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Aging in T5

dalthor

SOC-12
I've been reviewing character generation, in preparation for "recreating" one of my characters in T5 - Dalthor Et Magera. I'll be posting the complete process, rationale, and history in a different thread. It'll be specific to my campaign - see the link in my sig if you want a bit more detail.

Looking at the aging tables, them seem a bit "dated" to me. Considering the technology and history of the Imperium, and looking at our current society, I have updated the life stages for my campaign.

Code:
Human Life Stages

No	Life Stage	   Years	Terms
0	Infancy		   0-1		1/2	
1	Childhood	   2-9		2
2	Adolescence	   10-17	2
3	Young Adult*	   18-29	3
4	Adult		   30-41	3
5	Peak		   42-53	3
6	Mid-life	   54-65	3
7	Senior		   66-77	3
8	Elder		   78-89	3
9	Retirement	   90+

This reflects what I see today, plus some fudging based on what I think is the minimum that would be available in the far future.

I'm also including the aging table I use IMTU for the Varans, my sophont race. If you scanned the Mikhail sector, and read Varan history, the table below reflects the aging benefits of the Winnowing.

Code:
Varan Life Stages (IMTU)

No	Life Stage	   Years	Terms
0	Infancy		   0-1		1/2	
1	Childhood	   2-9		2
2	Adolescence	   10-17	2
3	Young Adult*	   18-33	4
4	Adult		   34-49	4
5	Peak		   50-65	4
6	Mid-life	   66-81	4
7	Senior		   82-97	4
8	Elder		   98-113	4
9	Retirement	   114+

Do y'all feel that these would be logical updates to aging, based on what you'd expect to see in the Traveller universe?
 
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Your aging table for Humans looks about right to me for the Traveller Universe, at least for fairly high Tech Level planets. At the lower Tech Levels, like say 5 and lower, your life expectancy is going to be a bit lower, although part of that is going to be a result of a higher childhood death rate, and deaths due to childbirth complications.
 
Nice.

I dig your new table, especially since one the first characters I created in T5 didn't die until he was 115 years old. So, yes I think the ages are valid, though as timerover51 pointed out if you want to be proper about it you needed the low tech Aging Table too. Which could also be used for Poor and Hell Worlds.
 
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I tend to have weird ideas and philosophy, so be prepared to discard parts or all of what I say but I hope one day someone will find a gem in the manure.

Looking at each of the categories I can see some I could define by physical capabilities and development as one ages (Infancy, childhood) and others are more about accumulated knowledge and life experiences.

There was a time when life was about a lot of hard manual labor and during these times often children were required to "mature" early, be productive, take responsibility, start reproducing, etc.

Then there was a time when mass production, books and schooling, made life easier and knowledge important. In gross generalization, it took longer for children to "mature" and gain the knowledge and experience the new society considered necessary to be a productive member.

Now days, instead of mass teaching to the lowest common denominator being the main method of "maturing" and learning, kids have ready access to information and can learn what they want when they want. Some people think kids are "maturing" earlier these days.

I think it's possible this may reverse or maybe cycle back and forth as technology advances. Information at the fingertips (sometimes based more on government than tech level). Better teaching and learning methods such as individualized teaching styles via computer for each student, futuristic holographic simulators. Then there could be increasing educational, knowledge and experience requirements to be productive in a world where everything is cutting edge new tech and the overall understanding of physics, chemistry, biology, etc keep expanding.

Next topic, is the older people and retirement. While people are living longer and are productive longer as medical science advances, I can see a variety of societies as a outcome. Our Sci Fi and real life has examples of societies where population grows beyond the resources available. We have SciFi and real life examples of population controls. There is the extreme of terminating people over a certain age.

Higher technology should mean automation, machines, and robots do most of the work and people don't have to work as hard or as long. Full retirement could be after 40, 30, or 20 years of working because jobs are scarce but food, power, housing and other necessities are easily produced and maintained. Some governments may not like this idea. People with free time are a threat. Got to keep the people down.

So, in summary, as with most things, it's complex and there are many variables to consider. It's not just the TL. A worlds government, wealth, agricultural capability, population, societal customs and other factors could influence an "aging chart".
 
Good comments from all.

I agree, time and circumstances would dictate the aging table to be used in any given situation.

Thanks to the discussion to date, I'm actually going to have all 3 in my campaign, and let tech, population, and other factors be the deciding factor. I may even create a "shorter" lifespan table for things like hellworlds and so on.

Appreciate the feedback!
 
I think having different life expectancies based on Homeworld birth is a good idea, rather than impose an Imperial standard.
 
White Dwarf issue 40 published a letter from me (some 34 years ago - ouch) in which I suggested that for every TL above 7 the effects of aging were delayed by one term. Andy Slack referenced it a year later in his article on medicine in Traveller. It doesn't seem dissimilar to your suggestion. (I'm very new to T5 and still getting my head around the gas giant atmosphere tables.) Dalthor's post suggests there's nothing like this in T5, which surprises me.

Hi all, by the way. I'm new here.:)
 
White Dwarf issue 40 published a letter from me (some 34 years ago - ouch) in which I suggested that for every TL above 7 the effects of aging were delayed by one term. Andy Slack referenced it a year later in his article on medicine in Traveller. It doesn't seem dissimilar to your suggestion. (I'm very new to T5 and still getting my head around the gas giant atmosphere tables.) Dalthor's post suggests there's nothing like this in T5, which surprises me.

Hi all, by the way. I'm new here.:)

Welcome.

I have to say, that's the first post in this thread I might not dislike. I admit to being quite a hard-head when it comes to the core numbers in the rules: "if they ain't broke, don't even lean towards transhumanism".

A more organic(?) approach might be to use the TL, itself, directly in the aging task somehow. There are lots of ways to do this. One simplistic method:

Roll Life Stage or higher, OR, if it offers better odds, roll TL or LOWER, to avoid aging penalties.

Yeah, that one's fraught with peril, but you get the idea.
 
Actually, to be honest, I don't get the idea yet. I'm too new to T5. There's an aging task?

But I'll get back to this when I get to that point in the rules - and I love the idea that you think your own suggestion is drought with peril. That's my kind of Traveller.
 
Dalthor, great ideas in that table.

CosmicGamer, excellent points.

We discussed this while playing this afternoon, looking more at the impact of medical technology on longevity, let alone the impact of anti-geriatrics and anagathics on society. The idea of Travelling came up and where that fit into the stages of life (& what would we be doing if someone had a character that stayed in the services until well into their 60's, which led to a discussion about just how many skill levels could a character accumulate, 7 the limits of human learning... we did get back to the game eventually)

A more organic(?) approach might be to use the TL, itself, directly in the aging task somehow. There are lots of ways to do this. One simplistic method:

Roll Life Stage or higher, OR, if it offers better odds, roll TL or LOWER, to avoid aging penalties.

Thanks for the focus robject: I think it's easy sometimes to get lost in trying to describe or model something without asking whether it really matters to the game and whether we're interested in processes or outcomes. I lean far more to the latter.
 
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