How would I RP time travel?

[Erik Mynhier]

Just what it says. Here is the deal. My daughter is wanting to join me when my wife joins me on balmung in a few months after we get her new PC and me a PS4. The 3 is going to my daughter and she wants to play. She wants to RP as my character's daughter but that frustrated her because she couldn't make a character small enough to be a child. Also I explained that mommy's character and mine have no children, so it would make no sense to suddenly have a young child, and for that matter the child she made in the creator as she looked 16 at least.

 

She thought on it then came to me and said she would be my daughter from the future like River Song. I was stunned into silence then thought, "alright, that might work". The question is how? I know that time travel is common in ff games, and is even the premise of ARR.

 

She wants to make and play a 17-20 something version of herself and her sister (whos character she will also be playing until her sister is old enough she told me) but I'm not sure of a non-op way of doing it.

[Yloise]

Some strange atherite and spell combination accident might be plausible. At least plausible for a fictional game.

[Tiergan]

Louisoix's spell that sent the Warriors of Light 5 years into the future presumably invoked Althyk the Keeper, God of Time.

 

Your daughter's character could presumably been sent backwards in time with a similar spell.  However, if I were her, I'd make it so her character has partial memory loss. That way her character knows who she is, who her parents are, that she loved them, and memories of her childhood - but nothing really specific about the future since anything she RPs about what the future would be like has a strong potential to go wonky.

 

Maybe she was sent to the past for some important purpose - but the strain of traveling back that many years into the past robbed her of everything but the most important parts of her memories: her family.

[Aysun]

As cute as it would be to have her be your daughter in game due to some sort of time travel, it may be safer to just do a retcon and say they /DO/ have children!

[pas]

Louisoix's spell that sent the Warriors of Light 5 years into the future presumably invoked Althyk the Keeper, God of Time.

 

Your daughter's character could presumably been sent backwards in time with a similar spell.  However, if I were her, I'd make it so her character has partial memory loss.  That way her character knows who she is, who her parents are, that she loved them, and memories of her childhood - but nothing really specific about the future since anything she RPs about what the future would be like has a strong potential to go wonky.

 

Maybe she was sent to the past for some important purpose - but the strain of traveling back that many years into the past robbed her of everything but the most important parts of her memories: her family.

I second this idea! Great thinking.

[Seriphyn]

As cute as it would be to have her be your daughter in game due to some sort of time travel, it may be safer to just do a retcon and say they /DO/ have children!

 

This. I think people would be far more willing to accept a retcon than timetravelling.

 

Also, I think midlander women can be -very- short (nvm they already look young), so perfect for having a daughter character.

[LandStander]

I would throw my hat into the ring and say recon the story, but there is really nothing wrong with the time traveling thing. I mean it has been shown in game that it is possible, but if you do go this route should basically give her fuzzy memory syndrome. Say that she does not remember anything from the future and yeah..basically everything that Tiergan said .

[C'kayah Polaali]

I'm sure you'll get flak for a time travel backstory, but as far as I'm concerned (and I'm sure many others fall into my camp) just make it entertaining. Interesting RP covers up a lot of sins.

[Erik Mynhier]

I just wanted to say I've been reading the replies to her and she is loving the attention and says hi. I also though you would all like to hear some of her ideas on how she and her sister would time travel, all of whom I have or am trying to talk her out of.

 

1. Bill and Ted's phone booth

 

2. A chocobo with a flux capacitor (she decided not to go with this one herself saying chocobos are not fast enough)

 

3. a TARDIS

 

4. Thor Magic

 

5. Moogle Time Mage

 

She is a.... unique child.

[Tla]

A Tardis. Clearly, who in posses of that would choose other means?

And the chocobo...tried with a coeurl? Much faster! But really, so much imagination, you have a treasure there ^^

[Seriphyn]

Oh, how about it being a "longlost daughter" instead?

[pas]

I'm in love with the flux capacitor idea hahaha.

 

At any rate, an option to consider if you're ever waffling about whether or not to utilise the time travel or not is adoption. A lot of characters on RPC have adoptive back stories, so it's just as likely for you and your wife's characters to be adoptive parents.

