4th Walls: When and How to Break Them (Or Not!)
HEY! AREN'T YOU THAT GUY FROM--?
Well, yes, but no, but yes.
A few notes on 4th Walls
The idea of the 4th wall comes from theater: during a play, the audience is watching the action through the "fourth wall", transparent to them, but very present and opaque to the characters. It allows for great dramatic irony, for realistic interactions, and for the suspension of disbelief necessary for traditional theatre. And then modernism came along and broke things.
4th Walls are funny things--strong as steel or thin as paper.
In Polychromatic, the slang use of "4th wall" refers, generally, to other characters canonically knowing another character's canon.
For example, an OC of a modern day human teenage boy might very well know "The Simpsons".
--But suppose we have a Homer Simpson in play?
As funny as the OC's mun might find it to be to have his or her OC encounter Homer Simpson in person, please be considerate of Homer Simpson-mun's feelings on other characters running up to him in the street and yelling "D'oh!" at him. Or asking him if he remembers that time he technically divorced Marge and then remarried her--Homer might not be from that point in canon. D'oh! What then?
Boundaries. It's all about boundaries.
If you are completely all right with other characters breaking your character's 4th wall, PLEASE SAY SO. Give explicit permission for others to break the wall into little tiny pieces to be crushed and ground to powder under the feet of so many fangirls. Or fanboys. Whichever.
But remember that with permission will come the fangirls and fanboys. You will have to be prepared for it. We, as mods, ask your understanding if you've given carte blanche, free reign, and the get out of jail free card to other players to break your characters 4th Wall like a conceptual artist breaks dishes in a performance art happening.1 The other players are probably going to break your character's 4th wall. Especially popular or iconic characters may have a harder time at this because they're known or mentioned within other canons.
Of course, the alternative is that if you do not want other characters breaking your character's fourth wall PLEASE SAY SO. Make it clear that you want your character to remain ignorant of the ending to his story, her eventual marriage, their twenty seven bundles of joy, and so on.
"But my character is a huge fan of 'The Simpsons'! It would be OOC for him not to talk to Homer!"
That's fine. Be that as it may, if Homer Simpson-mun has said, "No 4th wall breaking, please", do not break his 4th wall. Talk to Homer Simpson-mun and see how he or she feels about it, and work something out. Or let your character fangirl/fanboy without breaking the wall--it's possible! Struck text works wonders: "HOLY CRAP, IT'S HOMER! DUDE, HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! DUUUUUDE!!!" Why does your character like "The Simpsons"? Because he just thinks they're funny? Because they remind him of his family? Work from that rather than the fanboy angle.
The trick is, of course, setting clear limits on how much 4th wall breaking is allowed with your characters. It's difficult to say how much is allowed and how much is too much. There may not be an easy way to word it. You may find that you have to say no 4th wall breaking is allowed, or you may have to request that other players talk to you on a case-by-case basis.
Also, once you've given permission to break 4th walls like cars at a demolition derby, it may be hard to go back and ask everyone to stop. You can't very well undo everything that's happened in-game. You can't ask the entire game to retcon something because you've changed your mind about 4th wall breaking. You can't ask other characters to magically forget something that they discussed. What's done is done. However, you can ask that people tone it down. Talk to the players, tell them what you've decided, communicate, and work something out. It's a reasonable request, especially if too much 4th wall breaking is making it hard to stay IC.
→This part is important: if your character breaks another character's 4th wall without that other player's permission, that is infomodding. The moderators of Polychromatic do not tolerate infomodding in any form. If someone infomods you or breaks your character's 4th wall without your permission, please speak to that other player, or if necessary, let us know about it. This doesn't count if you've changed your mind and don't want your character's 4th wall broken, unless you've made it very, very clear that you've changed your mind. Even then, we ask that you be understanding of the other player who may have made an honest mistake.
Your Fellow Poly Players have recommended sticking a note regarding your take on breaking your character's 4th wall in his or her journal's profile. Sounds like a pretty good idea, a fast way to check, and a good way to keep up with it all.
Couple of other notes: Because, lol, timspace anomaly? Or not. Polychromatic (therefore, the City) runs on Eastern US Time. We know that sometimes people are in odd time zones, on the Island of the Day Before, or have peculiar circumstances, but we'd like to request that personal curse-related posts not be made until after midnight Eastern US Time. Midnight on the dot? Hit it. Otherwise? Please restrain yourselves. It helps prevent confusion and IMs to the mods asking about what day a curse really happens. The exception here, of course, is logs. Logs can be predated, backdated, or currently rolling. We'd just prefer it if people could hold off posting about a curse in an individual character's journal until the curse day begins in-game.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Fish? Cake?
All right, off you go.
1.Editor's Note: We have been informed that not all conceptual artists break plates, naturally. Apparently only the ones robot_mod has met break plates. Maybe it's just robot_mod. So we wish to make it clear that, if you have given permission, your character's 4th wall will be broken like these particular conceptual artists broke those particular plates at that particular performance art happening. Which is to say a lot of plates were broken into very many pieces in very short order. Thank you.
