I'm not arguing broken so much as horribly jarring from a setting and thematic perspective. I have no idea if it's broken, although I suspect an extended ritual involves using multiple minor consequences over and over would shatter the system (or at least most games) to bits.The Consequence is reduced for purposes of recovery, that does not mean that the consequence slot is free instantly.
The Consequence is reduced for purposes of recovery, that does not mean that the consequence slot is free instantly.
The Slot is still occupied, and the consequence is still there until the end of the scene. Unless you use the shrug off option and that only works a limited number of times per scene.
So, since a ritual is one scene, you can't take a mild consequence, have it disappear instantly and then take another.
Taking that into account i would not worry about balance to much. It's not that big a deal.
Rituals are explicitly stated not to be limited to a single scene of prep time. Taking extra scenes is a listed method of reaching the Complexity. And the Declarations made are generally described as separate "mini-scenes" as well. Assuming your GM imposes a maximum of one scene for your ritual every three hours (a steeper restriction than I would impose normally), a character with Inhuman Recovery can pull 18 shifts out of that power alone in an average workday, and still have a couple of hours to relax before getting a solid night's rest.This is great! I'll suggest this to my players and encourage them to use it.
--First, inflict a minor consequence on yourself. Shrug it off. 2 shifts.
--Inflict a second minor consequence on yourself. It be removed at the end of the scene, by being reduced below mild. 2 shifts
--Inflict a moderate consequence on yourself. It begins recovery immediately, and is treated as if it were Mild, removing itself at the end of the next scene. 4 shifts (End Scene)
--Skip a scene. 1 Shift. All Consequence slots are cleared. (End Scene)
--Repeat above steps. You have now grabbed +18 Complexity in twelve hours. You may add your Lore to this and begin channeling the majority of effects immediately. If you're willing to stay up late, you can go up to 27+Lore shifts without much trouble, which is often enough for an outright Death Spell, Victor Sells style.
Oh, and Inhuman Recovery helps you stay awake longer too. Spend a couple days opening and reopening wounds, and you will be able to level a city block or two, bind (not contain. Bind!) lesser heavyweights to your will, or unravel the outer wards of Edinburgh.
And that's just with Inhuman Recovery. Upgrade it to Supernatural recovery, and you throw around nigh-infinite complexity rituals, and do it relatively quickly.
A character with Mythic Recovery, Thaumaturgy, and a week of time off could pull off a Ritual easily exceeding 100 complexity. That's enough to break through a maximized Legendary Discipline roll and Take Out (fully consequences bypassed) a character who has the Mental Equivalent of Mythic Toughness with FIFTY FOUR shifts to spare for things like extended duration. I suspect Mab herself could be enslaved to the with of such a ritual, at least for a while.
As to prep time taking longer than a scene, I agree that you can spend multiple scenes chasing rare ingredients. When it comes to drawing power from sacrifice, I think that should be done in the same scene as the ritual itself and the ritual should only take one scene.^this, I totally agree with.
Also, the rules actually talk about skipping scenes rather than taking extra scenes, or using declarations to declare 'mini-scenes' like 'laying out the circle' or 'getting porn for bob'. These aren't genuine additional scenes, just an extension of the main scene for the ritual.
@Toturi: Are you trying to be sarcastic? I can't imagine any GM willingly inflicting this on themselves, but sarcasm is not something that typed words carry well. It's generally bad forum etiquette to make sarcastic comments without some kind of major indicator of intent.Oh no, I was not being sarcastic. I do not see this as inflicting something on myself. The game isn't GM vs players. If I can find something that helps my players overcome my antagonists, I certainly will point them towards it.
@Toturi: I never once advocated adversarial GMing. Please do not ascribe opinions to me. I expressed the opinion that allowing a starting character the power to pull infinite complexity rituals together and solve any task in the entire game was broken--and I don't mean mechanically. I meant it breaks the story and makes things not fun. However, if you enjoy the idea of your players enslaving Mab, Titania, and Ferrovax, and using them to solve all their problems without lifting a finger post-binding, and your players like it too...more power to you. The game is there to have fun. However, given most of us paid money so we could have rules to guide our fun, I think it is not unreasonable to assume that the majority of us finds the concept of making use of bizarre loopholes so that you never need to bother rolling dice past the first session a little less than ideal, as I do.I never once said you advocated adversarial GMing to you or anyone else. Please do me the same courtesy of not ascribing opinions to me. The complexity of the rituals are not infinite. There is a finite limit to them. It does not break the story or make it not fun. It breaks the assumption most people have that a game has to be a "challenge" to be fun, I was always puzzled by the concept that the players have to struggle mightily to overcome the obstacles the GM puts in their path to have fun. Remember that there will be other NPCs out there that could have the same combinations(if not more) of powers as the PCs - Mab, Titania and Ferrovax are certainly prime candidates. The game certainly is to have fun. Thus given that we have paid money so that we have rules to guide our fun, I think it is certainly reasonable to assume that using the rules as an enabler for fun is very much the ideal.