Characters starting at advanced age

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

In my opinion you should pay for what you get and not pay for what you don't get. If you're designing a 60 year old character you may give serious consideration to keeping his STR and DEX on the low side, but if you want to design one of those outliers who are strong and agile at 60, you should do so and pay for what your STR and DEX is. Then you should get a few points for the disadvantage of having to make aging rolls every year, provided the campaign is likely to last long enough for that to happen. Or, if it fits the campaign concept, you could take longevity -- for free, of course, since you don't get any game advantage from it -- and not have the aging roll disadvantage.


Hans

[RGTraynor]

Originally Posted by Geeky Meerkat

Admittedly I've never played traveler. Nor have I even played all RPGs. I'm just saying of the ones I've played I really don't see the point of age unless it's effecting something in play.

That would be that pesky "roleplaying" thing.

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Aging happens far earlier than 50. Look at burn survival rates for a good indicator of youthful resiliency. Skill and sheer muscle mass are the only things that allow those over the age of 10 to out compete young whipper snappers.

I think in Ars Magica aging can begin to take its toll, slowly but surely, starting at or after 30. Ars Magica's aging rules are by no means perfect, but they're the best and most detailed (and they aren't very detailed) I've seen in an RPG yet.

[Otaku]

For those wanting "age" to matter in GURPS, why not have it reflect real life more? Are you more comfortable with the talented newbie or the veteran who may not be a prodigy, but who has a record to go on.

I know PCs are usually playing exceptional, but there are a lot of things that older people have more plausible access to, usually things that normally come with age. Frankly, making a character "old just to be old" doesn't strike me as that great of role-playing, anyway.

Social Advantages (as well as Wealth), plus perhaps breadth/depth of knowledge are great here. Yes you could play an incredibly talented youth, but it is really hard to justify having the same Status, Reputation, and Wealth of someone in the same position as someone with decades of experience (barring fields where age degradation is an issue).

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Otaku

For those wanting "age" to matter in GURPS, why not have it reflect real life more?

Like, "You have to play a character who is the same age as you"?

Social Advantages (as well as Wealth), plus perhaps breadth/depth of knowledge are great here. Yes you could play an incredibly talented youth, but it is really hard to justify having the same Status, Reputation, and Wealth of someone in the same position as someone with decades of experience (barring fields where age degradation is an issue).

Isn't this normally a consequence of character concept/backstory? If I make a guy who's a WWI vet in a 1920s Cosmic Horror game I really can't reasonably make him be 19 or 90.

[Anthony]

One fair way of doing this is to grant the PC compensating experience points when they lose attribute points from age, meaning aging is basically shifting points from your attributes to other places. This isn't especially realistic, but neither is point balance, and it guarantees that the old PC will neither gain unfair advantage nor unfair disadvantage.

[fifiste]

That is actually a rather good idea. Might not be terribly realistic - but neither is point balance per se.
Basically it would mean that the aging as a disadvantage gives its extra points back as much as it inconveniences you = which is actually how the disadvantages should work.
The GM can help keep an eye on that those points aquired make a sense in game, and be suitable with aging etc. as mentioned social advantages and stuff are very suitable things to be gained as someone ages.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by fifiste

That is actually a rather good idea. Might not be terribly realistic - but neither is point balance per se.
Basically it would mean that the aging as a disadvantage gives its extra points back as much as it inconveniences you = which is actually how the disadvantages should work.
The GM can help keep an eye on that those points aquired make a sense in game, and be suitable with aging etc. as mentioned social advantages and stuff are very suitable things to be gained as someone ages.

Well, one could say GURPS stats, especially DX and IQ, really are the cumulative expression of training and skills, so say losing a DX level but putting those points into the skills which raised the DX in the first place could make for an interesting dynamic.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by Otaku

For those wanting "age" to matter in GURPS, why not have it reflect real life more?

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Like, "You have to play a character who is the same age as you"?

Nope.

I know that PCs are often exceptional or stereotyped so that things like everyone in the party having Combat Reflexes isn't uncommon (even when requiring back story justify it). Still, most "young" characters that have the same point total as experienced veterans probably shouldn't be the exact same except somehow still young.

So when a player wants to play a young doctor, if the GM wants to make "age matter", require that said PC's back story and character specs have to reach a certain threshold of "making sense". If he is young, he should bear at least a passing resemblance to "Doogie Howser, M.D."; a tremendous amount of natural talent but very little experience, receiving both adulation and skepticism for being so young in the field.

Med school is expensive and takes time, so someone that is somehow a licensed doctor even as old as his early 20s will seem comparatively young, and probably should lack the clout of his older medical peers. Now... replace "doctor" with "mage", and see how some players stretch suspension of disbelief more with their mage's age versus accomplishments than the fact that he is wielding arcane forces in the first place. @_@

[simply Nathan]

The only character I have as of yet played in GURPS was a 13-year-old mage with IQ 11, Magery 3, and 1 point each in about 30 spells. That and a pack of wolves in a test battle to get familiar with the system.