Age (Fundamental)

Age Categories

Though some races are effectively immortal, growing old usually has an effect upon a character. The inverse is also true - a young character has much to learn and may not be physically capable yet. The charisma of younger characters is also considered to be somewhat lower due to the fact they are still learning social skills and are often considered lesser by their elders.

To determine the Age Categories of a race, a Lifespan is selected that corresponds to the race's life history. The ages given are in years.

Aging
Lifespan	Example	Baby	Infant	Child	Youth	Mature	Middle Aged	Old Aged	Venerable	Maximum Age
Short	Orc	0-1	2-3	4-8	9-13	14-29	30-44	45-60	60+	+2d10
Average	Human	0-1	2-4	5-9	10-14	15-44	45-59	60-70	70+	+2d20
Lengthy	Half-Elf	0-1	2-4	5-9	10-14	15-61	62-82	83-124	125+	+3d20
Enduring	Dwarf	0-4	5-9	10-19	20-39	40-124	125-167	167-249	250+	+2d100
Boundless	Elf	0-4	5-19	20-49	50-99	100-174	175-232	233-349	350+	+4d100
Immortal	?	0-4	5-19	20-49	50-99	100-199	200-399	400-599	600+	+5d100
Eternal	?	0-4	5-19	20-49	50-99	100-499	500-999	1000-1999	2000+	+10d100

Age Category

The total effects of each Age Category are listed below; a character alters their character as they move from one to the next. Thus, a character who is Old Aged suffers a -3 to Strength, -1 to Dexterity and a -2 to Constitution but gains a +1 to Intelligence and +2 to Wisdom, as opposed to BOTH this and what is listed in the Middle Aged category.

Age Category Effects
Age Category	To-Hit	Toughness	Vitality	Size	Base Move	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Baby	-10	-2	1/2	-3	1/6	1/5	1/5	1/5	1/5	1/5	1/5
Infant	-5	-1	1/2	-2	1/3	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4	1/4
Child	-2	-1	3/4	-1	2/3	1/2	3/4	1/2	3/4	1/2	3/4
Youth	-1	+0	3/4	-1	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	3/4	Normal
Mature	+0	+0	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal
Middle Aged	+0	+0	Normal	Normal	Normal	-1	Normal	-1	+1	+1	Normal
Old Aged	-1	-1	3/4	Normal	3/4	-3	-1	-2	+1	+2	Normal
Venerable	-2	-2	1/2	Normal	2/3	-4	-2	-3	+2	+3	Normal

Derived Attribute Penalties

This is a penalty applied to the character's attempts to attack, their HP and VP and movement speed. Younger characters are also generally smaller.

Attribute Modifiers

Attribute Modifiers do not apply to Base Attributes as these reflect the character beyond the effects of aging - typically their effective potential. Below Mature they are a proportion of what it will become.

Relative Modifiers

If the character is below the Mature Age Category, things become somewhat variable - after all, a child striking another child is effectively fighting on the same terms. For every Age Category their target is below Mature, decrease the effective penalties (including to Attribute Scores) by one step providing the target is of their Size or less. Ergo if a Child attacks another Child, they do not suffer a penalty and their Strength would be considered their full Strength score; if they try to attack a Hill Giant Child, however they would still suffer this penalty. Meanwhile, if the Hill Giant Child chose to strike back they would do so at no penalty and would be considered to have their full effective Strength value.

These relative apply to To-Hit and Attribute Scores.

Language Ability

This determines the capacity of the character to communicate in their Own Language (the primary language a character begins with) and Other Languages (all other languages the character knows before spending any Language Points). Their default levels of Fluency and Literacy are given for Own Languages and Other Languages. This has no effect on Languages bought with Points. Beyond Youth, there are no significant changes to this baseline.

This only represents a standard progression - Literacy is not a given everywhere and a character may know many more languages if brought up in a multilingual community.

