Man. I want to see smoke pterasaurs now. =P

1. Yes, Geroge Carlin is, in fact, the man. Though the poor guy is getting pretty old at this point.
2. The plain prop idea is a good one. Don't know why someone didn't suggest it earlier. You see the character strike up a match and light it, then he holds it aloft idly in the chosen hand, taking a puff at it now and again, while it exudes a little smoke stream in the meantime, and is otherwise useless. Again, I'm not for dampening the effect for the sake of keeping the idea 'sterile' or 'safe', but from what I gather from those I am acquainted with who smoke, there really isn't much of an effect. Apparently there's no real buzz involved, either. It basically entails you getting up, sticking a tube-like object in your mouth, lighting one end of it, and sucking and blowing until it's all gone, then repeating the process, even though you don't enjoy it, want to stop doing it, and can't afford it. (Good luck following that logic. I have a divining rod, the support of twelve NASA satelites, and the world's most powerful GPS system, and I'm still having trouble locating the point.)
3. There's no logic in requiring a specific skill to smoke a pipe, or blow bubbles for that matter, whether it's got a specific use or not. Even if you would say, blow bubbles in the shape of the lady from the Mona Lisa playing pool with Sigmund Freud, at best this falls under the bard/enterainment skill that already exists (or is planned for implementation.)
4. If you had to make bubble-'art' or smoke-'art', it would be most pertinent, as I said, to make it fall under the general entertainment skill, and just run it right through the charisma stat.

But if they put pipes in, would there have to be no smoking sections in the game's bars? Just something to think about.

--Polar

Alright, that's officially one of the most adorable things in the universe.  Bunny!

Also, I'm not sure it is possible to be 'too furry'. =P Just ask the Enkidukai. x3

To add my own picture into the mix:



--Polar

Thank you Kiraki. =P That's what I do. Sort of. x.X Squee. =3 *Takes flower, nuzzles* Flower! *Herbalism increases by 1?*

In regards to Natrina's comment about the previous thread: It's odd how simple conversations can lead to completely unrelated topics, isn't it? Eg:

Some guy creates a thread about alchemists being able to synthesize nitroglycerin and make explosives. Then someone suggests, "Hey, why don't we make fireworks? Those would be pretty." Then three people agree. (I'm probably one of them.) The fourth guy, not so much, instead he suggests (going on a slippery slope) "If we can have fireworks, why can't we create primitive missiles?" Next post, "Screw primitive, we can synthesize metals, why not create nuclear missiles?" The next guy who posts makes a joke about Hiroshima (not in very good taste, but he didn't mean anything specifically by it, it's just a funny joke), and the post after that is the token Japanese guy on the forums calling them a foul racist prick. An entire discussion about racism ensues. It lasts for 15 pages (because it's a popular topic) until someone finally says, "Hey wait, wasn't this post about the alchemy skill tree?"

Ah, what tangled webs we weave.

--Polar

(This here's a quote.) A little clue might have been nice, not everything outrageous is meant to be a joke. (That just now, that there was a quote.)

This is sad, but it's true. I've heard people say things like, "The gay communists have infiltrated our preschools and are planting intergalactic transmitters in the left ears of our children (specifically the left ear, remember that, it might be useful some time) so that they can send and recieve messages from Klaigon VIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII." You might think, "Lol," but they actually believe these things. Anyway, enough about people who are bugnuts, on to the topic at hand.

The antismoking sentiment vs. realism: I'm completely against leaving things out of games just because one idiot might go ahead, take a chainsaw, and turn his teacher into a formerly living arts 'n crafts project. This ecompasses drugs, sex, violence, anything that people (by which I mean soccer moms and Jesus Crispies) routinely get something stuck in their craw about when it appears in, god forbid, a game on the internet. If some putz sees something awful in a game, goes out and does it, and then blames the game, they're either an unfortunate mutant whom it's no use feeling sorry for because they have the intellectual capacity of a box of laundry detergent, or they're just completely full of bullhonkey and trying to weasal their way out of all responsibility by saying 'the awful, terrible, evil gaming industry made me do it'. (As a side note, I personally do not smoke, nothing, no pot, no cigarretes, crack cocaine, not a god damn thing, and, in fact, I greatly dislike people who do smoke. And yet I am here now, advocating not leaving it out of a game just because I may personally not happen to like it. I encourage you to follow this philosophy.)

