Scenes, moments and characters on stage

Switching scene, preparing it, firing moments and putting characters' faces and voices on stage.

The scene is what your table has in front of it: background art, a text, music, effects and the characters who come and go. Here you learn to switch scenes, to prepare one ahead of time, to fire moments with a single tap and to give characters faces and voices.

Where it is

Almost everything is in the table dock, and only the GM sees all of it: Scenes to switch scenes, Prepare the scene to get one ready, Moments to fire what you prepared and Scene panel to keep its notes and rolls at hand. My expression belongs to each player, and Effect layers and Speak as NPC complete the list. The shortcut Shift 1 opens the scene manager, and Alt Shift → and Alt Shift ← jump to the next or the previous scene.

Switching scenes

  1. Open Scenes. You get the campaign's scenes, with a search box, a type filter and folders; the one currently on is marked Live.
  2. Pick one: it goes up for the whole table, with whatever transition it has (fade, through black or cut).
  3. To leave the table without a scene, use Turn off the live scene.

From there you can also create a New scene or bring one From the Library.

Preparing the scene

Prepare the scene opens a panel docked to one side (a bottom sheet on narrow screens) with a live preview. Drag its edge to resize it; it saves by itself: the header shows the state, you can undo and redo, and if a co-GM saves at the same time it asks you which version wins.

  • Stage: the characters on stage. Add a campaign NPC, a player's character or a loose image. Drag each one on the preview to place it; with the keyboard, use the arrow keys. At most 8 fit.
  • Moments: the moments of that scene (see below).
  • Present: sheets and images ready to show the table, each linked to a moment.
  • On entry: what happens when the scene goes live. It can make characters leave by themselves, fire an opening moment and first remove the previous scene's characters.

What you prepare is for the GM only: players see nothing until it is fired.

Moments

A moment is a chain of actions fired in one go: a character enters, a note or image, a screen effect, a macro, a requested roll, a video or a web page. You prepare them in Moments and fire them from Moments: one tap runs it, and right-click or long-press gives more options. Moments with a shortcut also fire with Alt plus their letter or digit.

Each action can wait a few seconds before it goes out, and Run for some shows it only to the people you pick. There are templates to start from: A character enters, Shake, Jump scare, Tension and Dramatic text. An incomplete moment will not fire.

Careful. Screen effects (flash, shake, heartbeat, scare) respect each person's comfort settings: anyone with "no flashes" or "no scares" does not see them, and there are never more than three flashes per second. Anyone can dismiss them with Esc or a tap.

Directing the characters

With a character on stage, right-click on it (or long-press on touch) to get its face, side, size, flip, bring to front or send to back, and Show to… to bring it in again for just some people. The stage background offers Add character…, the moments and preparing the scene. Tapping a character brings it to the front; dragging it saves its spot.

  • Faces: each character has its own set of expressions; the neutral one is its portrait. With one selected, keys 1 to 9 switch faces.
  • Speaking as an NPC: Speak as NPC switches the chat signature to a campaign NPC, or back to Narration.
  • Dimming: each person can dim whoever is not speaking, from Effects and comfort.

My expression (players)

My expression is your own character's face: a strip to change it instantly and the set of images that makes it up. What you pick is seen by the table on stage, on your avatar camera and in the icon beside your messages. The neutral face is your sheet's portrait; with no portrait, upload one on the sheet.

Effect layers

Effect layers manages the scene's effect layers: snow, rain, storm, fog, embers, fire, dust, fae lights, leaves, ash, vignette, tint, underwater, old film or dream, plus your own videos (best shot on black or with transparency). Each layer sits over the art with a frame you drag, and you adjust its opacity, strength or density, colour and how it blends. A scene holds 8 layers.

Limits

  • 8 characters on stage at once, 60 moments per scene and 12 actions per moment.
  • Each action can wait 30 seconds at most, and a screen effect lasts 15 at most.
  • 8 effect layers per scene.
  • Only the GM can fire a moment.
  • A video uploaded for an effect weighs 60 MB at most; images and audio, 12 MB.

Common problems

"I fired a moment and nothing happened." It may be incomplete (the button bar marks it) or there may be no scene running: put a scene live first.

"My player does not see the scare." They have "no scares" or "no flashes" on in their comfort settings. That is on purpose.

"The characters do not show on the broadcast screen." Only those aimed at the whole table appear. See Broadcast for OBS.

See also

All Roliando guides