Scenes

Scenes

A scene puts several characters in one chat. You can let them talk among themselves, choose who answers next, and seat a narrator who voices the world around them.

On disk a scene is an ordinary SillyTavern group chat, so your scenes still open in stock SillyTavern, and group chats you made there open here as scenes.

Setting up a scene

1. In the library, choose New scene. The studio opens, titled Who's in the room?
2. Click characters to seat them. The number on each card is the order they speak in when they take turns. Drag the chips under Seating order to change it.
3. Under Name the scene, give it a name. The cover is a collage of the cast unless you pick a picture.
4. Under Who speaks after you, choose how the scene picks the next speaker (see Choosing who speaks).
5. Under What each character reads, keep Their own card for sharper voices, or choose The whole cast to give every character every card.
6. Optionally, write a line or two under Set the scene: where they are and what is going on. It shows at the top of the chat as the scene banner, and its pencil edits it in place. The banner is the first thing in the chat and scrolls away with the story. The Scene chip in the chat header shows the scene's text again from anywhere in the chat, with an Edit the scene button.
7. Choose Start the scene. Each character's greeting arrives in seating order.

To change a scene later, choose Edit scene on its card in the library, or the + at the end of the stage. The same studio opens, with Save changes and Delete scene.

Choosing who speaks

The stage

Above the message box, On stage shows everyone in the scene. While a reply is being written, the speaker's face pulses, and the next one is marked.

Tap a face to open that character's menu:

• Speak now: they answer next. If someone is already writing, they go right after.
• Speak after the next reply: they join the queue behind whoever is next.
• Peek card: read their card without leaving the chat.
• Mute: they stay in the scene but don't speak until you unmute them or call on them.
• Leave the scene: takes them out of it.

@mentions

Write @ and a name in the message box, and a list of the cast appears. Press Tab or Enter to pick. Name several, and they answer in the order you name them: "@Hana and @Pip, what is in that parcel?" gets Hana first, then Pip. The @ signs are taken out of your message before it is sent.

Who speaks after you

When you send a message without naming anyone, the scene's turn style decides who answers. You set it in the studio, or in the Cast tab:

In the studio	In the Cast tab	What happens
Natural	Natural	Whoever you name answers first, then anyone chatty enough joins in.
Take turns	In order	Everyone answers, in seating order.
One at a time	Each once	One voice who hasn't spoken yet this round, picked at random.
Only when I call	I choose	Nobody speaks until you tap them or @ them.

The Cast tab, in the right rail, also shows Up next (the queue), each character's share of the replies, and Change the cast.

Let them talk

Let them talk, on the stage and in the Cast tab, lets the cast carry the scene on its own, one reply after another. The stage shows who is writing and who is next. Start typing, or press Talking again, to take the floor back.

If a reply fails (the connection drops, the provider refuses), Let them talk switches itself off and says so, instead of trying again in a loop. Fix the connection and switch it back on.

The narrator

A narrator voices everything that isn't your cast: the place, the weather, the sounds, and every stranger, passer-by or shopkeeper the story brings in. It never speaks for your characters.

To seat one, open the studio (New scene, or Edit scene) and switch on Seat a narrator. On the stage it sits last, as a lantern.

Choose how often it steps in while the cast talks on its own:

• Only when called: it speaks only when you tap its lantern or write @Narrator.
• Every 2, Every 3 (the default) or Every 5: after that many replies from the cast.

You can always call it yourself, whatever the pace. Tap the lantern for Speak now, Speak after the next reply or Remove the narrator.

When nobody outside the cast is in the scene, the narrator writes only the world, in a few lines, and leaves the people to your characters.

Good to know

• Branches are not available in group chats.
• Scenes work on your phone too. See Kotatsu on your phone.
• The narrator is one card per profile, shared by every scene that seats it. Kotatsu finds it by a flag, not by its name, so a character of yours called "Narrator" is left alone.
• Kotatsu Nabe 0.4 knows about scenes and keeps every character in their own turn. If you never edited your copy of Nabe, it updated itself and kept a backup.