the only cost for failure is their sanity as they bang their heads against the walls of reality.
As written, witnesses lose the same amount of SAN as the operator from successfully activated rituals. I disagree with this; witnesses should get a SAN test. Automatic SAN loss also defeats the purpose of the example SAN losses from unnatural in the Agent’s Handbook: witnessing apparently an benign supernatural effect, witnessing a violent supernatural event, being subject to an overtly supernatural effect, and suffering a violent supernatural assault. At most, witnesses should only lose the same die of SAN as the operator on a failed SAN test. For summoning, I think onlookers should only lose SAN to the summoned entity, not the ritual. Flavor the loss as being part of the entity’s arrival. Operators should only lose SAN to a summoned entity if it inflicts a greater SAN loss than that of the ritual. This replaces the SAN loss of the ritual, rather than adding to it. For example: an operator loses 2 SAN activating Winged Steed (1D4) and then fumbles the SAN roll when the winged servitor appears (1/1D6). Ordinarily this would cost 6 SAN, but instead, the operator only loses an additional 4 SAN from unnatural (6 – 2 = 4).
Ageless Banquet
Critical Success: The operator does not age for 1D4 years. They’re also imbued with unnatural vitality, raising their STR, CON, and DEX by 1D4 points each until they begin aging again.
Fumble: The ritual has the opposite effect, sapping energy from the operator’s flesh and bones This lowers their STR, CON, and DEX scores by 1D4 points for one year.
The Call of Dagon
Critical Success: The Deep Ones are compelled to respond. They can be controlled like with a normal summoning ritual, but the operator must roll for each one individually. Once the operator fails an opposed POW test, they cannot bind any of the remaining free Deep Ones.
Fumble: The operator has somehow angered the Deep Ones. If this ritual was performed with ill intent, they rise from the ocean to slaughter the operator and their comrades.
Call Forth Those From Outside
Critical Success: If the operator succeeds on an unopposed POWx5 roll, the entity is controlled.
Fumble: The entity arrives, unbound, and with ill intentions for the operator.
Call Zombies
Critical Success: Any zombies summoned by the ritual cannot take hostile action against the operator as long as the chant continues or for INTx5 minutes, whichever is longer.
Fumble: Zombies stalk the operator and prioritize them over other targets for the next 1D4 days.
Changeling Feast
Critical Success: Whenever the operator later assumes the form of their victim, they can also mimic their weight or shadow, or roll INTx5 to recall certain memories and mannerisms.
Fumble: No matter what precautions the operator took, they suffer from severe food poisoning. It is a disease with a Speed of 3D6 hours and a Damage of 1. The nausea, cramps, and fever impose a -10% to all skill and stat tests until the operator recovers.
Charnel Meditation
Critical Success: The operator can roll POW to control each ghoul, as if it came via a normal summoning ritual. One failed roll prevents further attempts to control the rest of the ghouls.
Fumble: Ghouls think the operator is extra tasty (and easier to smell), forever.
Clairvoyance
Critical Success: The operator has firm control over the visions. Alternatively, the operator gets an honest answer to one question they ask about the events they see.
Fumble: The operator suffers a -10% penalty to all skill and stat tests as they dissociate, drifting in and out of meaningless visions. They can roll INTx5 every hour to shake it off.
The Closing of the Breach
Critical Success: The operator gains 1D4% Unnatural and a permanent +10% bonus to activate this version of the ritual and any similar rituals (assistants too if they succeed on an INT test).
Fumble: The ritual lets out a ‘shout,’ alerting the targeted entity to the operator’s location and what threat they and their compatriots might pose. If this was already known, the entity adds the WP lost to the ritual to its HP or WP. If the operator is trying to dismiss an effect (hyperspace gate, local curse, etc), it lashes out against them and their companions however it can.
Consciousness Expansion
Critical Success: The operator gains INT points of Unnatural and remains in our boring set of dimensions on a successful POW test. If learning the ritual caused the operator to cross a Breaking Point or suffer a temporary insanity, they gain double the Unnatural (triple if both).
Fumble: The operator suffers a seizure and has a stroke: a Poison with a Speed of 3D6 minutes and a Lethality of 5%. Blood thinners and anticonvulsant medications might work as antidotes.
Create Stone Gate
Critical Success: The gate is free to pass through. The only cost is a SAN test from experiencing hyperspatial travel. Anyone can activate the gate with an INT test, though if the opener already knows the ritual Create Stone Gate or Open Gate, there is no cost to open it either.
Fumble: The gate works, but there is always a deadly repercussion when opened, not 1% of the time. The opener can burn 1 POW point to render it ‘safe’ until it closes, ready to be reopened. Or double the WP cost of the ritual to open it if using the optional Ritual Cost Rebalancing rule.
The Dho-Hna Formula
Critical Success: The operator has firm control over the visions. If they succeed on another Activation roll, they can teleport to that location at the cost of 1D12 SAN, no WP needed.
Another Critical Success: If the operator and assistants can spend 30 WP or harvest it from sacrifices, a permanent doorway can be established between two locations.
