This situation occured in a
LARP I play in based on
Vampire: The Masquerade by
White Wolf. Yes, I realize this proves that I am a
Role-Playing Nerd beyond a shadow of a doubt, but that's not the point.
One of the primary tenets of the system is that Vampires and fire don't mix well, if at all. However, smoking is generally allowed in character if you have a certian amount of the Courage statistic. Thus, myself and another fellow could often be found in front of the building where we played chain-smoking like nobody's business. One week, a new player joined the game, who also happened to smoke.
Sadly, this fellow was not aware of the rules regarding smoking.
He stepped on the porch and lit up his cancer stick, and started to chat with me and the other smoker. After a few moments, I went out of character and had the following conversation with him.
Me: "Are you in game?"
Him: "Yes..."
Me: "Really? What's your courage?"
Pause while he pulls out his character sheet and looks up the appropriate stat.
Him: "Uhm...One.."
At this point, I get an evil grin.
Him: "What's it matter anyway? Why are you smiling like that?"
Me: "You need at least three points in that to not be afraid of your cigarette tip, sir. Now give me a frenzy check."
Note: Frenzy Checks are used to determine your character's reaction to situations such as fire. If you win, you remain in control. If you lose, you become a quivering mass of un-humanity and run like a little girl.
He botched the check. To his credit as a role-player, he looked at the lit end of his cigarette, looked at ours, screamed (thus making the cigarette fall out of his mouth and scatter lit embers on his shoes, which caused him to scream again), and ran away in terror.
More amusingly, several people were walking up the steps as he started freaking about the cigarette, and he nearly knocked them over while fleeing in terror. When they asked us what his problem was, we replied "Vampires don't smoke, looks like." They got really confused, then.
the player in question was given an extra experience point for excellent roleplaying at the end of the session thanks to that incident. to this day his character is mortally terrified of myself and the other smoker whenever we light up.