How do you handle Fantasia Mania?

[Magellan]

I don't want to open up the 'are fantasias lore debate again'. If people want to use them icly; great. Please, stay on point.

What I specifically want to know is: if you do not accept fantasia as canon (like me) how do you icly handle the plethora of fantasia stories circling around right now when they become focal points of the rp?

 

I've tried ic spacing out, looking at people like they were crazy, or being called away on a linkpearl and leaving scene early.

 

But it just kindve... puts a damper on rp when two different interpretations of lore collide like that. So what do I do? Lay low icly for awhile until all this blows over? Enlighten me.

[OttoVann]

The old character is basically dead to me, and the new ones is a stranger. This is in regards to people that fantasia, namechange, and come up with all new characters altogether yet still expect me to act familiar. No. I can only disgest so much retcon. Needless to say I'm surrounded by strangers now but thats okay, I guess the old character wasn't very good if they rerolled just to play a tribe to marry a horse.

[ShoggMommy]

Personally it depends on my characters.

 

C'sien, will likely smile and nod and listen politely. She's one that will avoid conflicts at any cost. She'd not call anyone out on it. Though she may excuse herself with a linkshell call should I feel it's something I don't want to pursue.

 

Dusk, will just outright walk out if it gets too weird for her. She wouldn't even apologize for it. She'd just up and leave. It happened the other day when I was rping with someone and a person walked up and interrupted the rp I was doing. She outright ignored the person which was emoted, and addressed the other individual and I just left it at that and returned to what I was doing off game.

[Gaspard]

It's a tough one, but all you can do is either roll with it or cease roleplaying with said person. They retconned, hard, and it's up to you to choose if that's okay with you or if they're out of your story for that reason.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I've...been lucky, I guess. None of the people I usually RP with make use of fantasia or body changing of any type on a regular basis. To date, I think I've had a two instances of it happen in RP. ...but the fantasia was simply an OOC mechanic for an IC experiment done. So I haven't had to deal with a massive surge of people suddenly looking different and I'm kinda glad. Franz wouldn't be able to handle it well if all the people he thought he knew suddenly looked different.

 

...

 

 

Actually, I take back the last statement. Franz would probably handle it fairly well. He'd just believe he were the one going mad. Or perhaps he'd believe that they'd always looked that way and his own memory issues had been interfering with how he perceived the person.

[Lost River]

I done this with another character of mine. One that didn't make so much as of a splash in the current RP environ. She wasn't ignored and some do remember her; but I did a Fantasia/Name Change.

 

My friends are still friends, but we did it as new character, meeting new people, new scenario and such. My other character isn't dead, as she was with the Grand Company Immortal Flames, she simply was re-deployed on the Ala Mhigan front.

 

 

As for my new character, I actually love roleplaying as her and she seems to be gaining much attention and enjoyment from others. For me, I think it was a great thing;

 

As to the statement, Fantasia by the Lore team for FFXIV was verified to be completely OOC, as for people doing it, I'd suggest Glamour being the easiest alternative and an IC valid reason for a complete change.

 

A lot of targets in levequests have them, why can't player characters too?

[Thorgar]

I would ask them if its a new character or if ICly they had some kinda body swap, ya know like dont eat yellow snow around Ifrit.

 

For me i made two characters with shifting them to Au Ra in mind so to me the characters looks caught up to the characters lore lol.

[Michikyou]

The old character is basically dead to me, and the new ones is a stranger.  This is in regards to people that fantasia, namechange, and come up with all new characters altogether yet still expect me to act familiar.  No.  I can only disgest so much retcon.  Needless to say I'm surrounded by strangers now but thats okay, I guess the old character wasn't very good if they rerolled just to play a tribe to marry a horse.

^ Pretty much this.

 

I dont really acknowledge fantasia's as cannon, as the devs have even stated that they are a meta-item in regards to existence. They only exist due to the demand of the mass playbase. So yes, I do act as if they are a different person.

 

I actually prefer if people make new backstories instead of the trope of 'She was a ____ all along~'

[Aife]

I pretty much live and let live. It's the person's character not mine. Would I use fantasia ic myself? Nope. I acknowledge its existence because I know too many role players now who have used ic so when the lore out about it came waaayy too late to use such heavy retcon. They're having fun and I don't want to infringe on that.

If it's a fantasia into a new character my characters act like it's a new person. That's the logical thing to do. 

I'm not really fond of fantasia abuse though and people who maks new toons or change their appearance majorly every second month.

[ShoggMommy]

The old character is basically dead to me, and the new ones is a stranger.  This is in regards to people that fantasia, namechange, and come up with all new characters altogether yet still expect me to act familiar.  No.  I can only disgest so much retcon.  Needless to say I'm surrounded by strangers now but thats okay, I guess the old character wasn't very good if they rerolled just to play a tribe to marry a horse.

^ Pretty much this.

 

I dont really acknowledge fantasia's as cannon, as the devs have even stated that they are a meta-item in regards to existence. They only exist due to the demand of the mass playbase. So yes, I do act as if they are a different person.

 

I actually prefer if people make new backstories instead of the trope of 'She was a ____ all along~'

 

I will say that I have fantasia'd but I have completely name changed and fantasia'd and there is absolutely no relation to the previous character; plot or otherwise. I just treat them as new chars personally because I didn't want to level up to 23 again on a new char. So on the other flipside of fantasias of if I use them, I follow Otto's and Meena's views.

