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Dis · **06-30-2015, 03:49 AM**

I like the example of using a glamour, and then once the glamour is gone, using the fantasia to represent the 'unglamoured' state. Â Or crazy alchemy. Â Or aetherical screw-ups. Â Or magical boo-boos. Â I recently fantasia'd two of my characters. Â One was glamoured and was always that way, the other died, and I'm using him for his character levels, because I don't feel like leveling another character up past 20. Â

If someone can make it really plausible, then it doesn't bother me too much. Â If the character is in the new body, like with lifestream shenanigans or something similar.

Caspar · **06-30-2015, 04:02 AM**

I find it pretty distracting. I don't like the idea of Fantasia in canon because it leaves too many unanswered questions and underutilized applications in setting. Particularly in espionage, a lot of my plot ideas which generally involve some level of intrigue would not work if a skin-changing potion could be acquired with ease. Before it was determined in the lore discussion that Fantasia is likely non-canon, I had developed elements around the idea of "espionage before Fantasia," wherein old fashioned make-up and masks were a major part of costumed deception, and the idea that maybe some people had sacrificed years of their lives and perhaps more to achieve what Fantasia could do in a gulp. Now that it isn't canon, I don't need to worry about this, but it's interesting to conceive of what might have been.

I don't consider the idea of magic transformation impossible, however unlikely. My character is naive, which is convenient; she can take their explanation at face value with a blank, confused stare and more or less gormlessly believe them, whether it's true or not.

Aduu Avagnar · **06-30-2015, 04:57 AM**

(06-30-2015, 03:49 AM)Glioca Sargonnai Wrote: I like the example of using a glamour, and then once the glamour is gone, using the fantasia to represent the 'unglamoured' state. Â Or crazy alchemy. Â Or aetherical screw-ups. Â Or magical boo-boos.

It what I do!

Nako has a mask that allows him to take the form of another person of a similar mass. It's what made him a very good spy. However, its primarily a backstory thing, given he has given up the spywork. I have made use of it recently, cause I wanted a slight change, so to make trading and information gathering in Ishgard easier he has changed into an Elezen. However, it also has certain knockon effects to RP beyond just being a shapechange.

Clover · **06-30-2015, 06:11 AM**

I mostly RP in small circles, so I haven'tÂ seen Fantasia cases myself.

Personally, I don't accept Fantasia as an IC item. I am also uninterested in characters who lack a well definedÂ background/charisma andÂ will simply change whenever a new race or class is released. I personallyÂ like a certain level of consistency in the RP, or a certain level of care from the players towards their own characters' stories, otherwise my own RP could end up being a mess.

On another note,Â I must also add that I amÂ interested in real Au Ra charactersÂ who share the real Au Ra culture. Simply placing a pair of horns on aÂ random Eorzean'sÂ head isn't going to make them interesting to me, for that's not different than mere cosplay. A new race is more than looks to me;Â they come withÂ a whole culture and charisma, and therefore a whole new set of possibilities.

(This is, of course, just my personal opinion, as people are free to RP FantasiaÂ andÂ I am free to not RP it).

-no longer matters- · **06-30-2015, 06:42 AM**

Hmm this is a tough one, I know personally when I fantasia, I buy a name change too, to signify this is a new person entirely.Â I usually do this when coming back after a long period of time.

Now as for Fantasia RP if it were one or two people doing it I could shrug it off and go with the flow but if it's an overwhelming number of people, yeah I'd be a bit unsure where to go.. maybe treat it as a magical plague?

Or just find a static RP group and RP out in the wilds for a bit until fantasia mania cools down. I'm at the luxury of crafting my characters personality and backstory and unlocking DrK before i sink into RP so I may miss this fantasia wave entirely.

Edgar · **06-30-2015, 08:07 AM**

At this point, I just stop RPing with them, and have my character be conveniently absent from their storyline until they change back.

If they don't, well...

Gegenji · **06-30-2015, 08:16 AM**

I've dealt with... a few changes in form with Chachan. To the point that for a little while he thought all girl Lalafell spent some portion of their life as a Miqo'te. He's also dealt with a couple characters that have changed multiple times - one of whom has gone from male to female, and then through basically all the races. How have I handled it? I just... roll with it, I guess.

