What are the purpose of ceremonies? Please clarify how they function in game? Are they supposed to counter Demonic Influence, and how do they modify fallout?

This one's so easy, I'll take it!

Ceremonies are color. They're how you confront demons. Their fallout, you'll note, is just like other types of fallout, but they have specific color to the situation.

They're just how you raise against demons. That's all.

Where you might say, "I shoot the dude in the eye with my excellent pistol d8+d4! plow!!!" for a human, you say "I shoot the demon in the eye with my excellent Sacred Earth Hucker d8! Dirt!!!"

If you use talking and ceremony against a demon that gives d8 fallout, do you only get d4 fallout yourself?

Also, whilst you might get 2d8+d4 for your big ass pistol, ceremony itself does not give you any dice. You need to involve traits and relationships (such as "I'm a Dog" or "I kick ass for the King") or belongings such as the Book of Life or Jar of Sacred Earth.

Think about it like this: we have the progression of fall-out dice, right? It goes like this:

d4   Talking
d6   Physical
d8   Fighting
d10 Shooting

, right? But properly, that should read:

d4            Talking
d6            Physical
d8            Fighting
d10          Shooting
variable     Ritual (only against demons etc.)

So yeah, ritual itself is just a method of dealing fallout to demons, who by the nature of things tend to be pretty hard to harm otherwise. You can't shoot one most of the time, for example.

GB wrote:
If you use talking and ceremony against a demon that gives d8 fallout, do you only get d4 fallout yourself?

Oh!  Perverted ritual!  Niiiiiiice.... A Dog could get hisself flat out killt by being anointed with tainted earths.

lumpley wrote:

Hey mrlost, welcome! Have these guys answered your question?

-Vincent