Laughter-based magick

“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” – Mel Brooks

Even if you’re part of the most advanced and cultured of societies, there’s always a little part of your brain that laughs when you see Moe put Curly’s head into a vice. Because, hey, if violence isn’t happening directly to you, then you can distance yourself from it by chuckling. There’s power in that idea and you’ve learned how to tap it.

The central paradox of Jocomancy is that in order to make people laugh, you’ve got to hurt someone else. They’ll get over it. It’s only a joke, right?

Jocomancy Blast Style: Laughing so hard it hurts. Try not to look at a Jocomancer in combat, because she’ll make a funny face that will leave you in stitches–literally. This blast doesn’t do as much damage as other blasts (how hard can you really hurt yourself laughing?), but it prevents the victim from retaliating for a short period of time.

Generate a Minor Charge: Get no less than 10 people but less than 50 people to laugh, in response to a joke or prank at someone else’s expense. The victim can be a witting or unwitting accomplice, but you must knowingly initiate the funny (no accidental charges). The laughter must come from a live audience.

Generate a Significant Charge: Get at least 50 people to laugh (as above). Again, these people must be part of a single, live audience.

Generate a Major Charge: Get laughs at the expense of an unwitting major public figure (who must be present at the time) in front of a nationwide audience. For example, hit Bill Gates with a pie on live television. The entire audience doesn’t need to be present, but at least one person on the scene must laugh for you to get the charge.

Taboo: You must never let yourself be the butt of a joke, or you lose all your charges. You can’t pull energy from that laughter if you’re lying on your ass with a face full of pie.

Random Magick Domain: Humor and laughter. To a lesser extent, making people look stupid in front of an audience.

Starting Charges: Newly created Jocomancers start with five minor charges.

Charging Tips: A Jocomancer with a group of forgiving friends and a sharp tongue can generate as many minor charges in a day as he can get away with. However, jokes tend to get old fast if performed in front of the same audience over and over again. Becoming part of a comedy duo and taking to the road is a good way to gain significant charges (if you play a big enough room). Hope you can find a willing patsy! Oh, and you can’t use formula spells to get laughs for charges.

Jocomany Minor Formula Spells
Laugh It Off
2 minor charges
You can cast this spell as a reaction to a stress check instead of rolling. If successful, you don’t roll and you don’t get either a Hard or Failed notch. You can’t use this in advance against possible checks—it can only be used in the heat of the moment. It also doesn’t erase notches you have from previous stress checks.

Knee Slapper
2 minor charges
This is the jocomancy minor blast. To activate the spell, your target must be able to see you. Cast the spell and make a funny face or gesture. The victim is overcome with gales of laughter, takes damage equal to the smallest of the two die rolled, and cannot make any hostile move toward you for one round. He can defend or attack another person, but thought of harming you becomes too funny to contemplate.

Banana Peel
2 minor charges
On the next move she makes (basically anything where she picks up her foot and sets it back down), your victim slips on a phantom banana peel and falls down. In combat, she moves to the end of the initiative queue and must spend a round standing up (as in the Knock Down cherry). However, if she never moves, she doesn’t take the fall…

Duck Soup
3 minor charges
Ever notice how Groucho can say pretty much whatever he likes to Margaret Dumont, yet she always comes back for more? This spell basically makes someone your straight man for a period of 24 hours. Insults, snide comments, and backhanded compliments only serve to ruffle him slightly. Any attempt to sass you back forces a rank-3 Self check, but rest assured most people will remember this stuff once the spell wears off. Any violence toward the subject on your part breaks the spell.

Laugh Track
4 minor charges
Any time the target performs a significant action (not just walking around or sitting there), he hears an unseen audience cracking up. This results in a -20% shift to skills that require concentration (mostly Mind skills, but stuff like walking a tightrope is also affected). When he realizes that no one else can hear the laughter, he’ll probably need a rank-5 Unnatural check and maybe a rank-2 Isolation check. The effect wears off when (and if) the victim sleeps.

Jocomancy Significant Formula Spells
No Respect
1 significant charge
For a number of hours equal to the sum of the die on your roll, everything that the victim says evokes gales of laughter from all who can hear her. However, when she tries to be funny, *nothing* that she says is funny. This might invoke a few Isolation checks, depending on the people laughing.

Gut Buster
2 significant charges
The jocomancy significant blast. As in the minor blast, your victim must be able to see you make that goofy face as you cast this spell. The target takes regular hand-to-hand damage and cannot make any hostile moves toward you for a number of rounds equal to the tens die of your roll.

Who’s on First?
2 significant charges
The victim of this spell becomes unable to “get” whatever anyone tells him for a number of hours equal to the tens place on your roll. Think of the classic Abbott and Costello routine. Simple conversations become a morass of puns and homophones.

Keystone Kops
3 significant charges
Turns a chase into a comedy routine where no one gets seriously hurt. When cast during a car chase, insane risks roll against regular drive skill (instead of half) and regular risks and hazards roll against +10% shift in drive skill. Car wreck damage is also calculated differently: GM rolls the same number of dice, but instead of using two to make a double-digit number, he instead adds together the sum of any two of the die rolled. The spell effects all cars in the chase when spell is cast (cars that join in afterward do not get the benefits). Lasts for number of rounds equal to the tens place on your roll (or until the chase ends, natch). When cast during chases on foot, reality warps a little more: the participants might run in one door then out another in the same hallway (you don’t get to choose), find themselves chasing after their pursuers, and knocking down the same waiter over and over again. The effect lasts for a number of minutes equal to the tens place on your roll.

All Part of the Act
4 significant charges
You can cast this spell any time to reroll one critical fumble that you just rolled. This spell can be used as a reaction. If you use it in a fight, it does not cost you an action. You must take whatever you roll the second time, even if it is a failure. The consequences of your first failure do not simply dissipate either. The GM decides (randomly, if she chooses) who gets boned by your selfishness. It might be somebody in your party; it may be an innocent bystander. By rolling with the punches (as all good comedians can do), you can sometimes turn disasters in your favor. However, someone else ends up taking the fall.

Jocomancy Major Effects
Make someone laugh until they die. Safely channel the spirit of a famous (dead) comedian. Make something not usually thought humorous funny to a lot of people. Similarly, flood the collective unconscious with new jokes about a particular person.