Fumble: Assaulted with a confusing and overwhelming rush of visions, the operator loses 1D12 SAN, capable of incapacitating or freaking out even those with 0 SAN if a 5 or greater is rolled.
Dust of the Thresholds
Critical Success: The alchemical process is more productive than expected, yielding a batch of 8 doses that each inflict 20% Lethality attacks upon extradimensional entities.
Fumble: The operator inhales an alchemical precursor to the dust with disastrous consequences, losing 1 HP and taking a -10% penalty to CON tests for the next (20 – CON) days.
Call Forth Those From Outside
Critical Success: If the operator succeeds on an unopposed POWx5 roll, the entity is controlled.
Fumble: The entity arrives, unbound, and with ill intentions for the operator.
Call Zombies
Critical Success: Any zombies summoned by the ritual cannot take hostile action against the operator as long as the chant continues or for INTx5 minutes, whichever is longer.
Fumble: Zombies stalk the operator and prioritize them over other targets for the next 1D4 days.
Changeling Feast
Critical Success: Whenever the operator later assumes the form of their victim, they can also mimic their weight or shadow, or roll INTx5 to recall certain memories and mannerisms.
Fumble: No matter what precautions the operator took, they suffer from severe food poisoning. It is a disease with a Speed of 3D6 hours and a Damage of 1. The nausea, cramps, and fever impose a -10% to all skill and stat tests until the operator recovers.
Charnel Meditation
Critical Success: The operator can roll POW to control each ghoul, as if it came via a normal summoning ritual. One failed roll prevents further attempts to control the rest of the ghouls.
Fumble: Ghouls think the operator is extra tasty (and easier to smell), forever.
Clairvoyance
Critical Success: The operator has firm control over the visions. Alternatively, the operator gets an honest answer to one question they ask about the events they see.
Fumble: The operator suffers a -10% penalty to all skill and stat tests as they dissociate, drifting in and out of meaningless visions. They can roll INTx5 every hour to shake it off.
The Closing of the Breach
Critical Success: The operator gains 1D4% Unnatural and a permanent +10% bonus to activate this version of the ritual and any similar rituals (assistants too if they succeed on an INT test).
Fumble: The ritual lets out a ‘shout,’ alerting the targeted entity to the operator’s location and what threat they and their compatriots might pose. If this was already known, the entity adds the WP lost to the ritual to its HP or WP. If the operator is trying to dismiss an effect (hyperspace gate, local curse, etc), it lashes out against them and their companions however it can.
Consciousness Expansion
Critical Success: The operator gains INT points of Unnatural and remains in our boring set of dimensions on a successful POW test. If learning the ritual caused the operator to cross a Breaking Point or suffer a temporary insanity, they gain double the Unnatural (triple if both).
Fumble: The operator suffers a seizure and has a stroke: a Poison with a Speed of 3D6 minutes and a Lethality of 5%. Blood thinners and anticonvulsant medications might work as antidotes.
Create Stone Gate
Critical Success: The gate is free to pass through. The only cost is a SAN test from experiencing hyperspatial travel. Anyone can activate the gate with an INT test, though if the opener already knows the ritual Create Stone Gate or Open Gate, there is no cost to open it either.
Fumble: The gate works, but there is always a deadly repercussion when opened, not 1% of the time. The opener can burn 1 POW point to render it ‘safe’ until it closes, ready to be reopened. Or double the WP cost of the ritual to open it if using the optional Ritual Cost Rebalancing rule.
The Dho-Hna Formula
Critical Success: The operator has firm control over the visions. If they succeed on another Activation roll, they can teleport to that location at the cost of 1D12 SAN, no WP needed.
Another Critical Success: If the operator and assistants can spend 30 WP or harvest it from sacrifices, a permanent doorway can be established between two locations.
Fumble: Assaulted with a confusing and overwhelming rush of visions, the operator loses 1D12 SAN, capable of incapacitating or freaking out even those with 0 SAN if a 5 or greater is rolled.
Dust of the Thresholds
Critical Success: The alchemical process is more productive than expected, yielding a batch of 8 doses that each inflict 20% Lethality attacks upon extradimensional entities.
Fumble: The operator inhales an alchemical precursor to the dust with disastrous consequences, losing 1 HP and taking a -10% penalty to CON tests for the next (20 – CON) days.
THE ELDER SIGN
Gesture in the Air
Critical Success: The operator knows the effect’s duration and being forced into the radius costs 2D6 POW for creatures from Outside. If the Handler already rolls the ritual effect’s 2D6 turn duration out in the open, it is maximized to last 12 turns. At the Handler’s discretion, the protective effect may persist despite the operator taking hostile action.
Fumble: The monster knows the operator tried to use the Elder Sign and the powerful yet unknown entities from Beyond disapprove of their casual invocation. They sap 1D6 points of WP from the operator rather than just the 1 WP from failing the Ritual Activation roll.
