4th Wall INFO POST
The event HAS NOT BEGUN YET. The following information is how it's going to go down, so everyone has plenty of time to plan for when it does begin on the 25th!
FOURTH WALL EVENT!
Starting on Monday, April 25th, Mostly Harmless will be experiencing its first ever Fourth Wall Event. How will this be happening, you might ask?
What is a fourth wall event?
A fourth wall event is when a game opens up its setting to characters (and players) currently not applied into the game itself. It’s often seen as a meme for various communities, allowing people to try out characters they might have been considering playing, or just logging into a journal to play with and/or break the brains of characters currently in game.
With this working as an event, it means that this influx of characters for the week will be part of game canon, and the memories gained during this event will be kept forever until the Men In Black do us part.
How is this event happening aboard the S. S. Thor?
When the Infinite Improbability Drive is activated at the end of the month, the S. S. Thor and sister ship in the fleet called the S. S. Sif will find themselves temporarily merged together. There will be a giant rabbit sitting on top of the turtle that is the S. S. Thor. Characters will be able to move freely between the two ships, and will find that much of the S. S. Sif is similar to their own ship! Though for some odd reason, the housing list of the Thor’s sister-ship appears to be on the fritz... but it should be fixed by the time normality is returned!
This does mean that the first passenger manifest characters will be receiving in game will come from the S. S. Sif. What characters visit during the fourth wall event will dictate what names are on that list!
Hey, Mods! This doesn't really sound like my cup of tea. Do I have to avoid tagging around or posting for a week? How do I avoid this event?
This event is opt-in, rather than opt-out. In order to participate, anyone posting to gargleblasted or stop_panicking must tag their post and/or log with "!fourth wall boarding" along with their character name. Posts and/or logs that do not have this tag are not considered to be affected by this event.
Again, to participate in this event, you must tag your post and/or log with "!fourth wall boarding"!
By extension, if you don’t want to participate, there is absolutely nothing that you have to do -- outside of probably avoiding posts with the "!fourth wall boarding" tag so that you don’t accidentally get thread-jacked.
Do I have to be a player here already to participate?
No, but you are expected to adhere to the game rules while you’re playing in our sandbox.
What do I need to know in order to play visiting characters during this event?
A few simple things! One, by game trope, all characters "visiting" during this event will be established as having been rescued by the S. S. Sif. How long they've been there is up to you!
Two, this means the game trope of "your worlds have all been destroyed!" still applies. Not that visiting characters have to believe it anymore than characters currently in game!
Three, all duplicates are accounted for by the logic of "infinite alternate realities."
Four, OCs are welcome, but please stay away from fandom OCs.
Five, any post made to gargleblasted using the "!fourth wall boarding” tag is open to this event! If a post lacks this tag, please do not comment to it with a character journal not currently listed on the Mostly Harmless Taken List.
The same applies to the log community, stop_panicking. Any log using the "!fourth wall boarding” tag is open to this event! If a log lacks this tag, please do not comment to it with a character journal not currently listed on the Mostly Harmless Taken List.
What kind of characters can I bring in during this event?
Any and all characters, with the exception of “real life” people. No Charlie Sheens, please! (Characters portrayed by him, yes, by all means!) As far as numbers are concerned, there is no limitation. You can have ten different canon versions of Luke Skywalker, or seven identical versions of Gintoki, or three different Garrus Vakarian's with three different game histories attached. The sky's the limit!
I had fun playing here! What if I still want to play in Mostly Harmless at the end of the event?
Pending the character you’ve been using for the fourth wall event follows our established game rules, we encourage you to apply!
Q&A: (This will be updated periodically as questions come up)
1. What's the rule on duplicates of characters we currently have in game?
We only allow character duplicates if they are canon AU - that is, an AU version of a character that was created and is sanctioned by the original creator of whatever canon we’re talking about. In addition, the player of the character already in the game does get a say - if they would rather not play off of or compete with an AU version of their character, then we won’t accept an application from that character.
That being said! This does not really affect the fourth-wall event; all the extra characters being brought in are only temporary, and will be leaving again once the event is over. You are allowed to bring in as many duplicates of characters currently in game as you like -- Just please remember to respect rules on not tagging into any post without the !fourth wall boarding tag. If the in-game version of a character posts without this tag, they’re off limits!
