Rotes and Rituals and YOU!

Rotes are the tried and true methods for magic working with a specific intended effect. As a mage, you may have built these from practicing a bunch of raw magic and making it work. Or you may have learned them from other players.

Examples of rotes may include programs by a VA, latin phrases with wand movements by a Hermetic, singing an ancient Navajo song while breathing burning sage for a Dreamspeaker, etc.

Some mages have a few rotes. Starting mages may have 3-5 signature rotes they depend on. The rest is entirely panic casting, casting on the fly, or just imaging and trying things out.

Recommendations: You have the choice in how your mage produces magic. I recommend 3-5 signature rotes you fall back on or use day to day, week to week.

Rituals are sets of rotes performed by many towards an intended effect or set of effects. These tend to be for crafting major talismans or performing very difficult magics. Not all traditions perform rituals.

For Hermetics, this could be layers of latin phrases, wand movements, with key people in circles marked with rotes and symbols. Verbena may invoke numerous gods and goddesses, standing at the watchtowers, cutting their flesh to mingle blood. VAs may run various programs while moving as a unit through the virtual web towards an objective, viruses to data packages.

Recommendations: This is higher magic, but lower arte and starting mages may try these tactics of rituals when performing serious or hard magics. It's also a great opportunity for learning about paradigms and sharing viewpoints, awesome rp!

Some sample rotes!
Rote Library: http://gaming.geoectomy.net/findrotes.php
Rotes: http://members.tripod.com/~Ashen_Rose/rotes

Example Rotes and how to twist them to your needs!

Divination - "Excuse me...and you are?" (Entropy●, Life●)

This rote allows the mage to tell if someone she meets is fated be significant to her in the course of her life. The more successes on the rote, the more information the mage gets. One success will give a yes/no; more will give level of importance (peripheral or transitory, moderate, very important) and any successes past 3 may provide a hint as to how the person is fated to affect the mage.

Neat! So how do you turn this into a rote for a tradition? Easy!

Coming my way? (Entropy●, Life●) - Cult of Ecstasy
Sample Foci: Flask of alcohol laced with drugs
Sample Invoking: Sharing the flask, whispering song phrases, rubbing eyes with the alcohol to see blurry half images
Fate binds all of us together, but we don't know till we truly share something together. In the old ways of travelers and kings to the bars of today, sharing a brew leads us to stories and good times. Usually, we find out just how connected we are. This rote just...takes a karmic short cut.

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Another example!

"Hidey Hole" (Correspondence●● Matter●)
With this rote, the mage can open up a pocket portal to a set location where small items are stored and draw them forth. If he can reasonably conceal the item on his person, or can draw it from a bag or case that could feasibly hold the item, it is coincidental. This allows him to conceal weapons, in particular, or other small items and 'pick them up' later with the rote.

Neat! So how do you turn this into a rote for a tradition? Easy!

Bag of Holding (Correspondence●● Matter●) - Sons of Ether
Sample Foci: Toolbox with a series of gears, settings and combinations with tiny ether engines
Sample Invoking: Turning the gears to match a series of settings for specific combinations while powering the tiny ether engines
One box to rule them all! The bag of holding in your Dungeons and Dragons game has NOTHING on this toolbox. Each combination, up to three, opens a compartment varying in size. Depending on the amount of numbers entered, settings made, the compartment could be large, medium or small. But it all comes from the same toolbox. Anything not living can exist without trouble or tipping.