03-02-2021, 06:00 AM | #11 | ||
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?
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03-02-2021, 06:51 AM | #12 | |
On Notice
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Sumter, SC
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Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?
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D&D took that ball and ran with it. For example, an Elf, gray wasn't considered "old" until the got to 1001 and could live up to 2000. Half-Orc were the shortest lived race back then hitting "old" at 46 while the Humans not considered "old" until 61. In the D&D Cartoon (The Lost Children) when some alien children who look about 10 are actually in their 70s and 554 being middle aged. When Presto says "That sound's great" Epic quips "Are you kidding? They probably go to school for 360 years." At the end when told that it will take 15 years to repair their spaceship one of them asks "That soon?" That last part shows something people often forget about long lived races. Their sense of time would be way different from that of a human.
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03-02-2021, 08:19 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?
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A bit of dark humor in the manga Goblin is Very Strong is when Honwasabi (the titular Very Strong Goblin) jokes about how nobody knows how old goblins can get, because they always get killed by adventurers. There's actually a fairly old goblin (who specializes in traps) that lives in her village, however, so that might not be entirely true. But, yeah, as others have said, it's rather likely that most people in DF die of things unrelated to old age, so members races who can live longer often won't live any longer than humans.
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03-02-2021, 08:25 AM | #14 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Sweden, Stockholm
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Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?
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There will be a few really really old people, but there will also be a fair number of young people. And who knows when 'necromantic smallpox' or whatever will tear through the grand elven city kill most of the hide-away elders and most of the survivors end up being the ones who weren't near civilization. Perhaps most of the elves are 300 or less, as a result. And the one elf who remembers how they defeated the now-resurrected 'dark lord' 1000 years ago is a paranoid crazy hermit wizard who lives alone on a mountain-top with a bunch of goats. The caution you mentioned might also explain why a bunch of high-elf soldiers age-300 are barely better than moderately renowned human mercenaries despite being 10-times older. The elves are risk-averse and don't do dangerous exercises. Perhaps they don't even have combat skills on their character sheets, but instead default their weapon skills from a few very impressively leveled Combat-Art skills.
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03-02-2021, 08:35 AM | #15 | |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?
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To put the notion of 'early maturation' in the category of a band-aid is a disservice to both the comedy of the silly numbers, and the creativity of creating a fantasy race and society that is distinctly NOT human. To the point, physical, mental, and social maturation all take place at different rates. An elf may be physically mature within a couple of decades, perhaps growing out of the little kid phase to the lanky teen-ish physicality and stall there for a while, perfectly physically capable of self-care but slight compared to a fully mature adult. That final growth spurt doesn't come at 18, but maybe 28 or 38. Mentally they may mature slower as well, staying flexible and learning far longer, or simply have an ingrained deference to their elders. They're not human, their mental faculties during maturation do not need to be human-like, they can by their nature be adapted to their pace of growth. A teenage elf doesn't have the hormone rages that a teenage human has because they don't have those hormones! They have elf hormones, maturing them at an elf pace, and that's different. Finally, the social thing bothers me because it assumes that elf society is just like human society and hasn't adapted to having more and different social strata that deal with their nature of having long maturity levels. Think that elves haven't figured out how to deal with disaffected youth? For every freshman that has looked up to a senior classman, there's no reason that elves at the high end of their age cohort aren't looked up to, and aren't taken seriously by their near-youths. Elf society may very well be divided up into several different social and political strata where the eldest among them are the respected leaders before they age out and move to the next social strata (note, not a move up or down, simply a move) that may have a disconnected set of responsibilities and honors they enjoy. What do younger elves do? Go out and see the world! Adventure, interact, learn, and participate in other societies. Middle-aged elves, they often come home and may be the engines of the elven societies, making up the cohort that builds and protects the homes using the skills and experiences they acquired in their youth. The eldest of those then move on to other things, perhaps the politicians, perhaps they go back out into the world where their wisdom and experiences make them incredibly capable of dealing with non-elves in a diplomatic or otherwise fashion. And perhaps this is all turned upside down and as an elf ages the younger cohort explicitly pushes them aside while they relax into a contemplative retirement. What? Don't they have ambition and a desire to hold on to power? Of course not, what a human concept. Leadership and action is a job for the young, our old bones are not meant for such things. Sorry, it's a pet peeve of mine. |
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03-02-2021, 08:43 AM | #16 | ||
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Rome, Italy
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Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?
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Technically this could work if you consider the extended lifespan of those ever present "Eldar Races" but once you put in a standard TL3 human in the mix the setting loses any believably: in just the time for a teenager elf to reach adulthood men should have already reached industrial revolution era. The difference in time perception is one of the coolest aspect never exploited in fantasy. It's millennia everywhere, always middle ages! I have started to cope with this boring aspect deluding myself that fantasy worlds are set on Mercury. Quote:
But designing those societies in a credible manner (especially if you want to go for a medieval fantasy) requires a lot of work and knowledge, it's always just simpler to import Tolkien's fantasy species and call it a day.