Well, yes, but no, but yes.
A few notes on 4th Walls
The idea of the 4th wall comes from theater: during a play, the audience is watching the action through the "fourth wall", transparent to them, but very present and opaque to the characters. It allows for great dramatic irony, for realistic interactions, and for the suspension of disbelief necessary for traditional theatre. And then modernism came along and broke things.
4th Walls are funny things--strong as steel or thin as paper.
In Polychromatic, the slang use of "4th wall" refers, generally, to other characters canonically knowing another character's canon.
For example, an OC of a modern day human teenage boy might very well know "The Simpsons".
--But suppose we have a Homer Simpson in play?
As funny as the OC's mun might find it to be to have his or her OC encounter Homer Simpson in person, please be considerate of Homer Simpson-mun's feelings on other characters running up to him in the street and yelling "D'oh!" at him. Or asking him if he remembers that time he technically divorced Marge and then remarried her--Homer might not be from that point in canon. D'oh! What then?
Boundaries. It's all about boundaries.
If you are completely all right with other characters breaking your character's 4th wall, PLEASE SAY SO. Give explicit permission for others to break the wall into little tiny pieces to be crushed and ground to powder under the feet of so many fangirls. Or fanboys. Whichever.
But remember that with permission will come the fangirls and fanboys. You will have to be prepared for it. We, as mods, ask your understanding if you've given carte blanche, free reign, and the get out of jail free card to other players to break your characters 4th Wall like a conceptual artist breaks dishes in a performance art happening.1 The other players are probably going to break your character's 4th wall. Especially popular or iconic characters may have a harder time at this because they're known or mentioned within other canons.
Of course, the alternative is that if you do not want other characters breaking your character's fourth wall PLEASE SAY SO. Make it clear that you want your character to remain ignorant of the ending to his story, her eventual marriage, their twenty seven bundles of joy, and so on.
"But my character is a huge fan of 'The Simpsons'! It would be OOC for him not to talk to Homer!"
That's fine. Be that as it may, if Homer Simpson-mun has said, "No 4th wall breaking, please", do not break his 4th wall. Talk to Homer Simpson-mun and see how he or she feels about it, and work something out. Or let your character fangirl/fanboy without breaking the wall--it's possible! Struck text works wonders: "HOLY CRAP, IT'S HOMER! DUDE, HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! DUUUUUDE!!!" Why does your character like "The Simpsons"? Because he just thinks they're funny? Because they remind him of his family? Work from that rather than the fanboy angle.
The trick is, of course, setting clear limits on how much 4th wall breaking is allowed with your characters. It's difficult to say how much is allowed and how much is too much. There may not be an easy way to word it. You may find that you have to say no 4th wall breaking is allowed, or you may have to request that other players talk to you on a case-by-case basis.
Also, once you've given permission to break 4th walls like cars at a demolition derby, it may be hard to go back and ask everyone to stop. You can't very well undo everything that's happened in-game. You can't ask the entire game to retcon something because you've changed your mind about 4th wall breaking. You can't ask other characters to magically forget something that they discussed. What's done is done. However, you can ask that people tone it down. Talk to the players, tell them what you've decided, communicate, and work something out. It's a reasonable request, especially if too much 4th wall breaking is making it hard to stay IC.
→This part is important: if your character breaks another character's 4th wall without that other player's permission, that is infomodding. The moderators of Polychromatic do not tolerate infomodding in any form. If someone infomods you or breaks your character's 4th wall without your permission, please speak to that other player, or if necessary, let us know about it. This doesn't count if you've changed your mind and don't want your character's 4th wall broken, unless you've made it very, very clear that you've changed your mind. Even then, we ask that you be understanding of the other player who may have made an honest mistake.
Your Fellow Poly Players have recommended sticking a note regarding your take on breaking your character's 4th wall in his or her journal's profile. Sounds like a pretty good idea, a fast way to check, and a good way to keep up with it all.
Couple of other notes: Because, lol, timspace anomaly? Or not. Polychromatic (therefore, the City) runs on Eastern US Time. We know that sometimes people are in odd time zones, on the Island of the Day Before, or have peculiar circumstances, but we'd like to request that personal curse-related posts not be made until after midnight Eastern US Time. Midnight on the dot? Hit it. Otherwise? Please restrain yourselves. It helps prevent confusion and IMs to the mods asking about what day a curse really happens. The exception here, of course, is logs. Logs can be predated, backdated, or currently rolling. We'd just prefer it if people could hold off posting about a curse in an individual character's journal until the curse day begins in-game.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Fish? Cake?
All right, off you go.
1.Editor's Note: We have been informed that not all conceptual artists break plates, naturally. Apparently only the ones robot_mod has met break plates. Maybe it's just robot_mod. So we wish to make it clear that, if you have given permission, your character's 4th wall will be broken like these particular conceptual artists broke those particular plates at that particular performance art happening. Which is to say a lot of plates were broken into very many pieces in very short order. Thank you.