Permanent Inscription
Critical Success: All rituals fail within its radius of effect. Alternatively, beings from Outside permanently lose 1D6 POW the first time they’re forced to come near the sign. Or maybe effacing the sigil requires a successful POWx5 test.
Fumble: The operator loses 1 POW and 1D4 SAN, creating a flawed elder sign. It might require the operator to spend 2 WP (or 1 SAN if they have any) to activate its effects for 2D6 turns. Maybe it functions as normal but Outsiders can attempt a POW roll to ignore its effects, opposed by the POW of the wielder. Maybe there’s a 1% chance it breaks for each being from Outside it protects against.
Most Potent Engraving
Critical Success: Beings from Outside lose 1D4 POW every turn when within 100 m and 1D4 WP for every hour they spend within 10 km of the sigil. It may even slow the progress or dampen the power of a Great Old One. Unnatural entities must spend 1D4 POW to forcibly activate rituals within 10 km instead of 1 POW. Regular operators can’t use rituals at all.
Fumble: Something horrible comes to eat the operator (or worse).
Fumble: The operator loses 1 POW and 1D4 SAN, creating a flawed elder sign. It might require the operator to spend 2 WP (or 1 SAN if they have any) to activate its effects for 2D6 turns. Maybe it functions as normal but Outsiders can attempt a POW roll to ignore its effects, opposed by the POW of the wielder. Maybe there’s a 1% chance it breaks for each being from Outside it protects against.
Most Potent Engraving
Critical Success: Beings from Outside lose 1D4 POW every turn when within 100 m and 1D4 WP for every hour they spend within 10 km of the sigil. It may even slow the progress or dampen the power of a Great Old One. Unnatural entities must spend 1D4 POW to forcibly activate rituals within 10 km instead of 1 POW. Regular operators can’t use rituals at all.
Fumble: Something horrible comes to eat the operator (or worse).
Elixir of Infinite Space
Critical Success: The ritual either yields twice as many doses or produces ones that don’t cost WP to use. Alternatively, drinking the elixir costs 1D6 SAN, but permanently confers some resistance against harmful environments and effects even after the immunity wears off.
Fumble: Whatever effect the operator was trying to protect themselves from becomes more of a threat for the next six days. Eg: drowning means the operator can’t take a deep breath and hold it, fire means they automatically fail the DEX test to not catch fire after taking fire damage, etc.
Exaltation of the Flesh
Critical Success: The ritual provides twice as much Armor. It degrades normally.
Fumble: The ritual’s reduced cost is paid in HP instead as the operator’s flesh peels off.
Exchange Personalities
Critical Success: The duration of the exchange is as long as the next step up on the progression chart. In addition, this exchange counts as two exchanges for ‘Prior Exchanges Required.’
Fumble: The operator’s mind is trapped in the target’s body for the duration of the ritual’s effect. The target only loses 0/1 SAN from a fleeting moment of disassociation while the operator loses SAN as if they were a victim of the ritual’s intended effect. If the exchange was permanent, the operator loses 1D20 SAN while the victim loses 1D10 SAN. The operator is merely a ‘voice in their head’ until the victim crosses a Breaking Point and develops Dissociative Identity Disorder.
Exorcism
Critical Success: The entity cannot ever possess the subject again. Both they and the operator also receive a +20% bonus to future attempts to resist all similar means of possession.
Fumble: The entity makes an opposed POW test against the operator or an unlucky assistant. If successful, it possesses or otherwise inhabits them. If the entity was already capable of body hopping like this, the possession is automatic.
Fascination
Critical Success: The operator gets a +20% on their opposed POW tests and the victim must succeed on a POW test to ‘wake up,’ even if assaulted or subject to an overwhelming event.
Fumble: The operator is ‘fascinated,’ not the victim, though the ritual’s reduced cost is 0 WP.
Finding
Critical Success: The operator automatically knows where their quarry is if they've seen or touched it before. If they haven’t, they add a +40% bonus to rolls to find it for 18 minutes.
Fumble: The operator cannot perceive their quarry for (20 – INT) hours. Alternatively, the operator is led to the opposite of what they’re looking for or something malign.
The First Secret
Critical Success: Somehow, the operator comes in contact with “the sleeper, bane to the horned god Gla’ak.” Whether this is Y’golonac or some other entity who reveals the reality of the situation is up to the Handler. There may be further SAN loss from helplessness depending on how many times the operator had already performed the ritual as they realize the truth.
Fumble: The operator comes in direct mental contact with Glaaki, losing 1D6/1D20 SAN. If this pushes them past a Breaking Point, they gain 'Obsession (Aiding Glaaki)' as a Disorder.
Healing Balm
Critical Success: The subject recovers 4 HP every turn for 4 turns. If they died recently but are otherwise unrecoverable, they regain 1D4 HP per turn for 1D4 turns. This can make a body whole again, but cannot undo the mechanical effects of a permanent injury.
