Scene roleplay

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A "scene" is a blanket term for a roleplaying session, often (but not always) involving vore or ERP, usually between a small group or pair of players rather than involving the entire station, and in most cases a heavy focus on RP rather than mechanics. For instance, two engineers setting up the engine would generally not be considered a scene, though the term could be used to describe a session in which the Chief Engineer walks a new arrival to the department through the process of setting it up, going through the safety procedures and pointing them at all the dos and don'ts, and so on and so forth - especially if the two of them take their time making smalltalk about the station while the engine warms up, leading on to how the new recruit isn't familiar with what sort of station this is, the chief engineer offering to give them the "full tour", the recruit accepting because they're not familiar with what that term actually means around these parts, and... well. If you're familiar with vore I'm sure you can figure out where this is heading.

In short, a scene on-station has much the same meaning as a scene in a movie. It's a little self-contained part of a character's story that's a part of the greater narrative - hence the etiquette (and rules) requiring those who aren't involved in a scene that's going on between other players to keep out of it unless those taking part are okay with it - quiet on set!

Finding a scene

If you're looking for a scene, or find that you have difficulty getting people to RP with you, there are a few things that will increase your chances. Many of these tips will be more important for unwilling (or semi-willing) prey characters, as that role generally requires sitting around passively (at least in-character) and waiting for someone to pick them out for dinner - those whose preferred role involves actively offering themselves as a meal in-character, or asking if someone would like to be dinner, will rarely have as much trouble finding a partner. For those who don't like the sorts of scenes that lend themselves well to direct, open, in-character advertisement like outright asking over the radio, a little more subtlety may be needed.

For all the below tips, short version is that other people are more likely to play with you if they look at you and get the impression that you're selling what they're buying, and are less likely to play with you if you raise any red flags that might indicate that they'll have a bad time.

Fill out your flavortext and OOC info

Besides this being one of the rules of playing here, when people don't do this it's a big red flag to a lot of other players. Your flavortext is essentially your advertisement to the other players - if you don't bother putting any effort into it, they may assume that you won't bother putting any into your actual RP.

  • Make sure you actually include your full prefs. It's all well and good saying what types of vore you're into, but if you forget to mention whether you're pred or prey, or whether you prefer willing or unwilling scenes, people may simply not approach you.
  • No really, remember to put in your notes whether you're pred, prey, or a switch, whether you're okay with digestion/absorption, and whether you're here for ERP or just vore. There's nothing more awkward than pouncing someone and hauling them into maintenance only to find that they're not into digestion or don't like male preds or some other preference mismatch, and then having to just pretend like the whole thing didn't happen or come up with some IC way to untangle the mess, and some players prefer not to take the risk.
  • Include what you really like as well as a list of do-nots. It's good to be able to avoid treading on your toes, but for some players half the fun is pushing your buttons and making you squirm. And not just in a futile attempt to free yourself from their tight, churning stomach.
  • Filling out your character records, while not essential, is often considered one of the good signs. It shows you've put effort into actually developing your character to make them someone who's actually interesting to talk to and play with. While it'd perhaps be overly snobbish for someone to outright have a policy of not playing with someone with blank records, some of the more serious, detailed roleplayers put a lot of consideration into this. If nothing else, the act of filling out your records will help you flesh out the character in your own mind, even if nobody else ever bothers to read them.

Read other people's info

While this is more of a tip for the people who are more proactive about asking people to RP, you'll often find that they've put what they're looking for out there. If you're a hungry predator and someone's flavortext says they're up for being grabbed and gobbled up without warning, go nuts.

  • Don't be pushy - you know how some people will walk out of a shop when the sales staff keep bothering them while they're browsing? Some players are like that when it comes to scenes. Some preds like to choose their prey and find it awkward when people march up and offer themselves. You also won't win many friends among other prey players when you drive all the predators off.
  • Getting into a pred-off with other predators over who's more predatory is frequently just frustrating for all involved. Best to ask first.

Interact!

A prey shaft miner complaining that they aren't getting pounced when they spend the entire shift in vacuum silently smacking rocks should probably expect that outcome. Take a break. Go to the bar. Have a coffee. Chat on the radio. Let the other players know you actually exist. If you are in a public area, speak to the other crew members. If you just park yourself in the bar and tab out to watch youtube videos until the roleplay comes to you, anyone walking past you will just see the "AFK for 12 minutes" in your examinetext and walk right on by.

  • Vore is what we're here for, but that's not all there is to talk about. Just chatting and shooting the breeze with the other characters might wind up just leading into a scene naturally - see the example above with the Chief Engineer. It didn't start out as a vore scene, but talking happened, one thing lead to another, and...
  • Be where people can find you. This goes for most jobs in non-public areas of the station - if the rest of the crew never see you, they might not even know that you're up for grabs.
  • For those who are looking for unwilling scenes, be where you can be found, but not somewhere so public that prospective preds never have a chance to catch you. You'll never get yourself gobbled up if the head of security is sitting there at the next table with three officers and the captain. Maybe get up and go for a walk, say you're going to the garden or you're off for a swim in the pool or going to the holodeck or something.
  • The discord group has a "looking for RP" channel where you can tell other players that you're looking for something. We know some people like it when hungry predators break into their office and devour them, but it's pretty rare if the predators don't know there's someone to grab.

Be someone that others want to interact WITH

In line with the above point, it's best if your character is someone that other people would actually want to interact with. Knowing you're there and looking is one thing, but you won't get many fish biting if you don't bait the hook - or worse, bait it with something unpalatable.

  • This article is a great reference for this sort of thing: http://www.springhole.net/writing/common-problems-in-roleplaying-characters.htm
  • Playing an asshole is all well and good for certain situations, but if your character is so combative and provocative that people can't stand being in the same room as them, you might find that people just leave rather than dealing with you. If you're playing an asshole with the specific intention of the other crewmembers putting you in your place, make this clear in your flavortext and back off if they clearly aren't in the mood.
  • Along with the general theme of making the effort to fill out your flavortext and records, be sure to make the effort in your general RP. If your RP posts and radio chatter consist of no-punctuation one-liners, other players may assume that's all they'll get from a scene and pass you by.
  • Combining the above by making characters who just curse people out in the bar with single-line insults with no flavortext will probably get people thinking you're a troll. Really. And this happens from time to time, apparently it's normal on other servers.
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