Fourth Wall RP

[Panache]

Has anyone ever tried a Deadpool/Ambush Bug style character? I'm wondering if it's cute or just plain annoying for other players (I know, I know: "it depends").

Edited November 29, 2020 by Panache

[Latex]

I'll be upfront- I think most players would find it annoying simply because opinions are very divisive in today's world, it works as a Comic or Film because it's often a fun poke at the state of things. It sort of goes against the notion of Roleplaying in a setting and people may view the attempts as an OOC troll.

 

It could work but you'd have to be smart with it, have you got any ideas/examples of how you'd break the 4th wall in an actual Roleplay scenario? Most 4th wall breaking I've seen will mention real-world events that aren't broadly accepted in the universe, like, if you mentioned social distancing people will collectively lose their shit, lol

 

 

[VV]

There are a couple ways to handle this.

1) Make sure you get pre-approval OOC to do it with your RP partners. This is particularly good if you have a set group of friends that all agree to the joke and go with it.

2) Allow for them to be considered insane. If someone came up to you IRL and was speaking through some imaginary 4th wall to viewers, you would just assume they were insane. As long as you are willing to have most people treat them like they are crazy, then that would be okay, too.

In either case, put an RP note in your description to give people a heads up.

 

The other thing is, you could play it smart. As in, the character does break the 4th wall, but also knows most people will think that is insane, and so only does it around close friends.

Edited December 1, 2020 by VV

[GM Kal]

4th wall is extremely hard to pull off, because it's difficult humor. Particularly when interacting equally with others. It can quickly get dismissive of them.

If none of this is real, then you possibly implying that what other characters around you are doing is meaningless.

 

But, it can be done.

 

The best results I have had is using it extremely sparingly, so it "hits" at he right time, and don't make it your main focus.

 

I played a character that was facepalmingly stupid. He would go around making these musings and ponderings that were just extreme dumb, but might seem deep if you are low IQ. Sprinkled in with this nonsense, I would hit a few 4th walls. People interacting would be expecting another facepalm moment of Kal's character saying something dumb. But suddenly it's some actual pondering thought that he was correct in, but since it was 4th wall, IC acknowledgement was limited, but everyone enjoyed it.

 

Key was, my character did not know better than everyone else putting him above them; but he accidentally sometimes stumbled upon a 4th wall truth. But he is already made to be dismissed, since 80% or more was wrong funny nonsense and being oblivious.

 

[Haijinx]

Some less common examples of this, with an understated 4th wall leaning  

 

The Malkavian character from Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines. 

 

The first portion of the She Hulk run when her solo comic was reintroduced. 

[Lines]

I think this is really interesting to think about.

 

One thing to consider is that when Deadpool breaks the fourth wall, he's speaking to the reader or viewer as the audience. In game, your audience will be seeing you through other actors in the world. In order to speak to the player, you still have to speak past those characters.

[Kallisti]

My thoughts on this(for what they are worth) are

a) there is no 4th wall to break as there are no observers of the action that aren't participants

 

or

 

b) using OOC chat is your 4th wall breaking mechanism already

 

The 4th wall is a specific concept that is tied to the nature of the medium and my feeling is that since you and the people you are interacting with are a players in the game, ie an actual participants, there are no non-interactive observers and thus no 4th wall.

Edited December 4, 2020 by Kallisti

[VV]

On 12/4/2020 at 5:23 AM, Kallisti said:

a) there is no 4th wall to break as there are no observers of the action that aren't participants

This is a good point.

[Haijinx]

On 12/14/2020 at 4:41 PM, Krimson said:

I had a No Deadpools rule in pen and paper games (we often played Mutants and Masterminds as well as Marvel Heroic Roleplaying) from before the time Ryan Reynolds was even the X-Men Deadpool. I wouldn't RP one. Gimmick characters lose their charm really fast. 

Most professional writers can't even do Deadpool well. 

 

I hate to think what a copycat would look like.