06-26-2017, 03:37 PM
After frequent discussions about "what's the line" as far as fourth wall goes, I ended up writing an FAQ that should better delineate this for anyone asking those questions in the future. Hopefully this makes things clearer, and sorry that this has taken so long to do.
Q42: I saw that "blatantly breaking the fourth wall" is against the rules. That sucks, can I still make jokes?
A: It's one thing to reference real-life brands ie "Samus picked up a bottle of shaybelline shampoo" or to make jokes that only the audience would understand: ie, Cell meets a man with long black hair and a beard and says "looks like a nerd, I bet he runs an online RPG" but if your character, for example knows they're in an RPG, reads other players' posts, or knows information they shouldn't, that's totally over the line. Your character might believe they're in a game, or even say it, but in-universe the Omniverse is a real place and your character is crazy. Therefore they should have a reason for why they believe that, and in-universe, they are wrong regardless of what they believe.
In-universe, your character may come from a world where certain fictional entities exist: for example, Harry Dresden comes from a universe where Star Wars is fictional. All that necessarily means is that there is a universe where Star Wars is fictional and based on a movie. Importantly, your character should never use details of these fictional worlds to know real facts about other Primes, for example saying "oh hey, Palpatine was in a movie, he has lightning attacks!". Your character will have had this knowledge erased by Omni, for balance sake. Unless you purchase Insight, in which case you may roleplay in those specific cases as having that memory returned.
Q42: I saw that "blatantly breaking the fourth wall" is against the rules. That sucks, can I still make jokes?
A: It's one thing to reference real-life brands ie "Samus picked up a bottle of shaybelline shampoo" or to make jokes that only the audience would understand: ie, Cell meets a man with long black hair and a beard and says "looks like a nerd, I bet he runs an online RPG" but if your character, for example knows they're in an RPG, reads other players' posts, or knows information they shouldn't, that's totally over the line. Your character might believe they're in a game, or even say it, but in-universe the Omniverse is a real place and your character is crazy. Therefore they should have a reason for why they believe that, and in-universe, they are wrong regardless of what they believe.
In-universe, your character may come from a world where certain fictional entities exist: for example, Harry Dresden comes from a universe where Star Wars is fictional. All that necessarily means is that there is a universe where Star Wars is fictional and based on a movie. Importantly, your character should never use details of these fictional worlds to know real facts about other Primes, for example saying "oh hey, Palpatine was in a movie, he has lightning attacks!". Your character will have had this knowledge erased by Omni, for balance sake. Unless you purchase Insight, in which case you may roleplay in those specific cases as having that memory returned.
Curious about me and the characters I play? See the 'Staff' page! See also the rosters for my characters Samus Aran or Enel if you'd like to see examples of well-formatted rosters. Hope you enjoy the Omniverse!