To Love and Play

What Is The Fun Scale?

---

If you’ve never heard of the Fun Scale, it’s a scale often used to describe different experiences and how they feel in the moment and after the fact. It was originally coined by Dr. Rainer Newberry in 1985 during a field expedition and has since been utilized in circles related to difficult outdoor activities, such as mountain climbing, cave diving and backpacking, or sports such as marathons, and mountain biking. It’s used as a way to articulate what people enjoy out of certain experiences that others may not understand the appeal of, and to help self differentiate activities one may seek out.

Those in my circle have been using the fun scale to express what we get out of certain types of play/scenes for a while, and it can be an incredibly useful tool to explain to others what type of experience you are looking for in a scene, or why you enjoy (or consent to) certain activities. I feel this is an extremely useful communication tool, especially when approaching more esoteric types of play. I have a few modifications to the way we tend to use it vs how more outdoorsy circles tend to utilize the scale, which I will touch on further down.

I do want to note I’ve written examples fairly broadly, and they are definitely influenced by my own experiences. Not everyone is going to enjoy things in the same way, especially with the wide variability of personal experiences within kink, fetish, and sexuality. Something that might by Type 1 Fun to one person may be Type 3 to another or the other way around. Additionally, the role someone is in during a scene or activity may make a difference in the type of fun it is. Someone who is in the giving role for a needleplay scene may rate it as Type 1, vs the person receiving the needles may rate is as Type 2. Someone who is in the giving role for a heavy degradation scene may rate that as Type 3 for them, while the person receiving it may rate it as Type 2.

There are many ways experiences will impact people depending on the role and how they feel about it, and I caution any assumptions being made about the perceived intensity, enjoyability, or mutual rating of what type of fun an activity may be – which is where this scale helps tremendously as a communication tool.

Type 1 Fun: It’s fun while you’re doing it, and when you are remembering it.

---

Everything about activities in this bracket are fun and enjoyable, both while it is happening and when reminiscing about it later. These are things you’d do again tomorrow without much thought, because they’re just downright enjoyable.

Vanilla Type 1 Fun:

• Having dinner out with a bunch of friends
• Going to a concert
• Spending time by the river in the summer
• A casual hike in good weather

Erotic Type 1 Fun:

• Blacking someone’s boots and getting them to a perfect shine
• Someone receiving oral sex from someone they enjoy
• Soft ageplay scenes, being coddled and cared for with all the best snacks
• Over the knee spanking a masochist who derives pleasure from the experience
• Connective rope scenes full of laughter and hugging

Type 2 Fun: It’s only fun in retrospect, and not fun while you’re doing it.

---

This type of fun is often focusing on challenging activities, where there is either a strong sense of accomplishment at the end of it, or there is something rewarding for having completed the challenge. This can be externally rewarding (Winning a prize, getting cool photos, praise) or internally rewarding (feeling personally achieved, overcoming something difficult, getting out of ones comfort zone).

Vanilla Type 2 Fun

• Long difficult hikes with a beautiful view at the end of it
• Biking a marathon and pushing through to the end even though it was difficult and exhausting
• Learning how to play the violin, and finally mastering a challenging song
• Thru hiking the Appalachian Trail

Erotic Type 2 Fun

Someone enduring through a difficult suspension tie, with stunning photos and a sense of accomplishment at the end of the scene

• Experiencing pain from needles until the endorphin high kicks in, but not enjoying it until that moment
• A Dom punishing their sub by caning them, an activity they do not enjoy, and praising them for how good they are at the end
• A rough CNC scene that is sexually painful and unpleasant, but is extremely enjoyable to jerk off to thinking about and looking at photos of later
• Practicing extensively to learn how to throw a whip, until the skill is honed in enough to utilize in a scene for the first time

Type 3 Fun: It is neither fun in the moment, nor in retrospect.

---

In vanilla spaces some people will say there is almost nothing redeemable about this type of fun, others may say that at least it makes for a good story, or that it may be a learning experience.

