RLV offers a number of tools to control the environment of the bottom. These are:
- Touch
- Fartouch
- Windlight
- Mouselook
- Edit
- Rez
- Inventory
- Names
- Wear/Unwear
- World Map
- Minimap
- Hovertext (Hud and world)
- Flying
Wow. That’s a lot innit? Way too much for one post, my fingers will fall of mah paws and you’ll all be bored senseless. I’m going to try something a little bit different for this post, posit a few scenarios and see which restrictions make sense and which don’t.
Let’s start with a simple handcuffing with hands in front. What changes do you think might apply? Which ones make sense?
Touch, well yeah you can touch just fine with handcuffs on. Trust me on this, I’ve set up a sound system with hinged handcuffs on, yeah it was awkward and there were a couple of things I needed a little help on (uncoiling cable with cuffed hands is problematic) but for the most part it’s not that big a restriction. So touch and far touch are out. Out of all that list the only one that would really make sense is wear/unwear. Try taking a top off with cuffed hands….good luck!
Okay so with a simple handcuffing in front, there’s not really much for RLV to do here to help the roleplay. How about if the hands are cuffed behind the back though? Even simple chain link cuffs are much more restrictive behind the back and if they’re hinged and brutally applied in the now common over and under style, that’s a pretty severe limitation of freedom. What restrictions apply now?
RR restraints default to touch blocked when hands are bound behind the back, on frist examination this may make sense however with opposable thumbs still free and given a little bit of mobility, you can still manipulate things if you can get to them. For that reason I far prefer fartouch, which blocks touch past a distance of 1.5 meters. For me, this makes a lot more sense as RR restraints can be operated from 3M away so if you’ve got clickables and you’re dealing in a bit of turn the tables, this opens up avenues for things to happen that block touch would prevent. In short, it’s more realistic.
I’d apply other restrictions as well. Edit and rez would be gone; it’s improbable that one would be able to do much more than press buttons, flick switches or turn keys so those restrictions make sense, along with the deny wear and unwear. Inventory I would still allow, though. With no edit, rez or wear there is little purpose in blocking inventory.
Let’s consider a bottom who has no other restraint except a pair of fist mitts.
Have you ever worn fist mitts? I have and let me tell you they are the most frustrating things! Sure you can wave your arms around like a brownie practising semaphore, but can you do anything useful? Not on your nellie. For such a restraint, block touch is most definitely favoured. The same goes for straitjackets, single sleeve arm binders and the like. Really, you’re utterly helpless in these things (great, isn’t it?)
Let’s consider a bottom who’s stuck in a cell, with one barred door. The bottom is otherwise unrestrained, what restrictions might apply?
Well again fartouch would be good, unless the bottom is Mr Fantastic from the Fantastic Four and has rubber arms that can reach across a sim, there’s no way that the bottom would be able to touch anything any further than arm’s length from the bars. Stuck in a cell, well there’s be no handy closet to get to so therefore no inventory. Wear and unwear clothes is somewhat debatable, the bottom can take off clothes but with no inventory the bottom will be stuck nekkie. Some may not consider that a bad thing 
And now to draw out the elephant in the room…. dah da dahhhh, mouselook. This is one of the few occasions where I’d use mouselook. You are stuck in a cell. That means all you can do is look through the bars of the cell. Limiting? Yes, it is, that’s the idea. A cell puts a serious restriction on your freedom of vision and mouselook does a good job here. Alternatively some kind of cam restriction would work well, there are several products available (RR and MD both have plugins available for this) which will blind the bottom if camming is greater than a selected distance. For long term, I’d suggest cam restrict rather than mouselook, although mouselook is certainly the more realistic.
Some of you nutjobs enjoy being kidnapped. You know what, that’s okay ’cause I enjoy kidnapping So let’s look at that for a minute; you’re idly whiling away your time in one of the less safe hubs in SL and All of a sudden you’re grabbed! A hood goes over your head, in short order you’re bound and chucked in the back of a van to the evil lair. Not a word has been said by your captor.
This is where deny names, map and minimap and hovertext come in. Part of being kidnapped is not knowing where you are and, potentially, not knowing the identity of your captor. Get this bit right and the kidnapping experience becomes a lot more real. Of course as soon as the hood comes off, if you are known to the captor, then no names should be removed. From that point having no names is a logic bomb, not an enhancement to RP and enhancing RP is what RLV is for.
Bit of a different format for this post, I hope it worked for you. Till the next time, ta ta for now.
