[Basic] Advantage of the Week (#50): Extended Lifespan, Longevity, Unaging

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Basic

Today we will be looking at three traits - Extended Lifespan, Longevity, and Unaging - as they all reduce or completely eliminate the detrimental effects of aging. By default, once a character is 50 years old, once per year the player or GM must make a HT-based "aging roll" for each of the four main Attributes (ST, DX, IQ, and HT itself). At age 70, the frequency you must roll goes from once-per-year to every six months, then it halves again to once every three months at age 90. Success means there is no decline, but failure means that Attribute drops by one and a critical failure lowers the Attribute in question by two. TL provides a modifier to these rolls (see p. B444 for details), and you may not use Luck to re-roll. With the GM's permission, you may be able to lose CP from your character equal to the value of the lost Attribute(s) instead: losing or reducing an Advantage, gaining or worsening a Disadvantage.

Longevity (p. B66) is a Mundane, Physical Advantage that costs 2 CP and affects what fails for aging rolls. If you have this trait, only a 17 or 18 fails and only the latter counts as a critical failure. If your modified HT roll is against 17 or more, then only an 18 fails, and it doesn't count as a critical failure. Extended Life Span (p. B53) is an Exotic, Physical Advantage that costs 2 CP per level. Each level doubles your age of maturity (18 is the default), the age at which you first start making aging rolls once per year, the age at which you must roll once every six months, and the age at which you must roll once every three months. This can be combined with Longevity.

Unaging (p. B95), an Exotic, Physical Advantage that costs 15 CP, and prevents you from needing to make aging rolls at all. It also prevents you from being aged unnaturally, unless you take another trait that says otherwise (like Dependency with the "Ages Unnaturally" Enhancement). There is an Enhancement available to Unaging - Age Control - which adds +20% to the cost but allows you to superficially age (no aging rolls, but your appearance changes accordingly). You may do so at up to 10 times the normal pace of aging, and in either direction (growing older or younger). Even the book points out that it is more cost efficient to take Unaging than 8 (or more) levels of Extended Lifespan.

Other Supplements

• GURPS Powers does not mention Extended Lifespan or Longevity, and only mentions Unaging as part of various Powers, and in passing while explaining more general concepts (the appropriate use of Limited, for example).
• GURPS Supers includes Longevity in multiple templates.
• GURPS Update lets us know that Extended Lifespan, Longevity, and Unaging all share the same name as their 3e counterparts. It also lists Extended Lifespan and Unaging in write-ups for replicating certain 3e traits that did not transfer to 4e.

Past Editions

Under the Third Edition (Revised) rules, aging operated in a similar manner as it does now. As such, so do all three of these traits. One relevant difference is that you could take "Age" as a Disadvantage. Longevity can be found on page 21 of GURPS Basic Set (Third Edition, Revised), where it costs 5 CP, lacks the bonus effect when your HT roll is made against a 17 or higher and states that you cannot receive points back from the Age Disadvantage if you have Longevity. I don't know in which supplement they first appear, but we'll be referencing Compendium I for the next two traits.

Extended Lifespan appears on page 54 and is specifically cited as a Racial Advantage (thus unavailable to Supers or the like). It costs 5 CP per level and works very similar to its Fourth Edition counterpart. The differences I noticed were that each level does not double the time between major age thresholds, but increases the span by the base value e.g. one level would effectively double things, but two levels merely triples the original value (instead of quadrupling it). The text also mentions that time between required aging rolls also doubles.

Finally, Unaging shows up on page 69. Again, the character may not take the "Age" Disadvantage, or at least cannot get any points back for taking it. Though unnamed, the same Enhancement that allows one to age in either direction at up to 10 times the normal speed is present. As Third Edition rules capped how many points you could invest in Skills based on age, a suggestion on how to handle that is also given.

Useful Links

Feel free to suggestion any existing threads or other, appropriate links on this matter.

Discussion Starters

This is (usually) a generic list of questions for those who want to participate in the discussion but need a little help. If you already know what you want to say, feel free to skip these. ;)

• Have you ever taken this trait for one of your PCs or NPCs? How did it work out?
• Is there anything this trait does really well?
• Is there anything you think this trait could or should do differently?
• Any related traits you believe are necessary for full discussion? Go ahead and bring them up, but remember that this is a thread for Elastic Skin.
• Any thoughts on how the 4e version of these traits compares to them in earlier editions?