2. Since they're assumed to be on another ship for a while, I'm guessing we're allowed to add mass amounts of headcanon?
That’s correct!
3. As sort of the love-child of one and two, is there a rule on AU/semi-AU? Like, for example, a Duo who was taken from when he was eight and has been on the ship for years and has grown up?
For the purposes of the event, something like that would be fine.
4. For the characters who come for the event, then leave: if they're apped within a reasonable amount of time, could they remember their short stay on Thor, or would they be started clean?
We’d leave something like that up to the player - if they wished to bring in a character retaining memories of the event, they would need to fill out the appropriate section in the application.
5. Will there be a list of characters brought up for the event so those in game can comment about them?
At the end of the event, there will be a list summarizing all characters (or as close as we can to catching all characters) who cameo’d for the event. This list will be made public ICly as the “passenger manifest” for the S. S. Sif. ICly, the passenger manifest for the Sif will be unavailable during the event due to an unfortunate computer error - this is to give us a chance to OOCly compile said list, since we won’t know beforehand who’s going to show up.
6. Sometimes Drive Events work towards our AC as a network for our characters when we're low on ideas, but in this case, we couldn't use the drive networks for AC. So... our activity will all have to be non-drive related, then, right? Or entirely interaction with these new characters? Or will bringing in a new character and doing one network with them substitute as one piece of AC for one of our in-game characters?
Characters brought in for the event will not be added to the gargleblasted community, and thus cannot make posts to the network of the S. S. Thor.
Activity can still be drive-related without needing to be open to fourth wall characters (if that is the concern -- posts made that are open to fourth wall characters still count for AC!); commenting on how at least this time the IID didn’t change individuals, why is a rabbit ship sitting on top of us, our population just doubled, man I got the best deal on pickles over on the S. S. Sif.
If people are struggling for ideas during the last week of April, and want to avoid taking part in the event, there are many things they could post (and likely comment to!) in order to meet AC! For example, find out the dolphins have a war against some species traveling on the S. S. Sif, meet the Mailer Daemon of earlier internet days, slip down the stairs where someone installed a slip’n’slide, win the lottery, get mugged for winning the lottery, invent a better cheese-it, make friends with a Jabberwocky, get locked out of their room, enter a three-legged race with an octopus... the possibilities are endless!
7. The characters already in game can go on to the S.S. Sif, where the 4TH WALL CHARACTERS already exist? Meaning no posts are going to be made to the communities by ACTUAL fourth wall characters... yes?
Yes. Fourth wall characters cannot post to the communities, none of those journals will be added to the comm proper. Fourth wall characters can only comment into posts with the appropriate tag! That tag is "!fourth wall boarding."
So while in theory those on the Thor and Sif are able to walk onto each other's ships (since the two are fused for the duration), the Guide will still only be showing broadcasts from the Thor!
8. Okay so real life people are not allowed hides charlie sheen account, but if it's Gaga from the music videos Telephone and Paparazzi, is that acceptable?
Pending Lady Gaga is a character in these videos... yes. We’re not going to be hugely anal about this, since it IS a 4th wall event - just pending it’s not an actual celebrity or canon OC (the former of which we’re interested in avoiding for decency’s sake, and the latter of which we’re requesting remain in their own museboxes for the sake of players of canon characters who might not be comfortable playing with such a character). If for whatever reason you’re not sure about a specific character, just ask us!
9. Let's say my character finds the love of her life on S. S. Sif. What is the IC reason for her not to stay on S. S. Sif, and what's the IC reason for the love of her life not to stay on S. S. Thor?
When the event ends, the Improbability Drives will return everyone to the ship they began on, regardless of whether or not they've decided they want to stay on the other ship - UNLESS you would like to use this as a reason to drop, in which case you can say your character stayed on the Sif. ICly, no, there's no way to predict or account for who stays where. If the IID were predictable, that wouldn't be any fun at all. 8)
10. What's the rule on duplicates of characters that are part of the Sif? Let's say I pick character X to fourth-wall all around; and suddenly someone also picks character X. Is this okay?