[Tiergan]

I second adoption - it'd be an easy way for your characters to have a daughter without retconning or the issues that come with time-travel characters.

[pas]

Additionally, any seemingly bizarre age difference can be explained away from the context of constant warring and the Calamity—low mortality rates & lots of orphans.

 

However, I bet your daughter would really appreciate if you went with her idea, and I wouldn't feel disinclined to roleplay with any of y'all because of it, but I ofc can't speak for everyone. 

 

In conclusion: maybe your characters ICly act like it was a standard adoption, but there's a secret kept about her ~true origins~. It could lead to some small humorous scenes, e.g. commentary that she's just like X parent in a physical way (e.g. eyes) and then an outsider character confusedly responds, "that's some coincidence, considering she's adopted!"

[Jomoru]

As someone who's done this before you have afew issues that will come up.

 

1. Her past is your future. All of her backstory is story you haven't played out yet. You can get all Timey Whimey about it but its going to feel forced and might make things harder on your obviously young daughter.

 

2. People are going to want to know about the future. So even if its a different timeline etc Someone has to come up with details for the future as it unfolds so its alot of lore you'd have to make for yourself.

 

3.Playing out pregnancy and development. Assuming the timelines stay the same in some fashion eventually you have to move to her being concieved, born, potentially having child her be around her her, its abit complicated and puts alot on everyone's plate.

 

You may be better off coming up with some other justification, I know Eric is a highlander so a Midlander build could at least look like a young teen daughter if you work at it.

[Naunet]

1. Her past is your future. All of her backstory is story you haven't played out yet. You can get all Timey Whimey about it but its going to feel forced and might make things harder on your obviously young daughter.

 

...

 

3.Playing out pregnancy and development. Assuming the timelines stay the same in some fashion eventually you have to move to her being concieved, born, potentially having child her be around her her, its abit complicated and puts alot on everyone's plate.

 

Just go with the usual time travel rule that the time traveler's presence has irrevocably altered the future. The future-daughter's parents don't ever have to get pregnant because when future-daughter landed in the past, they spawned a new universe/timeline. The future-daughter's past with her future-parents does not have to affect any future rp between the new timeline's present-parents.

[Kismet]

I cannot say what anyone should or should not do. However... Personally? I am not a fan of time travel scenarios. It usually presents too many issues, like god-modding (that could very well be unintentional). Unless the lore supports the notion of lots of people regularly going back and forth in time like it's no big deal, I find the idea of time travelers odd. (I know there are the Warriors of Light... But that event is NOT a common occurrence.) It typically comes off as lazy (and/or clichéd) storytelling to me.

 

And for the particular case presented by the OP, it sounds unnecessary. You can just change the backstories/character concepts in order to establish whatever relationships you want. Nobody should throw a hissyfit if you retcon things.

[Naunet]

You can just change the backstories/character concepts in order to establish whatever relationships you want.

 

If not having a child is a significant part of a character, it is not that easy to change. For example, with my own character it is very important that she only had three children, which means that when new folk come into the K tribe and ask if they can be offspring of my character, I have to say no. Retconning wouldn't work because months of RP have built up a very specific story that has led to very specific character development.

 

I wouldn't presume that it's so easy to retcon something.

[Jomoru]

1. Her past is your future. All of her backstory is story you haven't played out yet. You can get all Timey Whimey about it but its going to feel forced and might make things harder on your obviously young daughter.

 

...

 

3.Playing out pregnancy and development. Assuming the timelines stay the same in some fashion eventually you have to move to her being concieved, born, potentially having child her be around her her, its abit complicated and puts alot on everyone's plate.

 

Just go with the usual time travel rule that the time traveler's presence has irrevocably altered the future. The future-daughter's parents don't ever have to get pregnant because when future-daughter landed in the past, they spawned a new universe/timeline. The future-daughter's past with her future-parents does not have to affect any future rp between the new timeline's present-parents.

 

 

 

then in a very meaningful sense the future character is in fact not the child of the two people.

[Naunet]

then in a very meaningful sense the future character is in fact not the child of the two people.

