FOURTH WALL GUIDE

[mansionstaff]

HELLO FRIENDS, WELCOME TO SMASH ACADEMY'S HALLOWEEN FOURTH WALL EVENT!

GENERAL

What's a fourth wall event?
The Fourth Wall event is where people from other games, random characters, even players themselves, can interact with Smash Academy characters. It's a literal breaking of that invisible "fourth wall" that separates the game-verse from... the rest of the internet. (Answer lovingly ganked/modified from route_29!)

Who can post?
Including and not limited to: any character from any canon regardless if they are on our accept list or not, former characters, AU versions, duplicates; you name it, no apps required. You may also play as yourselves, other players, inanimate objects, your embarrassing sparkle dog OC from middle school, nyancat, what the heck ever. Remember, only currently accepted Smash Academy characters are able to make new posts, so any external accounts will need to reply to those posts as we won't be doing any comm accepts for characters not normally in-game.

When is it happening?
Fourth Wall Weekend will ICly take place October 31st - November 1st. However! Please feel free to future and back-date to your heart's content.

What you can and can't do:
Just because we are opening our doors and breaking some IC rules does not mean OOC rules should be broken. We still expect everyone to treat each other with the same kindness and respect as they would any other time. No flaming, no harassing, and despite the nature of the event, bans (temp or permanent) that have been enacted regarding previous players in the game must be respected.

Basically, don't be a dick. If you have encountered some dick, bring it to a mod's attention (regardless if you are in Smash Academy or not) and we'll try to resolve it.

ICly, there is really nothing you can't do. Just remember the golden rule of RESPECT. We also understand an event like this may stretch the limits of characterization, so try not to sweat it if you think you're being OOC. AND if there's duplicates running around there might be a good chance for gratuitous munsterbation, and that is a-okay. Have lots of fun with it and make some awesome memories!

More details below...

SMASH ACADEMY RESIDENTS

So what is happening?
A mysterious carnival has created a rift to allow the spirits of the dead to walk the earth. More info on that here.

Can my character try to go through this portal/fix it?
Yes and yes. If you try to walk through the portal you'll essentially walk through it as if it's not even there. You don't go anywhere, you don't feel anything; nothing happens. You are more than welcome to have your character try, but the portal will close at midnight on November 2nd regardless.

What do I have to do?
We'd like to concentrate most, if not all of these shenanigans in our designated log but any posts made in smash_logs or smashacademy MUST. We mean MUST be tagged appropriately. This is how visitors will know where to post. Any posts made in smash-logs get the tag: * event - 4th wall weekend, and any in smashacademy get the tag: *4th wall weekend. Anyone outside of Smash will be limited to posting in the entries we make, so make sure you tag them right so they know where to post!

Other than that do what you crazy kids normally do and HAVE LOTS OF FUN.

What happens if my character finds out they're fictional and are otherwise mind broken forever and ever?
This is going to go hand in hand with the inquiry below it. The bottom line is that we trust you guys to be respectful of one another. If someone says they don't want to break too far beyond the fourth wall, try to respect that. Likewise, when making your posts, if you feel a thread is going in an undesirable (or desirable!) direction, feel free to make note of that in [OOC brackets]. Alternatively, check out our character permissions directory or see if the person you're playing with has any personal permission posts in their journal. Some people are going to be completely okay with all of the brain breakage that could come out of this. Other people? Perhaps not so much. So let's make sure we have fun with everyone and not at their expense.

Opt-out options
Say you're not interested in any of this, that's totally cool. The ghosts will be mostly contained to our Halloween log. Interacting with fourth wall characters is not required!

VISITORS

What the heck is going on why am I here?
You know how it goes; one minute you're minding your own business doing whatever you do and then you blink/wake up/whatever and all of a sudden you're sucked into another world. This world happened to suck you through a portal and into a... carnival? Yes. You are now a ghost. Congratulations.

Trying to leave the same way you came in is going to result in a whole lot of disappointment; you don't go anywhere, you don't feel anything; nothing happens. You are stuck here until the carnival packs up and leaves.

Where am I?
Should your spooky self wander off the fairgrounds, you will eventually come across a mammoth boarding-school campus. Please see: PREMISE. The current weather is crisp, cool and slightly overcast; trees are vibrant hues of yellow, orange and red and there are leaves littering the ground everywhere. There's a biting breeze in the air that seems almost supernatural.

You are free to explore all these areas, infer/make up details, and do as you please in them. If it seems like a lot, you could always ask a local to show you around, but they might not respond well to spooky ghosts.

What can I do here?
ANYTHING. Seriously, anything. You want to play tic-tac-toe, start a riot or speed date? Yes. Do it. Want to go fight some pocket pocket monsters with your spooky ghost powers, angst in a corner, drive drunk and smash mail-boxes, sit around and ghost hanky panky with your neighbors all day? Yes, please do. Whatever your little heart desires, go for it.

Pertinent to note: We've linked it like three times already, but please take a look at our event info post for more information on this crazy ghost thing!

Where do I post?
We'd like to concentrate most, if not all of these shenanigans in our designated log, but anything under these two tags: * event - 4th wall weekend for our logs comm smash_logs, and *4th wall weekend for our network comm smashacademy. Please do not post anywhere you do not see these tags or to any other communities, with the exception of youre_smashing which is our dressing room. That is open all the time to anyone for any reason, though we can't guarantee it will get much attention while this event is going on!

Anything else I should know?
That should be about it! If you have any Smash Academy general questions, they might be answered already in the rules or FAQ page. If you need a mod, mod contact/general game navigation is here. You are also more than welcome to pop into our AIM chat room during this event, which is mostly active in the evening, PST. We don't bite and we LOVE new people and we'd be more than happy to answer any questions.

Golly, this event was fun, can I join Smash Academy for real real?
Why yes, yes you can and we would totally love to have you! Here are quick links for our acceptable series, taken, reserves and apps. Activity done during this event can be used in application samples. Whether you want to use the event as a canonical introduction or not is entirely up to you.