Even if it's not "Fantasia," people will provide all sorts of alternate explanations for the sudden change. Something as nebulous as "a potion" to an aetherical accident to glamours to ticking off a Sylph and being "cursed." And, if I want to RP with them, I have to have Chachan deal with the fact that they're a different race or gender (or both!). Unless it's a situation where they've "been" that race all along and have just been waiting for HW to update their models (had a couple folks playing Au Ra and just had us pretend they had their horns and tails), the first and foremost thing is that Chachan will likely not recognize you if the change is drastic enough. He might (slowly) catch on if he recognizes your mannerisms, but otherwise you're going to have to tell him.

I get that having Fantasias readily available ICly would spell disaster for such things as espionage and criminal activity. However, so would being able to get a Sylph to change you or casting a glamour that makes you look like another person. I just see it as folks having a bit of lighthearted fun... and exploring their options. Maybe they picked a race and - either through plot or play - decided they didn't like the race, but also didn't want to lose all the friends their character had made. Some sort of convoluted thing to explain the why and bam - new race. Hopefully they'll be happy with what they chose and stick with it - or they'll go back to their original race and the entire event can be left to become little more than an oddball memory.

Personally, I've only used my Fantasia on Judge - who I had been playing as in disguise since inception. His heavy armor, I think, really helped with that... so the change likely wasn't that obvious. Beyond that, I used it to make Gogon taller since I wanted a height difference between the two brothers. Which I waved away as him always being that height.

Transformation/disguise/reveal plots are not all that uncommon - especially, apparently, in the realm of FFXIV RP. The best approach to it, in my mind, is to either avoid it or roll with it. "Rolling with it", of course, being subjective and ranging from applying your own headcanon to the situation or straight up going with what is being presented.

Magellan · **06-30-2015, 08:39 AM**

To clarify (because there seems to be a little confusion) I'm not talking about people who use fantasias for an ooc transformation, and become completely different characters. That's awesome that Square let's us do that (and I have, since I didn't want to lvl my Au ra from scratch :p)

Some pretty good advice here and I thank people for it.

Asmodean · **06-30-2015, 08:44 AM**

I would just roll with the rp and see where things take me. However if someone was using it every other day I would be annoyed and I would let them know. If they keep , I would give me a reason for Asmo to start punching them at random cause: hey I have no idae who you are... touch me and I will hit you again... wait... <Name>, whatever you doing stop.Â

I may use one myself for RP reasons but no to change race but remove Asmo's scars. But with the way I take my time rp wise that would be a far time off it is dose happen.

Aya · **06-30-2015, 08:47 AM**

I pretty much just ignore it to the best of my ability.Â If really put on the spot it would just be a judgement call to kind of nod-and-go-along-to-get-along, or to do what Otto suggested and just say "sorry, its a new person to me!"

I haven't started playing HW yet, so I haven't had to see just how many people may have done that :-X

Aaron · **06-30-2015, 08:58 AM**

I generally make them work for it. Aaron never asks "how" or "why" regarding those things because he finds them stupid. Instead he'll flat out assume you're trying to tell him a very bad lie and he'll tolerate the person long as they don't do anything, but he generally wont really act the same towards them until they prove they're who they say they are.

Gotta make dem work for dat sudden fantasia. This ain't animorphs

***Maril*** · **06-30-2015, 09:22 AM**

Generally speaking, I treat all fantasia'ed characters as new characters. If they insist they they were someone Nailah used to know, then I would try to find a solution - but I am very reluctant to accept the use of the fantasia vial as-is icly. Especially if the relation wasn't ever too extensive. Usually I find that people are good at respecting your boundaries when they rp with you. But overall I don't expect this to become a major problem, most people I RP with everyday are of much the same opinion as myself. There is one person (a very good friend of mine) where I am accepting the change, but this is also being rp'ed out in a fashion where my character is going to be one of the few that will ever know, and I find that the reasoning (which does not involve fantasia ic) is alright. My main problem with the fantasia is not that it changes people, but that it isn't regarded as canon and as such isn't well represented in the rest of the game's lore, leading to a lot of unanswered questions and territory where I as a roleplayer feel uncomfortable - by accepting this one case I don't want to open a floodgate in my roleplay where it becomes really common, either.Â

I am also rather fortunate that a lot of the people who are re-rolling Au Ra are keeping their old characters as alts - so there is no mass death, or situation where my character would question why half of everyone she knows just disappeared overnight.