Fumble: The subject regains 1D4 HP, but Shub-Niggurath’s influence bolsters any disease they suffer from, worsening the CONx5 test penalty by -20%. If the subject is healthy, the Great Old One awakens a latent infection that was previously suppressed by their immune system; it has a speed of 1 day and does D4 damage. Alternatively, the operator is marked by the Black Goat, a price usually paid by those who repeatedly benefit from the ritual’s healing powers.
I rule non-critically successful activation rolls restore 1D4 HP to unrecoverable subjects, eg: ones reduced to 0 HP by successful Lethality rolls, left at 0 HP for more than CON minutes, etc.
Immortal Messenger
Critical Success: The Crawling Chaos graces his summoners with whispered secrets. He can raise any skill (even Unnatural) by 20 points to a maximum of 99%, or impart the knowledge to perform any ritual. The operator and their assistants can bargain with INT, Occult, or Persuade using their Unnatural as a bonus to choose which skill to raise or ritual to learn. A critical success means they can improve two skills, learn two rituals, or improve one skill and learn a ritual.
Fumble: Misfortune befalls the operator. The universe itself seems to seek to inflict misery and harm on them. This lasts until the operator crosses their next Breaking Point.
Infallible Suggestion
Critical Success: The victim obeys any command with an indefinite duration. This effect can only be lifted by the operator’s death or by completing the task (the Anthropology skill or a successful Occult roll suggests this to the victim; Unnatural 10% or a successful test confirms it).
Fumble: For the next hour, the operator loses 1 WP whenever they refuse a command or request. Observers with the Psychotherapy skill can tell the operator is very suggestible. Unnatural 15% or a successful test confirms this (and tells the observer about the WP loss).
If using the optional Ritual Cost Rebalancing rule, failed activation rolls and unsuccessful opposed POW tests only cost 1 SAN but no WP. If the operator forces the activation roll and wins the POW contest, the ritual costs 16 WP (or 2 POW) and 4 SAN.
Leaves of Time
Critical Success: The operator gains a +20% bonus to their POW tests when approaching the vicinity of desired events and a -20% penalty when trying to break out of their reverie.
Fumble: The operator attracts the unwelcome attention of something beyond time and space, like the Great Race of Yith or a Hound of the Angles.
Lure the Hungerer
Critical Success: The operator gets a +20% bonus on their POW test to control the shambler. If they fail and no one spends a point of POW to assert control, the shambler only attacks to get another taste of blood. It might even just lap up any blood spilled to pay the costs of the ritual.
Fumble: The shambler decides its would-be summoners are more appealing prey and stalks them. When it appears, they can make an Alertness test with a bonus equal to their Unnatural score to not be surprised. If the Handler is feeling nasty, it waits until each victim is alone.
Meditation Upon the Favored Ones
Critical Success: The ritual succeeds, even if not activated in an area frequented by the Mi-Go. The fungi get a +20% bonus to their attempts to communicate with the operator, who increases their Unnatural skill by 1D4 points as their mind is attuned to the Favored Ones’ worldview.
Fumble: Somehow, the operator angers the Mi-Go. Alternatively, their psychic emanations impress or intrigue the Mi-Go, who may attempt to collect their brain.
Mountain and Sea
Critical Success: The mad visions from mental contact with the entity deliver a useful revelation and the operator gains 1D6 points of Unnatural (or 1D20 points if it briefly rejoins the upper world and the operator fails the followup SAN roll, losing 20 points of SAN).
Fumble: The operator makes mental contact anyway and loses 1D6 or 1D6/1D20 SAN. It’s confusing and disorientating, capable of unsettling even someone with 0 SAN.
Obscure Memory
Critical Success: The operator gets a +20% to their opposed POW tests. They can also implant a hypnotic suggestion in the target’s mind, erase more than just a brief event, reduce a skill to its base rating, or even remove the target’s knowledge of a ritual.
Fumble: The operator cannot ever remove the targeted memory with this ritual and the event is cemented in the victim’s mind, becoming resistant to other memory-altering hypergeometry.
Open Gate
Critical Success: The gate stays open for as long as the operator is conscious and they gain a +20% bonus to any INT tests to change the location the gate leads to.
Fumble: Something horrible emerges from the gate or the gate is destroyed, Handler’s choice.
One Who Passes the Gateways
Critical Success: The operator gains +40% to their POW test to not get stranded and gains 1D4 points of Unnatural in addition to whatever alien wisdom they learn.
Fumble: The operator must succeed on a POW test or become stranded, like with a fumbled. It’s likely some entity will slip into the operator’s body, maybe even one that can be bargained with for a return of the operator’s mind to their original plane of existence. Failing that, Call Forth Those From Outside or Speaking Dream could recover the operator’s mind.
Pentagram of Power
Critical Success: If an animal was sacrificed, the pentagram offers an additional +20% bonus to attempts to control summoned entities. If a human sacrifice was used, summoners and their assistants can spend 2D6 WP (as a group) to assert control instead of a permanent POW point.
Leaves of Time
Critical Success: The operator gains a +20% bonus to their POW tests when approaching the vicinity of desired events and a -20% penalty when trying to break out of their reverie.