This is indeed okay - for the duration of the 4th Wall Event, character duplicates are both acceptable and encouraged! The more IC chaos and confusion the better, right?
FOURTH WALL EVENT!
Starting on Monday, April 25th, Mostly Harmless will be experiencing its first ever Fourth Wall Event. How will this be happening, you might ask?
What is a fourth wall event?
A fourth wall event is when a game opens up its setting to characters (and players) currently not applied into the game itself. It’s often seen as a meme for various communities, allowing people to try out characters they might have been considering playing, or just logging into a journal to play with and/or break the brains of characters currently in game.
With this working as an event, it means that this influx of characters for the week will be part of game canon, and the memories gained during this event will be kept forever until the Men In Black do us part.
How is this event happening aboard the S. S. Thor?
When the Infinite Improbability Drive is activated at the end of the month, the S. S. Thor and sister ship in the fleet called the S. S. Sif will find themselves temporarily merged together. There will be a giant rabbit sitting on top of the turtle that is the S. S. Thor. Characters will be able to move freely between the two ships, and will find that much of the S. S. Sif is similar to their own ship! Though for some odd reason, the housing list of the Thor’s sister-ship appears to be on the fritz... but it should be fixed by the time normality is returned!
This does mean that the first passenger manifest characters will be receiving in game will come from the S. S. Sif. What characters visit during the fourth wall event will dictate what names are on that list!
Hey, Mods! This doesn't really sound like my cup of tea. Do I have to avoid tagging around or posting for a week? How do I avoid this event?
This event is opt-in, rather than opt-out. In order to participate, anyone posting to gargleblasted or stop_panicking must tag their post and/or log with "!fourth wall boarding" along with their character name. Posts and/or logs that do not have this tag are not considered to be affected by this event.
Again, to participate in this event, you must tag your post and/or log with "!fourth wall boarding"!
By extension, if you don’t want to participate, there is absolutely nothing that you have to do -- outside of probably avoiding posts with the "!fourth wall boarding" tag so that you don’t accidentally get thread-jacked.
Do I have to be a player here already to participate?
No, but you are expected to adhere to the game rules while you’re playing in our sandbox.
What do I need to know in order to play visiting characters during this event?
A few simple things! One, by game trope, all characters "visiting" during this event will be established as having been rescued by the S. S. Sif. How long they've been there is up to you!
Two, this means the game trope of "your worlds have all been destroyed!" still applies. Not that visiting characters have to believe it anymore than characters currently in game!
Three, all duplicates are accounted for by the logic of "infinite alternate realities."
Four, OCs are welcome, but please stay away from fandom OCs.
Five, any post made to gargleblasted using the "!fourth wall boarding” tag is open to this event! If a post lacks this tag, please do not comment to it with a character journal not currently listed on the Mostly Harmless Taken List.
The same applies to the log community, stop_panicking. Any log using the "!fourth wall boarding” tag is open to this event! If a log lacks this tag, please do not comment to it with a character journal not currently listed on the Mostly Harmless Taken List.
What kind of characters can I bring in during this event?
Any and all characters, with the exception of “real life” people. No Charlie Sheens, please! (Characters portrayed by him, yes, by all means!) As far as numbers are concerned, there is no limitation. You can have ten different canon versions of Luke Skywalker, or seven identical versions of Gintoki, or three different Garrus Vakarian's with three different game histories attached. The sky's the limit!
I had fun playing here! What if I still want to play in Mostly Harmless at the end of the event?
Pending the character you’ve been using for the fourth wall event follows our established game rules, we encourage you to apply!
Q&A: (This will be updated periodically as questions come up)
1. What's the rule on duplicates of characters we currently have in game?
We only allow character duplicates if they are canon AU - that is, an AU version of a character that was created and is sanctioned by the original creator of whatever canon we’re talking about. In addition, the player of the character already in the game does get a say - if they would rather not play off of or compete with an AU version of their character, then we won’t accept an application from that character.
That being said! This does not really affect the fourth-wall event; all the extra characters being brought in are only temporary, and will be leaving again once the event is over. You are allowed to bring in as many duplicates of characters currently in game as you like -- Just please remember to respect rules on not tagging into any post without the !fourth wall boarding tag. If the in-game version of a character posts without this tag, they’re off limits!