 

Sure she would. She still shares their genes. She's just from a different time-universe. Though the question of "Am I really their daughter/Is she really our child?" would be an interesting one to explore IC.

[Soahl]

First off, I have to say that the whole Chocobo with a Flux Capacitor concept is brilliant, and more-so is your daughter's reasoning as to why it wouldn't work. That line itself made my day.

 

The future-daughter's parents don't ever have to get pregnant because when future-daughter landed in the past, they spawned a new universe/timeline.

 

 I really like this idea. If you're married to the concept of Time Travel, this is a very elegant way of going about it. Plus, then you don't have to worry about keeping an eye on the fuzzy memory shtick. If she's from an alternate universe/timeline, then anything could have happened in her past. Eorzea could have been invaded by a dimension-hopping squad of SHINRA Soldiers or whatever. At that point, the daughter character's history would only have to follow the vaguest sense of logic and, if whatever she says comes out as too weird or crazy it can easily be brushed off as embellishing her own background to impress others.

[Tiergan]

First off, I have to say that the whole Chocobo with a Flux Capacitor concept is brilliant, and more-so is your daughter's reasoning as to why it wouldn't work. That line itself made my day.

 

The future-daughter's parents don't ever have to get pregnant because when future-daughter landed in the past, they spawned a new universe/timeline.

 

 I really like this idea. If you're married to the concept of Time Travel, this is a very elegant way of going about it. Plus, then you don't have to worry about keeping an eye on the fuzzy memory shtick. If she's from an alternate universe/timeline, then anything could have happened in her past. Eorzea could have been invaded by a dimension-hopping squad of SHINRA Soldiers or whatever. At that point, the daughter character's history would only have to follow the vaguest sense of logic and, if whatever she says comes out as too weird or crazy it can easily be brushed off as embellishing her own background to impress others.

 

Depending on how much his daughter wants to RP with the rest of the community and not just her parents - this sort of thing would launch her straight into 'special snowflake' territory and she'd probably get avoided by a lot of folks.

 

Personally, if you go with time-travel and not adoption, you should keep all the outlandish elements of it as low-key and subtle as possible.  Someone mentioned her hiding it and acting as though she were adopted - that's a really neat idea.

 

It means anyone who would potentially not be okay with time-travel in RP can just see her as an adopted daughter - and when Erik, his wife, and his daughter come across players that are OK with the whole timey-wimey thing, they can reveal the secret to them.

 

Plus, RPing having a secret is sort of fun and adds another dimension to the RP.

[Kismet]

You can just change the backstories/character concepts in order to establish whatever relationships you want.

 

If not having a child is a significant part of a character, it is not that easy to change. For example, with my own character it is very important that she only had three children, which means that when new folk come into the K tribe and ask if they can be offspring of my character, I have to say no. Retconning wouldn't work because months of RP have built up a very specific story that has led to very specific character development.

 

I wouldn't presume that it's so easy to retcon something.

 

I understand that and it makes sense. But I would personally scrap the concept entirely if there was no way for me to retcon it in. If I need to resort to something as fantastical as time travel to justify the inclusion of a character... For me, that's a a bit much.

 

As Tiergan said, if I came across it, I'd treat them as someone they adopted. But do I think it's the only (let alone the best) way they could go about introducing her into some pre-established RP? No.

[Jomoru]

then in a very meaningful sense the future character is in fact not the child of the two people.

 

Sure she would. She still shares their genes. She's just from a different time-universe. Though the question of "Am I really their daughter/Is she really our child?" would be an interesting one to explore IC.

 

I share half my genes with my brother. Genes don't mean much. Ask someone who has adopted a child. What matters is the raising, the time together and that in a very legitimate way is destroyed via timey whimey stuff.

[Erik Mynhier]

Well to be honest she is my special snowflake. And as stated she's 5, so I don't see her heading into the community at large so the effects would be limited to us and our friends when they feel like playing with her. I was just looking for some ideas on how time travel in this world would work so I could lay it out for her. I like the Hymn idea as she likes the video cg for Answers. I appreciate the feedback all, I wasn't expecting such an academic level it got to, but she liked that you guys cared enough to work it out for her. She says thanks.