One of the nice things about playing at home is that you can have a long scene without worrying that you’re taking up a piece of dungeon furniture for too long. Most dungeons I’ve been to will tell you how long you can use a piece of equipment for — it’s usually 45-60 minutes, which is plenty of time for a nice, involved scene. The proper thing to do after you finish playing is to clean up and step away from the equipment to let other people use it. However, I was at a dungeon recently where that rule was… let’s just say stretched.

It was “Stations” night, which is where dungeons have different… well… stations… where people can try out various aspects of BDSM — electrical play, fire play, wax play, impact play, and so on. Most dungeons aren’t gigantic, so when stations are set up that doesn’t leave a lot of space for open play. On this night there were two crosses and four spanking benches available outside of the stations. That’s a lot of waiting around for a place to play.

Usually people who go to dungeons are pretty good about vacating the equipment when they’re finished with a scene. However, toward the beginning of the night, there were two tops who occupied two of the spanking benches for over an hour each. One was an electricity top who had several scenes planned; one was an impact top and I don’t know what his planning was like but I saw him do at least three scenes in a row at the same bench with almost no breaks in between. These guys monopolized these particular spanking benches for over an hour each. As for the third bench, I managed to use that one early in the night but later a top did a very long scene, immediately followed by another scene with a friend of mine. The fourth bench? People were using that as a chair until I wanted it, and then just before I got to it someone else claimed it. (This happens. It’s okay.)

Look, I get it: BDSM can be very involved. There’s a lot of equipment and prep that goes into a good scene, and by the end of it your implements or other items are scattered everywhere around your area. But that doesn’t give you the right to monopolize part of a dungeon. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who wanted one of those spanking benches (I don’t like crosses). And I wasn’t the only one waiting; friends of mine who are into rope were waiting very patiently for the suspension rigs to open up. One was being used as a station, and that’s fine; the other, I don’t know what was going on, but my friends hadn’t yet done a scene by the time I left at 10:45.

I almost feel like dungeon equipment needs a visible timer next to it that you start when you start your scene. I would even allow that you don’t start the timer until all the prep is done. But when the timer reaches 45 or 60 minutes, the DM would then go up to the top and very politely ask them to start wrapping up. Dungeons only have so much equipment, and there are a lot of people who want to play. With maybe two exceptions in my life, I’ve kept my public scenes under an hour. I wish other people would do their fellow dungeon-goers the same courtesy.