Fumble: The operator attracts the unwelcome attention of something beyond time and space, like the Great Race of Yith or a Hound of the Angles.
Lure the Hungerer
Critical Success: The operator gets a +20% bonus on their POW test to control the shambler. If they fail and no one spends a point of POW to assert control, the shambler only attacks to get another taste of blood. It might even just lap up any blood spilled to pay the costs of the ritual.
Fumble: The shambler decides its would-be summoners are more appealing prey and stalks them. When it appears, they can make an Alertness test with a bonus equal to their Unnatural score to not be surprised. If the Handler is feeling nasty, it waits until each victim is alone.
Meditation Upon the Favored Ones
Critical Success: The ritual succeeds, even if not activated in an area frequented by the Mi-Go. The fungi get a +20% bonus to their attempts to communicate with the operator, who increases their Unnatural skill by 1D4 points as their mind is attuned to the Favored Ones’ worldview.
Fumble: Somehow, the operator angers the Mi-Go. Alternatively, their psychic emanations impress or intrigue the Mi-Go, who may attempt to collect their brain.
Mountain and Sea
Critical Success: The mad visions from mental contact with the entity deliver a useful revelation and the operator gains 1D6 points of Unnatural (or 1D20 points if it briefly rejoins the upper world and the operator fails the followup SAN roll, losing 20 points of SAN).
Fumble: The operator makes mental contact anyway and loses 1D6 or 1D6/1D20 SAN. It’s confusing and disorientating, capable of unsettling even someone with 0 SAN.
Obscure Memory
Critical Success: The operator gets a +20% to their opposed POW tests. They can also implant a hypnotic suggestion in the target’s mind, erase more than just a brief event, reduce a skill to its base rating, or even remove the target’s knowledge of a ritual.
Fumble: The operator cannot ever remove the targeted memory with this ritual and the event is cemented in the victim’s mind, becoming resistant to other memory-altering hypergeometry.
Open Gate
Critical Success: The gate stays open for as long as the operator is conscious and they gain a +20% bonus to any INT tests to change the location the gate leads to.
Fumble: Something horrible emerges from the gate or the gate is destroyed, Handler’s choice.
One Who Passes the Gateways
Critical Success: The operator gains +40% to their POW test to not get stranded and gains 1D4 points of Unnatural in addition to whatever alien wisdom they learn.
Fumble: The operator must succeed on a POW test or become stranded, like with a fumbled. It’s likely some entity will slip into the operator’s body, maybe even one that can be bargained with for a return of the operator’s mind to their original plane of existence. Failing that, Call Forth Those From Outside or Speaking Dream could recover the operator’s mind.
Pentagram of Power
Critical Success: If an animal was sacrificed, the pentagram offers an additional +20% bonus to attempts to control summoned entities. If a human sacrifice was used, summoners and their assistants can spend 2D6 WP (as a group) to assert control instead of a permanent POW point.
Alternatively: Anyone standing inside the pentagram also gets a +20% or +40% bonus to any Ritual Activation rolls to summon or dismiss Great Old Ones and unnatural entities.
Fumble: The operator loses 1D4 SAN and must spend 6 WP (or 1 POW) as they create a flawed pentagram. It grants a +10% bonus (or +20% with human sacrifice) on the opposed POW test to control summoned entities, but the user can’t spend POW to assert control if they fail the contest.
Petrification
Critical Success: The solution can take effect if applied topically or even if aerosolized and inhaled. Though in the latter case, it’s more dangerous in enclosed spaces. Outside, where it’s subject to dispersal by the wind, the Lethality rating and HP damage are halved.
Fumble: The operator loses 1D6 SAN and must spend 15 WP (or 2 POW) as they create a weaker version of the solution that only inflicts 15% Lethality. The would-be alchemist also splashes themselves with the solution, inhales its fumes, or has their flesh suffused with its vapors. They lose 1D4 DEX, CON, or CHA (or suffer an ‘Other Permanent Injury’ as per the AH p 55 sidebar) as part of them is petrified. This grants them 1 Armor overall (unless avoided with a called shot) and 5 Armor against any attacks that specifically target that body part.
The Powder of Ibn-Ghazi
Critical Success: The operator knows for exactly how many turns each dose will reveal unseen things. If the Handler already rolls the 2D4 in the open, things are always revealed for 8 turns.
Fumble: The operator gets some hazardous chemical in their eyes, or is blinded by the flash of a chemical reaction. They take a -20% penalty to Alertness and Search tests for the next 24 hours.
Fumble: The operator loses 1D4 SAN and must spend 6 WP (or 1 POW) as they create a flawed pentagram. It grants a +10% bonus (or +20% with human sacrifice) on the opposed POW test to control summoned entities, but the user can’t spend POW to assert control if they fail the contest.
Petrification
Critical Success: The solution can take effect if applied topically or even if aerosolized and inhaled. Though in the latter case, it’s more dangerous in enclosed spaces. Outside, where it’s subject to dispersal by the wind, the Lethality rating and HP damage are halved.
