(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
