31; A brief history of RLV

What is RLV?

First and most important: RLV is supposed to be fun. It is meant to enhance the experience of BDSM by controlling your avatar in a more realistic way. That means, if your avatar is tied up it IS tied up. There are of course other uses for RLV but this is what it was meant to be.

RLV is software that can control your avatar to restrict its movement or set up restrictions preventing you from teleport, messaging or using your inventory just to name a few. It’s open source and developed by a community of smart people who obviously enjoy BDSM.

A brief history of RLV

In the beginning RLV was known as Restrained Life Viewer. Nowadays it’s called Restrained Love Viewer. The original was published in 2007 by Marine Kelley, who also owns the RealRestraint brand. When Linden Labs opened the source to their viewer, Marine thought it would be nice to have something to improve BDSM roleplay. Marine herself is an BDSM enthusiast and so are most RLV users.

Marine’s original RLViewer is hosted at eRestraint.com, known for some elaborate and very kinky bondage footage. First RLV was sort of a patch that was installed at the original Linden viewer. Now there are many third party viewers and very much of them support RLV. Apart from Marine’s viewer most popular are Phoenix Firestorm, Imprudence and Catznip.

The RLV relay

One of the most important things you need to use RLV is the RLV relay. It communicates between your viewer and devices. Basically that means if you are meant to be tied up on, let’s say a pillory, the Relay is what makes this possible. The Relay is in fact the thing that really ties you up, the pillory merely does the animation, or lack thereof^^

Different Relays

There is a whole bunch of different Relays in SL all with its advantages or disadvantages from Marine’s original Relay to others like, Dahlia, Satomi, tkPBA, Susan’s Relay Ring and others. There is no “best” relay whatsoever, it’s mainly a matter of choice which one you prefer. The features differ from type to type but all in one they are similar in handling and basic features. After trying the most popular ones I decided to use Dahlia and have found it to suit me well.

Never wear two relays at once. They would only interfere with each other and spoil the fun.

Dahlia Relay

As the name suggests this Relay is developed by someone called Dahlia. Dahlia Orfan to be precise.

This Relay is compatible to most devices I’ve encountered and comes with a variety of settings that allow you to set it up to your likings. Like most other relays it can be set up with different levels of control and different safeword modes. This way you can have your avatar save and sound or vulnerable to any attempt to force you on a bondage device. Same goes for safeword options. Either be freed instantly or make it much more realistic by asking someone to help you. 

In case you want it to be safer, you might also like the sensor which reports the device and the captor trying to capture you.

Another useful feature is the outfit locker, used to lock outfit, body parts and attachments so they won’t be accidentally stripped off.

Setting up Dahlia Relay

As mentioned above, Dahlia can be set up in different ways. I will focus on the safest way and how to set up if you are more of the adventurous type.

Safe:

Set your relay to Ask mode. You will be asked for any request to capture you. Safeword should be set to Safeword 0 or 1. For having it really save make sure Evil mode is turned off.

Adventurous:

Set mode to Auto. On Auto you will not get asked and simply be captured. You can add a little toughness by activating Evil Mode which prevents you from safewording if another avatar is within ten meters. To make it even tougher set your safeword to 3 or 4 or turn it completely off. 

Considered the normal usage these are the two extremes. There are of course certain nuances between them and the best way to find them is to experiment with settings. The most extreme setting is the hardcore mode which locks you out of your relay settings forever. Be careful with this mode. Once set the only way to get rid of the relay is to log in without RLV and delete the relay.

Collars

A collar has many uses and meanings. It is used for control and restricting slaves and submissive people but most of all it has a representative nature. Wearing a collar shows others you are submissive or even owned by someone. But the collar also has an amazing impact on the slave and their Dominant. It forms a bond between the slave and their Mistress/Master that is very strong. Having your Dominant locking her collar around your neck is a very special moment, perhaps even holy. When my Mistress locked her collar around my neck it was the happiest day in my life.

Again there are various brands and types of collars in SL so this can be no complete list. Some collars come with a set of cuffs, others are available separately.

OC collars

Open Collar is probably the most popular and most widely spread brand of collars. Fortunately they are open source and available for free. There is a large variety of styles but all of them contain the same scripts and are therefore similar in setting them up. OC scripts are also used in other brands like AItech collars.

Setting up Open Collar

This tutorial is written under the assumption that you are an owned slave. Therefore the first step it to set your Dominant owner of your collar. You can do that by either setting them up in the owner menu or with the chat command “xxowner name” without quotes. “xx” stands for your initials and name stands for your owner. In the following example the slave girl Jane Doe sets her Mistress Alice Resident as owner:

"jdowner Alice Resident"

Please note that the prefix “xx” concerns your username and not your display name. If you are in the old Second Life name scheme your initials are made of your firstname and surname. In the new scheme all the surnames are “Resident”. So if your name is Jane Resident but you have set the display name to Jane Doe, your prefix is “jr” and not “jd”. (btw, it’s not intended that these are in fact famous TV characters but it’s certainly a nice coincidence)

But you can simply change your prefix with the command:

“xxprefix xy”

Having set your owner, no doubt your owner will now lock the collar thus making it un-detachable by you. How much control you have over your collar is now in your owners hands. Your Dominant can lock you completely out of your collar or can grant you access to it. If you are granted access you can access the menu and even alter some options. Once you are locked out you have access to the kneel poses but that’s about all.

