Age = Experience?

[Orphen]

Misleading title, I know, but it grabs eyes.

I'd like some people's opinions and discussions about how relevant you think a character's age is in the RP as it stands. Whether or not you believe that playing an older character justifies the right/ ability to create them more experienced with a more filled out history. I know personally I tend to gravitate toward making my characters older for that fact, I simply despise this idea of young prodigies becoming darths and council members or even on their tare, because 10 or so years of training, as said by Adena, is virtually nothing.

So, in short

Do you think age is relevant? Why?

Do you think that being older allows you justified reason to be more experienced/ more learned in the ways of things like the force/ life skills/ combat skills etc?

Do you think that younger characters should be a little more restricted from being INSANE?

(A good example is Ichabod Jayce, who was a darth in his 20's)

Though, this being said, there are many races in SW cannon that are/ can be very, VERY long lived and what said implications of these races could mean.

(Eg. Wookie, Diathim, Energy Vamp, Anzat, Sephi, and many others.)

 

[Padmé]

While being older generally comes with experience, and thus knowledge, that's not necessarily applicable in the game. People can create characters who are young, but have achieved much (within their respective factions) due to their experiences, and extensive training. At the same time folks can also create older characters who have zero clue about the Force, and yet while they may be experienced in other areas of life, can't do diddly squat when it comes to the Force.

I've seen both on the forum. A good example being Prosperos' older than dirt Jedi Padawan. The guy was incredibly intelligent/wise and all, but had a late start within the Jedi/training, thus his age had zero bearing on his abilities within the Jedi. Too bad Prospero didn't RP his full story out.

On the flip side, you have my Jedi Master, Maier.. She earned her rank by age 25 (I think). A lot of folks didn't particularly like the idea of a young Master, but I held my ground as Maier had extensive training since she was a old enough to stand. Her parents (ex Sith and Jedi Knight) trained her in the ways of the Force. Later on she joined the Jedi, at a rather young age, and picked up lots of training with Matt's Jedi before he went mental.

Reading through some of the RPs on the forum and how some folks have their newly minted Jedi Paddies command and exercise certain Force powers (without breaking a sweat) is almost laughable. Some of these skills takes years to perfect, but yet some folks RP it as though their PC's one month of training is sufficient to master a skill. Same with combat forms and etc, but I digress.

So yes, age while age has no bearing (IMO) with PCs earning rank/titles, the player has to bear in mind the experiences, and training needed to archive ranks/titles and play it in the PCs story.

 

[Master Maverick]

NOTE: This is all personal opinion. I am by no means laying down laws or rules or stating anything is going to change. Even so, I clearly don't have that authority, so... yeah.

Do you think age is relevant? Why?

Is it relevant in the forum and for RPing here? No. Should it be? I think so, yes.
The whole 'prodigy' thing is WAY overdone. As it is, all characters here are better/stronger/smarter than most regular characters, so we're all prodigies. Why, then, do you need to be a child one? It's lame, cheap and, again, cliche in its repetitiveness. I'll go into more detail below.

Do you think that being older allows you justified reason to be more experienced/ more learned in the ways of things like the force/ life skills/ combat skills etc?

It gives a more justified reason to be better than those younger than you, sure, but doesn't give someone the right to make a superawesomepowerful character, even though that pretty much always happens (unfortunately). For me it just goes back to realism. However, there are many people here who have different views (most that I would consider are skewed and wrong, but who am I to suggest that?).

Of course there are circumstances in stories that will change that, as Padme pointed out. I personally think Prospero's old Paddie character was awesome. he wasn't following the mainstream path of a character that was trained from birth to be super powerful and just pwns everything. That is probably my favorite; a mediocre character with real limitations. While I know I haven't gone that far, that is really only because I fear having my characters killed off by playing realistically while the other person is being completely ridiculous (in my opinion, of course). I know there's been whole discussions on that, but I don't have the wherewithal to just pump out characters. I understand that many people have put in a lot of time into their characters and become attached and then they die and they eventually get over it. That's great for them, but I don't want to have to deal with that until I'm ready. I have stories I want to explore and to have them cut short because someone wants to kill someone for whatever reason doesn't sit well with me. I have never, and will never, kill another PC for that reason (so I'm not a hypocrite).

