Part 4 of 4: Magic & Ritual in CoC – Does it need explaining when “It just works, ok?” does the job?

I generally agree with the widely-held feeling that many aspects of the Mythos & Mythos Magic were never meant to be understood by the poor saps who come up against it. But when it comes to being a Keeper I feel that when using Mythos Magic in a game it is really important to avoid the whole ‘Deus-Ex-Machina’ problem.

Lashing down some form of ground rules (no matter how bizarre or movable) allows we Keepers to make the experience of Mythos Magic seem real & terrifying and less an experience of ‘role of the dice’ or ‘keeper whim’ syndrome.

I wouldn’t want anything I've written here to be adopted as a blanket system by anyone - that's not how I'd use it myself. The case that sparked this off for me was the Prayer written by a long dead Monk that could still be used by non-believers to achieve the same en and pretty much all of the above has been about this one incident. But the next time the same Investigators encounter magic it could well be different and because there is no 'set-in-stone' magic system, it will run in a different fashion. What concerns me is coming up with the arguments that make the use of Mythos Magic feel real to the players so they don't think "Oh, very convenient Mr GM! So it worked last time but not this and for no reason!"

Thanks to all on the Strange Aeons list for replying and discussing like crazed shoggoths and for Agent Donald for offering to display this set of ramblings.


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Credits: By David Bollenberg with help from the folks on the Strange Aeons mailing list.