Fumble: The operator loses 1D6 SAN and must spend 15 WP (or 2 POW) as they create a weaker version of the solution that only inflicts 15% Lethality. The would-be alchemist also splashes themselves with the solution, inhales its fumes, or has their flesh suffused with its vapors. They lose 1D4 DEX, CON, or CHA (or suffer an ‘Other Permanent Injury’ as per the AH p 55 sidebar) as part of them is petrified. This grants them 1 Armor overall (unless avoided with a called shot) and 5 Armor against any attacks that specifically target that body part.
The Powder of Ibn-Ghazi
Critical Success: The operator knows for exactly how many turns each dose will reveal unseen things. If the Handler already rolls the 2D4 in the open, things are always revealed for 8 turns.
Fumble: The operator gets some hazardous chemical in their eyes, or is blinded by the flash of a chemical reaction. They take a -20% penalty to Alertness and Search tests for the next 24 hours.
If using the optional Ritual Rebalancing rule, the ritual yields 1 dose of powder per 2 WP spent when forced from a failure into a success.
PRAYER TO THE DARK MAN
PRAYER TO THE DARK MAN
Summoning
Critical Success: If there was any doubt as to whether the Dark Man would offer secrets, rituals, and familiars, he does. He also does not require the death of any of his worshippers. If this was already guaranteed, the Dark Man leaves a mark on the operator that all witches (and some other worshippers of Nyarlathotep) will respect. The SAN losses for learning and activating any rituals from the Dark Man are halved, as they are cloaked in the comforting myths of witchcraft.
Fumble: The operator is marked as an enemy of all witches everywhere.
Deconsecration
Critical Success: The Dark Man curses the operator’s mastery of the legalistic occult contracts. The process of summoning and dismissing him only costs 30 WP instead of 3 POW. If the operator refuses to pay the cost, he can take no recourse against them and departs uneventfully.
Fumble: The Dark Man appears with the sole purpose of tormenting the operator and their assistants. He might transform into a massive roiling shape of blood and tentacles, causing all witnesses to lose 1D10/1D100 SAN. If assistants are present, he may simply take the operator by the hand instead, and vanish. Whether the operator can be recovered is up to the Handler.
Critical Success: If there was any doubt as to whether the Dark Man would offer secrets, rituals, and familiars, he does. He also does not require the death of any of his worshippers. If this was already guaranteed, the Dark Man leaves a mark on the operator that all witches (and some other worshippers of Nyarlathotep) will respect. The SAN losses for learning and activating any rituals from the Dark Man are halved, as they are cloaked in the comforting myths of witchcraft.
Fumble: The operator is marked as an enemy of all witches everywhere.
Deconsecration
Critical Success: The Dark Man curses the operator’s mastery of the legalistic occult contracts. The process of summoning and dismissing him only costs 30 WP instead of 3 POW. If the operator refuses to pay the cost, he can take no recourse against them and departs uneventfully.
Fumble: The Dark Man appears with the sole purpose of tormenting the operator and their assistants. He might transform into a massive roiling shape of blood and tentacles, causing all witnesses to lose 1D10/1D100 SAN. If assistants are present, he may simply take the operator by the hand instead, and vanish. Whether the operator can be recovered is up to the Handler.
If using the Ritual Cost Rebalancing rules, 60 WP must be spent to force a fumble, no opting out.
Preserve Living Brain
Critical Success: The solution preserves the body as well and may even eliminate the brain’s need for repeat infusions. Disembodied brains injected with this superior solution enter comas of blissful ignorance, only losing SAN if they are somehow provided with sensory input.
Fumble: The ritual appears to yield a finished product. Only examination with the Unnatural skill, a combination of Occult and Science (Chemistry), or prior experience with this solution will notice the anomalies and correctly conclude that it will destroy any brain it’s injected into.
The Primal Lay
Critical Success: The operator gets a +20% bonus to their POW test and they can see an extra 1D4 hours into the past or the future. They can also look in both directions at once.
Fumble: The operator experiences visions of unthinkably distant times and places as if they had successfully activated the ritual and fumbled their POWx5 roll.
Preserve Living Brain
Critical Success: The solution preserves the body as well and may even eliminate the brain’s need for repeat infusions. Disembodied brains injected with this superior solution enter comas of blissful ignorance, only losing SAN if they are somehow provided with sensory input.
Fumble: The ritual appears to yield a finished product. Only examination with the Unnatural skill, a combination of Occult and Science (Chemistry), or prior experience with this solution will notice the anomalies and correctly conclude that it will destroy any brain it’s injected into.
The Primal Lay
Critical Success: The operator gets a +20% bonus to their POW test and they can see an extra 1D4 hours into the past or the future. They can also look in both directions at once.
Fumble: The operator experiences visions of unthinkably distant times and places as if they had successfully activated the ritual and fumbled their POWx5 roll.
THE ESSENTIAL SALTES
Reduce to Essential Saltes
Critical Success: A purer alchemical product smooths the transition between life and death. Revived subjects only lose 1D10 SAN and only need to feed on human blood for one day. Those raised from incomplete corpses lose 1D20 SAN, but are coherent instead of gibbering monsters.
