Have you ever played an old character?

[Li Shenron]

The thread about having seen characters dying of old aged prompted me these other quesion... have you ever played (or seen played) an aged character, and how often does this happen in your games?

Have you ever started playing a PC (no matter the class level) already at an age when bonuses/penalties apply, for instance?
Have you ever started playing a PC, and then played it long enough to reach those age bonuses/penalties?

Incidentally, would you ever accept an old character to start at 1st level?

I have to say that in my experience players largely (I mean, basically all) create characters starting from age of very young (teenagers) to young adult (~30), even if the game itself starts at high level. Then they never ever reach the next age category, because the typical D&D adventure pace is such that the PCs could reach level 20 in a few years of in-game time, or even months.

 

[andrew_kenrick]

Velendo in Piratecat's story hour is a crotchety old priest.

I've never had old characters played in my games tho ... Most are usually in their 20s or 30s when we start (ie our age).

 

[Tarlonniel]

I'm playing a 67-year-old cleric of Tymora (1st level) in a dndonline game. She is by far the oldest person in the group. She's also the only old (game mechanics-wise) PC I've ever seen in a game. I've seen some middle-aged characters in high-level campaigns, but they've always started out that way; never been in a game which ran long enough to move someone into that category.

 

[the Jester]

Both. In 1e, your starting age as a magic-user or illusionist was pretty old already. I also had some games that went for generations, so the pcs would grow old and die eventually.

 

[interwyrm]

I think in 1e, haste and timestop used to age you as well. Haste by like... 10 years per casting?

Which I suppose made it an elf only spell.

 

[Zweihänder]

I've played one or two in pick-up games, but they were wizards, so that isn't all that weird. Actually, now that I think of it, those have been my ONLY wizards! Holy crap, I'm a stereotyping bigot who assumes all wizards are creepy pedophilic old men with liver spots!!!

*head a splode*

 

[shilsen]

I don't get to play many PCs, but a couple of my last few have been old. One was a gnome grandmother in a 5th lvl game and the other was a human loremaster in a 12th lvl one. I've never been in a campaign long enough for my PC to get a year older, let alone into another age category.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

Well, I played a middle-aged Latin professor in Call of Cthulhu for a bit. However, old characters in CoC are much more advantageous than in D&D, and no one survives combat with Hast-- uh, him. Were combat the focus of the game, as it is in D&D, I don't think I would have played him, at least not in the same gaming group.

 

[diaglo]

both. but i mostly refereed until the newest editions came out.

 

[Darkness]

I once played a veteran of the American Civil War in Call of Cthulhu (in the 1920s). He must have been, like, 80-90.