Have you ever played an old character?

[Ethernaut]

I've played an old Russian Dwarf in a Gurps Victorian Fantasy game (think our world in 1890 but with D&D races and such). I loved that he was past the prime of his career and still had a thing for this Elf he used to adventure with, even though she was still relatively young for an Elf. He also had this whole backstory detailing his experiences in the Napoleonic and Crimean wars as a military officer, but the Imperial Army had essentially put him out to pasture.

 

[frankthedm]

Yep, A druid I ran for a very short time & A Conjurer who may or may not have been possesed by a far realm entity [or just mentally ill {i asked the Dm to make that decision secretly].

 

[Evilhalfling]

I played an Ex-Cowboy in CoC - he would have been 23 during the tomestone era he was 80 and used a wheelchair most of the time -
he carried a pistol but would take a turn to brace before firing it (happened once) and he wasn't great with it, as his skill had deteriorated.
All based on explaining my 3 strength. He was the sole surriveor two different games. Lucky Old Bastard.

I played a 4th level elven Bard who started at 248. (upper middle aged) He had lived a peaceful life and owned a music hall. He joined the military to furfill a promise to another PCs grandfather. He discovered that he like military life and had already made sargeant.
His hall was turned over to his adult daughter, who he used to visit when on leave.
He was older than the kingdom he lived in, it was lovely.

 

[jdrakeh]

For a long while, I had an affinity for playing the jaded and/or disgruntled former hero who gets roped back into adventures via a younger generation and later 'accidentally' becomes known as a hero once more. He'd often save another party member or assist in saving a village/city/world and find some way to avoid being branded heroic (i.e., "Well, to be honest, you still owed me 100gps, and I didn't want ye' to welsh on your debt due to something as petty as being dead.")

 

[Jaws]

I played a human paladin that started at level 1 at the age of 45. He didn't get his calling until then. He was a jeweler before then.

Played the PC up to 11th level before the DM moved away.

I just recently played a human scout that was just short of turning middle-age. But he died before that happened.


Peace and smiles

j.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Yeah, there is a wizard that is central to my homebrew. He started out at about 19, and we have covered his life all the way up to lichdom, as he struggled to avoid death from natural causes.

I've also seen people play aged wizards and priests. Its more common in 3e than it was before.

 

[Angel of Adventure]

IMC, some PCs are as old as 100,000+! However, this is more of a flavor effect of my game and aging penalties don't apply.

 

[Painfully]

I'm playing an old dwarven mage in a campaign of all dwarven characters. The idea was to take advantage of the age category stat changes, and let it emphasize my knowledge skills and magic abilities. In other words, I'm old, therefore I am wise and wizardly, rather than, I'm wise and wizardly just because I rolled him that way. It's just a bit of flavor mostly.

Besides, old age gives me an excuse for not getting into melee, or carrying heavy loads, while a young wizard is just a wimp for not being able to do the same things. This doesn't even touch upon the fact that I get to tell the "kids" to behave themselves, or not cause trouble...although we all know how fruitless that will be.

I feel older age categories can be very appropriate for spellcasters of all types, while for other classes, it will just make things more difficult.

 

[Tarangil]

Out of a need to try something different. I got to play Kauffman a 72 year old sage (expert 13) from Candlekeep. He was a little higher than the rest of the group because of his drawbacks (they were 7-9) but it was well balance dout.

He worked really well with the party considering he's an NPC class (Like I said, I wanted to try something different). Anyways, the group was always seeking and finding ancient ruins, what better to tag along than a history buff to help decipher stuff. They only had to put up with his chronic Constapation and crochety demenor.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

My Exalted character is in his late forties. Now, we all started out as mortals, so his 'old age' is atypical without dragon-blood magics. He is the old fogey of the Circle (the next closest is in his late twenties). Oh, and he has no desire to learn sorceries. He'll leave that to the nutballs in the Circle that we refer to as the junior sorcerers league. He's a craftsman through and through. In his spare time, he has been becoming a damn good healer, though.