Step Five: Your First Scene
From Elan Vital Wiki
So now you're on the IC grid. Congratulations! You made it! Now it's time for the fun to begin, and chances are you're probably ready to get your first scene off and rolling.
==Finding a Scene==
The first step is, of course, to find a scene to get involved with. Luckily, CharGen drops you in a pretty well-trafficked area, and there's a good chance that someone will already be there. If there isn't, there's a couple other ways you can go about getting involved someplace.
One is to check the Where, which is really very simple. All you have to do is type "where" (as always, sans quotes), and the information will pop right up. Each line of information is the name of a room, and the number on the left is how many people are in that room. Being on the IC grid at all automatically adds you to the Where. If you are standing alone in the Court of Water, where CharGen dumps you, you should see
[1] at Court of Water - <Titania Grand Arcology, Starfall Island>
on the Where. If you are somewhere else on the grid, you should see the name of your room at the top of the room desc.
You can assume that anybody showing up on the Where is available for RP, so you don't have to worry about asking them. This goes two ways, however--if you're on the IC grid, people will assume they can come and find you for scenes. If you would like to remain connected to the game, but not actually RP'ing, type "@RP" to go to our OOC area.
Now that you've figured out the Where, if you're feeling brave, you can try to navigate your way to one of the listed rooms. This can be tricky, however, if you're a newbie, and you might not want to take the time to get lost on the grid right now.
If you're unsure of where to go, you can always ask for directions on-chan, or you can try paging someone for a scene. Often, connected players are willing to get involved in a scene even if you can't tell right away where that person is. That person can then either give you directions to a convenient meeting place, or come and find you themselves.
If you have no one in particular in mind for a scene, you can also ask on the Elan Vital channel ("+el <message>") if anyone wants to come play.
You should also note that "speedwalking" is against the rules on Elan Vital. Basically, speedwalking is moving through rooms without checking to see if anyone's in them, and not stopping if there is. If you come across a scene in progress on the grid, you should stop to join--or, if you can't at the moment or don't feel like it, at least put in a quick pose to move your character by. "Erika ducks past the chatting threesome, head down, hood pulled over her face," is enough. It's also not a bad idea to say something OOCly about not being able to stick around for a longer scene.
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Setting
After you find someone to scene with, someone has to go first, of course. This first pose is called the scene set, and posing it is, (if you haven't figured this part out), setting.
The point of a scene set is to show what's going on in the room right now. It might include details about the weather, or what local NPCs are up to. It will probably also detail what the character whose player is setting is up to.
Who sets is generally decided by who is in the room first. So, if Erika is alone in a room when John comes to join her, the duty falls to Erika. If Erika and John are merrily scene'ing away when Edward shows up and wants to join, whoever's about to pose gets to post a scene set for Edward, so he knows what he's getting into when he joins the scene.
Pose Order
A pose order is the default when playing a scene--meaning, people take turns. Posing out of turn is generally referred to as stomping whoever's turn it should've been. So, in the above example, the pose order might be Erika-John-Edward, Erika-John-Edward. It would not be Erika-John-Edward-Edward-John-Edward-Erika.
Pose order does have exceptions, however. In big scenes (meaning, involving at least four, probably more characters), the players might choose to switch to Rule of Three. Rule of Three is a pose order in which you can pose whenever you want, as long as at least three people have posed since your last pose. As an example, in a scene involving Erika, John, Edward, Ralph, and Amy, an acceptable pose order might be Erika-John-Edward-Ralph-Erika-Amy-Edward-John etc. As you see, there's always at least three poses between each person's pose.
Posing
When your turn to pose rolls around, there's a couple different things you can do. The most common thing is simply to @emit <pose>, which will display what you enter in the text bar pretty much exactly as you see it (though it does evaluate MUSH code). This works something like this:
>> @emit John nods, thoughtfully chewing on his lower lip while he listens. John nods, thoughtfully chewing on his lower lip while he listens.
