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Old and young


Elena
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Some sites discourage really young or old characters. On some sites they are forbidden, on others they don't find plots.

 

Do you like writing such characters? Why yes or why not?

 

I like writing all kind of characters, as the story requires. Young, old, middle-aged, men, women, boys, girls. I succeeded to NPC babies too when needed. I think it adds realism to the story and its environment, because people in real life do interact with others of all ages. So I have written from babies and toddlers to 50-70 years old characters (yes, for me NPCs are characters too,  support characters). Given the life expectancy in the times I am writing in, when 50 is old and 70 is rare, I think I really have people of all ages... And each of them is offering something unique to the story!

 

 

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Generally speaking, I think most RPGs benefit from having a variety of age groups represented. If not in regular play, then as supporting characters or NPCs. I write young and old although I am less comfortable with really young characters. Most of mine come out sounding like precocious old people in a child's body. No excuses. I am just not a very child-oriented person and I don't make much effort in that regard as children, while allowed as supporting characters, are not allowed as main characters. 

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Someone somewhere went to sleep and dreamed us all alive.
Dreams get pushed around a lot, and I doubt if we'll survive.
We won't get to wake up, dreams were born to disappear.
And I'm pretty sure that none of us are here.
~ None of Us Here by Jim Stafford ~

 

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I'll play young and old, but generally as supporting characters rather than my mains. I've found that on many rpgs, it's a bit difficult for very young characters to grow up. Players and their characters come and go, so my young characters have often lost their caregivers prematurely, which sets character development back when the character is too young to handle it.

 

I'd say I'm least comfortable rping the middle age range, 35-55ish for naturally aging characters, but I even have a few of those as semi-permanent npcs

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I personally only play children as supporting characters/NPCs, as I'm not really good at actually roleplaying them as males, and not particularly fond of or good with children (I don't hate children, I just don't really speak their language well until they're a bit older). My sweet spot for characters is between 21 and 45, but I do go over that without a problem. Two of my active characters are over that - one is a grandpa in his mid 70s who is trying to help his family while everyone seems to have problems coming their way, and another is a lady in her 60s who's trying to hold everything together right after her mother passed away, and I have to admit I'm having a blast writing these older characters at the moment.

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Shady McShaderson

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My youngest, I think, was seven, while my oldest human character is presently 73.

 

I think that as long as the setting allows for whatever age you want to play and you're willing to get creative, there is no reason not to play a character of whatever age you like. 

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Whether they're 7 or 70, I write whatever the plot needs. Though admittedly my comfort zone for characters rests within the range of 14 to 40; my site is an academy/school setting though, and I also play some student characters so it makes sense most of them are in their teens. But otherwise for adult characters they tend to be around 25-45 or so. 

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I will NPC children, but I don't make them actual characters. I've got no interest. I just can't get into that mindset, either, because kids are so smart and can say the wittiest things, and then suddenly they're going on and on giggling about butts. They're so insightful and bright, but they're still KIDS and it's hard to genuinely write that balance without making them seem too young or too old. The same even goes for teenagers, who are so adult and mature in so many ways, but are still children with that kind of mindset. Most shows and books even get it wrong. (One of the ones that did it so, SO right, though, is The Last of Us. They were so good at capturing a young teen's maturity but also childishness.)

 

I think the youngest I can feel comfortable going is 16? But even that's rare. My happy place is 18 and up, with most falling in their 20s and 30s.

 

My current oldest is 67. 8D She's a matchmaker by trade!

 

And, amusingly, I have a 51-year-old slave trader (TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING!) who gets all the hot young studs. It cracks me up, because she's sooo awful. xD But she gets laid an awful lot. Total cougar. |:

Edited by Viscount Rhi-Rhi
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I love writing variety of ages! My main characters are aged from 18 to 80. Human characters xD My youngest immortal is 1500, and then up to 8000 there... toss an "ageless" or two in. I NPC characters from all ranges of newborn to old as the earth though I do not like using a child as a main character... I just like throwing in a variety of different ages, trying to decide how my 18 year old would act opposed to my 40 year old, etc. Noticing how a personality type changes from youth to older/wiser character.

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For the question of my character ages, I like to have them be within 5 years of my actual age, at least in appearance and mentality/behavior, if I can handle/manage it, or i like to have them be younger, closer to their early twenties, just old enough to drink but not old enough to be considered "mature" or seen as much more than "young and dumb/inexperienced". As for why some sites discourage or ban older or younger characters, here's ----some---- of my thoughts on the matter.

The site I'm (excruciatingly slowly ) building prefers characters between the age range of 18 and 40, or, if they're non-human, between 18 and 100 with slower aging. I might raise the age cap a LITTLE, but right now that's what it's sitting at. I fully believe younger characters could fit into it, and I know without question that older characters certainly have a place in it. However- for various reasons, I don't plan on allowing them, because-

Younger characters:

1. The site is supposed to be 18+, because there's going to be a lot of language, sex, violence, and substance abuse, probably, because it has partially to deal with organized crime. To avoid confusion about ages and certain other problems I can see happening, I'm say all characters must be 19+, and all members must be 18+.

2. While I have nothing against younger players- well, not entirely nothing. To quote a song with parody lyrics, "Teenagers bug the living h--L outta me." But that's just personal preference.