Language Ability
Age Category	Own Language Fluency	Own Language Literacy	Other Language Fluency	Other Language Literacy
Baby	Simple	None	None	None
Infant	Limited	Simple	Simple	None
Child	Complete	Limited	Limited	Simple
Youth and Up	Complete	Complete	Limited	Limited

Age Category Effects

Baby

Babies use 1/4 the race's full HD - a Goblin normally has 1-1 HD, so a baby has 1/4 HD, whilst a Hill Giant normally has 12+1, thus a Baby giant has 3.

Babies are only to speak using Babble - they cannot readily control when they make noise and their emotions are always apparent through their 'speech', though their speech is Incoherent. Due to this, they generally cannot cast spells.

Babies begin with none of their Skill Points and cannot spend Combat Proficiency, Skill Proficiency or Bonus Points, except where applicable on Traits. Regardless of Class or Race, they are considered to have no natural Combat or Skill Proficiencies though they may have Traits.

If a Baby has an Active Ability or a Talent, it has a 95% chance of automatic failure.

Babies using Land Move are considered to move by Crawling unless they are able to make a Climb roll - this Climb roll is not effected by the 95% chance of automatic failure, but must be attempted for each round they attempt to walk normally.

Babies do not possess Classes or Levels normally.

Infants

Infants possess 1/2 the race's full HD - a Goblin normally has 1-1 HD, so a baby has 1/2 HD, whilst a Hill Giant normally has 12+1, thus an Infant giant has 6.

Infants are able to speak and learn languages normally. Any They may spend Combat Proficiency, Skill Proficiency and Bonus Points if they have them though permission from the DM - typically, they cannot spend these on much besides Skill Feats and Traits.

If an Infant has an Active Ability or a Talent, it has a 50% chance of automatic failure. They do not possess Classes or Levels normally.

Childhood and Beyond

Children possess 3/4 the race's full Hit Dice; a Goblin Child has 3/4 HD, a Hill Giant Child has 9 HD. After this point, they gain full HD.

Once a character is a Child or older, they may choose a Class, though due to the dangers of adventuring and the limited agency of juveniles in most cultures, it is rare to begin adventuring before Maturity.

Once the character choose to become a Class, the character is considered Level 0 and Inexperienced. Players may choose to be Inexperienced or not if they enter play as a Child or older but, if they age from Infant to Child, they begin as Inexperienced when they opt to choose a Class.

Maximum Age

The character's Maximum Age is rolled upon attaining Venerable. It is equal to the minimum age of Venerable plus the a dice roll determined by the Maximum Age modifier and any other tags possessed.

Once a character reaches their Maximum Age, they must make a Saving Throw vs. Death every month with a cumulative -1 penalty. On a a success, they suffer no ill effects. On a failure, they take a level of Aged. This causes the character to progressively lose Maximum HP, VP and FP as well as further penalties to Move and Attributes. Aged cannot be removed without lowering the character's age below Maximum, by Divine Intervention or by Wish. Once a Character's Maximum HP or VP is 0, they are Dead.

Unusual Life History

Some species, notably dragons, do not age in this manner and gain different bonuses and penalties from aging. If a race or monster has this, it will be discussed on their race or monster sheet.

Lifespan Modifiers

These Lifespans are a base, altered by numerous other tags the character's Lifespan possesses.

Short Lifespans

Rapid - Decrease Age Categories by 1/4. Lower the results of Maximum Age by 1/4.

Very Rapid - Decrease Age Categories by 1/2. Lower the results of Maximum Age by 1/2.

Extremely Rapid - Decrease Age Categories by 3/4. Lower the results of Maximum Age by 3/4.

Vulnerable Age - Decrease Dice rolled for Maximum Age by 1, to a minimum of 1, for each level of Vulnerable Age.

Long Lifespans

Delayed - Increase Age Categories by 1/4. Increase the results of Maximum Age by 1/4.

Very Delayed - Increase Age Categories by 1/2. Increase the results of Maximum Age by 1/2.

