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Old 03-02-2021, 12:23 PM   #21
Polkageist
 
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Default Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?

It's a little like Benjamin Button, but consider that elves may flip the script when it comes to emotional maturity and effects of puberty.

For such a long lived race, risk aversion especially early on when learning how the world works may be really valuable. Young elves' bodies may 'turn down' emotional responses to things like social slights and risk taking behavior. As they grow, their impulses push them to be cautious and considerate. To a human, a young elf may appear to be very controlled and mature as they have a very serious attitude towards new situations that need careful evaluation. Their brain chemistry encourages focus. That would give a young elf a huge advantage in safely learning all the tricks and skills necessary to live a long long life.

As they age, those mechanisms break down as the older elf no longer produces enough moderating chemicals to keep their minds focused and their emotions in check. There's that one epsiode of Star Trek TNG where Sarek is so old that he's just not able to keep his Vulcan self-control going and has outbursts of emotions and irrational behavior. An old elf could become very passionate, creative, and moody. Grandpa has decided that he wants to become a musician, and sow his wild oats!

Maybe that's why elves don't have kids running around all the time. They don't WANT to have kids until they're much much older and are out of their young self-controlled phase.
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Old 03-02-2021, 01:55 PM   #22
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Default Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?

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Originally Posted by Greg 1 View Post
How long do you think the natural lifespan is of the various PC races in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy?
Races that are near PCs have shorter lifespans overall.
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Old 03-02-2021, 02:23 PM   #23
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Default Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?

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Originally Posted by RedMattis View Post
I think that is a good point for elves et. al. Maybe they are all unaging, but practically speaking they live a median age to 35. Dying either to war, hunting accidents, super-diseases, magical disasters, dragon-attacks, etc.

If humans in a medieval setting were unaging you probably wouldn't see most people live terribly long. There might be the rare ruler who ruled for 300 years, immediately followed by a dozen guys who ruled for less than a decade before getting poisoned, executed, or just dying to smallpox along with most of the population.

In that situation you'd still see the normal age-groups, except that you'd have a rare few scholars, craftsmen, wizards, or elven rulers hiding in marble palaces. But the regular people generally aren't incredibly old.
That's not even that uncommon of a trope. I really like this set up.
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Old 03-02-2021, 03:54 PM   #24
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Default Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?

It's worth remembering that Dungeon Fantasy isn't like early editions of D&D where magically curing disease requires a 5th level cleric, who will initially only be able to cast the spell once or twice a day. In DF, Cure Disease only costs 4 FP and can be cast by a henchmen-level caster (any druidic Initiate can learn it, as can an Initiate cleric who spends optional advantage points on another level of Power Investiture). Because of that and similar considerations, I tend to assume humans in Dungeon Fantasy have close to TL8 life expectancy, and races with Unaging can easily live a few centuries before accident or violence claims them. Of course frequent monster attacks can lead to a different model of DF life expectancy.
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Old 03-02-2021, 11:35 PM   #25
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Default Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?

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Originally Posted by martinl View Post
Races that are near PCs have shorter lifespans overall.
Individuals too.
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Old 03-03-2021, 02:19 AM   #26
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Default Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?

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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.
Yes and no. We live greatly longer than cats and dogs, but their sense of time isn't particularly alien to ours, aside from the limitations their lack of sapience places upon them.

A long-lived species might tend towards better long term planning and be more careful of long term consequences than we are, or it might not. They might just assume they can out live any problems.
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Old 03-03-2021, 04:57 AM   #27
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Default Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?

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Originally Posted by Michael Thayne View Post
It's worth remembering that Dungeon Fantasy isn't like early editions of D&D where magically curing disease requires a 5th level cleric, who will initially only be able to cast the spell once or twice a day. In DF, Cure Disease only costs 4 FP and can be cast by a henchmen-level caster (any druidic Initiate can learn it, as can an Initiate cleric who spends optional advantage points on another level of Power Investiture). Because of that and similar considerations, I tend to assume humans in Dungeon Fantasy have close to TL8 life expectancy, and races with Unaging can easily live a few centuries before accident or violence claims them. Of course frequent monster attacks can lead to a different model of DF life expectancy.
If assume the NPCs make good use of the GURPS magic system (heck it is similar for D&D!) the world would look a bit unlike what most people expect. Not just curing disease, but mages going around using move-earth and similar spells to build infrastructure. It gets even more outrageous if you have entire races where everyone has Magery 1 f.ex. The TL would skyrocket, and it you just end up having to explain why a 2000 year old dwarven society is still TL3.

That... is fine. I have a fantasy setting where magic is abused by some groups to a high degree. But it is also common for settings like this to have all these amazing powers but no one abuses the utility of the powers like you'd expect. Perhaps the gods don't like it or something. Or maybe it is just a genre assumption.
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Old 03-03-2021, 06:04 AM   #28
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Default Re: [DF] How long do the different races live?

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Originally Posted by RedMattis View Post
If assume the NPCs make good use of the GURPS magic system (heck it is similar for D&D!) the world would look a bit unlike what most people expect. Not just curing disease, but mages going around using move-earth and similar spells to build infrastructure. It gets even more outrageous if you have entire races where everyone has Magery 1 f.ex. The TL would skyrocket, and it you just end up having to explain why a 2000 year old dwarven society is still TL3.

That... is fine. I have a fantasy setting where magic is abused by some groups to a high degree. But it is also common for settings like this to have all these amazing powers but no one abuses the utility of the powers like you'd expect. Perhaps the gods don't like it or something. Or maybe it is just a genre assumption.
Actually that is exactly what Equivalent TL (ETL) is designed for.

Equivalent TL is a concept introduced in GURPS Fantasy p. 66 where magic is so common that it is effectively technology in of itself. As such it is a form of Divergent Technology but may not reflect the "actual" TL if you ignore the magic.

"Look at a number of commonly used spells, assign them to approximate TL equivalents, and see if these cluster around one or two TLs as usually defined; if so, use a rough equivalent TL in that range. If that doesn’t work, the TL concept may not fit the setting." It is advised that the GM should avoid assuming the setting will simply be 'just like TLx but with wizards'

And as Magery 0 Magic in Worldbuilding shows even Magery 0 spells can drastically change things. Preserve Food would change so many things in TL3 that odds are it wouldn't be ETL3.
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