About character age

Khante · 05-04-07, 04:40 PM

Well hello again. Firstly, I'm not 100% positive this is the thread to post this into but ASK and GAMEMASTER in the same sentence sound valid to me.
So here's another "question" for your annoyment:

I'm really having a hard time with the character bio, I'm very fond of playing rather seasoned human wizard type of character with a few minor alterations to the picture here and there.

Yeah a 47 year old wizard with 3 spells, a neat magical missile *3, makes sense ehh? As I strongly believe wizardhood is a life long thing, at least on my characters, making him start his wizardhood at an older age is out of the question.

It obviously does not make sense to write my biography in advance what will he be when he reaches certain level (say, 40? which might take a while). How do I play older character then? Or do I humbly start of as a 18-year-old wet-behind-the-ears teenager wizard with a bad temper and rp his aging? That might take a tad too long for my taste though. ( Also makes the population pyramid of Layonara very simple looking! As 99% of the population is ages between 18-24)

At first the biography didn't cause any trouble at all but then I came to think everything I had written was what will he be at higher levels. And since you start from the square 1 I have no excuse to tell how he became this or that.

Which leads me to another question: The time in Layonara, to reach ie level 20 with a character at a moderate leveling speed how many years is that considered in game time? Heh, mind boggling for me. Maybe too much so. However the player guides part about age didn't satisfy my curiosity.

There might be a simple explanation to all this gibberish I just wrote but I often fail to see them.

Thanks.

ps. Don't worry I have a nasty flu and after recovering from it I won't have this much time to spent in front of my computer thinking too much and not enough at the same time, simultaneously.

OldBear · 05-04-07, 07:32 PM

I am by far no gamemast. However, I have a dwarf cleric that started being a cleric a bit past middle age. My story has him as a typical guard in a community who loses his patrol goes out and gets drunk as a result and doesnt' climb out of the bottle for a couple of years. When he does, he has gotten soft and fat. As part of his recovery, he takes vows to Vorax and becomes a cleric. I am playing him as a Fighter/cleric who is relearning his skills as a fighter while he explores his new calling.

I would think you could pick any life important change and turn it into a reason why someone who is middle age or older turns to magic. Perhaps his wife died and the kids are long gone. Perhaps he has retired from his employment and has taken up the study of magic as something to do.

Stephen_Zuckerman · 05-04-07, 08:31 PM

Well, the hardest part about wizardry in particular is the basics. After you've mastered those, everything else come much more easily, as the only difference between a ninth-level spell and a first-level spell is the complexity. That's why it usually takes so long to get a handle on those first cantrips (i.e. the first wizard level).

You don't have to be 18 to be level 1, y'know. *Smiles.* My all-time favorite wizard, Godim Harjumaa, started out as an old man and is now an even older man.

My own character, Pyyran, was Called to adventuring during the beginning of his eighteenth year, and he's now... *Counts.* Forty-four. The Layonara Time Converter helps to figure out the passage of time, but...

A lot of players don't keep track of their characters' ages. After all, there are quite a few old heroes who should be retiring around now! And a bunch of people don't want to hang up their wonderful human character just because it's been a while... Putting a time limit of two or three years (realtime) of playing a character... Some just don't want that. They've been developing so long; why stop?

Myself, though, I've been playing the aging process as well as I've been able. My character, over the years, has grown in maturity as he's grown in experience, and I've even had his in-game description changed to reflect that.

Layonaran time rolls by on its own at about a year for every twenty-fourish days. According to the Time Converter, that's roughly sixteen and a half years to our one year.

Average time for someone who doesn't just go grind things to reach level twenty? A few months past a calendar year, so... Probably twenty in-game years, or thereabouts.

I don't really know what the original question was, after typing all of this. Nor what my original point was.

But you can start a character at whatever AGE you want, so long as they start at level one.

