Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Setting up:

Set up a “Ritual Circle” anywhere in the ritual performing players deployment zone. The “Ritual Circle” is the size of a 54mm base and can only be on the ground floor if placed inside a ruins.

The rules:

In order the enact the ritual, the ritual player must have at least 1 psyker unit inside the ritual circle and perform a psychic action during their psychic phase in there for 2 consecutive turns. Psykers performing a ritual can do nothing else during the ritual players turn if they perform a psychic action here.

On the third consecutive turn and each subsequent turn, the ritual takes effect. During the psychic phase, roll a d6 for each enemy unit on the table. On each roll of 6+, that unit comes under control of the ritual player and is treated as part of the ritual players army until the ritual player has no psyker in the ritual circle performing phychic actions, or the owning player brings the unit to its senses.

Character units benefit from a -1 to this roll to represent their exceptional will.

If there is more than 1 psyker in the ritual circle performing psychic actions, this roll gains a +1 bonus.

Eg: The ritual player has 2 psyker units total performing the ritual. When the ritual takes effect, the roll will gain a +1 bonus. When it comes to rolling for a character in this example, the total roll would be d6+1-1.

Phychic Defence:

If the non-ritual player has any psykers or units capable of denying psychic powers, they may try to protect a nearby unit from the effects of the ritual. To do this, after rolling for the effect of the psychic ritual on a unit; if the unit is within 24” of the psyker, roll a d6. If the roll is equal or greater than the result of the ritual roll, the effects of the ritual are ignored for that unit.

If a psyker is capable of denying multiple times, it may choose to roll for a nearby units equal to the number of times it can deny psychic powers. Alternitavely, it may choose to use multiple uses of its deny to protect a unit with a +1 bonus to the roll per deny use.

Eg. A psykers datasheet indicates that it is capable of denying 2 psychic powers per turn. It can try to protect 2 units from the ritual, or it may want to protect a particularly important unit and expend all 2 deny attempts to protect a unit and get +1 bonus to the roll.

Attempts to deny the effects of the ritual do count towards deny attempts against psychic powers. So a denying unit that expends all its deny attempts trying to counter the effects of the ritual cannot attempt to deny a psychic power later in the enemies psychic phase.

Units that are immune to or cannot be targeted by psychic powers are unaffected by the ritual.


“Come to your senses”: the non-ritual player may regain control of a unit affected by the ritual. To do so, they must have a unit they control get into engagement range of the affected unit (get into combat), during either players command phase, the non-ritual player regains control of the affected unit.

If control is regained during the ritual players command phase, the unit that was affected cannot be affected by the ritual that turn.

Sounds like fun! A few things:

 Giantwalkingchair wrote:


Set up a “Ritual Circle” anywhere in the ritual performing players deployment zone. The “Ritual Circle” is the size of a 54mm base and can only be on the ground floor if placed inside a ruins.

Maybe just steal the wording from the Ritual mission?

In order the enact the ritual, the ritual player must have at least 1 psyker unit inside the ritual circle and perform a psychic action during their psychic phase in there for 2 consecutive turns. Psykers performing a ritual can do nothing else during the ritual players turn if they perform a psychic action here.

On the third consecutive turn and each subsequent turn, the ritual takes effect...

This can probably be simplified down to some variation of simply performing a psychic action.

Character units benefit from a -1 to this roll to represent their exceptional will.

Seems slightly weird to me. Some non-characters are things like necron warriors that literally don't make decisions for themselves and thus couldn't turn traitor if they wanted to. Some characters include runt herders, enginseers, and bonesingers who don't strike me as being bastions of willpower.

If the non-ritual player has any psykers or units capable of denying psychic powers, they may try to protect a nearby unit from the effects of the ritual. To do this, after rolling for the effect of the psychic ritual on a unit; if the unit is within 24” of the psyker, roll a d6. If the roll is equal or greater than the result of the ritual roll, the effects of the ritual are ignored for that unit.

If a psyker is capable of denying multiple times, it may choose to roll for a nearby units equal to the number of times it can deny psychic powers. Alternitavely, it may choose to use multiple uses of its deny to protect a unit with a +1 bonus to the roll per deny use.

Eg. A psykers datasheet indicates that it is capable of denying 2 psychic powers per turn. It can try to protect 2 units from the ritual, or it may want to protect a particularly important unit and expend all 2 deny attempts to protect a unit and get +1 bonus to the roll.

Attempts to deny the effects of the ritual do count towards deny attempts against psychic powers. So a denying unit that expends all its deny attempts trying to counter the effects of the ritual cannot attempt to deny a psychic power later in the enemies psychic phase.

Units that are immune to or cannot be targeted by psychic powers are unaffected by the ritual.

This all seems more complicated than it needs to be. You could probably get rid of a lot of dice rolling by either letting the ritual player try to take control of a couple specific units rather than rolling army-wide and/or by tweaking this such that a conventional Deny the Witch test protects against the ritual. It feels like you're bending over backwards to do a d6 roll for every unit on the table when what you really seem to be trying to do is just have the mission grant a psychic power to a unit that performs a psychic action.

“Come to your senses”: the non-ritual player may regain control of a unit affected by the ritual. To do so, they must have a unit they control get into engagement range of the affected unit (get into combat), during either players command phase, the non-ritual player regains control of the affected unit.

A couple weird things here. For one, what happens if you take control of unit A while it's already standing within 1" of unit B? For another, it seems weird that the only way to get within 1" of a unit is to charge them meaning you have to stab your friends to bring them to their senses. And THEN you have to wait for your opponent's turn (stabbing them again) before it rolls back around to your own command phase. Seems like maybe this should be an action you can perform while within 3" of the controlled unit? So you have to be close, and it costs actions, but you can do it in one turn.

Also, this is obviously a mission that would be played between consenting friends, but rules that give you control over your opponent's models are always kind of awkward. Especially if moving (or charging) the models is involved. Some people just don't like having their models touched. That's why modern "mind control" powers usually boil down to, "make the unit immediately shoot or fight their friends." Although I understand how that changes the flavor of what you're going for.