[Ashe]

I used a fantasia ICly once but it wasn't a potion.  I was bored and did an RP plot where some aetherical disturbance caused by a failed experiment shifted my character's appearance to a female (the tl;dr explanation)....and ended up using Sylph magic to change him back.  It was fun and interesting to see how others' handled it.  I was bored and wanted to try something new and my character ended up going back to being a male at the end of it.

 

If you are changing a character's race....I don't think I'd accept it as "Oh, okay."...ICly my character would be like "I don't know you" probably....

[Sriracha Quilt]

Hello all. I do hope I'm not necro'ing the thread. If so, apologies. ;;

 

I'm new to the ffxiv roleplaying community, though I'm a lifelong rp'er on other forums and games. I tend to use fantasias before I get acquainted with people, and stick to things as they are once people know me or my character, or both. When happening with other people, I usually take the "layman" approach to it, or that of a more simplistic approach that "people with pointy sticks" have. That is to say, just simply play it off IC and try to turn that into a bit of an interaction. Tragically, the servers I originally picked to play treat roleplaying as if it's a taboo, so I don't have as much experience with roleplaying in game as I would like to have, so the above is just my limited experience with it.

[Boo the Hamster]

I just don't acknowledge Fantasia IC.  It is not an IC-item, and will never be used that way in my head, plain and simple.

 

If I enjoy RP'ing with that person, I will continue RP'ing with them.  If I don't, then I don't.  I would rather hear they are (new race) all along rather than hear Fantasia.  From a mechanical standpoint it's understandable at least, so long as it's not more than one race change.

[Kurt S.]

Coming from someone who uses it and makes it canon on one of their characters. Yeah I pretty much acknowledge it if it comes up. But everyone I RP with are so lore compliant it never has. I'd talk about shapeshifting (because there's glamours and sylph magic,etc) but we're on the topic of fantasia, the drink. 

 

As long as they can sufficiently back their identity, I'm fine. The crazier the change, the more proof that's needed. A genderbend? Sure, kind of difficult to wrap the head around. You were a lalafell but now a roe? I'm going to need a boatload more proof. 

 

And I usually don't follow that philosophy on my fantasia'd character, opting to really just assume a new persona unless with people they know. Which probably burnt bridges/caused people not to wanna RP with me no more, not even the other three I own. I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong, I shouldn't have done that, but those are all beside the point for this thread.

 

Anyway...

 

Ramona would laugh, laugh and backpedal away from you or poke fun at you. 'Shapeshifting from a drink? Do you believe this guy?' Yes she will be condescending. 

 

Kurt knows your pain. 'Yeah...I've been there.'

 

Nah would buy it too since it's come up with one of the rp's she's been in wherein character A who wanted fantasia asked her to ask character B, who she knows, to go brew A some. So I thought, might as well.

 

Khujin would probably buy it. To her, just because this fantasia shtick does not exist in Othard doesn't mean there wasn't someone was crazy enough to concoct it somewhere else and brought it to Eorzea or someone in Eorzea itself made it. 

[Ashe]

Coming from someone who uses it and makes it canon on one of their characters. Yeah I pretty much acknowledge it if it comes up. But everyone I RP with are so lore compliant it never has. I'd talk about shapeshifting (because there's glamours and sylph magic,etc) but we're on the topic of fantasia, the drink. 

 

As long as they can sufficiently back their identity, I'm fine. The crazier the change, the more proof that's needed. A genderbend? Sure, kind of difficult to wrap the head around. You were a lalafell but now a roe? I'm going to need a boatload more proof. 

 

And I usually don't follow that philosophy on my fantasia'd character, opting to really just assume a new persona unless with people they know. Which probably burnt bridges/caused people not to wanna RP with me no more, not even the other three I own. I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong, I shouldn't have done that, but those are all beside the point for this thread.

 

Anyway...

 

Ramona would laugh, laugh and backpedal away from you or poke fun at you. 'Shapeshifting from a drink? Do you believe this guy?' Yes she will be condescending. 

 

Kurt knows your pain. 'Yeah...I've been there.'

 

Nah would buy it too since it's come up with one of the rp's she's been in wherein character A who wanted fantasia asked her to ask character B, who she knows, to go brew A some. So I thought, might as well.

 

Khujin would probably buy it. To her, just because this fantasia shtick does not exist in Othard doesn't mean there wasn't someone was crazy enough to concoct it somewhere else and brought it to Eorzea or someone in Eorzea itself made it. 

/pokes Ramona

We still gotta RP  >.<

[Dis]

I like the example of using a glamour, and then once the glamour is gone, using the fantasia to represent the 'unglamoured' state.  Or crazy alchemy.  Or aetherical screw-ups.  Or magical boo-boos.  I recently fantasia'd two of my characters.  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.  

 

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

[Caspar]

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]

I like the example of using a glamour, and then once the glamour is gone, using the fantasia to represent the 'unglamoured' state.  Or crazy alchemy.  Or aetherical screw-ups.  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]

I mostly RP in small circles, so I haven't seen Fantasia cases myself.

 

Personally, I don't accept Fantasia as an IC item. I am also uninterested in characters who lack a well defined background/charisma and will simply change whenever a new race or class is released. I personally 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, I must also add that I am interested in real Au Ra characters who share the real Au Ra culture. Simply placing a pair of horns on a random Eorzean's 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; they come with 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 Fantasia and I am free to not RP it).

[-no longer matters-]

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. 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.

[Dat Oni]

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]

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]

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 )

 

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

[Asmodean]

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... , whatever you doing stop. 

 

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]

I pretty much just ignore it to the best of my ability.  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