>The only "problem" comes if you are playing the same character
>continuously from their impetuous youth to their dotage, finding a way
>to reduce their "Young" and then increase their "Old" at a reasonable
>rate, and without them ever being both at the same time...
>
I agree. The "Aged 10W2" ability works best for NPCs. For PCs I prefer
to have old age represented (if the story needs it) by specific
handicaps like "Bad Back 5W" which would either be given to the
character through narrator-player discussion or through some in game
event like a illness or injury sustained during play. Thus the handicaps
would have specific effects on the story rather than something generic.
"Alexas the Bold tries to scale the castle wall, but he never quite
recovered from the Rinliddi Flu he survived two winters ago so he is
still a bit short of breath."
This also has the advantage of giving the players something specific for their hero to overcome in play through heroquesting, finding a magical herb, winning the aid of a famous physician, etc.
Also, the accumulation of small penalties becomes a problem much faster than single large abilities like "Aged 10W2" which have to increase by 10 points of ability to generate a point of negative augment.
Exactly how I would play this out I am not sure. Basically, once the character is old enough for this sort of thing to become relevant to the story I would (as narrator) start introducing health related challenges that wouldn't be there for younger characters. Or I might introduce a Pendragon style end of year health event check. Or we might just wing it. <shrug>
~Kevin McDonald
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