Faldred · 05-04-07, 08:34 PM

The age requirements are only minimums... you can certainly play a character who starts well above those minimums.

darkstorme · 05-05-07, 05:16 PM

The problem, as you pointed out in your initial post, is you then have to justify in your bio why your old man has the magical aptitude of the 18-year-old wet-behind-the-ears apprentice wizard.

This has not been a bar to many, however, and can even be a lot of fun.

jrizz · 05-09-07, 09:46 AM

If you play a human and you RP the aging proccess then you will age out in a couple of years. But as was said above many players dont RP that they have aged. So we have human PCs that should be in their 80's still running about LOL.

Acacea · 05-09-07, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jrizz

If you play a human and you RP the aging proccess then you will age out in a couple of years. But as was said above many players dont RP that they have aged. So we have human PCs that should be in their 80's still running about LOL.

For clarification, a character who should be in their mid-80s should not RPed as being in their 50s, number-wise... they are still in their 80s, you can't fudge that. There are just multiple reasons we can use for excuses to not retire them so soon - no one wants to make anyone quit their characters.

Interia_Discordius · 05-09-07, 01:37 PM

Is there any cool but crazy way Layonara's LORE can be played with to make it so humans do indeed live differently by appearance wise?

Be sort of neat to have them always appear in their earlier ages *giggle*
Slower body breakdown appearance wise?

Dunno. Just an idea.

jrizz · 05-09-07, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acacea

For clarification, a character who should be in their mid-80s should not RPed as being in their 50s, number-wise... they are still in their 80s, you can't fudge that. There are just multiple reasons we can use for excuses to not retire them so soon - no one wants to make anyone quit their characters.

Back in the day in PnP there was stat adjustments that were made as a PC aged. Things like WIS would go up where STR and DEX would drop. I just think that would be too heavy to implement. Also haste/speed would cause premature aging, of course if we did that on layo we would all be a thousand years old and just lumps of dust (no insult to Ozy here LOL). In PnP there was great flexibility in playing a human PC the cost for that was you aged out faster. For layo I just try to ignore the age thing (unless someone RPs it) I feel it is a can of worms that once open we just will not be able to find a solution to.

Acacea · 05-09-07, 03:47 PM

Like I said... no one wants to make anyone play their age and I wasn't attempting to suggest it. I meant that on Layonara there are many reasons that could be given on why an 80 year old human adventurer is still adventuring, but he is still 80, not 45. Meaning, don't play a breakdown of abilities or anything if you don't want to, because there are lots of excuses we can make for it, but the number is the number.

Nehetsrev · 05-09-07, 06:33 PM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what your'e trying to say Acacea is that it's okay to play an 80 year old (Human) adventurer who's still at the top of their wits and/or in great physical condition, but it's not okay to say your 80 year old character is really some other, younger age. Is this right?

Acacea · 05-09-07, 06:45 PM

Yeah, pretty much. Otherwise you get really weird time/date inconsistencies between characters who witness the same events (recorded on a timeline) but strangely age (number-wise) at different rates. If you don't want to age your character, pick the physical part to ignore, not the rate of calendar years going by :P

LynnJuniper · 05-09-07, 06:49 PM

OOCly Of course Acacea

There's no way anyone's going to get Rhynn to admit she's in her 40s

Acacea · 05-09-07, 07:25 PM

Oh yeah of course, IC 80% of Layonara's women are no doubt "still in their late 20's."

Nehetsrev · 05-09-07, 09:00 PM

My character, Treana, is currently 36, and not afraid to admit it.

ShiffDrgnhrt · 05-09-07, 09:16 PM

Shiff is 23-25
Latherian is an elf so it doesnt matter
Yuki is about 20
and Nemo is about 20 but has the mind of a 5 yr old so...

Grid Blader · 05-09-07, 09:22 PM

Let me see.. I belive Quantum is a little over 80 years old in game time.

Hellblazer · 05-09-07, 09:27 PM

Q last time we check was between 46 to 50
Hes not that old hehehe