Lilia Lia · **06-30-2015, 10:38 AM**

This thread is making me feel a lot comfortable with taking a more firm attitude towards fantasia in RP.Â It's comforting to know I'm not the only one who thinks that the proper response would be to treat the person as a completely different person.Â Since IC actions have IC consequences, people should be prepared to deal with the fact that some won't simply accept their story at face value.Â Regardless of OOC acceptance, IC "disbelief" is a fair response, I think.

My RP circle has been hit hard by Fantasia-mania since HW, but I've also seen it done before, and it's been awkward having to react to it, because it is a major change.Â I've heard the "glamour" explanation thrown around a lot, or "experiment gone wrong" is another one I hear pretty often.Â One of my regular RP partners also has fantasia as a part of his backstory (he told me after we meet that he used to be a different race).Â With the regularity with which people make it part of their stories it's starting to just be part of the world as the result of player-lore... in Eorzea, people race change and it happens all the time, usually for elaborate reasons.

Suddenly, race changes have become even more common, and this time into a race nobody's ever seen before.Â It's the kind of thing that would make a sensible person say "there's something going on here."Â But the problem is that the "something" that's going on goes beyond the game universe so we're approaching "my character knows she lives in a video game" territory.

I don't know what I'm going to do quite yet.Â The thing is, RP related to race changes is something I don't find fun.Â It's just ridiculous to me and it doesn't really evoke the same kind of plausible character interaction that I have come to enjoy in RP.Â So for that reason I may just accept it after some preliminary obligatory "wow you race changed" RP and then move on to the kind of RP that I find more enjoyable.

If I play the disbelief card I can't help feeling like it's going to completely define my RP with that person going forward and dominate all of our interactions from then on.Â If I do that I run the risk of losing interest in RP with that person altogether, because "race change" as a premise is just not interesting to me.Â It's like the RP equivalent of an "Animorphs" novel.Â So I'll probably just bite the bullet and move on.

Magellan · **06-30-2015, 11:39 AM**

@Lilia: Perfectly put. It's not that I don't want to rp with these people; they seem like perfectly lovely folks and rpers.

It's that their interpretation of lore would force my character to look at their surroundings in a completely different way we're I to accept it.

Dis · **06-30-2015, 12:07 PM**

I think that's why I went with the glamour bit on my soon-to-be-renamed Ninja. Â She was RP'd very little, in a small circle, most of whom are no longer active in game, and primarily with my husband's alt, who 'always knew she was x, and just kept quiet about it', during private interactions, he'd make out as if he was jerking on her tail, or commenting on her horns, so it isn't a jarring change. Â And once I knew that I was going to be changing her come Heavenward, I stopped RPing her out in public. Â

I can appreciate people who want to make major changes, and I try to roll with it the best I can. Â Another explanation that I haven't seen people use much is the Echo. Â We've seen with the Ascians that it's entirely possible to use Echo to jump bodies. Â And the Echo isn't just restricted to the Warrior of Light. Â Minfilia has it, and she's not a WoL, as far as I know, and the Ascian's have it. Â And it has potential, as long as people aren't claiming Hydaelyn's blessing at the same time. Â That would more be full WoL potential, and likely seen as a form of god-modding by most of this community.

That also opens up a whole new area of role-play, because suddenly this person is in this new body, and trying to adapt. Â One of the things that maybe irks me most is people who transition to a new body with a drastically different mass and form and are totally comfortable inside that new body. Â There's no period of awkwardly getting used to their new height, or horns/ears/tails (where applicable).

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How do you handle Fantasia Mania?

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