Scene Setting

Scene Creation
While staff will do their best to facilitate scenes and put scenes to attend on the schedule on a regular basis, the responsibility of scene and TP facilitation does not, nor should it, rest entirely on staff's shoulders.

This does not mean that players need to do all the scene running either - it just means that if you want to play, you don't need to wait for a staffer, or a more experienced player to be around in order to get a scene started! In fact, staff are always very happy to see players running scenes and TPs on their own - it relieves the burden on staff to generate game activity, and overall, helps the game to thrive.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and run a scene :)

Looking for a scene?
If you're free and wanting to scene, you can always do @here on the #rp-coordination channel in our TDE community discord to poke around and see if anyone else is interested in scening. We don't advise that you use @everyone, since that pings every single person in the server, even those who are offline and may not want to be disturbed. Alternatively, you could log onto the game and use the +rp channel in game to ask if anyone logged in on the game is hanging around and wants to scene. Note: On the game, if you use +scene/loudcreate to create a scene on the MUSH, it will send a message to the +rp channel, and notify everyone on that channel that a scene was just created. Additionally, here are most of the commands you'd use for scene setting. You can also always see all the commands by typing +help +scene in the game. +scene/finish - Finishes a scene +scene/pause - Pauses a scene +scene/continue  - Resumes a paused scene. +scene/undo - Erases last pose +scene/redo - Restores a pose that was undone +scene/move - Relocates scene to scene creator's current location. +scene/title  - Names your scene. +scene/desc - Adds a description to your scene. When you are done scening, please finish it, give it a title, and description!

GMing
GMing may seem intimidating, and scene sets may seem difficult to write, but here are some handy tips for both, that can also apply to RPing in general.

The Five W's
The key to writing quality scene sets and even poses is to make sure to give a 360 degree view of both your character and the situation. This might sound broad and vague, but it actually boils down to answering the five W's in context to what you are trying to convey.


 * Who - The question to ask here is,  'Who is in this scene that I am allowed to ICly write about?' This typically just refers to your character. Though, if you are GMing, it could refer to any NPCs (Non-player characters you've made up) that are appearing in the scene, or, if another player has given you permission to talk about them being present in your pose, that also concerns the 'who' in scene setting. Additionally, if you are GMing, as the scene progresses, the 'who' of a scene refers to who is reacting to your poses. In general, when RPing with more than just one other person, it's important to remember to provide IC responses to any other player or character who is directing an IC reaction to the characters you are controlling, and when GMing, this is crucial.


 * What - The 'what' of a scene refers to what's going on in the circumstances you are presenting. Ask yourself,  'What should I be writing about in my pose that those who are in this scene can respond to? Is the context I'm giving about the situation I am trying convey enough for someone who OOCly knows nothing about it to understand what's going on and respond accordingly?' The 'what' of a scene concerns environmental factors, events from prior scenes which give context to the current one, and even sometimes background insight that might not be physically visible, such as the structural integrity of a particular building within a scene, or scientific or forensic evidence. 
 * When - 'When' is probably least important of all of the W's, simply because it doesn't always apply. A g ood scene set doesn't always need to specify when the scene is happening, though if time of day or previous events are important to the context of the scene, it can be important. For example, if it is ICly important to know that it's nighttime for the scene you're running, specify so. In some cases, it may be that the scene you're running is happening before certain events - in this case, make sure to let all players participating know, either ICly, or OOCly, so no one ends up confused about the timeline! 
 * Where - In most cases, room location will make it obvious where a scene is occurring. Regardless, it's often good to think about whether it makes sense to mention location in your setting pose and anytime it's relevant anyway, as where a scene is, is often related to what's going on and who's there. Additionally, there may be some instances where the room you are in isn't specific enough to the scene. For example, you could be scene setting or GMing on a particular planet in the Gray Area, but an actual room for that planet you're scening on doesn't exist on the grid, so in that case, it would be important to specify where the scene is taking place. 
 * Why - The 'why' of a scene is more relevant to scene entry and scene setting than it is to GMing. Typically the questions to be asked are   'Why is my character here? '  or   'What is the purpose of this scene?' In some cases, if you're the GM, it can be polite but not necessary to offer 'ins' to other players present, if they wish to participate in the scene but aren't sure why their character would be at the scene.

Scene Scheduling
Here's a handy, abridged list of commands for scheduling scenes on the MUSH!

+schedule - Views a list of scheduled scenes. This uses your +tz settings to show them in your own Timezone. +schedule/add / = - Schedules a scene. must be in a format accepted by the convtime function, and is from the perspective of your +tz setting. As an example, now would be: Aug 17 22:07. It will default to the current year if none is provided. +schedule/reschedule = - Changes a scene's scheduled time. is same as adding. +schedule/delete  - Remove a scheduled scene. +schedule/title = - Changes a Scheduled scene's title. +schedule/desc = - Changes a scheduled scene's description/short summary.

Using the Discord reminder bot
To use the discord reminder bot, use $natural to schedule a reminder between 15-30 minutes before the scene starts. $natural on  send @here  is starting soon to #rp-coordination You will probably need to set the reminder bot's timezone to your own in order to make it work. $timezone AFTER YOU CREATE THE REMINDER, PLEASE RESET THE BOT'S TIMEZONE BACK TO US/PACIFIC!!

Last but not least, you can learn more about the discord reminder bot here: https://reminder-bot.com/help/?lang=EN