Experiences Character ages in roleplay

[Ridge]

I would like to make one thing clear before I start, this is not a dig at those who may or may not play younger characters in RP.
​

So, I think we've all been in a various and wide range of roleplays in our times, where they can cater to all sorts of characters, whether they be old and frail or young or old. However, I have always found it curious as to why some people play very young characters, say under the age of sixteen/seventeen, when the Roleplay may contain adult themes such as romance, violence, etc. I've mainly been curious as these characters would be limited into what they are able to do, such as they wouldn't be able to fight and they wouldn't possibly be able to make as close relationships to other characters as older ones would be. Perhaps it's just me?

What's your thought on younger character ages?​

 

[Vasey105]

The only time I've seen really young characters is when it's an incredibly anime RP.
People don't usually go for young characters in a more grounded RP cause... well, you said it best kids can't really do anything and would be incredibly reliant on everyone for everything.

It could be cool to play a younger character I've just never seen it done.

 

[Sir Fungus]

My characters fucking 15,002 and he still looks like a young boi

 

[Vasey105]

My characters fucking 15,002 and he still looks like a young boi

Can't tell if just being sarcastic but I'm really not a fan of this, it's just so unimmersive and just straight up anime.

 

[official clown business]

Depends on the scenario. Generally, though, I don't do kids and think they are a burden. I'm hardly appreciative of age extremes in roleplaying either (good old 300-year old children am I right?) but people like what they like.

I have entertained the idea of creating characters who haven't and are incapable of living long lives, like maybe I have a professional warrior who is the same age as a pre-teen dude but their race hardly ever lives past 40. In a conversation of some kind, he might just casually say that he's been going through intense training and self-improvement rituals since he was 4 or 5 and his buddies from other races are just like, "say what now?"

 

[spookie]

i never really understood it either.

now, i suppose child characters can potentially add challenges to survival-type settings and i've seen this done well occasionally. that being said, the kids are usually secondary characters as they're pretty limited in what they can do and easily get boring to play.

i won't comment on the relationship aspect as i despise romance in all forms of media, but there's truly nothing creepier than seeing anime girls that "look nine, but she's actually eighteen!" and especially when they're paired up with teens or adults that actually look their age. most anime in general seems weird to me, but that's the one aspect that really put me off it.

really, aside from a few very specific settings focusing on younger characters, i can't see the appeal and will stick with characters sixteen and up in my own rps.

 

[Ridge]

My characters fucking 15,002 and he still looks like a young boi

Okay? But I’m not talking about the appearance of a character. Some characters look young sure, but when the character for example is say 12 in the situation of a battle, does it not seem slightly out of place?

Depends on the scenario. Generally, though, I don't do kids and think they are a burden. I'm hardly appreciative of age extremes in roleplaying either (good old 300-year old children am I right?) but people like what they like.

I have entertained the idea of creating characters who haven't and are incapable of living long lives, like maybe I have a professional warrior who is the same age as a pre-teen dude but their race hardly ever lives past 40. In a conversation of some kind, he might just casually say that he's been going through intense training and self-improvement rituals since he was 4 or 5 and his buddies from other races are just like, "say what now?"

Creating a character that doesn’t live long is understandable, I would say if you then have other characters it can give input into extending the story line and adding development to characters. Though when you say he has a conversation with buddies that he’s gone through rituals from the age 4-5 to improve his abilities I would desagree as it takes away the essence of realism, unless of course it’s a fantasy setting then of course this could happen and is understandable.

 

[Autodidact]

Child characters can add a very interesting aspect to a roleplay.
Though, I have to agree with you, with using children as main characters. Usually if they show up in my RPs, they're either secondary or NPC, because realistically spoken, children are just limited.

 

[Melpomene]

If you're like me, you don't roleplay with children at all. I always find that if a child is not needed to make a story work, it is best to keep them out of it entirely. They tend to be quite... a burden for the most part. Because they're a child, they aren't supposed to be able to do most things for themselves.

Now, that's not to say that having children in a roleplay is a bad thing. Sometimes they can add something to the story, especially if they are played right and even then, I admit that I prefer them as side characters rather than mains.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Well yeah kids can fight and they can fall in love. It's not like you only become capable of forming interpersonal relationships when you hit eighteen. And certainly even kids can defend themselves if they're in the right genre.

I mean sure if you're super realistic world and you have a person with a gun come around shooting people there isn't much a kid can do. But in fairness there isn't much an adult can do in that situation either.