I mean, just to give a personal example, while Ashara was trained basically from birth to be a Jedi, she was never anything special. She had to put in copious amounts of hard work, practice and training to get where she is. Yes, most of it was done in the bio before RPing, but that's why I made it so extensive; to justify that fact.
That brings me to your character, Padme. I was one of the people who disagreed with her rank. I still do. It's not skill that makes a Knight/Crusader or Master, or even a Councilor/Darth. It's wisdom, knowledge and experience. I don't care how much she did in those 25 years, it is my personal opinion that she wouldn't have the mentality to be a proper Master from the bio that I remember. And this isn't meant to be a slight against you. I know you can do it with absolutely no problem. I just don't care for the idea of a child (as that's what she would be considered by the other Masters) having so much authority just because she's 'special'.
I realize that's very old fashioned (in terms of OJO) of me, but it's purely my personal opinion. I don't mean to be attacking you, but I am questioning and disagreeing with your decision to push her as you did.

Do you think that younger characters should be a little more restricted from being INSANE?

(A good example is Ichabod Jayce, who was a darth in his 20's)

All characters should be restricted from being insane. Of course that's never going to happen (at the very least from my own standards), but of course I agree with that. There's really nothing else to put because it's just so obvious... >.>

I do, personally, agree with the fact that 10 years should be the minimum of mastering pretty much anything. At the very least it should be the average. Of course there are characters that are naturally talented, so it would obviously take less time for them to 'master' something. That's fine. Just explain that and go about it in a reasonable way.

There are a number with the mentality that being a certain rank means you have a certain power threshold, or a certain starting 'level'. The whole rank=level=power thing NEEDS to go. I know Sreeya has said more than once that Knights can be as powerful as Darths/Councilors - the opposite of that, then, should be true. Power and skill is not a requirement for rank, as I said above. Of course in this setting it's practically a necessity and I realize that, but the principle should be understood by more people. A spy, with virtually no combat skills, should be able to exist and flourish here, but that simply isn't the case. It's really a shame, too, because detectives and spies would be, pretty much, running rampant at a time like this, but they can't because people "have to fight" or whatever. And before it's said that people don't like them, there's a difference between those roles and a saboteur. Simply gaining information on people and places isn't a problem. These can lead to duels and skirmishes that would be awesome. Instead, bombs and other lame tactics are used to just autokill people or autodestroy places.

Though, this being said, there are many races in SW cannon that are/ can be very, VERY long lived and what said implications of these races could mean.

(Eg. Wookie, Diathim, Energy Vamp, Anzat, Sephi, and many others.)

I know Adena, for one, realizes this and RPs Skhai as though she has the mentality of a 20something. That's awesome and should probably be the case for all such species unless otherwise stated in wookieepedia.
I mean, I have a Neti that's almost 900 years old. I don't abuse that in the slightest. While she'd be able to hold her own against most characters in theory, that doesn't mean that, because of her age, I'm going to make her super powerful and be able to easily cast aside any and all characters that come at her. No, that's just stupid. If someone else had created her, though, I have a high sense of certainty that this would be the case.
There has to be a limit that's reached. A mind can only hold so much information. Even so, one can know the theories and 'how' to do whatever, but that doesn't mean they have to have the ability to do it at all, never mind 'master' it.

I mean, as it is, Ashara, with the same (if not more) amount of training, practice and experience is weaker than some characters half her age. That is completely ridiculous and the main reason why I refuse to PvP in any real capacity, or in the traditional style/way that seems to be used here. It's simply not fun when there's no challenge for either player and they just go through the motions as though it's nothing.

That was a bit longer than I anticipated, but not even everything I could say on the subject.

 

[Padmé]

Pffft. not mad at you, Mav. BUUUUT now that I know it bugs you, I'mma drop her age back down from 28 to 25. muahahahaha

 

[Empress]

I know Adena, for one, realizes this and RPs Skhai as though she has the mentality of a 20something. That's awesome and should probably be the case for all such species unless otherwise stated in wookieepedia.

That actually is also a really hard thing to do, but shockingly opened up a ton of development quirks.

