Ganjamancers, Pot Fairies, Demon Weeds, Mary (or Marty) Janes. Completely revised version of the school I posted on the UA list and RPG.net, with an overhauled charging structure and lots of new spells.

Cannabimancy may be offshoot of Narcoalchemy or Dipsomancy, or both, or it may have just started independently and grown to resemble those schools through convergent evolution. Honestly, none of the pertinent parties remember very well. Whatever, if you want street cred, you can say something spooky about the Hashishim. Just hope you don’t run into any Narqis or Boozehounds, because they all treat us like bratty stepchildren.

The drunks and fucking junkies are wrong, of course, at least that’s what most of us think. Everyone has their own mythic history of the school, going back to whatever dead non-white men seem the most mystical. The kids in Humboldt have a legend about some bio students who picked it up when they were studying abroad in Thailand, the Rastas trace it back to Jesus Himself (but doesn’t everyone in the Underground?), and some of them are kind of offended by non-Rastafarian Cannabimancers. There’s even a bunch of classics geeks who founded a “Scythian” sub-school and insist on throwing their sacred herb on sweat lodge rocks like in Herodotus, not to mention the bhang-sipping Kali-worshipers. And noobs always brings up the Hashishim again, and the rest of us groan. I’m not sure I believe any of those stories, but I do know that people have been smoking this herb for millennia, almost as long as alcohol, so if the Dipsos want to be descended from Dionysus, they’d better stop calling us babies.

We’re the good stoners, and I hope both of us stay that way. We smoke out our friends, watch for the po po, are great at parties, tend our own stashes, and have day jobs. The bad stoners? They’re the reason why a lot of the Underground will treat you like a monster, not a child. They’re the ones who build the worst kinds of hippie communes, cults of brainwashed reefer fiends of a kind you thought only existed in public service ads. They give us a mystique sort of like Cthulhu cultists or the dangerous, maddening kind of fairies, the edgy ones whose food you aren’t supposed to eat. Thankfully, these communes tend to burn out pretty fast unless they can get good turnover rates going, since the longer people stay there the less functional they become.

Irony: Cannabimancers worship marijuana as holy and wholesome, but their magick turns it into a social conservative’s worst nightmare. This means that, while other forms of cannabis-based magick may have existed at other places and times, the form described is endemic to societies where marijuana is illegal and taboo. In a marijuana school in a different culture would at least have wildly different spells. Few Cannabimancers fully understand this, and many are active marijuana reform activists, but if widespread decriminalization was ever achieved, the current version of this school would begin to die.

Stats

The Secret Stash: Cannabimantic charges come from giving others special, consecrated marijuana grown by the Cannabimancer. The seeds for such a crop must either come from another Cannabimancer’s holy plants, or must, before being planted, be left out under the moonlight every night for a full lunar cycle starting and ending at full moons without ever seeing the sun. Before planting the seeds, the Cannabimancer must also twist an effigy of himself out of his own hair and place it in the soil or water where he wants to start his garden (so maintain a good supply of hair just in case, you dirty hippie). Consecrated weed must be smoked without being mixed with any materials that did not come from a consecrated plant (this includes rolling papers) in a vessel that has never in its life been used for anything other than consecrated marijuana, even before a thorough wash. This means that only friction- or water-extracted hashish is appropriate; alcohol and butane are forbidden (although only a few purists worry about butane from lighters). Failure to meet any of these conditions means the pot grants no charges. If any plants other than consecrated cannabis take root in the dirt or water where the crop grows or any chemical fertilizers or pesticides touch it, the crop becomes profane and the Cannabimancer must start over (although he can still use seeds from the corrupted crop if he harvested them before it was corrupted).

Consecrated marijuana has a number of special properties in addition to giving Cannabimancers charges:

–If consecrated weed is smoked by someone other than the Cannabimancer who grew it, that person becomes more susceptible to the Cannabimancer’s magick. Each hit gives the Cannabimancer a +5% shift on all magick cast on that person. This lasts as long as the smoker is stoned.

–Narcoalchemists can grow sacred weed. They get the same bonus on magick against those they’ve smoked out that Cannabimancers receive. It also doesn’t break a Narcoalchemist’s taboo to smoke Cannabimantic marijuana

Generate Minor Charge: Smoke someone out. Every time someone else takes a hit of your sacred bud from a pipe that’s never been used for anything un-consecrated, gain a charge. The Cannabimancer need not be present when his weed is smoked as long as the smoker doesn’t profane the weed. Yes, Cannabimancers can charge by smoking each other out.

Generate Significant Charge: Smoke someone out for the first time, using your own consecrated weed. This person must never have in any way consumed marijuana before.

Generate Major Charge: Use consecrated weed and appropriate paraphernalia to smoke out thirteen people who’ve never smoked before. This must be done in a single night, between sunrise and sunset.

Taboo: Like Dipsomancers, Cannabimancers lose their charges when they sober up.

