Shortening racial lifespans?

[Umbran]

They wouldn't be caught unawares when they died 40 years after the cataclysm.

Even if you scale - a major part of elves as they are typically written is that they're not very fertile, and their population heavily weighted to older individuals. In older rule-sets, the Venerable category was something like half their maximum lifespan! Those older elves are going to die off in much less than 40 years.

Now, I admit I am reading a bit into the word "cataclysm" - I'm guessing the effects are supposed to be, well, cataclysmic. As in "not easy to survive". I'm thinking Haiti, but wide-scale, where nobody has any aid to spare, because everyone's hit by the same event. When world situations go bad, do we somehow think the old are going to have an easy time of it? No. They're going to die.

If that's not your cataclysm, well, then we have some language issues to work out

 

[Umbran]

Given the large number of distinctive cultural behaviors among just humans with similar lifespans throughout history, the "humans with funny ears" trope hardly follows hard on the heels of adjusting how long races live.

Well, actually, the breadth of human culture makes it more likely that the non-humans will turn into humans with funny ears when you take out the fantastic elements. If the non-human cultures don't do something radically different from human, then you'll probably find yourself falling into the Babylon 5 and Star Trek modes where you can pretty easily map one of those non-human cultures to a real-world human culture.

Having a fantastic element on which to pin radically different behavior allows the GM to do more speculative sociology, which can be a lot of fun for both the DM and players.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I'm imagining most books and records would have been lost in the cataclysm. They may still exist, but the PCs have to adventure to find them. I'm hoping part of the fun of this campaign will be in discovering lost history of the world and finding out that things might not be the way most people think.

Actually, since the OP says that they knew that the cataclysm was coming, I'd expect exactly the opposite. They ought to have gathered as many books as they could and preserved them. (And I've read Nightfall.)

In fact, the more I think about it, I suspect that the best way for the OP to handle this is to be upfront with his players. Tell them what you have in mind and let them figure out what needs explaining and what doesn't, and invite them to help come up with the explanations. This allows them to invest in the world, which should add to their fun. It will also let you know ahead of time if they are dead set against it.

 

[Merkuri]

Now, I admit I am reading a bit into the word "cataclysm" - I'm guessing the effects are supposed to be, well, cataclysmic. As in "not easy to survive".

I explained it a bit more in detail upthread, but the cataclysm I'm imagining is what you're envisioning except there are magically protected "safe zones" where a few survivors managed to congregate. After the cataclysm these safe zones are all that's left of the world (as far as the survivors know, at least).

Surviving in this safe zone is not that much different than surviving in the world pre-cataclysm. The hard part would have been getting to a safe zone in the first place, then adjusting to life in a bubble where you're crammed up next to lots of races you may not have had much contact with in the past.

 

[Merkuri]

Actually, since the OP says that they knew that the cataclysm was coming, I'd expect exactly the opposite. They ought to have gathered as many books as they could and preserved them.

I was thinking that while they knew it was coming they didn't get much notice. Basically enough time to set up a shelter and spread the word to the surrounding areas to come running. And there's also the risk that those in charge might take the opportunity to save only those books that they want to save.

In fact, the more I think about it, I suspect that the best way for the OP to handle this is to be upfront with his players.

Her players, by the way.

Tell them what you have in mind and let them figure out what needs explaining and what doesn't, and invite them to help come up with the explanations.

I'm actually planning on just having a skeleton of this world (both pre- and post-cataclysm) ironed out and the players will help flesh it out. Right now I'm just trying to get the skeleton in place in my head.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

I say do it and see what happens.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I was thinking that while they knew it was coming they didn't get much notice. Basically enough time to set up a shelter and spread the word to the surrounding areas to come running. And there's also the risk that those in charge might take the opportunity to save only those books that they want to save.

Her players, by the way.

I'm actually planning on just having a skeleton of this world (both pre- and post-cataclysm) ironed out and the players will help flesh it out. Right now I'm just trying to get the skeleton in place in my head.

Well, of course they're going to save the books they want. But there's always some old codger who's got a ton of history/naturalist books that are more important than anything else, even their own lives. But what happened to them...

Ah, sorry about that. (Darn dragon pics, always so difficult to tell what gender they are! )

Sounds like a plan!

 

[Starfox]

If you use the 4E model that all races mature at about the same rate, then live more or less time as adults, then this is not a problem. Both the human, half-ork and elf are of the "new generation" born and bred in the domed city. They are all around 20 years of age. Sure, the elf's parents have memories of the pre-cataclysm world, but the human and half-ork read about the pre-cataclysm world in school - is there really a difference?

And the 3E model where elves remained immature for a century really does not make sense to me.

On the other hand, depending on what the cataclysm was, it might make sense that all races have similar lifespans as an effect of the disaster. Maybe elves lived longer because of their ties to nature - no nature, no long lifespan. Or maybe the magical energies that sustained them burned up in the disaster? I have a short-lived population of elves like this in one of my fantasy worlds - they are the victims of an upper class draining all the mana from their environment, neutering their magical nature.

Be sure to check out Earthdawn (the rulebook mainly, as the supplements largely dropped this angle) for a post-apocalyptic world much like yours.

 

[Jhaelen]

Would it ruin the game for you if all races had lifespans similar to humans (80-100 years)?

Not at all. I doubt anyone would even notice.

Almost no rpg system really addresses extremely long-lived races well. Typically, the authors cop out and come up with weird reasons why being long-lived doesn't actually make them any different from short-lived races.