Crystavians live ooh, 900 or so years, give or take ( not counting Tainted ones - force users) though almost none of them live full lifespans because of war or the " tainted ones" being hunted etc... so being semi mammalian like avian they still develop like birds/dinos... and put on physical maturity really fast- that does not mean the mentality is on the same level.

so with skhai this poses an interesting problem, as she was basically raised from late childhood with JEdi, and away from her own people completely...so shes doing things on a Human time scale- and now in her 80's you have ( and not to sound all horn blowing) but basically one of the most philosophically developed/erudite characters- insanely wise and a deep deep understanding of a ton of things, and has had a ton of time to really push herself.

the problem comes as Mav said...she has that " long time experienced master" side to her- and by human standards? 80 years of experience? thats a lot to take in. But upstairs? shes stuck in her 20's so there is always those conflicts with her ( Add in cultural identity conflicts too) and it shows up a lot, one moment shes the super ancient wise sage, next shes playing pranks on people or sneaking off to do something fun and not boring...

this really showed itself when dealing with jhon, and Lana- and while shes utterly dedicated and just naturally falling into that surrogate like momma role happily the over all strain got to her, more dealing with Jhon, whom she met him when he was a child, and here he is this wizened older gentleman- one whom actually shared alot of adventures with her- so they should be " very similar" in ways but he's got that human lifespan, things sink in differently, and he needed her to be that old friend- which she can't really be as far as being as worn and hardened and resolute as he is. And again her being on the council? what she knew, her abilities, and her ability to teach as well- may have earned her that spot- but really? her own padawan at the time was/is more mature than her in the end, and it did create a ton of strain.

now looking at a potential 10 years? thats nothing shes not changing at all, shes still going to be mid 20 somethings, perhaps alittle harder in some areas, but really not much- which you have her relationship with terris, whom is now late teens early 20's ( so more or less in normal differences of age in a couple) but after those 10 years...suddenly her mate is older and more mature than her, her closest friends are passing by

which I tink the whole thing to take form this " what seemed like off topic" but actually an example thngs shows is...when dealing with a long Lived species one really should pace them out, Now skhai has other flaws like her OCDs and such, but while she peaked fairly fast in ability and power and knowledge ( by her species standards) there needs to be a counter to that all, sure she may very well be one of the stronger force users..... but it does not mean shes the most resolute or confident in some things, or that shes really going to grow in that anymore rather than just refining what she has and plateau out for the next few centuries, I don't know fully, it's something that is a unique challange when dealing with long lived species...

the hardest part is not making munchkin or twink, or the illusion as such- given those to things are the worst character/gamer types of any rp style- and with time, experience, age all playing as a natural buffer- having something not a slave to our concept of time I think require delicate work.

 

[Orphen]

Wow... mav... that was conclusive. XD

Though I'm entitled to agree with you for the most part, though to another part I disagree with Adena, Just because a race lives for 1000 years does not necessarily mean that the mentality of the race works to the same percentage as human biology. Unless they have to grow ALOT like star dragons and Kadri'ra. Most humanoids bodies and minds I would imagine mature and grow at about the same speed, give or take maybe ten or so years.

It's defiantly a balancing act I agree, saying you're a 2000 year old Diathim I don't think gives you the right to master every force power known to the universe. But that being said, at the same time, so long as you explain it, it would give you a damn good reason for knowing a lot more than a 80 year old human, or potentially being a lot better than them at something. Though as I said it completely depends how you write it...

Okay so next question, it's been said that age doesn't "necessarily" matter, because the character could have just been smoking spice for hundreds of years. Though chances are that's not true, especially for a PC character. So the question is;

"If two people were say, fighting. Just fighting. How much do you think age potentially can impact the fight/ be used as a vice for power."

It's the "I've been doing it a lot longer, so I should be a lot better at it." argument. Which, to a point it a valid argument. My personal opinion is that a 500 year old pure combatant should 'in theory' be a lot more skilled and experienced than a 35 year old one.

And to add a real world example is that shaolin martial arts still have not been mastered, they improve seemingly ad infinitum, so i don't believe that skill 'ever' plateaus

 

[Empress]

It would work I think based on the species and their base, like with Skhai she is modeled developmentally more off birds ( and raising a ton in my life) they grow physically faster than they do mentally - IE my ducks reached physical size, but still had duckling brains and doing ducking things, takes them almost 2 years to fully fully reach full maturity ( even if they can breed in their first year- they still are not completely caught up for a while) so as I said it's tricky and depends a great deal on I guess the core path you want to take them, a counter example would be a danthiri which shares about the same lifespan but they age slowly and stay more or less on par developmentally with their bodies not being considered " young adult" until around 100