RPG Evolution: Older Than You Look

In my campaign I have two elves, two tieflings, a human, and a gnome. Their age difference comes up more than you think.

Chart by Lillegul​

It Starts with Tolkien​

Of the various species ages, humans, dragonborn, half-orcs, and tieflings are roughly within the same lifespans. The above chart shows their comparative lifespans, with green being childhood, pink young adult, light blue adulthood, and purple old age.

It's clear dwarves, elves, halflings and gnomes live much longer than everybody else, with elves not reaching maturity until decades later. But what was the inspiration for these long lifespans in Dungeons & Dragons?

Tolkien of course. We've always known elves and dwarves lived longer, but just how long is startling when compared to other species. Does that mean elves are proportionately children for longer? Sort of.

By their first year, Elf children can speak, walk, and dance, and their quicker onset of mental maturity makes young Elves seem older than they actually are. Elves' bodies developed slower than those of Men, but their minds developed more swiftly. In their twenties, they might still appear physically seven years old, though the Elf-child would have mature language and skill, whereas Men at the same age are already physically mature. Physical puberty is generally complete by their fiftieth year (by age fifty they reach their adult height), but they are not considered full-grown until a hundred years have passed.

Dwarves have a similar experience:

Until they were around 30 years of age, Dwarves were considered too young for heavy labour or war (hence the slaying of Azog by Dain Ironfoot at age 32 was a great feat). By the age of 40, Dwarves were hardened into the appearance that they would keep for most of their lives. Between the approximate ages of 40 and 240, most Dwarves were equally hale and able to work and fight with vigour. They took on the appearance of age only about ten years before their death, wrinkling and greying rapidly, but never going bald.

And so do hobbits:

Hobbits had a life span somewhat longer than Men of non-Númenórean descent, averaging between 90 and 100 years. The time at which a young hobbit "came of age" was 33.

Add all this up and for most of the other species, adventuring likely doesn't happen until between 30 or 50 years old, much later than the younger humans who often begin adventures in their teens.

Outlook of Longer-Lived Species​

A popular meme positions the elven relationship with humans as a parallel for a human's relationship with dogs. Or to put it another way, the two can have a very close bond, but the elf likely sees humans as a familial line to be friends with and protect, while humans live entire lifetimes only knowing the same elf. With a lifespan of up to 750 years, elves could conceivably befriend over twenty generations of the same human lineage, with dwarves and halflings befriending proportionally less.

Living longer probably changes their outlook considerably. Dunbar's Number posits that the human brain can only manage 150 connections; assuming elves are similar, they may begin forgetting all the people they met after that, or alternately their Dunbar Number is much higher.

The speed at which birth happens matters too. Children that take longer to raise to adulthood take considerable investment on the part of the parents, such that risks shorter-lived species might take could be intolerable for elves and dwarves. Or perhaps they're simply better prepared, taking more time to ensure they don't die since they consider their lives that much more precious.

Respecting Your Elders​

Shorter-lived species may consider their elders to be mystical beings with accumulated wisdom -- or timeless enemies who never forget a slight. Humans who become immortal may decide that long-lived species are a much larger threat; human vampires who can live forever are competing on an entirely different level.

Going back to the pet analogy, it might not be unreasonable for humans to consider an elven patron as something of a protective ancestor who watches over them. In the Orville episode "Future Unknown," the ship's doctor Claire Finn accepts the marriage proposal of Isaac, an ageless artificial life form, after he makes it clear he will protect her entire lineage:

Claire was at first stunned and confused, pointing out among other things that she would likely die well before the end of Isaac's existence. She asked what he would do then. She was aggravated when he said that he might select a new companion, but then deeply touched when he stated that he would continue to monitor the well-being of both Marcus and Ty, as well as their descendants.

Role-Playing Age Differences​

Players bring their own experiences to their characters, so it's not easy to play an ancient being with centuries of life experience under their belt. One way we manage it is that the elves have not been out among humanity before, so their inexperience is due to unfamiliarity, not due to their age.

Conversely, our gnome character is the only child of a family that dotes on him. Due to their long lifespans, the gnome's "helicopter parent" (his mother passed away) is a constant presence working secretly and overtly to help his offspring get ahead.

Trances are an opportunity to give elves flashbacks to knowledge their players might not have from their long-lived experience. Even dwarves and gnomes likely have memories that come rushing back to them during a quiet moment (or my favorite, when a PC is knocked unconscious).

Of course, DMs can simply ignore the age differences. Most probably do. But it's yet another role-playing opportunity to distinguish characters from each other when on the surface an elven ranger and human ranger may have similar stats.

Your Turn: Does the age of your characters matter in your game?

 

[Celebrim]

130 vs 500 years old doesnt really change much.. An RL conversion may be 55 vs 16.. But you still wind up with beings who have spent more time alive than any (non high-level druid) human will ever see entering the game with the same level of skill and experience as a neophyte human teenager.

