Older characters

[Aodhán]

Hello to everyone. I'm thinking of creating a character who is older than the basic rules age limit - say, about 45 or 50 - and I don't know if there is a doable or reasonable method for this. I don't do this because I want my character to be much more powerful or experienced than the rest of the group, but because I just want to play a mature character just for the sake of roleplaying an individual who has been through more than your average 20-sth or 30-sth.

Does anybody know if there is any optional method - be it houseruled or "officially supported" - to play an older character? I just seem to find older characters more appealing, and with so much more to tell...

Thank you.

[Pierstoval]

When you create a character, if it's older than 20 years old, it receives 1 setback and +1 to one domain for each step of 5 years old, starting at 21.
Means this:
21 <= age <= 25 : 1 setback, +1 to one domain
26 <= age <= 30 : 2 setbacks, +1 to 2 domains
31 <= age <= 35 : 3 setbacks, +1 to 3 domains

You can extend this table for older ages, if you want a basic rule:
36 <= age <= 40 : 4 setbacks, +1 to 4 domains
41 <= age <= 45 : 5 setbacks, +1 to 5 domains
46 <= age <= 50 : 6 setbacks, +1 to 6 domains

But this is not really well balanced for a PC, as this is for creation, so you may need more XP, because of the adventures he lived, the background he has, and +1 to 4 or 5 domains is not clearly balanced with what a normal PC would gain as XP.

We can then change the table, decreasing the "age step" to 10 years instead of 5, but adding 10 XP for each step (remember that +1 to one domain costs 10XP, so increasing the gain is more relevant for an old character), and keeping the previous gains.
There is also a problem you cannot solve during a game, but you can when creating a character and with this system : advantages and disadvantages. Normally, you would not gain neither adv. or disadv. during a game except in very special conditions, but as we're creating a character, we will allow the character to have more advantages and disadvantages than a "normal" character, which helps finding where to spend the XP gained. We can rise the max number of adv/disadv to 5 instead of 4, and also we can rise the max number of "double-selected" advantages ("Strong"<"Very strong", etc.) to 2 instead of 1 (not including disadvantage "Trauma", of course).

Then there is the theorically final table:
21 <= age <= 25 : 1 setback, +1 to one domain, +10 XP
26 <= age <= 30 : 2 setbacks, +1 to 2 domains, +20 XP
31 <= age <= 35 : 3 setbacks, +1 to 3 domains, +30 XP
36 <= age <= 40 : 4 setbacks, +1 to 3 domains, +40 XP
41 <= age <= 50 : 5 setbacks, +1 to 3 domains, +50 XP
51 <= age <= 60 : 6 setbacks, +1 to 3 domains, +60 XP
(the values are expressed as "total bonuses/maluses", not "bonus added since previous threshold")

As there are many setbacks for an old character, I think you may not accept dices roll of 1 and 10 more than once, especially as there are 8 "real" setbacks (score of 1 adds another setback, and score of 10 makes you "escape" a random setback). If the character is both lucky and unlucky, (or if the GL is particularly evil ) the character can have all 8 setbacks, and rolls/chooses the one he has escaped by luck ! This would really make a big background for the character

Hope this "test" solution helps ya creating old characters !

[Aodhán]

Thank you very much! But, why do you say the standard process is unbalanced? As I haven't studied yet the intricacies of Experience, I don't know if the result would be a too powerful character, or one who is too weak. I was thinking of a seasoned character, but one who still has the feeling of a starting one. Maybe, a person with a long personal life over his or her shoulders, but one who still hasn't beholded the horrible reality beyond (hasn't been "adventuring"). Does it make any sense?

Thanks!

[Pierstoval]

The reason why I'm telling the standard process is unbalanced is a personal opinion ^^

In fact, when you start a character which is 16 years old, it gets 100XP and no setback. A character 5 years older gains only 1 point to 1 domain (equivalent to 10XP according to the rules about spending xp), and one setback (which is often a malus).
Means that 5 years give 10XP, so it is really unbalanced, as the first adventure for this 16 years old character may give him days or months of life and give him at least 10XP depending of the scenarios played and the kindness of the GL (and the "goodness" of the player).

Statistically, create a character which is 16 years old, play some adventures with it and trust your GL, then make him grow up by writing a few background lines, and he'll have more XP than a fresh-created 21 years old character.

This is why it's unbalanced

[Aodhán]

OK, I understand now. Thanks!