Vanilla Type 3 Fun

• Getting lost while hiking in the wilderness, but eventually finding the way out or being rescued
• Attempting to go camping and having the tent collapse, in the rain, unable to start a fire and having cold canned soup for dinner
• Training for and attempting to run a marathon, and having to quit halfway through to avoid injury
• Going on a roundtrip and having the car break down halfway through, completely changing the plans

Erotic Type 3 Fun: This is where I am going to deviate in definition a bit. In kink and fetish, especially once you approach types of play and scenes that are high intensity, high risk (either physically or psychologically) and/or taboo, you will sometimes find people who are participating in activities that are not fun in the moment, or after. It doesn’t even make good jerk off material, and they may even find it regrettable, potentially never doing it again. But for some reason, the experience of abject suffering is enjoyable in that it is not enjoyable, even if someone may be unsure why they desire it, or having a good way to explain it.

For some this can be reclaiming a space of trauma and choosing to endure it on their terms, for others it can be desire for an emotional release. Some may simply want to experience something subjectively horrible. It may even just be curiosity getting the better of them, thinking they will like something that they don’t, or biting off more than they can chew, while still being fully consensual and everything going as planned.

This is where I will stress that anything can be Type 3 Fun depending on how the individual feels about it, including some things people may objectively consider to be Type 1 Fun (Like sex). There is no bar for how “bad” or “intense” something needs to be to fall into this classification, especially if someone realizes it was Type 3 Fun after the fact, though this classification can be extremely helpful to those who do participate in high risk/high intensity scenes to describe to others what they are looking to experience when seeking it out.

Erotic Type 3 Fun Examples:

• An extended torture/interrogation scene, where at no point is it enjoyable. It’s brutal and every step of the way the person experiencing it wants it to end, but they green during every check in. This is a type of play they will only do once a year with careful planning, recovery days and extensive aftercare.
• Someone fantasizing about and finally trying electroplay for the first time with an experienced top and good negotiations. At no point do they enjoy the sensation or experience, and after the fact decide they aren’t about that type of play, and don’t want to do it again in the future.
• An emotional sadism scene where someone’s loved one targets their insecurities, and breaks them down verbally until they are sobbing. It is an intentional container with ample negotiations with someone they trust to experience all of their worst fears and the emotions associated with them. They are careful about separating this space from reality, and unpacking all of the feelings that came up for both of them during aftercare.

Type 4 Fun: There is nothing redeemable or fun at any point, ever.

---

Some people have also added Type 4 Fun to the scale, which is not fun at all. This would be an absolute disaster that nobody could find anything pleasurable or enjoyable out of. Not in the moment. Not after. Not even as a good story or learning experience. Everything about this is bad, regrettable, and often results in long lasting effects leaving someone with trauma and/or severe injuries. This harm may be a result of an accident, carelessness, or willfully malicious behavior.

Vanilla Type 4 Fun:

• Being in the middle of a natural disaster
• Housefires
• Car accidents
• Severe mental health episodes

Erotic Type 4 Fun:

• Someone is outed as kinky, which results in being alienated from their family, losing their job, and many of their friends.
• Someone intentionally violates another person’s consent, and lashes out at the victim when they try to talk about it
• Someone opens up about a fetish they have, and are ridiculed causing them to feel guilty, anxious, and intense shame. They think something is wrong with them, and avoid bringing it up in the future.
• There is a catastrophic hardware failure, causing a rope bottom to fall and become severely injured

Ways To Use This Tool

---

This scale alongside being a good communication tool during negotiations, can be a great way to personally analyze what you may enjoy (or not enjoy) about different varieties of play and scenes. I highly recommend taking some time to think through some scenes you’ve had, types of play you enjoy, or the things you daydream about. It may even lead to some fun ideas once you know what type of fun you want it to be! The way you plan a Type 1, 2, or 3 scene all look very different.

It can also be helpful when reflecting on experiences that felt bad or did not go well – were they bad in the moment but more enjoyable in retrospect? Were they entirely unenjoyable, and if so was the type of play better in fantasy than reality, could planning and preparedness prior to the experience have been better (such as forgetting to hydrate, feeling rushed, or not being in a good space mentally at the time), or was there harm as a result of the other individual/s in the scene or experience (violating boundaries, not fully informing the other person about what they were consenting to, using unsafe play materials/equipment). This can help when planning scenes and activities in the future, and knowing when there is harm that needs to be addressed and someone needs to be held accountable.

---