>I would probably be in favor of allowing everyone to rechoose their age one time once the new system is in place (similar to what they did in Gemstone about ten years ago). Then just fix the character manager to generate non-premium in the moderately young range and let premium choose a much wider range than currently possible.

Would very much want to see this.

-pete

>>This severely cripples RP opportunities though IMO. Unless you're a premie that is and can choose your own age. <<

It doesn't cripple your RP opportunities any more than not being able to spawn a master swordsman out of the CM, does it?


- Mazrian

The Flying Company

The Public Stat Data Project
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AkqoUyrmvlKNdGlpeHZacEdldi1Ob2h3M1I5TXpCZVE&hl=en

>No but it's also not game breaking if you want to role play someone that didn't get into adventuring until middle age.

And likewise, it isn't game breaking if you play an old man that actually can't fight like yoda.

Do you really "earn" your old character the same way you "earn" other things in Dragonrealms? I've got old characters in prime that I played for like two hours a decade ago. I didn't "earn" them being old. I just happened to have a premie account with extra character slots.

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>describe boar
It's a boar. It doesn't like you.

i like being able to play both old folks and young folks. one particular of my characters is "grandpa" <my plat WM>

You see Grandpa Shvartzgonif Savakiian, Flame Spitter, a S'Kra Mur.
Shvartzgonif has a flexible ridged crest which follows the shape of his skull with elegant arched eyebrows and slitted green eyes, camouflage scales with a pale silver underbelly and a kinked tail.
He is wizened for a S'Kra Mur.

his profiled quote is:

"How can you be a sage if you're pretty? You can't get your wizard papers without wrinkles. - Bill Veeck"

I enjoy having a vast number of possiblities for ages for characters.
I also have a very young halfling that is barely able to join her guild <very young>. That's what makes it interesting to RP.

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Out of curiosity, did you make everyone stop trying to kill Lyras so you could go try to kill Book?

>Issue #3

If I got to design it, I would make it so that our adventuring characters stayed the racial equivalent of 18 to 25 for an extra X years then. They'd grow up just as fast as they do now, but stay in the "mature peak physical" state for longer. Eventually empathic intervention would become exponentially less effective, so that the last few age ranges would come as normal.

>post 2115

This seems to me to be the a great way to do it. Hanryu (kaldar) is closing on middle aged (42 of 100ish) but he's never been more powerful or more agile. IMO, he should appear in peak physical condition even if he's lost all indications of "callow youth".

~Hunter Hanryu
http://drplat.com/CombatEquipmentCompendium.xls
http://tinyurl.com/HanryuTanning

This is altogether, and will have no real formula. The "Upper Class" (Adventurers, Royalty (and probably Nobility) and the otherwise Rich) will have this.

i.e. NPCs and PCs will all be able to be around by lore for a 100 years longer (equates to 25 years roughly IRL time).

_____________________________________
Victory Over Lyras, on the 397th year and 156 days since the Victory of Lanival the Redeemer.

>It's hard to explain why a six-century-old Elf is unable to tie his bootlaces straight.

Not really, my grandmother can't tie her shoes at all anymore.

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>describe boar
It's a boar. It doesn't like you.

Since we're also talking somewhat about HOW races age, I'd thought I'd crosspost an idea here:

It occurred to me, that if I were writing the lore, the large majority of Gor'Togs would not age like other races, but remain sturdy slabs of muscle until the day they suddenly dropped dead. Not to say they wouldn't get all wrinkly and old-ish, just not the sickly and weak part.

---

Magic's Death Caraamon Makdasi, Gor'Tog Barbarian
Hunta Talna Kortok, built by Gor'Togs, for Gor'Togs
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/caraamon/home.html
Blunts for Sale:
http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/User:Caraamon#Wares

>It occurred to me, that if I were writing the lore, the large majority of Gor'Togs would not age like other races, but remain sturdy slabs of muscle until the day they suddenly dropped dead.

You could make a similar argument for Kaldar or S'kra too.

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>describe boar
It's a boar. It doesn't like you.

Perhaps the messaging should be, "[Name] looks [adjective] for a [race]," to accommodate the following possibilities:

1. Someone may look old or young for his age (allowing the Empath to alter the apparent age without altering the chronological age)
2. It may be hard to estimate the age of another race.

>>DRAKEWARLORD: We can't die. We have access to empaths. I don't think that it would any anywhere near as easy to glance at someone and know their age as we think it would be based on rl experiences. I'd rather age just not show.

I disagree for the reasons that RUBYTU stated. Maybe (depending on our races) I would have a hard time telling your age, but unless you are completely concealed by your clothing, I should at least be able to guess.

---

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall rank!

>I don't imagine the fundamental biological process of cellular degradation would be much different because they're taller and their skin is green.

Ignoring for the moment the fact we are talking about a world where warm blooded mammalian humanoid supposedly live almost 500 years.

There are several instances of reptiles, fish, and amphibians exhibiting a complete lack of age-associated cellular degredation even past the 150 year mark.

---

Magic's Death Caraamon Makdasi, Gor'Tog Barbarian
Hunta Talna Kortok, built by Gor'Togs, for Gor'Togs
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/caraamon/home.html
Blunts for Sale:
http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/User:Caraamon#Wares

>>Suspension of disbelief only goes so far.

This, pretty much.