Fumble: The process looks like it worked, but didn’t. This can only be discovered if the operator examines the saltes with the Unnatural skill or a combination of Occult and Science (Chemistry). Complete corpses rise as Liveliest Awfulnesses and incomplete ones can’t be revived at all.
Critical Success: A purer alchemical product smooths the transition between life and death. Revived subjects only lose 1D10 SAN and only need to feed on human blood for one day. Those raised from incomplete corpses lose 1D20 SAN, but are coherent instead of gibbering monsters.
Fumble: The process looks like it worked, but didn’t. This can only be discovered if the operator examines the saltes with the Unnatural skill or a combination of Occult and Science (Chemistry). Complete corpses rise as Liveliest Awfulnesses and incomplete ones can’t be revived at all.
Raise from Essential Saltes
Critical Success: The words of power carve grooves into the operator’s mind. They receive a +40% bonus to all activation rolls to Raise and Return this specific corpse.
Fumble: The saltes burn, imposing a -20% penalty to attempts to raise them in the future. Alternatively, they’re corrupted, as per a fumble when trying to Reduce to Essential Saltes.
Fumble: The saltes burn, imposing a -20% penalty to attempts to raise them in the future. Alternatively, they’re corrupted, as per a fumble when trying to Reduce to Essential Saltes.
Return to Essential Saltes
Critical Success: The operator might get a +40% to the opposed POW test to put down the target, or maybe the incantation paralyzes them or even takes effect immediately.
Fumble: The words aren’t right. Until the operator spends an hour reviewing the ritual and fails a SAN test, all tests to return the target to their essential saltes suffer a -20% or -40% penalty.
Fumble: The words aren’t right. Until the operator spends an hour reviewing the ritual and fails a SAN test, all tests to return the target to their essential saltes suffer a -20% or -40% penalty.
Reanimation Formula
Critical Success: The blue fluid glows brightly. Corpses have a POWx5% chance to retain some intelligence (either minus 5 per minute since death or only lose one POW every five minutes).
Fumble: The formula simply turns the corpse it’s injected into a bloody, goopy mess. Or maybe it brings them back as a violent and shockingly fast zombie. Only examination of the fluid with the Unnatural skill or a combination of Occult and Science (Chemistry) reveals its flawed nature.
Release Breath
Critical Success: 1D4 extra zombies collapse. The ritual can also destroy zombies not created by the Zombie ritual if the operator succeeds in an opposed POW test. If the test fails, the zombies instead take damage equal to the doubled digit of the Ritual Activation roll (10 for 01).
Fumble: The targeted zombie returns to its maximum HP and attacks the operator. If already at full HP, it is ‘overhealed’ for HP equal to the digits place of the roll as described before.
See the Other Side
Critical Success: The operator can choose to activate the gate for free if they already know the ritual Create Gate or Open Gate. They are also concealed from any entities on the other side.
Fumble: Creatures on the far side of the gate can see the operator and pass through to attack them. They can only be followed if you are physically holding on to them as they traverse the portal. The creatures pay no cost but anyone holding on does as normal.
Song of Power
Critical Success: The operator gains 30 WP. If they go to sleep or fall unconscious with WP over their maximum but succeed on a INTx5 roll, the excess WP is not lost.
Fumble: The operator loses 9 WP as it is siphoned off into the great beyond. If they don’t have enough WP, the excess is drained as HP as their brain boils.
Soothing Song
Critical Success: One of the subject’s Disorders goes into remission, resurfacing when they gain another Disorder (as opposed to how therapy works). They can also roll CON to resist automatic stuns and unconsciousness*, eg: losing half current HP, flashbangs, reduced to 2 HP or fewer, etc.
Fumble: All the subject’s Disorders are activated. If they’re an Agent, they lose 1D6 SAN and cannot project to reduce the Sanity loss. For NPCs, a failed SAN test means temporary insanity.
*I rule that the subject’s lack of physical pain gives them a +40% to resist stunning attacks (eg: tasers and tear gas) and the CON roll to recover from a stun and act normally the next turn.
Speaking Dream
Critical Success: The operator sculpts out a dreamscape, reducing the WP cost of future activations by their INT. This stacks with multiple critical successes, to a minimum of 1 WP.
Fumble: The operator pits their POW against that of some Dreamlands creature in an opposed roll. If they fail, they awake, possessed by some entity until their body falls unconscious again.
Speech of Birds and Beasts
Critical Success: The operator forms a bond with one of the animals that lasts beyond the ritual’s duration. They gain an instinctual understanding of its mental state and vice versa.
Fumble: Somehow the operator says something horribly offensive and the animals attack. Alternatively they sound like an animal to everyone else for the duration of the ritual.
Storm and Stillness
Critical Success: The operator has precise control over the weather. They can direct wind, rain, waves, and potentially even lightning strikes.
Fumble: The desired change in weather briefly manifests but only to inconvenience the operator.
