@Arkandel said:
@faraday said:
@Arkandel said:
But it is. I mean it's still considerate to ask before joining but if you're in an actual public place - I'm not talking the back room of a bookstore but a busy restaurant or something - then being annoyed if someone walks in is unreasonable.
Being annoyed if they walk in is unreasonable, but so is being annoyed if you walk in, ask to join and they tell you 'no'.
But that's what I'm saying, it depends on the context.
For starters and before I say anything else, I'm not staying for a scene where I'm not wanted. That'd be ... well, it wouldn't happen.
Otherwise if the scene is about people talking on their own then yes, trying to butt in - especially if they're not particularly welcoming, let alone actively adverse to the idea - is a douche move. But if it's about something else that specifically draws attention and invites intervention fuck that. If my character pulls a gun in a downtown restaurant at lunch time I don't get to tell people they can't be there because they might call the cops or try to stop him and that 'ruins it for me'. It's not cool.
If the setting is some seedy watering hole in a bad part of town at 1 am then there's argument to be made.
It's all context dependent.
That said, there's also the phenomenon of people jumping into a scene because Something's Going On, and immediately bogging it down. If, for example, a character is pinning another character to an alleyway by their neck in an argument, there is no real reason for there suddenly be 5 extra characters who appear out of nowhere or were "there are along" and now they want to break out all their combat dice, and call in all the PC cops, and so on and so forth. The PCs originally involved should absolutely be able to say, "we'd prefer not to be ICly interrupted until this is resolved."