Older characters:

1. They unquestionably have a number of spots where elder age is just about a requirement. However, I anticipate a lot of fighting and violence, and it's not that I don't believe certain people can do it, but that I think their bodies won't be able to hold up as well as a younger person's. In Human terms, I would say between forty and fifty, that's when even the above-average person is probably past the point where they should be doing heavy hardcore stunts. I'm trying to create a scale that would be reasonable for others that age slower, which is why the non-human count is so much higher. However, when it comes down to it, one could argue that characters who are "past their prime" just won't be able to keep up as well with certain things. I realize there's probably going to be a few "living legend senior citizens" but I also want to be semi-realistic and have these longer-lived people be just as mortal as humans, which means even though they live longer, the various diseases and violence cause a lot of "early deaths", so not much longer.

2. in order to prepare for potential future events, or to leave spots open for people to design more "recent" "historical" tidbits, trivia, lore, and other such things, meaning there's stuff I'm hiding too, I'm putting an age limit on how old a character can be so that certain things remain a secret and we don't have people going around saying "yeah, I knew this character" and they portray that character completely different from what the lore suggests, or from what the admins or staff have planned for it. The problem I have with long-lived "immortal" characters is that they could make their character be, say, 2,000 years old, say n one of their threads that "such and such a thing never happened" when others are unaware of it, and then later when an event happens that said the thing did happen, t creates massive inconsistencies for characters and could royally f--k up somebody's personal character plots.

Still, older and younger characters certainly have their places, but not in all roleplays. For example, if you're running a high school site, you're probably gonna have a lot of 35+ teachers and staff and a lot of 17 and under students n a semi-realistic setting.

Edited by Sparky Muse
I accidentally included a swear 0.0 Bad Sparky. No treat for Sparky.
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I like most ages. A lot of my characters fall into the 20-30 range, I admit. But I have 40-50s (I love playing parents) and our site actually has a whole "sub-culture" of kids discovering the supernatural world. I guess think something like Stranger Things or Gravity Falls. It's a group of kids (sometimes on bikes LOL) seeking out all the crazy supernatural things going on in their world. I absolutely adore that we have this sub-culture going on because I haven't been able to play kids in a long time.

 

Listen, I spend a lot of time with kids. I have nieces and nephews. I've worked in daycare and will probably be doing so again in the near future. I do wince when people make kids act in ways that I'm like "Um, that's really age inappropriate" but kids are also people and there's a wide variety of kids. Sometimes there are seven year olds that still act like little babies because people coddle them and sometimes you've got a smart-ass spouting off swear words at the same age! 

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8 hours ago, Viscount Rhi-Rhi said:

I will NPC children, but I don't make them actual characters. I've got no interest. I just can't get into that mindset, either, because kids are so smart and can say the wittiest things, and then suddenly they're going on and on giggling about butts.

 

I'm pretty much like this. I tried playing a child character once, but I just could not write one very well and later on in my RP career I tended to go for older characters. The oldest I'm playing right now is a character at the age of 70 (though with them being not all human, it means that theyve got a slightly extended lifespan, though not hugely so).

 

I've noticed I don't really ever pick up characters who are under the age of 30 anymore and I'm sure it has something to do with my own age and how I enjoy playing characters with some experience and years under their belt. I know I couldn't play a child or a teenager, and I would not personally enjoy it, even if some of my characters can still act very childish, either way!

 

There have been discussions about character ages before and sometimes I've seen people commenting that it's difficult to get good plots with an older character, but I haven't really noticed this trend? I guess it depends on what the boards are geared towards plot-wise.

 

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I don't mind playing any kind of character, strange enough I play more women then my own genre lol. But I had also a player that wanted to play my characters child, that were some fun interactions. So yea if the rules in your own writing group are clear, then there should not be any problem 🙂 

 

Thought one minor thing I would add, if you got a Mature status group, I would disallow child characters, simply that it is not something that a child would/should see. 

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I NPC characters under the age of 15. I have and do play 16+ characters. Younger characters are easier to play in environments that promote them (like schools etc). However if you have a smart young kid they aren't going to talk to strangers so the only time they are going to meet people is if they are talking to mommy and daddy and that leaves little to interact with.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with @Dragon and her points about smart fucking kids and active geriatrics. My daughter has been using the stove since she was 5 years old, she makes some of the best grilled cheese sandwiches in my house.

 

I also play older characters. I tend not to stray much past 60ish but that's more for the same reason I don't play characters under 16, it's a pain in the ass to find decent plots for them. I do however have a counterpart to Dragon's character that I don't even remember her age off the top of my head that I play and she's fabulous to play.

 

Really I play the character I feel is right for the role. Whether that's the young tiny ass crazy Doctor genius or the rusty old uncle that has trust issues. I play the character for the roles I want to fill for the stories I want to play. Age is never the issue in the end.

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As an admin, I don't allow any characters under 18 on any sites that are 3/3/3 or 18+. Member wise, I won't join a site rated like that if it allows characters under 18. 

 

The majority of my played characters are 25-40 but I've NPCed everything from toddlers to grandparents. I can't seem to write characters younger than their early twenties to my satisfaction, at least not full-time. I've only really done it once and I feel like I'm getting better, but I also don't see my general demographic changing much. Mostly I've had adult characters with kids that I'll NPC from time to time, and I've written against them as their parent or older sibling. 

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