Like any good slave you will of course kneel before your Dominant. This is also a nice feature in OC collars. By a simple chat command you can adjust your pose:

“xxnadu”

This can also be done when you are locked out of your collar. There is also a menu to access the poses but in my opinion it’s more comfortable from chat.

This kind of collar is also equipped with its own built in RLV relay. If you already use another relay make sure the collar relay is turned off.  If you decide to use the collar relay it works like any other relay but you should be aware this would also grant whomever has access to your relay also to change your relay settings.

Footnote: if you are in crowded areas please use channel 1 for chat commands. Otherwise you may end up spamming local chat with your commands.

Talk on channel 1 by using /1 before your command:

“/1 xxmenu”

Cuffs

Now pay attention bondage enthusiasts.

Collars and cuffs have much in common: both are used to restrict slaves and show them their place in the world. Cuffs however have a visible impact on your avatar. Not only do they restrict things like a collar does but they also restrict your avatars limbs and means of movement.

OC Cuffs

Also available for free are Open Collar cuffs. Their menu is pretty much the same as OC collar and its also accessible from the collar menu. It features many nice bondage poses and is the first choice if you are new to BDSM on SL.

RR Cuffs

Not for free but well worth the expense are RealRestraint cuffs. The RealRestraint brand is owned by Marine Kelley who, as mentioned above, initiated RLV in the first place. 

RR cuffs are sold in sets like the Vixen Leather set which contains a collar and wrist and ankle cuffs. All three items have their own menu and are separately controllable. The first menu page is rather simple but I have encountered many people losing their way once they enter deeper menu levels like the plugins menu. This is no surprise since RR menus have a very different layout than most other restraints on SL. It may take some time and even be confusing at first but once you get to know the menu it makes sense and is very efficient. 

The one thing that confused me most was how to inflict RLV restrictions. The menu to restrict touch in the wrist cuffs for instance shows a very odd looking table. This table shows which restrictions are active for what lock. Lock means in fact pose. With this table you can apply different restrictions for each arm position. Like restricting all touch when tied up in U-Binder but allowing to touch world when arms are tied in front.

I would love to offer advice how to master them quickly but the best advice I can give is to practice. Don’t worry, it’s really not that hard to understand.

The RealKey

RealRestraint tries, as the name suggest, to keep things real. Therefore they do not implement an owner function just because you don’t have an owner function in a real collar. Whoever holds the key owns you. This is what the RealKey is for. Originally it attaches to the right hand but I recommend using it as hud simply because it can be hard to click that small key in your hand and even harder when your avatar is constantly moving due an AO.

The setup of the key is simply. Make sure the RealKey plugin is active. Next you get a key from the same menu. Make sure both the RealKey and your cuffs and collar have the same password. I also recommend to rename the Realkey so it includes your name like “RealKey of Jane Doe”. 

If you give this key to your owner, they can take control over your restraints. Just like in real world.

The SC owner plugin

Some people rather have an owner set than to handle the RealKey. If you are one of them I suggest you get the SC owner plugin. It adds owner support to RR cuffs and also enables chat commands which are not originally included in RR cuffs.

RF multi Cuffs

Quite a different approach is Restrained Freedom multi cuffs. No matter which part of the cuffs or collar you click it always opens the same menu. From this menu you can access all settings and bondage poses.

One very interesting feature of RF multi cuffs is the PA (Paine Asylum) plugin. It allows some devices to control your restraints if activated. So far the only place I know of that uses PA plugin is the Paine Asylum which is, no surprise, located at Restrained Freedom island. 

RF multi cuffs are also the most complete set I have encountered so far. They come with a collar, arm and leg cuffs, a straightjacket, a blindfold, a gag and even earmuffs, all controllable from one single menu.

Dari Box

Apart from OC restraints, the most widely spread bondage stuff in SL comes in “The big box of Dari House” which is available for free on many BDSM sims. Just look out for it in the welcome areas or in stores. It contains various restraints like armbinders, gags, collars, scripts and so on. It is sort of a basic inventory for anyone who enjoys BDSM.

Gags and other restraints

Provided you have gags and armbinders from the Dari box you will find the menus self-explanatory. One thing you should pay attention to is to activate RL support when you first put them on. In this case RL does not stand for real life but for Restrained Live. 

Gags from other brands like RR work pretty much the same as their pendant cuffs. 

Also mentioned should be stationary restraints like pillories, crosses, racks and all sort of other stuff you may have already seen standing around on certain sims. Most of these devices contain a force-sit option (also known as trap, grabiod, capture, catch). This function allows others to capture avatars wearing an active RLV relay. Most of them are simple in use and do not differ very much from cuffs and collars regarding their menus.

Closing words

It would go too far to list and explain all the options in all the stuff mentioned above. This tutorial is meant to give you a rough overview of, what I think, are the most important features. For further assistance please contact the support groups and read the help notecards. 

Please also note that sometimes an active AO may interfere with bondage poses. You may need to turn your AO off when tied up. 

I hope this was informative to you. Please do not hesitate to contact me for questions you may have. 

Play safe and above all: HAVE FUN!!!