Age Check

[Harroghty]

Mask added an age check today for MUD programs.

Code: Select all

if age($n) == 

i.e.  if age($n) == 50 would check for a PC who is aged fifty years
      if age($n) > 30 would check for a PC who is older than thirty years
      if age($n) < 30 would check for a PC who is younger than thirty years

Remember that ages vary between races and so you may want to use this check in conjuction with a race check.

[Kregor]

I have a few thoughts for the judicious use of this if check, like hardly using it at all...

Honestly, with a 5 minute / RL hour scale, ICly any human PC who's been around for more than a couple years is getting into middle age, and some of the legacy PCs are already well beyond the feasible lifespan of a human character.

Translation from RL to IC time when it comes to a PCs age should not be compulsory, unless we're considering enforcing retirement of PCs once they reach an appropriate middle age. (which, by the way, would suck for those who opt to play humans and shorter-lived PCs to balance out the glut of "rarer" races). Consider we have things like children of parents who would have been well beyond fertility in game years, not to mention they were at one point carried during pregnancy for 12 to 24 IG years. There's no way we can really treat the IG years of a character as hard set time in retrospect.

[Luthir]

Well, that might be so in normal life. But how many people in RL do you see getting 'heal'ed, resurrected, and things like that? After all, resurrection generates a whole new body - maybe a much younger version of the old one?

[Keltorn]

Well, that might be so in normal life. But how many people in RL do you see getting 'heal'ed, resurrected, and things like that? After all, resurrection generates a whole new body - maybe a much younger version of the old one?

As far as 3.5 D&D goes, there's pretty much nothing at all that's intended to be able to extend a character's lifespan. Well, besides not doing stupid things like getting killed.

It's always been my impression that this was done on purpose. No spells, no magic items... There's some classes that effectively stop aging at high levels (they don't get weaker, slower, etc.), but they still die when their time is up. The only thing that comes to mind (besides, say, lichdom) is an obscure prestige class that lets nonelves live a bit longer.

Resurrection is supposed to create a whole new body, and, arguably, it could be a younger version of one's self. But would you really want to get knocked back in years after a Resurrection? If your new body was from before you even began adventuring... Decades of physical training, gone just like that.

[Selveem]

Resurrection is supposed to create a whole new body, and, arguably, it could be a younger version of one's self. But would you really want to get knocked back in years after a Resurrection? If your new body was from before you even began adventuring... Decades of physical training, gone just like that.

To be fair, the body's age during resurrection would have no bearing on the loss of training aside from the 1 level (or Constitution if they were level 1). Resurrection does not restore life of someone who has died of old age. In fact, that doesn't even occur in the most potent of life-restoration spells.

There are other options, of course, to extend life. Wish and Miracle spells can accomplish this for up to an additional 1,000 years (or perhaps longer, provided your wording is perfect and your GM is feeling generous/properly bribed). If one has already died of old age, reincarnate is another option (though, chances are you don't get to come back as the race you once were!). Or, if you are lucky enough, your patron God/dess can deliver such a boon (i.e. Elminster).

There are other things in D&D that also accomplish this such as magical items.

In D&D there are really no great benefits to "unaging" aside from continual character progression beyond normal means and avoiding pesky ability score changes as a melee class. As a caster-class, aging just makes you more powerful!

[Kallias]

I think you guys may be freaking out about nothing. The top end on the check is 50...plenty young enough to be adventuring. If you're playing a human PC who code wise is 250 years old, I don't think it's unreasonable to be forced into an NPC treating you like you're 50.

Regardless, I can't imagine, with the history of this game, that Mask's intentions are to force people into playing "Forgotten Realms: Hordes of the Hospice House".

[Eltsac]

I think the oldest characters made at the very beginning of the game are around 70-80 for humans, it is old, but not that old for magic items gatherer... and nto enough to be dead when you are all powerful

[Nysan]

It may be a concerning area, but as Kallias mentioned, I really doubt anyone will suffer from its use for having an... established character. I saw this code used in the opposite way really. A means to safeguard right-out-of-the-temple characters from undertaking quests or entering areas designed for older, more experienced characters.

Honestly, many of us ignore the score sheet's age stat and play an age we wish to RP. Been that way for as long as I can remember. This code won't change that aspect of FK.