Fumble: All the subject’s Disorders are activated. If they’re an Agent, they lose 1D6 SAN and cannot project to reduce the Sanity loss. For NPCs, a failed SAN test means temporary insanity.
*I rule that the subject’s lack of physical pain gives them a +40% to resist stunning attacks (eg: tasers and tear gas) and the CON roll to recover from a stun and act normally the next turn.
Speaking Dream
Critical Success: The operator sculpts out a dreamscape, reducing the WP cost of future activations by their INT. This stacks with multiple critical successes, to a minimum of 1 WP.
Fumble: The operator pits their POW against that of some Dreamlands creature in an opposed roll. If they fail, they awake, possessed by some entity until their body falls unconscious again.
Speech of Birds and Beasts
Critical Success: The operator forms a bond with one of the animals that lasts beyond the ritual’s duration. They gain an instinctual understanding of its mental state and vice versa.
Fumble: Somehow the operator says something horribly offensive and the animals attack. Alternatively they sound like an animal to everyone else for the duration of the ritual.
Storm and Stillness
Critical Success: The operator has precise control over the weather. They can direct wind, rain, waves, and potentially even lightning strikes.
Fumble: The desired change in weather briefly manifests but only to inconvenience the operator.
Swarm
Critical Success: The fish can survive and move out of the water and follow simple commands.
Fumble: The operator vomits out a pile of dead fish, taking 1 damage from the violent eruption and losing 0/1D4 SAN from the bizarre nature of the phenomenon.
The Voorish Sign
Critical Success: The operator can make INT tests to properly identify what they see (as if they were rolling their Unnatural skill). Only one roll per phenomenon or entity is allowed.
Fumble: The operator attracts unwelcome attention from invisible creatures or forces.
Whispers of the Dead
Critical Success: The answers are clear, as if the operator had 99% Unnatural and 0 SAN. The operator also gains 1, 1D4, or 1D8 points of Unnatural, depending on what they contacted.
Fumble: The operator loses 1, 1D4, or 1D8 SAN as the psychic bulk of an eldritch entity roughly brushes against their fragile mind. This rarely provides any useful information.
Whispers of the Dead
Critical Success: The answers are clear, as if the operator had 99% Unnatural and 0 SAN. The operator also gains 1, 1D4, or 1D8 points of Unnatural, depending on what they contacted.
Fumble: The operator loses 1, 1D4, or 1D8 SAN as the psychic bulk of an eldritch entity roughly brushes against their fragile mind. This rarely provides any useful information.
Alternatively, if contacting a Great Old One, a critical success or fumble might bestow the operator with a Boon or Curse (respectively) drawn from this post.
Winged Steed
Critical Success: Winged servitors are called ‘servitors’ for a reason, no POW test is required to control it this time. If the operator has a summoning aid (eg: a Pentagram of Power), they can command the servitor to perform extra tasks. Stronger, more powerful aids mean longer service.
Fumble: A winged servitor appears to snack on the operator or whisk them away to the court of Azathoth (or the domain of whatever alien god this particular servitor is associated with).
Withering
Critical Success: The ritual deals 20 damage to the target as their flesh peels and bones break.
Fumble: The ritual backfires, burning the operator for 1D10 damage.
Zombie
Critical Success: The operator raises the corpse as something more than just a mere zombie. Maybe it retains its full INT and POW and all its skills from life, maybe it’s fast enough that attacks against it don’t get a +20% bonus and it’s capable of opposing incoming attack rolls by fighting back, or maybe it’s a Liveliest Awfulness that listens to orders.
Fumble: The corpse rises as a zombie but is not compelled to obey the operator in any way.
Winged Steed
Critical Success: Winged servitors are called ‘servitors’ for a reason, no POW test is required to control it this time. If the operator has a summoning aid (eg: a Pentagram of Power), they can command the servitor to perform extra tasks. Stronger, more powerful aids mean longer service.
Fumble: A winged servitor appears to snack on the operator or whisk them away to the court of Azathoth (or the domain of whatever alien god this particular servitor is associated with).
Withering
Critical Success: The ritual deals 20 damage to the target as their flesh peels and bones break.
Fumble: The ritual backfires, burning the operator for 1D10 damage.
Zombie
Critical Success: The operator raises the corpse as something more than just a mere zombie. Maybe it retains its full INT and POW and all its skills from life, maybe it’s fast enough that attacks against it don’t get a +20% bonus and it’s capable of opposing incoming attack rolls by fighting back, or maybe it’s a Liveliest Awfulness that listens to orders.
Fumble: The corpse rises as a zombie but is not compelled to obey the operator in any way.
I've written a 'sequel' here that includes rituals from Arc Dream's published scenarios.
1 And a generous Handler might even elide that; why lose SAN if nothing happened?2 Though keep in mind that any ritual that only costs 1 SAN already has a reduced SAN cost of zero. That includes about a third of all the rituals in the Handler’s Guide.↩
2 An easy way to resolve this is to have some minor unnatural phenomenon occur even when the Ritual Activation roll fails.↩
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