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03-02-2021, 09:03 AM | #17 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2012
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Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?
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On the other hand, since either you have a population explosion or birthrates equal death rates, the elf mother probably has a gaggle of aunts, sisters, and friends who have only that one little elf baby to ooh and awe over, and to help raise. EDIT: never mind, they have the kid born 15 years ago still around. The math keeps the same number of babies around.
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03-02-2021, 09:20 AM | #18 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?
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Tolkien's ages aren't radically long, it definitely wasn't always the middle ages from the beginning, and the fourth age is ostensibly the age of men and the IR is right around the corner. Wheel of Time has been out long enough that spoilers don't apply, and despite its flaws the story does explain that the world has been through a couple of apocalypses which have knocked back tech to the point where the world had to re-crawl the whole way back up from the stone age. NK Jemisen's Broken Earth is another excellent one that breaks the trope. Anyway, embrace that truth! That teenage elf, right now, IS going to see the IR take place, though they don't know it yet. But the human PC's won't, and that's fine too. Quote:
Opellulo, I also want to reinforce that I agree with you that playing with the perception of time is a GREAT storytelling tool. Think about elves that will only have three generations. An elf may know that their father was born at the beginning of time, and their child will see the end of time. That's it, only three generations. The first, the middle, and the last. And they know it! It's part of the fabric of the universe, and these beings are tuned into that and are part of that magic. Last edited by Polkageist; 03-02-2021 at 09:35 AM. |
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03-02-2021, 09:41 AM | #19 |
Join Date: May 2007
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Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?
My default assumption is that those races that have preexisting "canonical" examples in GURPS inherit their lifespans in Dungeon Fantasy. So Elves have the effect of Unaging, Dwarves one level of Extended Lifespan and Longevity, Gnomes Longevity but no Extended Lifespan, and Halflings merely a human-equivalent lifespan, based on their treatment in Banestorm and 3e Fantasy Folk. Given that they paid no points for any of this, it provides no protection from any potential supernatural or extraordinary aging effects, but merely gives Elves something to be smug about.
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03-02-2021, 12:04 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Apr 2019
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Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?
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Mentally they arent less intelligent than humans (on the contrary they are generally portrayed as smarter), and humans dont educate at the rate we do because of the length of our lives, it just takes that long to impart the information. Plenty of Human kids have called it quits with formal education by the time they are 14 and go off and try something else (with varying success). Maybe the elf education system just sucks (I suspect they got "Common Core" long before humans and it stunted their progression), perhaps they aren't as regimented because theres more time. or maybe they just do a basic education and then "life experience" till after puberty when they are more able to commit to regimented study. I could see some increase in apprenticeships and learning just because they have the time to get it juuuuuuuust right. As already stated maybe a master takes 40years (maybe elves are generally lazy learners because they always have tomorrow). But its not like elves process combat slower or move slower or cast spells slower... Im not sure where that screwy idea that "they live 100 times longer cause they take 100 time more time to do things" but its just flat silly. OR better said, "thats not an advantage, thats a disadvantage". If your elves will be the stereo typical Tolkien elves of long life and centuries of learning etc... then I suppose Birth rates are probably much more spread out by biology and culture. Births aren't "rare" just no where near the same rate as a human. If they weren't then elves would have to find something to do with all those bored and restless adolescents, which usually means an expansionist culture and conflict for resources. Elf Mongols anyone? :) I would say that Physical maturity very loosely: a "tolkien" elf would carry children in utero for 12-14 months, diaper trained and starting to talk 1.5-2, toddlers till ~5, kindergarten ~7-10, basic school/skills ~11-25, useful to society and able to function independantly by ~25, but not considered an age of majority (finished with puberty) till mid to late 40s. After that they might continue to grow a little till they are ~80-100 when they get their final shoe size. They probably wouldn't leave home till they had already learned at least one trade. Maybe most of the elves we see are actually on their Rumspringa, and not even considered able to vote by other elves :) Mentally I would say they mature similar to humans up to 10ish but then things start to stretch out because puberty comes later and lasts longer. I dont think an 18yr old elf would be as physically large as an 18yr old human but I also dont think they would be less educated (or capable of being educated). They might be prone to emotional outbursts and erratic behavior as they are just starting into puberty. But they are capable of taking in, retaining and using information at a very similar age to humans. Just as we have seen in Human society, just because a person has reached the age to reproduce doesn't mean they should. I would imagine similar strictures for elves (might even go some distance to explain half-elves). You might not be considered ok to date until well into your 50s and serious relationships (if they would even bother with such an idea like marriage) would probably be something for triple digits unless you wanted to be "that couple" for the next century or so. After 100-200 years its just the acquisition of skills and abilities, and dealing with your numerous ex's that are still harboring a grudge about the way you treated them at the solstice dance 400 years ago. I mean this is all my own take, but it makes a lot more sense to me than the idea of a 27yr old infant in diapers. Thats just silly. |
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