"Underage" PCs?

[MaxKaladin]

At various times, I've come across the idea of starting a game by having the players play as kids/adolescents for a few sessions and then advancing them to adulthood for the rest of the game. The idea is that it helps provide a "living" backstory and history, helps flesh out the characters and helps bring the group together (since they were kids together). I've been thinking of trying this. I've also been thinking of doing a "Harry Potter" style school of magic one shot or campaign.

The thing both of these things have in common is that they involve kid PCs. The question is how to do this ruleswise. Has anyone done this before and how would you handle it ruleswise (classes, skills and so forth)?

Thanks!

 

[d4]

well, if they're exceptional children (and as heroes i'd assume they are), i wouldn't have any problem with them being 1st-level characters.

how young are we talking about? i believe one can be as young as 16 without any stat adjustments.

 

[Crothian]

What I do is have them make up kids. The attributes are a lot lower, and the they have no classes, just a few odd skill points. THen let them loose and see what happens.

 

[Silver Moon]

I'm actually running a game now with my three children (ages 5 to 10) where all of the playing characters are also children (whose parents are PC's in my weekly gaming group). The characters are all zero-level, but each has an idea of what they want to be when they grow up. I had the kids roll up the spec's for each, and then made significant adjustments for ST and WI and lesser adjustments for DX and CO. We've played out a few games so far - nothing major as far as storyline but more than enough to keep the players interested. While I'm staying away from 1st Level spells I think I'll soon introduce the concept of Cantrips.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

My PC is 19. I like playing younger characters because I like having them evolve over time. I don't think any stats or anything need to be adjusted. AS someone said, being adventurers or heros these are exceptional kids. Have them be first level.

Are the PCs going top be living with their families or away from their families? Chances are, any kid who's away from his parents most of the time is going to be old enough OR smart enough to be at least first level

 

[CerebralAssassin]

If I remember correctly, there were some suggested rules in 2nd Edtion regarding starting PCs at ages less than the "minimum" adult age. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I'm at work right now. I will look at home tonight and post tomorrow where it is if someone hasn't beaten me to it.

Nathan

 

[MaxKaladin]

I don't remember any rules like this in core 2e, but I could be wrong. They had a couple of schemes for 0 level characters around, but I don't think they addressed the concept of being under 16 or so.

I'm envisioning the PCs starting at around age 12 or 13. That would be about the same as Harry Potter in books 2 and 3. They'll do stuff that way for a few sessions and then become full "adult" characters.

I'm thinking they'll be with their parents. What I'm considering is having them play a few adventures as kids, like I mentioned, and hearing / seeing evidence of approaching darkness. Then, I'll advance them to adults and have the darkness arrive.

I don't have a problem with there being 1st or 2nd level kids, but I'm also considering they may not have had much training at that point and that their stats may not be at their full adult level yet. I'm also leaning towards the 0-level concept where they use the time as kids to help decide what direction they go in as adults.

 

[Crothian]

The best and most absurd at the same time were the rules from the first edition Greyhawk hardbound book for 0 level characters.

 

[Maerdwyn]

I started a campaign with 13 year old humans - their first adventure was an attempt to become adults in the eyes of their tribe by successfully hunting an aurochs.

-2 STR, -2WIS, -2 CHA at first. On each birthday, they rolled a d20 for one stat, and if they rolled under their modified score, it lost its penalty. We did one minor adventure/encounter per game year (several of them seperate or solo adventures) until they had all finished their adolescences. It meant everyone started with some xp and some varied experiences. It also meant one guy didn't get rid of his acne and gawkiness (the -2 CHA) until he turned 19.

 

[Umbran]

Well, you might note that the PHB guidelines on age can have characters starting at 16 or 17 years of age already. In psuedo-medieval terms, this might be "adult", but when was the last time you saw a person today consider that age fully mature? A modern player will probably play a 16 year old fighter like a modern 16 year old, rather than as an adult member of society...