a character's age.... does it matter?

[Luwingo_Spince]

I have a player who wants to play a 80 year old human.

I remember in some of the source books a character's stats would be reduced according to their age.

So my question is multi fold:

1. Do you think it is a good idea to impose these penalites on a player character?

2. At what age would these penalties start to come to play and would they increase with age?

3. I seem to remember a WOTC source book that had a chart for different races and the ages in which they live but can't find it now. Does anybody know which sourcebook this is in?

[vong]

I wouldnt impose penalties on characters with old age, i would impose restrictions: no max str, focus on mental abilities.

that way the chrs current state is represented in the stats. but a good player would do that automatically
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[Esoomian]

I recall in some Star Wars books people can live to be well over 100 years old and still be fit and vital, especially if they've had the appropriate medical care however fighting personal tend to age normally as the stresses of combat tends to effect the body adversely.

So I guess for me it'd be a question of the character's background but Vong's idea is pretty solid.
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[garhkal]

The only source i saw (someone's print out) had it

65-80 - Str limi 3d+1 without cybernetics, Per min 2d+2, Know min 3d
81-95 - Str lim 3d, Per 3d, know 3d+1
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[DarthMortis]

[shnar]

For D6, I don't think it matters. A new character is simply given 18 dice to balance among different stats. If you don't choose a template and create your own, then make the STR lower than usual (i.e. 2D) to represent the feeble state of age. Then maybe bump up Knowledge and Perception to 4D, since old people tend to be quite obversvant and intelligent.

In D6 though, it's a game of balance (like Hero), so as long as everyone is balanced, then the stats are justified due to the special effect of age, we're all good.

-shnar

[Rerun941]

I seem to recall stats for Mon Monthma and other older characters with little notes saying that some attributes had been lowered due to age. I think the only reason for this was the fact that Mon's Dex and Str stat had been lowered below the Human racial minimum of 2D.
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[Hellcat]

It's a tough call. Generally speaking we expect people to begin slowing down as they get older and no longer be quite as fast or agile as they were when they were younger. But there are exceptions to this rule where we hear of folks being thirty or even forty years older than someone considered to be in the prime of their life and yet they can out preform the younger person, or at least preform just as well as the younger person. It comes from being in exceptionally good health and keeping fit. But at the same time that doesn't work for everyone.

And we're dealing with SW here where different species live different lengths of time. If we really wanted to get down to it, someone within the same species should probably have a subjective age based on the planet their from. A world that has a year that's twice and long as standard should have folks from there taking twice as long to age a year. It'd probably be better to either throw out the effects of aging or to sit down with the player and talk about why their character, once they reach what could be senior citizen age, could still have stats that aren't reduced. Maybe they've got something in their background that explains this.

Or maybe there's a rejuvination process (I seem to recall that from one of the Agents of Chaos books) that doesn't extend one's life span but does allow them to act as if their a younger age.
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[Kira Firestorm]

For a 80 year old human i would lower there Dex and Str yet increase there Knowledge.

It would simulate growing older makes us slower yet wiser.
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[Raven Redstar]

Yeah, I would slide dice around on the template, higher knowledge, perception, and possibly technical, lower dexterity, strength, and maybe even mechanical.

[Random Numbers]

As i randomly rolled my character and got to play a 16 year old female jedi I only put 2d in str and 2d in knowledge. Maybe it's not wise to play a glass-cannon but 4d in str would be a bit off to me.

I guess it's up to the Gm keeping the players in check. Rules or no rules.
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[ZzaphodD]

I have never been a fan of imposing mechanics for age... As characters in most RPGs are far out of the ordinary compared to normal 'Joes' anyway, adding age factors seem a bit redundant. Its up to the player and the GM to create a character that fits the age imo.

[garhkal]

[Raven Redstar]

Is that limited by racial maximums?