How do you handle age?

[BlackSilver]

Hello,

I am curious how you handle the age of races in your campaign.

- Humans generally start at 15 years old plus a die or two. Being human I know what humans do for the first 16 years of life.

- Elves 110 years old plus more then a few dices (depending on class of course). What does an Elf do after they are out of diapers, how long does that take ? When do they start school?

- Gnomes and Dwarves 40 years old plus between 3 to 9 die of some type. The question continues for all races.

(I am looking at 3e, PHB pg93)

Are Elves in diapers until they reach 25 years old, and in school until they reach 100 years old?

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

[AeroDm]

I always found it annoying to try and perceive an elf with a century of experiences under his belt reacting similarly to a human. To that end I decalred that elves use the dwarf aging block and that for the first 20 years of their life they have something similar to infant amnesia. They just don't recall it. Dwarves spend the first 20 years of their life within the clan hold, or basically are just severly sheltered. This way both races have only 20-30 years of pre-adventuring experience which is more manageable.

 

[Piratecat]

I let people start wherever they want. I have one player whose character now has a 6 strength due to aging penalties.

 

[nopantsyet]

My players select their age as well, although I haven't had anything as interesting as the cleric in Piratecat's game.

But I have had some interesting encounters where age played a role. My players are currently have a 15 yr. old aspiring adventurer in tow. When he asked to join them, the immediate response was, "No--you're too young." There was a pause, then one player says, "Uh, I'm sixteen." And another, "And I'm seventeen." The elf, however was completely veiled (to cover massive burn scars), so she gave him a hard time before revealing her race.

 

[Talon5]

House Rule It

Hope this is what you're asking about-

We House Ruled the ages down a bit. Elven adults start at 60 yrs, Gnomes and Dwarves at 40.

Something I did in a GURPs campaign I ran was- Elves grow physically pretty quick (little faster then humans), but their first 100 yrs (plus or minus) is spent dealing with some serious ADD.

They would have Disads like- Impulsive, OPH- Hyperactive, and generally the GM would not allow them to be played because they would just be to much of a pain in the rear.

Something else about the GURPs campaign Elves- the people that deal with those younger Elves- being wise and old, give them a lot of lee (sp) way (just so long as no one is harmed). The young Elves sleep a lot in that campaign too- as they get older their requirement peters off to just a few hours a week.

BlackSilver- what happened to that Player that was treating you poorly?

 

[diaglo]

dwarf and gnome children work. they don't mature enough to be allowed out of the warren until they achieve age X... for PCs it is the age they roll or pick.


elf children spend their days being children. they frolic and play. they don't begin adventuring careers until they decide to put away their childish things... again for PCs it is the age they roll or pick.


human and halfling children... well i use the real life model. but for PCs it is the age they roll or pick.

half-elves and half-orcs favor the side they are raised.


the only difference is when a player wants to be an orphan of a race not being raised by his race. then they follow the trend of the step/adoptive parents upto a point. dwarf kid raised by humans may mean the parents are old and grey before the kid is old enough to leave home.

 

[kolikeos]

all this just comes to prove that humans learn so much faster then all the other races.
in other words, humans are superior to everyone else, just like i always thought.

 

[WayneLigon]

It depends on the campaign, but I generally do one of two things:

1. Ignore it, since rarely has anyone ever said 'I'm 110 years old, I should have x and y and z'. The people that have said it get a headshake and that's the end of it.

2. Elves, dwarves, all the long-lived races, start out the same as humans but somewhere between 14 and 20 their aging process slows down dramatically. For some elves it just stops. Then, a variable number of years before natural death would occur, it kicks back in again and they age until dead.

 

[BlackSilver]

Why I ask about age & answering a question

Humans seem to learn faster and better in D&D, they start at 15+ years old.

As an example- a human Wizard1 with an 18 Int has more skill points then an Elven Wizard1 with the same Int at four times the age. It seems unfair to me and I was curious how you all handled it.




Talon5,

He was approuched by the group (before I arrived at the table), told about and shown the thread. My friends told him that they all felt that his insulting jokes while funny were harming relationships and he was asked to stop. He apologized to us all (it was my feeling that he was unaware of the harm he was doing) and stated that he would leave the group if it was a problem. He was given three chances- each infraction would be a joke and each one would cost him his place in the group. In one weekend he used up two of those.

I feel its unfair to hold that over his head, but the group offered him five chances and he bartered down to three. He wants to not be percieved in the way he was before, he wants to be a better friend (I am paraphrasing some of what he said there at the table and sense).

He has made a considerable effort to change and for that I commend him. He is a better friend now then he was, and I am more willing to accept those jokes because I understand how he feels and what they mean to him.

Thank you, ENWorld.

 

[Belen]

Simple: I redesigned the elves to live only a 150 years.

Elves: 150
Half-elves: 115
Humans: 80
Dwavres: 100
Halflings: 95