Character Ages & Birthdays

[Absyinthe_Artica]

When it comes to selecting an age for your character to be, how do you decide? Are there any specific ages you can play well? Are there any ages you won't even think of making a character? As well, when you decide the birthday of your character are there any specific ways you decide? In my experience, I usually only put the month and the day, because in various role-plays the year can be a bit wobbly. So let's discuss all about Character ages and their birthdays!

 

[Moogle-Girl]

I always figure out personality and culture first, because my characters' ages are used to complement them.

My characters are almost always retools of existing OCs, so everyone already has a culture they belong to. Humans in my universe are often pressured to "grow up" and become independent much faster than the humans of our world, so a lot of my human characters are in their mid-to-late teens even when they act much more mature. (I'll often age them up slightly if the culture I'm shoving them into for the RP is significantly different, or the age limit in the CS calls for it.) It's also unusual for these humans to live past 60, so 30s or 40s is considered "old" and I only go that far if it indicates or complements something about their character I already had down. (They're immortal, they've seen a lot of shit, they have outdated mannerisms, etc.)

Someone of a nonhuman species calls for different rules. I try not to do any direct scaling (species A lives to be 50, and species B lives to be 100, so someone from species A at age 25 has the same maturity as someone from species B at age 50, etc.) since it doesn't make any sense; it's more about how fast the species matures rather than how long they live. That's why there's no easy way to accurately calculate your dog's age in "dog years"; it varies by size of the breed and how far they are into their lifetime.

Generally I don't have any limits on character age, but the only children I play (~ 10 or younger) tend to follow certain horror tropes. c:

As for birthday, I don't have any specific values down already because I don't care. If a CS calls for it, I'll usually start with whatever astrological sign fits them the best (lately I've been running some of my chars through a personality test to decide for me) and pick a random date in that range. So it changes a lot.

 

[Absyinthe_Artica]

That's really awesome~! Thank you for sharing. When I create a character, I also look at the astrological signs!

 

[Minibit]

I don't like to play teens, most of my characters are between 22-35

Birthdays... I pick a random date :P

 

[The Mood is Write]

Personality, culture, and impression. Those are my three keys. If I want a young bride in a historical setting, she's probably going to be under 18 years old. If I want a motherly character in the same universe, I'll double the young bride's age, if the woman has adult children, or I'll just give her a minimum of five years on the young bride.

For a non-historical setting, a young bride could be as old as 25 years old, because advancements in medical science have enabled longer lives, which means there's no rush, really.

As for ages I'll play, I'm up for any age, but I won't RP sexytimes with anyone under my state's age of consent (16), unless it's absolutely vital to the plot, in which case, it'll cut to black or something.

 

[Delusional IIV Idol]

I never do birthday's or even personalities, I know that doesn't sound good but I actually don't really do character sheets.
the age range I like to do is around 16-26 or something along those lines.

 

[Brovo]

Whatever makes sense for the story and the character. If a character is meant to be someone who's seen their fair share of shit, they're older than 30. If it's someone who's generally unaware of how terrible the world is, in their 20's.

There's an exception every now and then.

The only hard trend I tend toward with age and birthdays is with immortal characters. The older past "human" they get, the less human they become, in one of three ways.

• A. They become malevolent and cruel. After having seen dozens (if not hundreds) of generations of people be born, grow old, and die on them, they probably don't have the capacity to love people anymore. Hell, they might have a hard time distinguishing us apart. After all, just how many people can you really meet before you've got the gist of every potential personality combination out there? Can you really tell one ant apart from thousands of other ants?
• B. They commit suicide or are looking to die for a glorious cause to end it all. They've done everything, now they just want to fade in a useful way.
• C. They evolve past what is conceivably human, and I can't play them reasonably anymore. I can reference their existence, but not what they're thinking or feeling: They're physically beyond me to the point of being unintelligible.

 

[Absyinthe_Artica]

Thank you for your input! ^.^

 

[Kestrel]

When it comes to selecting an age for your character to be, how do you decide?

What do I feel like and what is plausible within the context of the story?

Are there any specific ages you can play well?

I'm in my mid-twenties so that's an easy one. I've been told I can do kids and teenagers pretty well, though I find myself detached from the latter as I grow older. Kids are fun, though, cause logic leaps.

Are there any ages you won't even think of making a character?

Well, characters tend to have speaking roles, sooo... Yeah.

As well, when you decide the birthday of your character are there any specific ways you decide?

Spin2win (pick something randomly.)

 

[Absyinthe_Artica]

Thank you for that!