Problems disappear when you’re happy.
You have discovered the secret to true happiness.
First, never, ever be anything but happy. Any bad feelings should be denied, dismissed, and destroyed.
Second, absorb happiness! You can hijack happiness away from people who don’t really appreciate it, and get happier from it!
You aspire to the pure, big happiness, untainted by other feelings, by the need for others, by any worry at all.
You’re think it’s attainable. In fact, heck yes, you’re sure of it!
Generate a minor charge: Ruin someone’s fun. Spoil a moment of joy for one or more people.
Laetomancers do not generate significant or major charges.
Taboo: Never express anything but happiness. It doesn’t matter how you feel or what happened; you must always put on a happy face. Any display of any emotion but happiness causes you to lose all charges immediately.
Blast: The target bursts out with a painful, choking laugh, and, if killed, dies with an inhuman rictus smile.
Symbolic Tension: Joy without sorrow grows stale and artificial.
Random Domain: Bland and artificial happiness.
Charging Tips: It’s sometimes tricky to be a buzzkill while smiling the whole time, but you can find ways. You can typically gain 1-2 minor charges a day. More than that, and you risk someone slapping that smirk off your face.
Starting Charges: 4 minor charges
Minor Formulas
Let the Good Times Roll
1 minor charge per subject
Make an event entertaining for everyone involved. Everyone will feel like what’s happening is light-hearted good fun, even if it isn’t. For up to an hour, no-one involved needs to make a Stress check. After the hour is over, anyone who blithely committed an atrocity may need to make a rank 8 Self check. You must spend charges on everyone involved, including yourself.
Shiny Thing
2 minor charges
Pick an object you’re holding. Anyone who gets it from you will briefly feel very happy about it, and anyone who sees it will know this. You can use this formula to spark competition, sweeten a trade, or just cheer someone up.
The Killing Joke
3 minor charges
This is the laetomancy minor blast. It does damage equal to the sum of the dice.
Mr. Smiles
3 minor charges
You exude a very saccharine, artificial feeling of cheer. You automatically succeed your next Charm or Lie skill roll, but an hour later anyone affected will resent the obvious manipulation.
Warm Fuzzies
6 minor charges
Affects a single victim within sight range (or yourself) and lasts 10 minutes. The feels a bland sense of happiness that replaces all other feelings. The victim effectively becomes a sociopath with no Obsession skill, and cannot use magick schools, Avatar channels, or Stimuli. The victim is also immune to Stress checks, and doesn’t have to make Stress checks about it after the fact.
Generate Significant Charge: emotionally devastate someone or complicate their lives to the point where they are unhappy for at least a week.
Generate Major Charge: permanently ruin something that has brought thousands of people happiness for at least five years, and is likely to continue doing to so for at least five years more. The charge is not gained until the thing ruined has been gone for at least a year without being revived or continued in any way. For these purposes, a person is rarely the Happy Thing itself; it’s whatever that person does that must be stopped. For instance, killing Matt Groening won’t work; you have to ensure that The Simpsons is never aired again.
Hey Mr. Sluahg! Those are really good significant and major charging structures!
I was actually intentionally creating another “minor school,” but I really like those.
Genius – this allows me to introduce elements of the Joker and the Comedian. A Rictus sure helps in the battle against taboo.
I think the Comedian doesn’t fit this school, but the Joker sure as fuck does.