Crazy Jerome
First Post
Burning Wheel handles this (mostly) by saying that elves and dwarves are just better than the races with shorter lives. Their lifepaths at character generation give them more power, better stats, etc. It probably isn't enough difference to fully account for the age difference, but it is enough to be felt. BW tries to strike a balance between making it felt and being playable.
OTOH, lifepath generation in BW doesn't always give you exactly the freedom you want, the way developing in play does. And lower-powered characters advance far faster than their higher-powered friends. So it is, over the course of a campaign, a trade for early power for loss of later flexibility. This does a good job of somewhat mirroring Lord of the Rings, IMO. Legolas and Gimli don't really change all that much over the course of the story (except becoming friends). And this isn't even touching on the "emotional magic" attributes, which put limits on the stronger abilities. These aren't limited to elves and dwarves, but elves and dwarves must take them. Max out Elven grief or Dwarven greed, and the character is retired from play, overwhelmed.
In a game played over enough (game) time for it to matter, a theoretical, darker way to handle age differences would be to tie all powerful ability development to "lifeforce" or some such, as a percentage of your expected life. You want to be the best swordsman in the land? You can, but the grueling quests necessary will take off 5% of your life. The actual fluff could vary from trades with planar forces, dark magic, etc. There is only so much lifeforce in a body, and every XP you get takes it away! Dying at 95 instead of 100 looks like a good trade, if that gives you the skill to potentially stop the orc invasion, and maybe even live through it at 25. And then you keep going to that well, and at 40, 45, 50--that upper limit creeping down to 85, 75, etc. starts to make you think twice.
In a homebrew I'm working on now, people can learn quite competent skills via practice as opposed to direct experience, but it is terribly slow in comparison. Even a little mix of experience is very helpful. This is a "soft" mechanical hedge versus age differences. The human hedge wizard can be careful and slow and have very little power in 20 years. And the elf can go adventuring and learn as fast as a human, if he want to take the risks. But most elves don't (and why should they?) while most humans do. If an elf wants to take the risks, they are very young (and thus just started, same as the human) or they aren't a player character.
That is, there are immensely powerful NPC elves that tooks risks early and often. You just don't get to play a character that took risks off screen. If you play an elf, you are really young or you were cautious. Your choice.
OTOH, lifepath generation in BW doesn't always give you exactly the freedom you want, the way developing in play does. And lower-powered characters advance far faster than their higher-powered friends. So it is, over the course of a campaign, a trade for early power for loss of later flexibility. This does a good job of somewhat mirroring Lord of the Rings, IMO. Legolas and Gimli don't really change all that much over the course of the story (except becoming friends). And this isn't even touching on the "emotional magic" attributes, which put limits on the stronger abilities. These aren't limited to elves and dwarves, but elves and dwarves must take them. Max out Elven grief or Dwarven greed, and the character is retired from play, overwhelmed.
In a game played over enough (game) time for it to matter, a theoretical, darker way to handle age differences would be to tie all powerful ability development to "lifeforce" or some such, as a percentage of your expected life. You want to be the best swordsman in the land? You can, but the grueling quests necessary will take off 5% of your life. The actual fluff could vary from trades with planar forces, dark magic, etc. There is only so much lifeforce in a body, and every XP you get takes it away! Dying at 95 instead of 100 looks like a good trade, if that gives you the skill to potentially stop the orc invasion, and maybe even live through it at 25. And then you keep going to that well, and at 40, 45, 50--that upper limit creeping down to 85, 75, etc. starts to make you think twice.
In a homebrew I'm working on now, people can learn quite competent skills via practice as opposed to direct experience, but it is terribly slow in comparison. Even a little mix of experience is very helpful. This is a "soft" mechanical hedge versus age differences. The human hedge wizard can be careful and slow and have very little power in 20 years. And the elf can go adventuring and learn as fast as a human, if he want to take the risks. But most elves don't (and why should they?) while most humans do. If an elf wants to take the risks, they are very young (and thus just started, same as the human) or they aren't a player character.
That is, there are immensely powerful NPC elves that tooks risks early and often. You just don't get to play a character that took risks off screen. If you play an elf, you are really young or you were cautious. Your choice.