Cannabimancers also lose their charges if their special stashes are profaned, although they can then begin gaining charges again before they grow new sacred herb. A Cannabimancer who has multiple stashes will break taboo if any of them are compromised.

Starting Charges: Cannabimancers start with no charges.

Random Magick Domain: Cannabimancy spans a spectrum between peace and madness.

Blast Style: A Cannabimancer’s wrath wracks his enemy with a minutes-long coughing fit that exudes bodily fluids of many disturbing colors.

Charging Tips: Small-time Cannabimancers tend to break taboo and start over like Dipsomancers and Oneiromancers. Note, however, that it is much easier and less harmful to one’s health to stay high at all times than to stay drunk at all times given sufficient resources, especially if you have access to hash or extreme chronic. An ambitious Cannabimancer can set his alarm to wake him up once or twice in the night for a midnight toke, insuring that he doesn’t sleep off his high. The number of formula spells in this school that last until you break taboo creates a large power difference between those who manage this and those who don’t.

As far as gaining charges, the most successful Cannabimancers tend to act like missionaries. Despite appearances, Cannabimancy has more in common with Pornomancy and Esuriomancy than with Dipsomancy or Narcoalchemy. Along with the Sect of the Naked Goddess and the Thin Beautiful Mother cult, the Cannabimantic community is part of a recent wave of expansionist, ritualistic magickal schools that function as religious movements.

Minor Formula Spells

Space Out (1 minor charge)
One target forgets what she’s doing and stares into space for a number of seconds equal to the sum of the roll, or for an additional charge, a number of seconds equal to the roll. This effect can be cut short by a loud noise, a physical shock, or anything that would cause a stress check. In high-stress situations like combat, a Space Out usually ends in a matter of seconds, but this is still enough to set someone back one space in the order of initiative.

I Didn’t Inhale (1 minor charge)
This spell can have one of two effects. It either gives the caster a +30% shift on a single Lie roll, or make something someone else says seem extremely suspicious, giving the target a -30% shift on a single Charm roll.

Mellow Out (2 minor charges)
This spell gives one target a general feeling of calm, well-being and apathy. During this time, the target receives a +20% bonus on all madness rolls and cannot use flip-flops from her Passions or Obsession. These effects last until the caster breaks taboo or the target goes without marijuana for one week. It cannot be cast on someone who isn’t stoned.

Memory Loss (2 minor charges)
This spell makes a person unable to remember a specific piece of public knowledge that he could look up online or in a library and that no one is making an effort to hide. As far as what information this spell can affect, follow the guidelines for the Cliomancy spell, Trivia. Thus, you can make someone forget personal information that could easily be sought out (like his name or his home address) and thus cause Self or Helplessness checks rarely higher than rank 2, but couldn’t make someone forget highly personal identities or feelings (like her worst fear, her love for her mother, or why she likes her best friend). It lasts until she looks the information up or is told it, or when the caster breaks taboo or the target goes without marijuana for a week. It cannot be cast on someone who isn’t stoned.

Pot Ninja (3 minor charges)
The Cannabimancer exhales a dense cloud of marijuana smoke. Each casting fills roughly a 100-cubic-foot area for about a minute, after which it disperses for another minute.

For the first minute, no one can see through the smoke, and people trapped in it become extremely disoriented regarding direction (Mind check at a -30% shift to find your way out, unless you have a skill like “Sense of Direction,” “Spatial Awareness,” or “Good in a Crisis”). The smoke affects people like any marijuana would (a Cannabimancer doesn’t gain any charges from smoking people out in this way, but someone who’s been hit by this smoke bomb does count as having smoked weed for purposes of Significant charges). A person inhales one hit’s worth of smoke for each ten seconds in the cloud until she holds her breath. Someone who is caught in the cloud for a full minute must succeed on an unmodified Body check to avoid passing out.

For the second minute, people can nevigate much better, but still take a -20% penalty on all Notice rolls. The smoke clears to the point where you can get enough oxygen, but still take one hit for each twenty seconds of breathing in the cloud.

The caster can’t see through the smoke, but can move and shape it however he wants, allowing him to clear the space around him.

Lightweight (3 minor charges)
This spell causes a coughing fit as with Bitch Lungs, but doesn’t do any damage. Another version called “The Giggles” induces uncontrollable laughter instead.

Most Prominent Martyr (4 minor charges)
This spell makes the target look hip and edgy to stoned people, and creepy or foolish to non-stoned people. The target gains a +20% shift on all Soul rolls involving interactions with the former, and a -20% shift on all Soul rolls with the latter. It cannot be cast more than once on the same person. It lasts until the caster breaks taboo or the target goes without marijuana for a number of days equal to the tens digit of the caster’s Cannabimancy score. It cannot be cast on someone who isn’t stoned.

