Every ritual in DFA Rituals is built around four key elements: Circle, Link, Catalyst, and Complication. These components define what the ritual does, how it's built, and what price or fallout it carries.

1. Determine What You Want to Do (and just how big and long-lasting this is).
   Once the scale of the ritual is known, determine ways to pay the costs:
   • Constructs → Where the ritual happens, and how it's contained. Without a construct, the spell has nowhere to go — it burns wild.
   • Links → Who or what the ritual targets — and how strong the connection is. Without a link, the spell has no subject — it’s unanchored; it's not affecting anything.
   • Catalysts → What makes the magic go — the fuel, the trigger, or the sacrifice. Without a catalyst, the spell won’t ignite — it's inert.
   • Complication → What hurdles must you overcome before casting and what goes wrong after it works — the unintended narrative side effects.

Follow The Ritual Creation Checklist

Conditions and costs may already present in the scene. These count if you're using them! have a daub of blood from that guy want to track… well, you've got the link covered.

After all of this, there is still the possibility that a scene that needs to be played out may make the ritual fail… if you can't get that core component… You can still summon the power, but a portion of it will be uncontrolled, and that means the energy will either affect the caster (backlash) or the environment (fallout). (See Ritual Failure - Backlash and Fallout for When it all goes South.)

More on Core Components