You can also use the : or ; keys, as on-chan, to pose:
>> :shrugs, and scuffs at a spot in the dirt with his toe. John shrugs, and scuffs at a spot in the dirt with his toe. >> ; displays his hands, palms up, to Erika. John displays his hands, palms up, to Erika.
In most scenes, this is all that's required. In some scenes, however, you might find yourself needing to roll the dice and use a skill on your +sheet. This is really very simple--you roll the dice first, and then incorporate those results into your pose. The syntax to roll the dice is +taskroll <skill> at <modifier>.
>> +taskroll Acrobatics at 0 John rolls his Acrobatics with a 0 modifier. The result is Good (5).
Which means that John can incorporate his acrobatics into his next pose, assuming that he is good at it. A Good comes out to about professional, to give you an idea of what that means.
>> @emit John gives the group a flippant grin, turns his back to them, and front-flips across the street. John gives the group a flippant grin, turns his back to them, and front-flips across the street.
See? It's that easy.
One thing to keep in mind when posing is that roleplaying is a many-person affair, so poses should be written in third-person omniscient. If you're unfamiliar with the term, that means that your poses should be written from outside your character's head--including no thoughts or other personal details that the characters around him or her would not be able to know.
The reasoning behind this is fairly simple--it keeps it fair. When, say, a book is written from a particular character's point of view, it gives you the feeling of a main character. When roleplaying, though, there is no main character.
Thoughts should never be included in poses, but in those rare instances when they are, other players may assume that the general gist of the thought (definitely not word-for-word) might be read clearly in their facial expressions.
Some scenes (usually combat scenes), will require you to then roll again for whoever's running the scene to see. That usually happens when you made an attempt at something (like an attack) in your pose. Let's say that John is fighting a rabid Kodresh. We might see this:
Angered, the beast lifts a gigantic paw to aim a swipe at John's unprotected head. Kavi rolls for a Fair with a 0 modifier. The result is Fair (4). >> +taskroll Dodge at 0 John rolls his Dodge with a 0 modifier. The result is Good (5). [OOC] Kavi says, "He *just* missed you." >> @emit John ducks, breath hissing out between clenched teeth as the paw swishes through the air just over the top of his head, brushing strands of red hair into his face. With the knife clenched in his left hand he tries to cut the beast before it can try decapitating him again. John ducks, breath hissing out between clenched teeth as the paw swishes through the air just over the top of his head, brushing strands of red hair into his face. With the knife clenched in his left hand he tries to cut the beast before it can try decapitating him again. >> +taskroll small blades at 0 John rolls his Small Blades with a 0 modifier. The result is Mediocre (3).
And on they battle. Kavi would then roll for the Kodresh's skill again, pose, and the cycle starts over again.
Ending the Scene
A scene might end naturally, with the characters going on their way and a generalized sort of disbandment, or it might have to be cut short. Often, scenes can stretch quite long--hours, usually--and real life does not always allow for that sort of time. A typical scene will end with the characters "posing out", or posting a pose where their character leaves the scene.
Posing out might be as simple as concocting a reason for your character to leave--maybe they had to have a sudden grocery store run, or suddenly remembering a meeting they're about to miss. It might also mean not leaving the scene at all, but establishing what the character will be doing in the background while whatever other characters involved carry on. Having your character fall asleep, for instance, is an acceptable pose-out.
The main thing you want to aim for when posing out is to get your character out from underfoot with whatever characters he or she is involved with, so that you don't end up ICly tying people up even when you're OOCly out doing other things, and can't be sitting at the computer.
In some scenes, posing out just isn't feasible, or the scene is important enough that you really need to finish it, even when your real life is calling you away. When this happens, a scene can be paused, and picked up later by whoever was in it. The theatres in the OOC area are designed for exactly this purpose. In the theatres, you are welcome to pick up a paused scene again without having to get whoever was involved back to the place of the scene.
For scenes that are not worth pausing, but really can't be posed out of, people are usually willing to let you wander off and just assume your character eventually left.
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