I mean, it's a fantasy setting: Elves and Dwarves have to live for hundreds of years. Those are the rules Mr. Tolkien made. We realize they're different races.

That said, they are all carbon-based mammalian life forms (even S'kra... well, I know they're warm-blooded, so I would assume mammals too). I think seeing our stats start to get penalized past X number of in-game years is about as likely as our characters dying of old age, but "Gor'Togs maintain full strength till death whereas everyone else gets enfeebled with age like normal" seems like it would be one of those strange, inexplicable inconsistencies in the lore that doesn't detract from the experience but doesn't really add anything, either. Best to stay consist where possible unless there is something to gain, IMO.

---

Right now the Moon Mage place on the "combat pet totem pole" is the part that's sunk into the earth to lower the pole's center of gravity.
-Armifer de Dragonrealms

>>How is that any different from "Elotheans think they're the god's thoughts manifest" or that S'kra Mur can't breed with any other race.

The first is culture. If you had said that Gor'Togs personally believe they don't weaken as they get older, and maybe older Togs were sensitive about suggestions of weakness, I'd say that's a stroke of brilliance. Culture != biology, pretty much anything is feasible for culture.

As for the second, that's biologically credible. House cats can't (to my knowledge) breed with lions but they're genetically close. Horses and Dobermans can't produce offspring, even though they're both mammals. To find something that doesn't follow the same cellular rules of biology, however, you have to start looking at things like plants, single-celled organisms, bacteria, insects, etc. the closest thing to "us" probably being very rare and unusual species of reptiles or amphibians, like you mentioned.

I don't think implementing it would stain the in-game lore or something, I just don't see it as in the same category of believability as a race of people who average about three feet tall. Fantasy settings don't follow the rules of biology to the letter but they're still based on Earth; a creature that essentially doesn't age at the genetic level sounds more like science fiction to me, a non-terrestrial form of intelligent life composed of silicon or something.

---

Right now the Moon Mage place on the "combat pet totem pole" is the part that's sunk into the earth to lower the pole's center of gravity.
-Armifer de Dragonrealms

Actually yeah, in the effort of being constructive, I am really liking the idea if you change it to Gor'Tog culture claiming they never weaken. That makes total sense to me.

It wouldn't even be something they needed legends to prove (though there would be legends, of course), they'd just know it at a fundamental level. We Tog, we don't weaken!

---

Right now the Moon Mage place on the "combat pet totem pole" is the part that's sunk into the earth to lower the pole's center of gravity.
-Armifer de Dragonrealms

<<The first is culture. If you had said that Gor'Togs personally believe they don't weaken as they get older, and maybe older Togs were sensitive about suggestions of weakness, I'd say that's a stroke of brilliance. Culture != biology, pretty much anything is feasible for culture.>>

the only thing wrong with that is - the Togs WERE specifically <biologically> bred for strength, endurance during their period as slaves to the s'kra. Not particularly for long life though. But it would give credence to - "muscular big green man that stays that way until he falls over dead some day."

---

Out of curiosity, did you make everyone stop trying to kill Lyras so you could go try to kill Book?

I'm not saying they shouldn't. Gor'togs could sprout wings when they turn 100, I wouldn't really care. All I was saying was that the argument for it didn't make sense. The argument that it should be that way due to the fact that it's biologically possible, and pointing out that they were bred specifically for their strength are both better reasons for it than "Elotheans think X."

BTW, I was just kidding about Gor'togs getting wings at 100 years of age. It should be elves. Gimme.


-=Issus=-

Let's remember to stay constructive and on topic, about racial aging.

Thank you!

Svafa


___
Any questions or comments, please contact me at Mod-Svafa@play.net or Message Board Supervisor Annwyl at DR-Annwyl@play.net.

Gnomes should gain yoda-like powers at the age of 900.

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>describe boar
It's a boar. It doesn't like you.

It's pretty easy to tell if someone appears 18, or appears 30, or appears 50.

It is not like it gives your exact age and birthday.


-Dihm

>>DRAKEWARLORD: I don't think that most people can just look at someone and tell how old they are in a world with empaths that regularily replace body parts and no age related changes happen.

Like modern medicine, Empathic healing extends one's lifespan, but it's not the fountain of youth that you describe. If I lose my right hand to a trapped box, I don't get a better or younger-looking hand when I see an Empath. I get a hand that looks the same as the one I had before. Similarly, if I have had my face shifted to look older (for example, laugh lines or a missing tooth), I don't emerge from empathic healing with a younger face, even if my whole head was replaced.

>>DRAKEWARLORD: Hair does not grow. (though beards do. so odd) Teeth don't fall out. Eyes don't deteriorate and spectacles are merely an rp device. We don't wrinkle, get grey hair, slowly develop penalties to our stats and skills. We don't die of old age.

GM Armifer has already explained that people die of old age in Elanthia. Simutronics just doesn't kill off PCs, because that would be bad for business. However this isn't something your character would know. It wouldn't be part of his worldview and wouldn't factor into how old other people look to him.

I think the other issues that you've described are also mere business decisions that do not reflect the underlying nature of Elanthia. Despite these OOC limitations, there are many IC references to the frailties of old age, both in the NPCs you see and in books. (For example, one book says, "it is not uncommon for an elderly S'Kra to be utterly blind.")

However, even if everything you said about aging were true, I should still see some indicia of age when I look at you. I should be able to assess (accurately or not) your apparent age.

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Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall rank!