In things like superhero or fantasy than yeah a kid can absolutely kick ass at any age. I mean look at pop culture ( Dick Grayson was nine when he started fighting crime with Batman, Harry Potter was twelve when his series started getting darker, Tamora Pierce is pretty much famous for putting people in the ten to fourteen age bracket in really traumatizing situations )

And yeah kids can also form close bonds with adults. It can be familial, mentor x student, etc. It just depends on the story you want to tell with the characters and the world it takes place in.

 

[fleurdelys]

a long time ago I had a character who was 11-12, and it was pretty fun to play her. children/preteens have a unique view on the world and the events around them, which I think can definitely be interesting to explore. kids are also quite malleable and can be changed greatly by their experiences, so engaging in character development from that perspective seems like it can be fun (at least to me lol). that said, I do agree that it's not always appropriate or helpful to play a child in every type of scenario/genre. but I think it's an idea worth considering, just as it might be to play an elderly person in certain situations.

to throw out an example - Clementine from Telltale's The Walking Dead (Season One). while she wasn't playable, she wasn't really useless or burdensome, and she brought a very interesting element to the entire story. playing a child in a roleplay with a similar situation would be just as interesting imo!

edit: as another thought, there's also the possibility of time-skipping your child character after some time and playing them when they're a little older?

 

[BackSet]

When it comes to character age I never really play lower than 16. This is because it seems logical. 16 is legal driving age after all (here in America at least. And even then there's all sorts of permits and requirements you need and crap). In general I tend to play characters more in the 20s age range who have really excitable and fun loving personalities. You know, the kind of people who, despite being able to be mature and make the right proper adult descisions, never truly stopped being a kid.

 

[memphis]

I do believe characters that are children limit certain aspects of a rp, and usually when young characters are written in scenarios where adult themes are involved it makes many people uncomfortable, myself included, but there are exceptions, and I have seen it been done well before. I would counter the notion that they can't fight or form relationships as close as older characters. I can think of a fair number of scenarios where children have fought, such as with young boys in ancient Rome. I also would like to say children are capable of forming close relationships just as adults are, though they might appear different than the type of relationships an adult would have, e.g. the bond formed with a guardian or caregiver vs a romantic relationship with a love interest. I do personally think that it's best to avoid any heavily romantic/borderline sexual scenarios when writing children, as well as extreme violence (think along the lines of torture, extreme gore, etc.), but a childhood crush or having a younger character in a scenario that could become violent, like an apocalyptic setting, aren't things I'd view as inherently immoral.

to throw out an example - Clementine from Telltale's The Walking Dead (Season One). while she wasn't playable, she wasn't really useless or burdensome, and she brought a very interesting element to the entire story. playing a child in a roleplay with a similar situation would be just as interesting imo!

Agreed one hundred percent! Also, in season two, Clementine becomes the main, playable character, and despite still only being around ten or eleven, she's definitely not helpless or a hinderance to herself or those around her. I think it just gives us a new perspective to look at things through, because a child looks at things from a different perspective and has a different worldview than someone well into their thirties would.

Personally, I enjoy seeing people write characters outside the narrow window of young adult to maybe mid to late twenties that I often see. This goes for both younger and older characters; I want to see more characters who are 35+ years of age being used! It's great in the sense that you broaden your horizons and learn how to write outside your limited worldview.

 

[Ridge]

In things like superhero or fantasy than yeah a kid can absolutely kick ass at any age. I mean look at pop culture ( Dick Grayson was nine when he started fighting crime with Batman, Harry Potter was twelve when his series started getting darker, Tamora Pierce is pretty much famous for putting people in the ten to fourteen age bracket in really traumatizing situations )

Ah, see I didn’t think of these. I can see how they now would and are indeed important to their stories. I suppose I was thinking for along the line of realistic role play than anything else. However I am sure now that there are certain children’s that would be implemented to achieve good things such as combat and close relationships.

to throw out an example - Clementine from Telltale's The Walking Dead (Season One). while she wasn't playable, she wasn't really useless or burdensome, and she brought a very interesting element to the entire story. playing a child in a roleplay with a similar situation would be just as interesting imo!