Significant Formula Spells

Stoner Moment (1 significant charge)
This is a bigger version of Space Out. It affects either a number of targets equal to the sum of the roll for a number of seconds equal to the roll, or a number of targets equal to the roll for as many seconds. For an additional charge, it can take a number of targets equal to the roll for as many seconds. This spell always targets at least as many people as the sum of the roll or as many people as the caster can see if he looks around, whichever is lower, including the caster if necessary. This unpredictability makes it less useful in combat than Space Out.

Reefer Madness! (2 significant charges)
The target temporarily loses one Hardened notch or gains one Failed notch. If this fills up one of the target’s Failed bars, the caster chooses the way in which the target loses his mind. The target will instinctively know to blame the caster for this. This lasts until the caster breaks taboo or the target goes a week without smoking. It cannot be cast on someone who isn’t stoned.

Bitch Lungs (2 significant charges)
This is Cannabimancy’s blast. It only does minor blast damage, but incapacitates the target for a number of minutes equal to the tens place of the roll. All rolls the victim makes are at a -30% shift during this time.

The Easy Virus (3 significant charges)
This spell gives a target a Soul skill called “Take It Easy” at a level equal to the magick roll. Take It Easy can be used in all attempts to convince people to be cool, calm down, and just get along, and for socializing in a laid-back, stoner sort of way. It can also alleviate the effects of stress checks like a Psychotherapy skill. The Easy Virus is contagious. Anyone who is affected by a successful use of the Take it Easy skill gains the full effects of The Easy Virus, including the Take It Easy skill at a level equal to the roll used to effect her. In addition, all Cannabimantic effects on the person from whom the Easy Virus was caught are cast on the new victim, using the Take It Easy roll for all the spell rolls. If someone who already has a Take It Easy skill is affected by another use of the skill, her skill rises by number of points equal to the tens digit of the roll on top of any new Cannabimancy effects.

The effects of this spell last until the caster breaks taboo or the target goes without marijuana for a week. It cannot be cast on someone who isn’t stoned. When the original casting wears off, all its progeny do as well, along with any spells riding on them.

All the Cool Kids are Doing It (3 significant charges)
When a Cannabimancer casts this spell on someone, he must demonstrate a behavior to that person and suggest that that person do it regularly. Until the spell wears off, the target feels compelled to do that thing as frequently as the caster does it during that time. Popular choices include skipping work school, harming oneself, being extremely rude, buying something, or eating a certain kind of food. The action must have similar consequences and take a similar amount of time for both the caster and the target, but the caster can be more willing or able to accept those consequences. (Jack the Cannabimancer can make Jimmy the Stoner work out until he hurts himself every day if Jack also works out enough to hurt himself when Jack is a secretary and Jimmy is a construction worker who can’t afford to be that sore, but Jack can’t tell Jimmy to work out for two hours every day if Jack is fit enough to do that safely and Jimmy isn’t.) Every time the target wants to resist performing the chosen action, she must make a Self check at a rank equal to the tens’ digit of the casting roll. She can resist it regardless of the outcome, but gains a notch in a Madness Meter. It cannot be cast on someone who isn’t stoned.

This spell lasts until the caster breaks taboo or the target goes a week without smoking. It cannot be cast on someone who isn’t stoned.

Stash (4 significant charges)
This is probably the most powerful stealth spell the modern Underground has to offer. Rather than making something truly invisible or even encouraging people to ignore it, this spell bends their attention around it. This is more effective than other “Someone Else’s Problem Field”-type concealing magick because it persists even if someone is looking for the target, can see the target and has her attention called to it; she still keeps getting distracted and forgetting about the thing that’s Stashed. In game terms, anyone trying to pursue, investigate, watch, or interact with the Stashed person or object must succeed on a Mind stat roll until she physically touches it, at which point the spell is broken for purposes of that person until it’s recast. In addition, this applies to people who indirectly research the target as well as those who physically search for it. Stash has two shortcomings: first, can’t be cast on anything that couldn’t fit in a midsize closet. Second, its concealment has no effect whatsoever on anyone who is stoned. It lasts until the caster breaks taboo or the target goes a week without smoking. It can only be cast on inanimate objects and people who are currently stoned.

On top of the use that this spell’s name implies, malicious Cannabimancers can use Stash to alienate new members of their “herds” from their non-stoner friends.

Severe Memory Loss (5 significant charges)
This spell works like Memory Loss, but can make a person forget important, personal facts about herself until something reminds her. This can only affect personal facts about the target that are important to her. Generally, if a casting doesn’t incur at least a rank 1 Self or Helplessness check, it doesn’t work. It can make someone forget her obsession or one of her Passions, or forget an experience from which she earned a Failed or Hardened notch, thus temporarily removing that notch. An adept’s obsession is too strong and magickally reinforced for this spell to remove it for more than an instant, but that instant is still enough to remove all of the adept’s charges as if she’d broken taboo. Because of the personal nature of this spell, it cannot ride on an Easy Virus.

This spell lasts until the caster breaks taboo or the target goes a week without smoking. It cannot be cast on someone who isn’t stoned.