Except for the starting stat pool, are there any implications of very young or old age?
It seems (the way I see it) a very old character is capable in just a few game sessions to advance his stats to those of a 20-year old, and so is a kid. The implications of age do not stand to me as any kind of limitation or advantage, just fluff.
Is it intended to be this way?
I don’t know if it’s intended to be that way, but if you’re playing a game with a lot of social stuff going on, age is a big factor in terms of social status and what kinds of problems/situations tend to get aimed at a particular character.
Consider how youth are often ignored, how marriages are arranged, who’s is the right age to be called upon for war, what Circles are available for a given character, anything with romance (attraction, acceptable age gaps, jealousy, gossip) etc.
Chris
The age table has some interesting interplay with optimizing starting stats, but that’s it, mechanically.
Older characters may get more automatic respect, but they may also be viewed (fairly or unfairly) as feeble and past their prime, or even feeble-minded if old enough. Young characters may be seen as handsome, but will also be expected to be more less wise and more rash. Or maybe not! That’s a cultural idiom to decide at your table.
I asked a similar question before. The general response was that this is something to be handled by Trait Votes.
If you think your elderly character should have penalties, it’s a Trait Vote. If you think it’s reasonable that your elderly character not have penalties, state your case during the Trait Vote. If someone’s RPing their elderly character as a superman, and advancing his Power to ridiculous exponents, put it to the Trait Vote. A simple Die Trait voted in that lowers the stat caps fixes the situation up instantly.
Caliban, I wonder if you guys are handling test differently than my group. We certainly had the occasional stat increase, but they seemed to happen few an far between, especially for stats like Pow and Forte.
It’s not hard to advance stats in the B2 - B3 range, especially if you’re clever.
Though I don’t know that I’d call Power tests “few and far between.” There are many many situations where a character can conceivably test their Power. Forte and Agility, I find, are the least frequently tested.
It can be spectacularly hard to get B2 to B3, or worse, B1 to B2, due to the requirement for routines. A GM prone to “saying yes” can make it particularly hard to get to B3…
If you’re finding it hard to get routines, seek advantage, use forks, get help.
Sometimes it’s harder to get those difficults and challenging because you don’t want to forgo forks and help in order to have a decent chance of success…
Frank
Which you don’t get to do if the GM is prone to “saying yes”…
Straight-up tell your GM to stop that, because you’re not advancing when he says “Yes.” The AdBu covers this - Say Yes should only be used when there aren’t interesting consequences for failure.
And if they can’t think of interesting consequences, offer some.