After my most recent game, one of my players had a major sneezing fit. He must have sneezed five or six times in rapid succession. It was very funny to watch. I mean, not even a pregnant Bajourin sneezes that much. I joked that he had been the victim of a sneeze spell. Then, I thought about it. I would now like to share with you what I came up with. I hope you enjoy.

Sneeze

Category: Manipulation, Type: Mental, Range: LOS, Duration: Instant, Drain: F/2

Effect: This spell induces an unstoppable compulsion to sneeze in the target. This spell is resisted by Willpower (+Counter-spelling). For every net hit, the target must immediately spend a simple action to sneeze. Target may not take any other simple action until the effect of this spell is resolved.

Offhand that seems a bit powerful. It essentially incapacitates them short of deciding to use complex actions. Which seems odd "Oh god I'm sneezing, time to squeeze off a full-auto burst"?

I'd probably make it similar to Orgasm/Orgy/Stink/Stench thusly:

Sneeze: (Realistic, Single Sense)
Type: M • Range: LOS • Durations S • DV: (F÷2)-2
Histamine: (Realistic, Single-Sense, Area)
Type: M • Range: LOS(A) • Duration: S • DV: (F÷2)
Sneeze causes a nearly irresistible urge to well, sneeze, in the target. The nose itches, the eyes start to water, and eventually it escapes. The sneeze always escapes. Each net hit scored by the caster applies a -1 dice pool modifier to all of the target's actions as they fight the itching in their nose or try to compensate for the violent sneezing reaction. At the gamemaster's discretion, a character who suffers a dice pool modifier higher than her Willpower is completely incapacitated with her battle with magically induced allergies.
Sneeze affects a single target. Histamine is an area effect.

Agreed: it should be identical to those existing spells.

I can agree to all of that, however, I wouldn't refer to the symptoms of this spell as "magically induced allergies." Taking that phasing literally would be too powerful against characters with regeneration. But otherwise, agreed.

Apparently my willpower was too low that game.

I like that second spell better, but I do like the first one.

Perhaps combine them?

Each net hit induces a -1 penalty, but the target may spend a simple action to sneeze to reduce the penalty by 1.

You get the effect of the first spell (target spends their actions to sneeze) while keeping in line with the second spell (not sneezing makes things difficult).

But also allows for *Sneeze!* *fire a shot* *Sneeze!* *fire a shot*

He-he. I would love to see a player act that one out.

He-he. I would love to see a player act that one out.

What about penalties until the target sneezes (or forcibly regains control - very hard)?

You mean like:

Ah, right. That sounds nice.

I love it! I agree that it should work mechanically like the other nuisance spells. I don't think the hybrid mechanic makes logical sense, though; even right after you sneezed, you would be recovering from the violence of it and fighting the urge to sneeze again. You can still sneeze-shoot-sneeze-shoot with the standard nuisance spell mechanics and describe it as allowing yourself to sneeze, squeezing off a shot before the urge is again unbearable, etc. I would personally describe the effects based on net hits: more means actual sneezing, fewer distraction from suppressing the urge.