what age do you start your character at?

[dreaded_beast]

when i first started playing basic dnd i was 12. at the time i made my characters around the age of 15 or 16, under the impression that was a fairly old age to be at the time. when i became older i started making my characters around the age i was at the time, 17, 18, 19, etc.

however, i am now getting along in the years, and i am starting to notice that i am a bit hesitant to start a new character closer to my age. i believe i first started to play dnd for the chance to be someone else, a different person. however, the person i usually wanted to play was within a certain age bracket. it was cool when i was younger and wanted to be older. now it seems i am getting older and wishing i was younger. i think this thinking may be carrying over to how old i should make a starting character.

 

[nsruf]

I use random starting age, plus 1 year per level above the first, unless the character concept specifically calls for an older (or maybe younger) character.

 

[Drawmack]

With me it totally depends.

In DnD the main factors are class, race and level.

For example an elvin wizard probbly attains 1st level around 250 (I know it's not core so quityerbitchin)

Where as a human barbarian probably achieves first level around 14.

We're getting ready to start a d20 CoC campaign and I'm playing a PhD. So I'm in my mid thirties.

 

[diaglo]

whatever fits my character concept.

i've played young and ancient characters starting at 1st lvl.

 

[shilsen]

Depends on what fits the character. For young characters I'll just randomly pick something from the starting age chart in the PHB. For older ones, I'll work out something appropriate.

For my next PC, I'm considering a doddering old guy (who was an adventurer in his youth), who's about a couple years from kicking the bucket and knows it. So he decides to have one last fling and take up adventuring again.

 

[Desdichado]

I've played teenagers quite a bit. I've also played folks that were middle-aged before. Never played an old character, for whatever reason.

 

[Rel]

I tend to start my characters in the neighborhood of 20 with the range being anywhere between 18 and 22. This assumes they are human or nearly so in terms of lifespan. I tend not to start them much older than that, largely due to the fact that I'm now 32 and I'd like to think that if a character had reached my age, he'd be smart enough to pick a vocation safer than slaying dragons .

One of the funnest characters I ever played (in a different system than D&D) was old though. Incredibly old in fact. He was (at least) thousands of years old and was effectively immortal. The trick was that his memory wasn't immortal. He only remembered the last 50 years at all and only the last 20-30 of it with any real accuracy. He had a near constant sense of deja vu because he had travelled all over the world over the centuries, he just didn't remember it until something triggered his memory.

This made for a fantastic plot hook device for my GM because he could feed my character plot information in the form of vague memories. Plus, more than once, we had situations like this:

*Beautiful but deadly wicked looking elven woman steps from behind pillar* "Well, I never thought that you would have the courage to set foot in here again after what happened last time!"

Me: "Me? Again? Last time? Do I know you?"

Her: "I was your wife."

Me: "Oh s***."

 

[Quinn]

We usually just pick our age or roll them up according to the PH. As I get older though, I find it tougher to make the starting age of my character a lot younger than myself. So a lot more of my characters start out being in their mid-twenties, as opposed to being teenagers.

 

[Arnwyn]

Minimum age, baby, minimum age (as per the tables in the PHB). The DMs around here still have creatures and effects that age you... they've added Su abilities to ghosts that are like the original versions of them.

 

[Ace]

I usually start my characters around 15-20 depending on level

HIgh level types usually get a few extra years added to the age