Does appearance decrease with age?

[zylosan]

The real life answer to this question is obviously yes. Does it function in the same way with in GURPS?

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by zylosan

The real life answer to this question is obviously yes. Does it function in the same way with in GURPS?

I suppose this is one of the cases that the GM could make decreased appearance one of the consequences of a failed aging roll. By RAW, I don't think there's any mention of it though.

[Mateus]

Originally Posted by zylosan

The real life answer to this question is obviously yes. Does it function in the same way with in GURPS?

Its your shoot =). ALAIK there is no such rule in GURPS, but notting preventing you from creating it. For example I tend to apply the modificator "impressive" to the appearance of old folks in my games.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by zylosan

The real life answer to this question is obviously yes.

That isn't obvious at all. Lots of people peak in looks in their 40s, 50s, or 60s instead of in their teens, 20s, or 30s. Many people have a good five years at some random point in their life. Some folks make it to middle age being lazy and dumpy, realize that this sucks, improve their fitness and hygiene, and see a huge leap in looks. And of course the rich and beautiful can freeze time for a couple of decades these days.

Originally Posted by zylosan

Does it function in the same way with in GURPS?

The game doesn't assume that Appearance is in any way tied to age. You could be one of those people who withers with time, sure . . . or one who has timeless beauty . . . or even one who blossoms with age. Changing Appearance with age is left entirely to the player's discretion, much as is what ST you buy relative to your build and sex, or whether you're left- or right-handed.

Note in particular that GURPS doesn't assume that Appearance is tied to reproductive suitability. It could be that, but it could also be bearing, hygiene, general dress and makeup habits, genes that happen to push you toward the visual ideal, or any number of other things. And of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I'm 43, and frankly, I find it hard to see anyone under 25 as anything but "a kid." The celebrities I find attractive are mainly women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. Of course, 20 years ago I would have said "women in their 20s" . . . which simply goes to show that it's quite possible at any age to run into people who regard you as, say, Attractive or even Very Beautiful.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by zylosan

The real life answer to this question is obviously yes.

Not necessarily. Sean Connery, for instance, gained the Impressive option as he got older rather than losing levels of Attractive.

[aesir23]

IIRC, the book does mention gaining disadvantages as a possible consequence of aging. If you want to assign a character a negative appearance instead of, say, hard of hearing, that's your prerogative.

[DukeofDellot]

Personally, I think Harrison Ford is hot in his sixties.

But that's just me... and every girl I know.

I like to think that I'll still be attractive in old age, as well.

Although it's true that many people do get pretty ugly, but very few of the ones I can think of were attractive enough to warrant points spent on appearance to begin with.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Kromm

The game doesn't assume that Appearance is in any way tied to age.

Exactly. Or Status, Wealth, Strength, Weight, Height, or personality. Appearance, in short, is just a quick-and-dirty feature that doesn't take cultural or individual preferences into account.

A more complete form of personal and cultural attraction would be ... well, complicated and arbitrary. One culture (such as in Japan) may revere the 16-year-old youthful know-nothing innocence as the female sexual ideal; modern American culture may look upon large-breasted, tanned, and blonde women, with the vacuous and insatiable party-girl behavior as the ideal; another culture (such as Regency England) may settle upon dark- or red-haired women with pale, untanned skin and good breeding — that is, trained in Music and French, literate, polite, with a distinguished family line — as the perfect woman. And even then, you'd have people who defied the standard definitions of "beauty" because they had a foreign accent, an exotic look, or precisely because they were different. How many romance stories have the pale, genteel noblewoman falling in love with the bare-chested, tanned Viking warrior?

Appearance out-of-the-box just seems to suggest, at a minimum, symmetrical features, no obvious blemishes, no signs of disease or deformity or malnutrition. I wouldn't infer much beyond that.

[Langy]

That isn't obvious at all. Lots of people peak in looks in their 40s, 50s, or 60s instead of in their teens, 20s, or 30s. Many people have a good five years at some random point in their life. Some folks make it to middle age being lazy and dumpy, realize that this sucks, improve their fitness and hygiene, and see a huge leap in looks. And of course the rich and beautiful can freeze time for a couple of decades these days.

In the long run? Yeah, I think it's safe to say you get uglier as you get really, really old. Not 60 old or 70 old, but the 90 or 100 year old people are pretty much universally less attractive than they were at younger ages, especially in a sexual sense (which is the primary component of GURPS appearance, unless you have one of the special modifiers on it).

[Flyndaran]

Attractiveness is mostly personality rather than physical.
I've known some average looking people called beautiful by those around them, and good looking people called fat and ugly.