Aging from Children

[Aigol]

HI, Im going to be running a game where my Players will start as children as sort of heroes in training. What would be the best way to go about handling the stat reductions and then their growth as they age throuout the campaign?

I mean for attributes should I just have them build as adults and then reduce from there and as time passes raise their scores?

Or maybe just start them lower than 10 as the default like start them with ST8 IQ and DX 9 instead of everyhing starting at 10?

Im not really sure the best way to deal with the growth and improvement that occurs with age

[Christopher R. Rice]

In the past I've figured out what their adult stats are going to be and applied a reduction to those and then gave them those stats. It works out pretty well in my opinion.

[McAllister]

The core books have some suggestions for the stat reductions that accompany childhood. I'd suggest that the players have a budget for their adult attributes, and then they can grow into those attributes as they age.

The core books also have guidelines on how fast skills are learned, but check out the Phoenix Imperative document in one of Sir_Pudding's signatures for a worked example of how to deal with time jumps for PCs.

Does that do it for you?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Aigol

I mean for attributes should I just have them build as adults and then reduce from there and as time passes raise their scores?

Originally Posted by p. B20

To create a believable child, decide what his attributes will be when he is full-grown, reduce them, and purchase the reduced values instead of the full values.

To go from say 10 to 15, you can increase IQ and DX by 2% of adult per year, and ST by 4% of adult. The +1 to SM probably happens between 12 and 14 and is highly variable among people, so you can probably let the play decide when to have the "growth spurt".

It might even be a good idea to give the attribute increases as character points pre-spent in the attribute so that a player can spend some earned points to mature faster.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by McAllister

The core books also have guidelines on how fast skills are learned, but check out the Phoenix Imperative document in one of Sir_Pudding's signatures for a worked example of how to deal with time jumps for PCs.

That would be terrible for the time scales involved here, though! I needed those rules for jumps of ~100 years where the normal RAW would be unworkable. For a kid, with presumably no more than a few months between game sessions, I'd just use the regular rules for time use, but restrict study time to actual schooling. Hobbies, Sports and "everykid" skills like Climbing, Bicycling and Housekeeping can be studied using the 4-to1 "on-the-job"rate. Also allow Dabbler perks to be bought with study time: 200 hours of school gives Dabbler for educated skills and 800 hours of play gives Dabbler for the others.

[D10]

One of the best short campaigns I GMed recently was 2 young brothers, they were around 10-11 year olds, the younger one being smart, the older one being agile, the campaign started with their farm being attacked by bandits.

We decided on the fly that the older one knew how to ride a horse, put that on his sheet and proceeded to roleplay that their mom put them on their horse and telling them to ride away to the village.

After witnessing the savage slaughter of their family from a distance the boys run from the riders and succeed after several good riding rolls.

They get to the village and tell their story, someone recognized them and validated their story, the magistrated a benevolent and humble man, decided to take them in, and over the next years teached them skills such as a savoir faire and etc. He also made them literate and provided a great education for the medieval standard of the campaign.

An year passes in this interim with little to be said other than skills gained, npcs met, etc..

Then comes the age for military training, they joined a big caravan that was meant to build a castle on the borders of the kingdom for its defense, but first they made a big barracks and started training children.

The training itself was over a period of months, in which I usually roleplay one or two situations at most, and resume its effects into a larger description and a teaching roll.

After each training period, they fought duels and the like for advancement in their careers and the right of becoming captain-students.

I planned on doing a training regime followed by a tournament followed by vacations with some adventure in it, do it over the course of a few years until they are ready for whatever!

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

To go from say 10 to 15, you can increase IQ and DX by 2% of adult per year, and ST by 4% of adult. The +1 to SM probably happens between 12 and 14 and is highly variable among people, so you can probably let the play decide when to have the "growth spurt".

I used a HT roll for that in my Worminghall campaign. During the course of the campaign two of the five player characters gained +1 ST.

Bill Stoddard