This is an excellent example in fact I can’t believe it never sprung to mind! (Being a big fan of the telltale sprites I’m disappointed in myself now.)

o believe characters that are children limit certain aspects of a rp, and usually when young characters are written in scenarios where adult themes are involved it makes many people uncomfortable, me included, but there are exceptions, and I have seen it been done well before. I would counter the notion that they can't fight or form relationships as close as older characters. I can think of a fair number of scenarios where children have fought, such as with young boys in ancient Rome. I also would like to say children are capable of forming close relationships just as adults are, though they might appear different than the type of relationships an adult would have, e.g. the bond formed with a guardian or caregiver vs a romantic relationship with a love interest. I do personally think that it's best to avoid any heavily romantic/borderline sexual scenarios when writing children, as well as extreme violence (think along the lines of torture, extreme gore, etc.), but a childhood crush or having a younger character in a scenario that could become violent, like an apocalyptic setting, aren't things I'd view as inherently immoral.

I may possibly still be waiting for that one person that d able to play out a Child well. And of course I believe the same that some subjects should be avoided with children for obvious reasons that I think many would agree in aswell. Though the Rome theory is interesting I am unsure if true as I’m not historian but I can see it to be along with the way of a close relationship with a guardian I like that and am happy to have now heard it in a different view.

 

[memphis]

Though the Rome theory is interesting I am unsure if true as I’m not historian but I can see it to be along with the way of a close relationship with a guardian I like that and am happy to have now heard it in a different view.

I also would not claim to be an expert in history, but I do enjoy history and have a general knowledge of it, haha. I know that in the ancient societies of Rome and Greece, child soldiers were common; boys in Sparta started their military training at the age of seven. I also know in the American Civil War there were definitely soldiers as young as ten who ended up serving, I think an estimated five percent of soldiers overall being under eighteen. So I guess there's also context to consider when discussing children in violent scenarios. Historically, it was just more common to see younger people and even children in situations that we might view as immoral now, not that I'd condone many of those things, especially in a modern context!

 

[Idea]

Well, as just about the only person in the whole site that seems to enjoy playing child (ten and lower) characters, I'd like to give my two cents on this matter.

It's true you can't do as many things as an adult would. Children are not without advantages, they are small, scientifically faster learners than most adults could hope to be, need fewer resources and can sometimes get people to take care of them out of sheer compassion which is much harder a feat with an adult character, but even so the limitations of being a child are in fact a price to be aware of. That said, they can contribute immensely to an RP and be pretty fun to play.

For starters, there is a shift in perspective that's quite curious. If you are a child you are not expected to know, but you still think you do. Children come with a packaged innocence you couldn't realistically expect from another character and they carry feelings on their sleeves that are much more mellowed out in adults. They can have personalities you'd never see an adult develop and dare themselves into situations an adult would never fall to. Plus they can be really fun to interact with as well, since they bring fresh and vivid interaction and they can bring it from even the biggest loner. It's a benefit for everyone and all it takes is one person to find it fun or interesting to explore the perspective of a character like a child. This is the tip of the iceberg, even generalizing of the entertaining aspects of a child's eyes.

But getting into more specific aspects in a roleplay with adult themes it's a BENEFIT to everyone to have a character who has the perspective of someone yet to achieve those feelings. Of a character who is an outsider with trouble so much as grasping what the rest are going through. This can also bring out sides of the other characters which would otherwise need NPC jamming to so much as appear, making it all less dramatic. One can bring up topics, or have characters react to situation or a presence which is not as fitting. Really if everything has to fit in your plot like a puzzle then you're likely doing something wrong, as you are forgetting that conflict is one of the most (and by some measures THE most) important aspects of a compelling story or even any story. So a character that is not bringing harm but can bring compelling conflict for everyone is really great. And what's more they double in being able to do the opposite, sometimes they can be voice of reason by lacking reason. By just being that factor that can pull the group away from the darkness and shine some hope.

Also, as rae2nerdy mentioned already, but children aren't dolls devoid of such themes. I think he meant more teenagers than young children like I am, but nonetheless it's a fact that childhood crushes are a thing and even if they are nowhere as serious they can be very fun to explore in a character as well, especially when constrasting it with the adults. And goes something which I kinda already mentioned and kinda didn't: Contrast. Pure, raw constrast to bring to light just how diverse the characters are and the quality of their characterization.


But let's say we ignore all the benefits a child can bring to making a story great and focus only on the combat. Can adults fly? Is every adult character born a fighting machine or a monument to maturity and complete understanding of the ways of love and romance? No, they aren't. Competence is not a criteria for whether or not a character should be included. When a player thinks of how competent a character is as opposed to how interesting it or how much of a benefit a character can be mechanically then you get those players making unstoppable badasses and mary stues all over. When you make a character you shouldn't be trying to win. You either want to contribute, want to enjoy that character or just want to have fun.