(Yes, this discussion came about because someone was talking about blowing bubbles.) I see no good reason not to implement bubbles, smoke rings, or steam if you really want to go there (hey, it'd be unique!) It would be an interesting form of entertainment that would add to an overall roleplaying experience as to be had by all players of the game. And hey, if really you wanted to add something like dope, you could always take a cue from G2, after smoking the thing, the player's view of reality becomes distorted and wobbly, and he moves at 1/2 the speed of 'real time' for about five minutes. (As to simulate the effects of 'swamp weed' (the game's equivalent of marijuanna) on the system.) I thought this was a good way to handle it, personally. (By the way, G2, not an American game, go figure. I have to rely on Germany to put interesting things in their games. Excellent roleplaying game, that. You could use almost anything you picked up, you could play the lute, you could sweep a floor with a broom, you could stir a kettle with a massive stirring spoon.) In PS, this could be handled in a variety of ways. One suggestion would be to use the herbalism system to produce materials for the other players to smoke. (Or the alchemy system to create a soapy bubble solution, if you so prefer.)

My final word on the subject is a phrase borrowed from a good man, Mr George Carlin:

"Kids don't smoke because a camel in sunglasses tells them to."

--Polar

I'm going to have to disagree with you on the Morrowind thing. I enjoyed the customizable spell system, but honestly, other than the customization, it wasn't very vast. It was just rehashing of the same 20 or so effects.

I think what he's talking about is things like conjuring food and water, as an example. (Not in the World Of Awfulcraft sense, "lol can i hav sum watr 4 my spels pliz?", but rather in the sense of creating such things purely for entertainment purposes. You could choose from a list of beverages and foods to create, and spread them festively around the town square. (If you were so inclined.))

Also the ability to strike up a camp fire without having to have matches or a tinderbox, an open spell (to circumvent simple locks and unhing chests, or simply to push open an already unlocked version of either if you were feeling lazy that day), a spell that allows you to freeze the surface of water so that you can walk upon it. They would have to be very strange and most likely unique spells, but it'd certainly be interesting to see. A fun suggestion would be the 'juggling lights' spell from the Quest For Glory series. This almost had no use at all, but it would be something you'd imagine a wizard being able to do, and it would be vastly entertaining. This way, wizards could choose to entertain their fellows by making lovely lights dance about in the air. Also, the ability to levitate small objects about with a minor stream of arcane energy. (If they wanted an apple, and the apple was over there, they could get to it without getting up from their seat.)

As far as the fighter vs. mage debate, you have to remember that some of the most popular classes in tabletop roleplaying games are melee combatants with minor to major arcane or divine abilities.

That said, the devs seem to be going for an open-ended feeling. It's difficult to keep things open ended while restricting them at the same time. Though it is in the spirit of realism not to allow a weak stick-figure mage to swing a sword twice his height, likewise a brute mercenary who weighs 250 pounds and specializing in pro-bono, unrequested facial reconstruction to sneak stealthily about, the line is blurry. It's difficult to figure out where to draw it without stopping someone from doing something they feel they aught to be able to do.

I would be in favor of a GM to review background stories to determine whether or not someone can do something. It'd be something you could select when right clicking a player, the background story, and every time they wanted to learn a skill that wasn't particularly aligned to their profession, they'd have to write a decent roleplaying reason for doing so, and add it in there.

It may not stop people, but at least it would force them to be creative (therefor it would stop PLers, who are generally as creative as the sponge I keep next to my sink) and sate the people who are clamoring for a reason that the character would be able to tend to a lovely herb garden on Saturday, while by Monday they'd be off braining orcs with a battle axe.

Lack of creativity should be considered a disease, I think that's my final word on the subject.

--Polar

(Oh, as a sidenote, I like Moon's take on the weakness/strength system, though from a completely roleplaying point of view. That way you could more accurately roleplay someone who'd say, lost an eye in a tragic 'tavern related incident'. This is something like the customization system you see in GURPS (generic universal rolelaying system) a tabletop RPG. You are allocated a certain number of points by the GM, and then they give you a certain number of points of weakness you can take (1 eyed character, sterile character, compulsive gambler, the list goes on for pages and pages) to add points to your pool, with which you must purchase your stats from (str, dex, etc) and can then buy advantages with (character with an extra arm, character with natural armor, character with gills, etc.) This is balanced though, so that the player can't just take 30 disadvantages, and be playing a blind, one foot tall, one eyed, parapalegic, compulsive gambler/drinker, who has 40 points in strength (twice that of a superhuman.) It doesn't have to be balanced in such a way in a roleplaying sense, but one has to temper here and there.