House Rules
I Chih
Rituals
Wu Tan is a very ritual form of magic. It would not be fair to its form to discourage the use of rituals. However, it is necessary to distinguish rituals from normal spell-castings. A ritual is any I Chih that requires more than one turn of rolling to amass all necessary successes (in spite of Fortune coverage). The actual system modifiers for rituals are dealt with in Land of Eight Million Dreams.
Rituals should still not be an easy matter of casting. No ritual should ever be "cover me while I charge up a mega-fireball!" That goes against the concept of rituals. There are two type of rituals available to hsien: the "just out of reach" I Chih, and the "grandiose" I Chih.
"Just out of reach" I Chih are those spells that, even after Fortunes are calculated, demand at least 3 successes more than the character's dicepool would make possible. This applies up to a maximum of an excess of 10 successes. For example, a character has a dicepool of 6 to cast an I Chih. After Fortunes, the character still has a success threshold (that is, number of successes that must be scored on the roll) of 10. That's 4 successes in excess of the character's dicepool. He may then roll the spell as a "just out of reach" I Chih. If the spell had a threshold of 17 after Fortunes, he would not be able to cast the spell as "just out of reach", and would have to cast the spell as "grandiose".
"Grandiose" rituals are those I Chih that demand a success threshold of more than 10 in excess of the character's dicepool. It is clear that many rolls will have to be made to acquire total success.
What's the difference? "Just out of reach" rituals are cast at a rate of one roll per game minute (so yes, they are not real efficient in the midst of a firefight). The first roll is the first minute, and every roll thereafter takes up one full minute of casting. "Grandiose" rituals, however, demand one hour per roll. All rituals require heavy and prudent preparations.
So this means characters with larger dicepools can cast more powerful I Chih progressively faster. However, there will be certain spells that will always demand a "grandiose" ritual. A master of Shui Tan might be able to summon a tornado almost off-hand, but summoning a whole typhoon would demand a "grandiose" ritual even if his dicepool could meet the success threshold in one roll! The Storyteller must arbitrate in most cases.
Rituals can also be cast as "hanging/trigger" effects (see above). Indeed, because of the greater number of Continuance/Circumstance modifiers, these I Chih will often become "just out of reach" rituals. But "grandiose" rituals cannot be cast as a personal "hanging/trigger" effect though they may be used with other applications of Circumstance. (For example, a "grandiose" ritual I Chih could be cast with Circumstance so that, for example, "the Five Wind Walls will turn into a barrier of flame upon intrusion of more than 50 vampires in one night". However, the same approach could not be used for "turn myself into a 1000 foot long fire-breathing dragon upon assault by vampires".)
Be aware that these systematic restrictions will not really withhold a wicked plot to turn an entire city into rubble with a massive earthquake or force Mt. Saint Helens to erupt again. "Grandiose" rituals are high magics and all but impossible to hide from the perceptions of the supernatural. They have the irritating habit of attracting other shen and spirits to the site of casting. Other Shinma also frown on unwise rituals; the Yellow Lotus has been known to assassinate such careless hsien...
On a side note, a hsien may end the duration of any I Chih he himself cast at will.
