I think that it's all a matter of what is ICly done to hide the identity and how it could fail, which ultimately depends mostly on the player of the secret identity-esque character. Of coure there could be some metagaming involved in "you can,t find out cause I say so" but it should be defined ahead of time what is done to ensure that people won't find out.
This way, others can figure out if they would notice anything or not. Mind you, it -does- take a lot before a character becomes suspicious unless the disguise is poor.
There's also the thematic f the secret identity concept and for RP's sake, room can be made for that. I mean, we all know that Clark Kent is Superman, no matter how thick his glasses are. Same goes with an Eorzean with a mask. Spiderman is another story. You can't see an inch of his skin.
My character falls somewhere in between... there aren't that many blue haired Miqo'te around, but she relies on her acting skills (she loves watching plays and learned from those) as well as, like I mentioned above, perfumes and masks and things.
In the end it's a matter of respect, I guess.
On one side, respect for the player who wishes to toy around with the secret identity theme and, on the other, respect for the player who, without calling on crazy things like mind-reading and failproof sense of observation shenanigans, manages to find a realistic way to pierce the character's disguise.
To take myself as an example again, I figured that Balthazar's Favor NPC's, with enough spying (due to her meddling in their bizness) ,managed to find out who she was because they observed her long enough and managed to catch her going home. That's part of her storyline and how she joined the LS.
In RP however, I would expect people who think their character would know to ask me and we would then determine what to do. Mind you, anyone pulling any failproof shenanigans ("I read your mind so I know automatically") would likely be ignored. Someone who proposes clever ways about how their character would find out however (pointing out that "there was only Blue Moon and me, so how do you know this if you're not her, Azy?" for example), that I can deal with and enjoy.
This way, others can figure out if they would notice anything or not. Mind you, it -does- take a lot before a character becomes suspicious unless the disguise is poor.
There's also the thematic f the secret identity concept and for RP's sake, room can be made for that. I mean, we all know that Clark Kent is Superman, no matter how thick his glasses are. Same goes with an Eorzean with a mask. Spiderman is another story. You can't see an inch of his skin.
My character falls somewhere in between... there aren't that many blue haired Miqo'te around, but she relies on her acting skills (she loves watching plays and learned from those) as well as, like I mentioned above, perfumes and masks and things.
In the end it's a matter of respect, I guess.
On one side, respect for the player who wishes to toy around with the secret identity theme and, on the other, respect for the player who, without calling on crazy things like mind-reading and failproof sense of observation shenanigans, manages to find a realistic way to pierce the character's disguise.
To take myself as an example again, I figured that Balthazar's Favor NPC's, with enough spying (due to her meddling in their bizness) ,managed to find out who she was because they observed her long enough and managed to catch her going home. That's part of her storyline and how she joined the LS.
In RP however, I would expect people who think their character would know to ask me and we would then determine what to do. Mind you, anyone pulling any failproof shenanigans ("I read your mind so I know automatically") would likely be ignored. Someone who proposes clever ways about how their character would find out however (pointing out that "there was only Blue Moon and me, so how do you know this if you're not her, Azy?" for example), that I can deal with and enjoy.
