RPing age
-
Now, I don't know if this discussion has been up before, but most appear to be centered around Abilities and skills, RPing your stats and all that. Another important aspect of your character is its age. People change over the years, mature, grow, learn etc.
This is not meant to flame anyone or throw critics left and right, but merely open for a debate. I hope we can all be mature and decent enough to see this as a discussion without going into personal attacks, flames or criticism of individuals.
I see a lot of young characters, described as mid-teens or early twenties. Yet, many of these behave and act with the experience, attitude and authority of a person in his thirties, or even older. Personally, I find this to be… silly. I know we are all adventurers, and that they have experiences out of the ordinary, but a grown up and experienced person would in very few occasions follow the lead of an teen, regardless of charisma. It still boils down to experience, respect, and so on. I also see adult characters acting like snotty teens too, so it goes both ways.
People don't become hardened soldiers at age 18, that takes years. A man in his early twenties is not likely to be as strong as a soldier with 10 years more experience, this has to do with growth and natural development. It is the weakness of the engine, yes, so I can portray a fifteen year old with 18 str if I want, my opinion is that it just makes no sense...
Also, a lack of description makes it hard for me to get an idea of how the character looks, and what he is (age, size, appearance). This is another discussion, on whether we have descriptions or not, but I would encourage people to put in just a little there. It adds to first-impression and a little depth.
-
I agree with Lilly here. If your character is a teenager, you're likely not that wise. (Not to say that all teens are unwise, since I know they make up at least a small portion of the playerbase.) Likewise, if you're character is an 80-year-old human, you're probably not strong, nor do you likely have much constitution. Age has such an effect on the stats, which is ignored by the game engine, so it's left to us to pick up where BioWare left off.
$0.02 submitted.
-
I also see adult characters acting like snotty teens too
me too IRL
-
Age only roughly correlates to wisdom, intelligence, etc., especially past a certain point.
I've met some very insightful young adults, and some middle-aged people who are thick as a post. As ever, it varies between individuals and the best expression of the effects of age are via trends in a population of characters. Having said that, age can be a fun way of giving your characters strengths or flaws.
-
People don't become hardened soldiers at age 18, that takes years.
I've been reading a series of novels about an 18th Century naval officer who started his career as a midshipman at the age of 12. He was a Leftenant watch officer for a ship with 600 men at the age of 16/17. At 18/19 he was Captain of a 20 gun Sloop of War with a crew of over a hundred men over which he made life or death decisions.
Age of responsibility in a medaeval setting is so increadibly distant from the modern era as to be scary.
-
I think there should be more focus on reacting to characters as they are played, not how you think they should be played. Putting my 2 cents aside Lamancha's post drips with accuracy.
-
I think this again rolls back to the stats you have..if you have 18 Wisdom and are in teen years..you will act like a mature being of that race ( i.e aged 30 ?)
Even if you are middle aged and have 8 wisdom..I wont be surprised if the char acts with immaturity..
but if this is about rping about the game knowledge when your char havent earned those..I think its been covered somewhere by Moloch..eg was something about nine hells and stuffs
-
People don't become hardened soldiers at age 18, that takes years.
I've been reading a series of novels about an 18th Century naval officer who started his career as a midshipman at the age of 12. He was a Leftenant watch officer for a ship with 600 men at the age of 16/17. At 18/19 he was Captain of a 20 gun Sloop of War with a crew of over a hundred men over which he made life or death decisions.
Age of responsibility in a medaeval setting is so increadibly distant from the modern era as to be scary.
Fifteen-sixteen was considered as the 'adult' age (and still is in some places I think). Not to mention, many swordsmen began training at age seven. It wasn't uncommon for anyone above ten to be working full time. Squires were often knighted at age twenty.
Remember Edmond Dantes, captain of his own vessel at 19? He was said to be an expert seaman, versed with all the waters. True, he was fictional, but it would imply that this was not an uncommon occurrence even as recent as the 18th century. Of course, guys like Danglars weren't too happy about young upstarts shooting above older and wiser heads…keep that in mind as well!
-
Dude… You said seaman... :D
-
First point: Age is not represented in the game, other than as a number at character creation. Some people try to imply an age in their character description but all the character models look the same. Its up to a player to convey their characters age if they want to do that.
How a character acts would largely depend on their background. But keep in mind these are adventurers in a fantasy game, they aren’t university students living at home in their twenties. People do become hardened soldiers very quickly in combat situations. An 18yo heading off to fight in World War 2 would be forced to adapt very quickly, it does not take years.