Extremely Delayed - Increase Age Categories by 3/4. Increase the results of Maximum Age by 3/4.

Lasting - Increase Dice Rolled for Maximum Age by 1 for each level of Lasting.

Strange Lifespans

Adaptive Life [Type] - Upon reaching Maturity, character's Lifespan is altered to another type. They retain Maturity but only become older Age Categories once they have reached the age on their new Lifespan. Add their current age to all Age Categories and Maximum Age to determine when they reach the next Age Categories and what their Maximum Age is.

Distant - Upon reaching Maximum Age, character does not check for Aging. Instead, something unusual happens, discussed in whatever grants them this tag. Whenever they would experience Aged they instead experience something else, determined by their form of Lifespan, such as an urge to head to a mystical land, never to return.

Disconnected - No Bonuses from Aging above Mature

Fullborn - Mature begins at Age 0

Timeless - No Penalties from Aging above Mature

Transitional - When a character would normally gain Bonus Points from Age above Venerable they instead may opt to lose up to 5 points of Combat Proficiencies, Skill Proficiencies, Traits that are not Inherent Traits and Skill Points worth of Language Points. In exchange, they gain these as Bonus Points - forgetting what they know as time goes on. As they do not gain from this, only change, they are not limited to 3 Bonus Points in this manner.

Undying - No Maximum Age - character continues to live indefinitely.

Age at Character Creation

The player may select any age for their character on Creation, though most characters are assumed to be at least Mature.

Creating a Younger Character

If playing a character Younger than Mature, be sure to record Base Attributes as separate from the one as altered by Age. In addition to this, record the character's original effective Derived Attributes.

From this, determine the character's current Attributes, Derived Attributes, Size and so on using adjustments from Age Category. Whenever the character moves up in Age Category, adjust these accordingly.

Younger characters have fewer initial experiences and so begin with fewer Skill Points. If Aptitude is used to generate Skill Points, the character calculates Skill Points using their current Attributes and gain further ones as their Attributes increase. If Trade or Standard methods of Skill Points generation are used, they gain 1/4 of them as an Infant, another 1/4 as a Child, another 1/4 of them as a Youth and the rest on Maturity.

If, for some reason, the character created is a Baby or Infant, they do not begin with a class and are treated as a 0th Level character and use racial HD as a base.

Creating an Older Character

If a Character begins adventuring later in their life, they have more time to develop skills. As characters may use time to train in game to effectively gain new skills between adventures, it stands to reason that these characters enter play having already done so.

In addition to gaining the bonuses and penalties of age, a DM may optionally allow these characters to begin with Bonus Points to simulate earlier training. The method used depends on how Skill Points are generated. If Aptitude is used to determine Skill Points, the character gains a portion of Bonus Points dependent on their modified Wisdom score; 1/4 if Middle Aged, 1/3 if Old Aged, 1/2 if Venerable. If Trade or Standard methods of Skill Points generation are used, the character gains +4 Bonus Points if Middle Aged, +6 if Old Aged or +8 if Venerable.

Beyond Venerable, for every 10% of the minimum Venerable Age they increase their age by, they may gain 1 extra Bonus Point. At most, they may gain 3 points in this manner.

Bonus Points gained from Age cannot be spent on Inherent Traits without DM approval but may be otherwise spent relatively freely.

A Character may begin at Venerable and then have the DM roll Maximum Age. If they do so, they can continue to increase their Age as far as they want, but if they push it beyond Maximum Age, they must make as many Saving Throws vs. Death as their final decided Age calls for and must, as such, potentially suffer from several levels of Aged which would normally cause the character to die. To prevent the Character from dying, they may, instead, default to any Age between the point when they would have died and Venerable and take the Bonus points and any levels of Aged they would have experienced. If they end up below Maximum Age, the DM may re-roll Maximum Age, though if it is lower than the new age, the DM must decide if the player must make Saving Throws again. As a recommendation, modify Maximum Age by 1d6-3, decreasing it by a negative value or increasing it by a positive value.