2. Since they're assumed to be on another ship for a while, I'm guessing we're allowed to add mass amounts of headcanon?
That’s correct!
3. As sort of the love-child of one and two, is there a rule on AU/semi-AU? Like, for example, a Duo who was taken from when he was eight and has been on the ship for years and has grown up?
For the purposes of the event, something like that would be fine.
4. For the characters who come for the event, then leave: if they're apped within a reasonable amount of time, could they remember their short stay on Thor, or would they be started clean?
We’d leave something like that up to the player - if they wished to bring in a character retaining memories of the event, they would need to fill out the appropriate section in the application.
5. Will there be a list of characters brought up for the event so those in game can comment about them?
At the end of the event, there will be a list summarizing all characters (or as close as we can to catching all characters) who cameo’d for the event. This list will be made public ICly as the “passenger manifest” for the S. S. Sif. ICly, the passenger manifest for the Sif will be unavailable during the event due to an unfortunate computer error - this is to give us a chance to OOCly compile said list, since we won’t know beforehand who’s going to show up.
6. Sometimes Drive Events work towards our AC as a network for our characters when we're low on ideas, but in this case, we couldn't use the drive networks for AC. So... our activity will all have to be non-drive related, then, right? Or entirely interaction with these new characters? Or will bringing in a new character and doing one network with them substitute as one piece of AC for one of our in-game characters?
Characters brought in for the event will not be added to the gargleblasted community, and thus cannot make posts to the network of the S. S. Thor.
Activity can still be drive-related without needing to be open to fourth wall characters (if that is the concern -- posts made that are open to fourth wall characters still count for AC!); commenting on how at least this time the IID didn’t change individuals, why is a rabbit ship sitting on top of us, our population just doubled, man I got the best deal on pickles over on the S. S. Sif.
If people are struggling for ideas during the last week of April, and want to avoid taking part in the event, there are many things they could post (and likely comment to!) in order to meet AC! For example, find out the dolphins have a war against some species traveling on the S. S. Sif, meet the Mailer Daemon of earlier internet days, slip down the stairs where someone installed a slip’n’slide, win the lottery, get mugged for winning the lottery, invent a better cheese-it, make friends with a Jabberwocky, get locked out of their room, enter a three-legged race with an octopus... the possibilities are endless!
7. The characters already in game can go on to the S.S. Sif, where the 4TH WALL CHARACTERS already exist? Meaning no posts are going to be made to the communities by ACTUAL fourth wall characters... yes?
Yes. Fourth wall characters cannot post to the communities, none of those journals will be added to the comm proper. Fourth wall characters can only comment into posts with the appropriate tag! That tag is "!fourth wall boarding."
So while in theory those on the Thor and Sif are able to walk onto each other's ships (since the two are fused for the duration), the Guide will still only be showing broadcasts from the Thor!
8. Okay so real life people are not allowed hides charlie sheen account, but if it's Gaga from the music videos Telephone and Paparazzi, is that acceptable?
Pending Lady Gaga is a character in these videos... yes. We’re not going to be hugely anal about this, since it IS a 4th wall event - just pending it’s not an actual celebrity or canon OC (the former of which we’re interested in avoiding for decency’s sake, and the latter of which we’re requesting remain in their own museboxes for the sake of players of canon characters who might not be comfortable playing with such a character). If for whatever reason you’re not sure about a specific character, just ask us!
9. Let's say my character finds the love of her life on S. S. Sif. What is the IC reason for her not to stay on S. S. Sif, and what's the IC reason for the love of her life not to stay on S. S. Thor?
When the event ends, the Improbability Drives will return everyone to the ship they began on, regardless of whether or not they've decided they want to stay on the other ship - UNLESS you would like to use this as a reason to drop, in which case you can say your character stayed on the Sif. ICly, no, there's no way to predict or account for who stays where. If the IID were predictable, that wouldn't be any fun at all. 8)
10. What's the rule on duplicates of characters that are part of the Sif? Let's say I pick character X to fourth-wall all around; and suddenly someone also picks character X. Is this okay?
This is indeed okay - for the duration of the 4th Wall Event, character duplicates are both acceptable and encouraged! The more IC chaos and confusion the better, right?