But if you can accept a world where a human 55-year-old and a human 16-year-old are the same level, why does it bother you that an elven 130-year-old is the same level? Surely if you can spend 29 years doing nothing that turns you into an adventurer, you can spend 129 years doing the same thing?

Games that want to pay attention to age have character burner mechanics whereas you age you risk losing anything you gain. If you have a 0.05% chance of dying of some accidental cause each year, there is a 7% chance the elf doesn't even reach 130 and 23% chance they don't reach 500. Now imagine the elf goes looking for trouble.

 

[Oofta]

For many years I've gone with the notion that most races mature at roughly the same rate, with the longer lived ones aging slowing at adulthood--so everyone ages the same until around 20. If everyone is born around the same time they all look about the same at age 20, but by 40 the humans halflings are showing wear and tears while the gnomes and especially elves have seemed to have aged at all. I do play around with the notion that dwarvish aging doesn't slow until later, say 30 or 40, to give them that stereotypical middle-aged dwarf look.

That gives players the option of having characters that grew up together, or the elf or dwarf that knew the other characters grandparents.

Same thing here. That, and the majority of the longer-lived races that go out adventuring tend to be younger members because they're not as cautious as their elders. If someone wants to play an older elf or dwarf, there should be a reason they gave up the comforts of home to risk their lives and be an adventurer.

 

[jasper]

Adventure Leage did away with death by max aging. But I do maintain a max age chart. But I was never in a game which last even goblin generations. So age difference never comes into affect.

 

[jasper]

Why should a 1st level elf be 500 years old? But if a 1st level elf is 500 years old, how is that any less believable than a 55 year old 1st level human? When is the last time someone asked to play a 55 year old 1st level human in your game?
.....

I am running a 85 year human who just hit 3rd level last adventure. So some people don't become adventurers. These are called NPCs.

 

[Gammadoodler]

But if you can accept a world where a human 55-year-old and a human 16-year-old are the same level, why does it bother you that an elven 130-year-old is the same level? Surely if you can spend 29 years doing nothing that turns you into an adventurer, you can spend 129 years doing the same thing?

Games that want to pay attention to age have character burner mechanics whereas you age you risk losing anything you gain. If you have a 0.05% chance of dying of some accidental cause each year, there is a 7% chance the elf doesn't even reach 130 and 23% chance they don't reach 500. Now imagine the elf goes looking for trouble.

It's more that we're intended to believe that elves have this great advanced culture, while they can spend 100+ years gaining as much life experience as the kid who attends the counter at the skating rink.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Then, can't the bard date that elf girl because this is only 49 years old?

 

[Celebrim]

It's more that we're intended to believe that elves have this great advanced culture, while they can spend 100+ years gaining as much life experience as the kid who attends the counter at the skating rink.

It is very much precisely advanced cultures where people don't get significant life experience, self-reliance and survival skills. I'm not seeing the contradiction.

 

[Gammadoodler]

It is very much precisely advanced cultures where people don't get significant life experience, self-reliance and survival skills. I'm not seeing the contradiction.

The question is how the advanced culture came about in the first place when it's members are prone to faffing about for centuries without learning or building up their skills.

If it takes a decade for a human to pick up a skill and a century for an elf to do so, where is the knowledge base for the great elven works of art?

To use D&D elves, you almost have to give them thousands of years more history than the shorter-lived races just to make sense of how such slow-maturing similarly mortal creatures could possibly compete on an even playing field.

 

[Vincent55]

I use the starting ages from the first and second editions and the older bonuses and penalties, also i do not automatically let players just up abilities willy-nilly. There has to be a reason and method going from primary abilities that get the bonuses and are forbidden to add or up the ones with penalties. They can increase the others if they make an effort to do so in the game, and of course, there is always magical means to increase any score they want.

 

[talien]

I would like more elaboration on how it comes up in your campaign. It hasn't in mine, whereas languages are really important in mine (and aren't in many other folks' campaigns).

Mostly, in how I reveal information that they might know.

The elves get more opportunities on checks about history, but because they've been isolated, they don't overlap with human/dwarf/gnome/tiefling history. The tieflings are young and both suffer from some delusions (one talks to his weapon because he grew up in Oz, where everything talks, the other is a pyromanic because she was raised by fire beings). The gnome is very family-oriented so his father is very protective and involved in his life, at least in part because of their long lifespans and children being rare among gnomes. The human is something of a fanatic with little comprehension of the world outside his homeland, so he is usually confused by the events around him.

When it comes to sharing plot, the longer lived species are my opportunity to share more about (certain parts of) the larger world, and specifically it's history. Previously, we had a dwarf character who filled a similar role as a walking library of knowledge. The player of course didn't know everything, but the character was given lots of opportunities to use their knowledge.