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2014-05-29T23:15:58Z

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A player holds a '''monologue''' which is partly or completely outside of the fictions space and time. This can either interrupt all other play or go on alongside. The monologue is a tool to give other players insight into the speaking characters story and create game openings between them. It has the added benefit of making the speaking player feel like a main protagonist and give them closure to their own story.

== Different uses ==

=== Monologue box ===
The player marks a square in the air, rather like a TV-screen around her face, does the monologue or meta comment, and then closes the box with the same gesture. This technique has at least once been mistaken for a way to give off game messages, but that is not its purpose.

=== Ping the glass ===
Every player has a glass and something to ping it with. (A pen, a spoon, whatever is convenient.) When a glass is pinged, the owner of the glass gives an inner monologue, and marks the end of it by taking a sip from the glass. This technique can be used either for players to elicit monologues from others, or just as a marker for the monologue itself. It was first used in [[New Voices in Art]] in 2007.

=== The Monologue as a tool for the Gamemaster ===
The type of Monologue that is often used during [[Slow take-off]] and [[Slow Landing]].
All the players stop their talking (most often also their activities) going into a neutral, pausemode, optionally closing their eyes.
A [[Narrator]] (or [[Game Master]]) tells a fragment of text verbally that can be used to direct the story or the situation into a new stage. This is also called a [[Narrative Voice Over]] and is a kind of [[Cut Scene|cut scene]].

=== Asking for a monologue===
Monologues can also be requested by a [[Director]] or an other player as in [[When Our Destinies Meet]]. Then it becomes a kind of [[Cut Scene|cut scene]].

=== Double monologue ===
Two players alternate between monologueing for each other in short bursts. One player expresses their inner monologue until the second player takes over, often picking up on a thought or a word from the first. It can be a powerful tool for exploring character relationships, finding common ground and/or potential conflicts.

== Examples and Referances ==
This is very much in use in [[Jeepform]]games like [[Doubt]],[[Growing Up]],[[The Journey]].
It gives a feeling of a Brechtian theater where the narrator not only talks to the audience,
but sort of acts out like a director at stage.
Refer to plays of the type as The Caucasian Chalk Circle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Caucasian_Chalk_Circle).

[[Category:Techniques]]

Monologue - Revision history

>Penguin: clean up