Sure, children characters are less independent, but so what? What GM in their right mind wants characters NOT to interact? Or is it that every interact needs to be lovey-dovey and not ever have any conflict between characters other than beating the shit out of one another?

Still, I can see ONE more argument as to why children characters wouldn't be in realistic RPs like that, and that argument would be "Well, why don't they go to an RP more suitable to those types of characters?"

And someone that says that may have a point if we're talking teenagers, but when it comes to people like me to who like to play really young characters well....

there isn't one.



The fact of the matter is that there is a huge bias against it- and it isn't even justified. There are roleplays where there is a reason for children characters not to be allowed, but we're talking incredibly specific scenarios then. If the RP is about a set of various people invited to an island to randomly becomes couples then sure that makes sense to block certain ages, but if you go and make a post-apocalyptic roleplay with a world-wide dissaster and tell me that children are all dead that's just shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[Whisker]

Depends. About the only time I like playing kiddos are medieval settings when like a 12 year old kid would practically be for all intents and purposes an adult. Think GRRM's ASOIAF as an example.

 

[DatBoi]

As someone on the younger side of the age spectrum, I would like to give my two cents on the issue ~

For me, a younger character is familiar. They’re easier to write, easier to understand, easier to make realistic. When I come across a plot that I really like, that I’m genuinely invested in, I like to fall back on that so that I can write to what I believe is my full extent. It’s only when I feel the plot is something I can play and experiment with that I attempt to broaden my abilities.

 

[Shuusuke]

The usual age range for my characters, which I assume is the same for most RPers, is from the late teens to early twenties, and that classifies as younger than me.

I've informally RP'ed a guy that is older than that, I'm not sure myself but he'd probably be in his mid thirties at least. I say informally because it was in an MMORPG and I liked to give some of my characters different personalities, not in any media oriented for RPing. Apparently it stuck, and a few people believed I was also around that age, despite me never saying anything to that effect.

I've also RP'ed a 14 year old, though, in a Neon Genesis Evangelion RP. If you don't know what that is about (it's a classic anime; action, psychological, sci-fi and more, I recommend giving it a check even if you have something against anime), the short of it is that only 14 year olds are compatible to become pilots of the robots used in fighting off creatures that want to destroy things and people. This is a reversal in the sense that the main cast are children, and there were few adults outside of NPCs. I'm a bit suspicious when it comes to the other way around, though. While it is true that a child among adults has a lot of potential as plot device for conflict and whatnot, I think it should be made clear whether said child will always be at the center of everything at the very beginning. If that is the case, I wouldn't like it. Making everything revolve around one character is just poor manners if you ask me, and I've seen people try to make RPs all about themselves just because they were RPing a teenager that acted like a younger kid in a murder mystery scenario. In Telltale's TWD, which was already mentioned more than once here, I personally didn't enjoy how much Clementine was a thing in season 1, but the idea behind a character like that in a zombie apocalypse is perfectly valid. Writing-wise, I think that they did it well, well enough that it made me realize I'm really not a good match for looking after children. But I digress, as long as it makes sense for the RP, is done realistically, and doesn't force others to focus on a specific character, I'm not going to complain.

 

[Hige]

Unless the character is a kid and their relationship is with another kid as a friend or an adult in a parental manner I tend to not use minors. But when I do it tends to be the offspring of a character.

 

[MISTER UN. 0W3N]

No fucking lie, one of the reasons I'd make a child character would be to crush people's souls. For one, the child has to make sense in the type of setting they're in. Two, they have to be able to pull something emotional out of a person other than "cute." Like, the character has to invoke a sense of innocence and naivety that makes some users love the concept in the overall setting. Three, growth. There has to be things that tests the character to show that they're able to grow positively and able to overcome hurdles with the older characters. Four... let them fucking die. The death either has to come out of left field (a sort of accident dealio) or, with careful planning, is killed off by another character. To have this "light" be robbed in the thread and have it cause an emotional trigger in someone (through fictional writing, of course) would satisfy my main goal of making a child character in the first place. It's the same dealio of artists trying to cause viewers to physically react to the piece than just the usual cues like using the color yellow to cause people to feel hungry or certain techniques causes viewers to physically feel repulsed.

Yeah... that's it. I'm a heartless piece of shit... but if I can do that with a child character, then I feel like I did a good job. Other times that I make a child character... yeah, they're actually a fucking God. Thanks SMT.