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RPG Evolution: Older Than You Look
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<blockquote data-quote="Mad_Jack" data-source="post: 8798301" data-attributes="member: 6750306"><p>In the games that I've run over the years, I've generally shortened the life spans of most of the longer-lived races to around 150 years for halflings, 250-300 for gnomes and dwarves, and about 500 for elves. And I try to give older characters a number of minor things to indicate their greater life experience, such as starting with whatever regular gear they want, having greater knowledge of the geography and lore of the campaign world, etc... And if their narrative backstory justifies them having some minor mechanical perk like an extra language or proficiency in something, I'll usually let them have it.</p><p></p><p>I currently have a couple of my characters who started their adventuring careers later in life, and the current game system doesn't really model them well...</p><p></p><p>One is a human druid/warlock who, as a young druid in his twenties, got shanghaied into the Feywild after joining a fairy revel and ended up spending X number of decades/centuries/(DM fiat) working as a diplomatic envoy (fey pact warlock) for a Fey Lord before being released from his service.</p><p> If I ever get to play him at some point*, regardless of how long the DM decides the character's been in the Feywild, his story is that he returns to the campaign world as a man who physically appears to be in his early 60's, and has<em><strong> at least </strong></em>that many decades of life experience under his belt... By the game rules, where he is in his life narratively <u>at the start of his adventuring career</u> won't be backed up by his actual mechanical game stats <u>until he hits third level</u> (druid 2/warlock 1)...</p><p></p><p>*(I briefly played him in a PbP game in another forum, and the DM let me have a custom background I made up called "Underhill" which gave him two extra languages and proficiency with two different tools to represent his extended time in the Feywild.)</p><p></p><p></p><p>The other is a gnome illusionist/warlock who's recently started adventuring after being forcibly retired due to old age from his previous career as a squad mage for a legendary gnomish mercenary unit of sappers and siege engineers.</p><p>Given that gnomes live 350-500 years according to the PHB, that's going to be <em>something like 200 years </em>of military service... Despite the fact that a big part of his physical appearance is that of an old soldier wearing beat up worn-out armor and carrying an old sword, by RAW, he's <em>never</em> going to actually be proficient with the shortsword he carries, and until he hits 3rd level (wiz 2/war 1) his armor isn't an actual item on his character sheet, just a narrative fiction - he's "...wearing what seems to have once been a sapper's traditional leather armor, but is clearly so old and worn that it's long since ceased to be functional as any sort of protection." <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite11" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes :rolleyes:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":rolleyes:" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mad_Jack, post: 8798301, member: 6750306"] In the games that I've run over the years, I've generally shortened the life spans of most of the longer-lived races to around 150 years for halflings, 250-300 for gnomes and dwarves, and about 500 for elves. And I try to give older characters a number of minor things to indicate their greater life experience, such as starting with whatever regular gear they want, having greater knowledge of the geography and lore of the campaign world, etc... And if their narrative backstory justifies them having some minor mechanical perk like an extra language or proficiency in something, I'll usually let them have it. I currently have a couple of my characters who started their adventuring careers later in life, and the current game system doesn't really model them well... One is a human druid/warlock who, as a young druid in his twenties, got shanghaied into the Feywild after joining a fairy revel and ended up spending X number of decades/centuries/(DM fiat) working as a diplomatic envoy (fey pact warlock) for a Fey Lord before being released from his service. If I ever get to play him at some point*, regardless of how long the DM decides the character's been in the Feywild, his story is that he returns to the campaign world as a man who physically appears to be in his early 60's, and has[I][B] at least [/B][/I]that many decades of life experience under his belt... By the game rules, where he is in his life narratively [U]at the start of his adventuring career[/U] won't be backed up by his actual mechanical game stats [U]until he hits third level[/U] (druid 2/warlock 1)... *(I briefly played him in a PbP game in another forum, and the DM let me have a custom background I made up called "Underhill" which gave him two extra languages and proficiency with two different tools to represent his extended time in the Feywild.) The other is a gnome illusionist/warlock who's recently started adventuring after being forcibly retired due to old age from his previous career as a squad mage for a legendary gnomish mercenary unit of sappers and siege engineers. Given that gnomes live 350-500 years according to the PHB, that's going to be [I]something like 200 years [/I]of military service... Despite the fact that a big part of his physical appearance is that of an old soldier wearing beat up worn-out armor and carrying an old sword, by RAW, he's [I]never[/I] going to actually be proficient with the shortsword he carries, and until he hits 3rd level (wiz 2/war 1) his armor isn't an actual item on his character sheet, just a narrative fiction - he's "...wearing what seems to have once been a sapper's traditional leather armor, but is clearly so old and worn that it's long since ceased to be functional as any sort of protection." :rolleyes: [/QUOTE]
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