By the time Joxer the Mighty arrives in Arabel, is swindled by the Kests into paying half his life savings for some fur armour with a round metal plate hanging off the front. Then is lead to a house expecting to fix a broken window latch, only to find killer bats the size of melons. Then led by a half conscious, barely coherent half-orc to clean the bugs from some ladies house. Only to encounter beetles the size of wolves.
By this time Joxer the Mighty is questioning his might. He figures he’d try to find some easy work. He finds work with a hafling, no bigger than a child, rat trapping. How hard could it be, a pet cat would suffice. So upon entering the rat infested basement, which seems more like a large sewerage plant, he is startled to see the hafling draw his bow and fire upon some rats in the distance. As these rats race towards him he is shocked to see that they are the size of possums. After making their way through rooms full of rats Joxer notices something familiar about these rats, then it hits him. The “furâ€
-
Its a magical world, who knows what age should represent in compared to real life. Theres monsters around every corner for the average adventurer and that grow from that quite quickly.
I've never much considered age, but rather play what I want to play. Eliphas was only 19 but has such a vast amount of wisdom it would make anyones head explode - all learned from everything that happened through his IG life but I would sometimes let his youth slip.
To sum it up: You create what you want to play, you grow from what you learn/how you play. How fast you grow up and how your character changes is up to you, regardless of age.
-
Bongo, that was brilliant.
-
Until someone edited it to have a different pic
-
There were definetly a few people who had young/mid teenage characters who played them as childish. Doesn't mean you're not hardened to battle/death/etc. I see no problem with someone who has become used to bodies ripped open and having had to go through life or death choices over others and still throws a tantrum over some silly thing.
-
First point: Age is not represented in the game, other than as a number at character creation. Some people try to imply an age in their character description but all the character models look the same. Its up to a player to convey their characters age if they want to do that.
How a character acts would largely depend on their background. But keep in mind these are adventurers in a fantasy game, they aren’t university students living at home in their twenties. People do become hardened soldiers very quickly in combat situations. An 18yo heading off to fight in World War 2 would be forced to adapt very quickly, it does not take years.
By the time Joxer the Mighty arrives in Arabel, is swindled by the Kests into paying half his life savings for some fur armour with a round metal plate hanging off the front. Then is lead to a house expecting to fix a broken window latch, only to find killer bats the size of melons. Then led by a half conscious, barely coherent half-orc to clean the bugs from some ladies house. Only to encounter beetles the size of wolves.
By this time Joxer the Mighty is questioning his might. He figures he’d try to find some easy work. He finds work with a hafling, no bigger than a child, rat trapping. How hard could it be, a pet cat would suffice. So upon entering the rat infested basement, which seems more like a large sewerage plant, he is startled to see the hafling draw his bow and fire upon some rats in the distance. As these rats race towards him he is shocked to see that they are the size of possums. After making their way through rooms full of rats Joxer notices something familiar about these rats, then it hits him. The “furâ€
-
I'll just echo Lamancha's sentiments. Trying to apply modern-day age dynamics to a fantasy quasi-medieval setting is woefully anachronistic. Trying to do so in order to tell people they're playing their characters wrong is also just rude, no matter what disclaimers you might include.
-
I've been thinking about the age of responsibility in modern Western countries as well. As a supplier, I have done business with some Carer organisations, supplying PCs and Servers etc. One of the Carer Support agencies I have worked with provides support to children who are caring for their families. I can remember hearing of one child, aged 14 who's dad has left the family and who's mum is suffering significant mental depression. She cleans the house before school and does some shopping. After school, she comes home and finishes off the daily or weekly shopping needs, prepares dinner and cleans the house, all before she does her homework. She, undeniably, as the ranking "adult" in the house is in charge and makes all the decisions for the house. She manages the budget and spends it. She cares for her mother and younger sibblings. She is resposible. She has support for the agency, yes, but she is the defacto head of her family.
Lets be realistic, young tenagers, with the right (or wrong) circumstances can take on very significant responsibilities and deliver. Some fail, many step up and deliver.
-
We got far from RPing age here, but got to a much more interesting topic so I simply can't stand to be off-topic.
The 14 yrs girl you've spoken of is an adult from responsibility point of view. ((okay, that was a translation of a structure of my native language, I hope you'll see my point. Complain otherwise.)) She's much more an adult as myself despite my 25 yrs.
On the other hand, she's still a child and still needs many things a child needs like having a chance to be light-hearted sometimes or the example of adults important in her life. We all have those important adults (or at least one…), our parents but she doesn't, and this not only makes her life harder but it makes harder for her to become an adult with fully -damn, I could find better words in hungarian- healthy soul.
