Aging and Races

[akata]

short lived races vs long lived races, hmm i have been thinking alot lately about my charaters age, i play a human and she has now aged a little over 2 years in here, at this rate i dont see how a human or any of the others short lived race can ever become a epic player. they will have died of old ages long before getting there

i can understand that there are a need to speed up time, but it upsets the balance there is between the races. most people i talked to have just told me not to play my age, but why make a time system then?

im posting this because i would like to hear what others think, as it is now we have a overflow of elfs since age dont really matter to them.


edited because of bad choise of word
-Akata

[Gulnyr]

akata - 12/27/2005  8:48 AM

but why make a age system then?

This part lost me.  What age system?

[Dorganath]

To second what Gulnyr said, "What age system?"
  We're really not enforcing any sort of aging on characters.  There aren't any penalties to being older, and characters are not forced into death because they're old.
  Time in Layonara passes about 1/2 as quickly as the default NWN time.  As a rough guideline, about one game year passes every RL month (actually slightly less than a month, but you get the idea).  So in that vein, it's entirely possible to have a human character (default starting age of 18) make it to epic status by age 30 (12 months game time)....which despite what you may have heard is not "old age", though it may feel that way sometimes.

[Filatus]

I think you should let your characters age at a rate you think fits with their development. I can imagine that at one point you feel your character has experienced so much in his/her life and done so much that he will become 'tired'. There is only so much one individual can do in his life and if you feel that your character is nearing that point, you might want to consider letting him age and retire, or die.

That is if the Soulmother doesn't catch up with you first of course.

[akata]

Gulnyr - 12/27/2005  6:00 AM

akata - 12/27/2005  8:48 AM

but why make a age system then?

This part lost me.  What age system?

maybe system is a wrong word but if you checked the date of time, the first time you logged on with your char. you will know how old he/she is, making your char. old in a matter of months since 28 dages RL is a year IC

should have said time system sorry

[Guardian 452]

According to the time line my Epic Character Enzo (a human) is in his mid to late 50's now. (he was 18 when I created him 2 RL years ago timeline somewhere in the late 1350's)


I don't exactly play him like he is that age but I try to now and then.

[Acacea]

This question comes up a lot, so here's my take on it.

All of the player characters on Layonara are 'Called' and have bound their souls at bindstones scattered over the world. They get tossed into troll cookpots, open trapped doors that even the halfling won't touch, make rude gestures at dragons and get chomped on, whatever, and their bodies are reformed at their bind locations after their (maybe) unfortunate demises. The word 'reformed' is skimmed over when the whole phrase is even read, I think, but because of this one word, time has a lot more effect on the soul than the body. It still passes (does it really make sense to have years pass for some but not others?) but its effects differ from person to person. If someone died and was reborn every single day of their poor short little lives, would their faces age even a day? I think no. They've been constantly remade to that pre-death image of themselves. Their soul would be in tatters, by shards and small parts for the magic of the bindstone, and that is the price of using them--I imagine your character would have to decide if it was worth it, in the end.

The same goes for scarring and disfigurement. If you were torn apart by starving wombats, the shock and horror of it would be with you until you recovered, but you're still whole again, reformed. People who have lived with them before binding (scars, lame legs, age) are likely remade with them, because it's part of how they see themselves, that they've worked with and around throughout their lives.

Some new scars and disfigurements will remain with some, if it had some kind of profound psychological effect on them, or happened under unusual circumstances. (Let's face it, eaten by ogres is no longer an unusual circumstance for most. )  Trauma. Something. I can think of several examples, but I'm pretty sure the point is across.

I'm not a GM and I didn't make the system, but it makes sense to me. The bindstones aren't just Get Out of Jail Free cards.

[Shadowblade225]

Hmm, some random thoughts on aging - elves (for example) of course are long-lived and while experience in various areas and battle testing are the main contributers to a PC's skill - you'd think an elf fighter or mage for example, being about 10 times older then some humans would be vastly superior in terms of experience.  Suppose it's all a balance between reality and game mechanics.  *shrugs* this has nothing to do with an aging human - I think it's just me being curious.  When you think about it here - submitting an elf character - we start at lvl 1 - define lvl 1 here - how old should the elf be?  Is it that human aging is like dog years to elves.  An elf ages slower - a 20 year old elf would still be a child in human terms?  How do elves spend their first 100-120 years of their life - which is about average (roughly) the starting age for playing?  I'm sure it all depends on the PC, but you'd think they'd have some experience by 100 years old.  Thoughts or not worthwhile to be even thinking about?     

[Glassman]

In my humble oppinion age has little to do with experience. An ancient elf who lived his entire life in the great library would still be useless wielding a sword, but a youthful human raised with a sword in his hand would be a dangerous opponent. Life is what its about, not age. Humans push themselves harder because they have less time to experience and achieve the same things as the long lived races. They live harder and die faster. Lan who was 18 when he had the dragon dream is now approx 22. He is 8th level as I write this, which I dont think is too bad. He has had periods of relative inactivity and then periods where his life has been one long string of fighting and surviving. I like the one year to one month ratio. I'll try and play Lan as he grows older and wiser with this time frame in mind. When he's in his late forties or early fifties 9provided he survives that long), its probably time for him to go into semi-retire as an adventurer. He may well feel his age more than he looks it thanks to the rejuvinating effect of the bindstone. Thats just the way I'll play it.

[lonnarin]

Ye have ter remember dat despite how old an elf beh when he jus ah young adult, dey still spent most of dey toime huggin trees an dancin in forrests wit chipmoonks.  Dwarfs on da udder hand, we live almost as long and we start our chill'un workin young!  When da faddur go ter da moine, he usually take his wee tots along wit im, usin dey little hands ter chip em gemstones.  Da wee lil buggers love it!  All em rollin aroun', diggin through da dirt, so proud ah every greenstone an malachite dey foind.  Dey den  sell dese stones or trade em loike ye humans tots do wit ye arena-gladiator cards.  Average dwarven piggy bank gots mebbe roun un or two hunnerd coins innit by da toime dey even git dey 1st chin stubble, dat ah minor fortune ter em topsoide races!  Da sign of ah stout economy beh un where even da wee knee-high tots bringin bacon ter da table; and ah dwarf choild wrassle ye ah boar an stick it o'er ah pit afore ye kin say, "Look daddy, pork!"

*sniffss, fondly remembering his childhood*

-Bjornigar Ironguts