Child prodigies in RPGs

[The Insanity]

What's your opinion on child prodigies in RPGs?

[Knaight]

It depends on the specifics. There are games where they fit, games where they don't, and games which don't cover any material where they even have the potential to exist as NPCs. This needs narrowing down before it really means much. For instance, there's a big difference between games that focus on adventuring parties in lots of danger having child prodigies and games in which they are likely to come up in similar places as the real world. There's a difference between superhero sidekicks (where genre convention practically demands them) and military science fiction games (where they are horribly out of place). RPGs just cover too much territory to have just one answer.

[Maglubiyet]

military science fiction games (where they are horribly out of place)

Ender's Game?

[Knaight]

Ender's Game?

That would be an exception.

[Tvtyrant]

Or like any mech pilot game ever.

[Mr.Moron]

Or like any mech pilot game ever.

That's usually less "Child" and more "Teenager". When I hear the word child I think of someone roughly in the 7-11 age range or so. A bit younger than your typical blunders-into-it mecha hero.

Generally I think I'd only go for child characters (7-11) on the extreme ends of the mood spectrum. Either it's a bright and optimistic game where things don't usually go wrong so the kind isn't going to get hurt, or it's a dark and miserable game where everything is terrible all the time and a kid getting hurt is the least of it. It'd feel odd anywhere in the middle.

[Red Fel]

Or like any mech pilot game ever.

Seriously. Sci-fi settings are one of the few places where a child prodigy works. You have computers, so the kid can learn all of the necessary skills. You have technology, such as mech-suits or high-tech weapons, that can compensate for any physical inadequacies. In a land ruled by mechanics, the prodigy is king.

Contrast that with almost any other adventure. Sure, superheroes have kid sidekicks, and there are teen hero teams, but let's be honest, the solo kid hero is in a boatload of trouble, and not just because being brilliant is not the same as having a safe place to stash your easily identified superheroing tights. The kid in high fantasy is in trouble - he may be a natural with the sword, but he isn't strong enough to wield the real deal; he may have the proportionate magical power of a thunderstorm, but he has the proportionate physical strength and stamina of a six year old; he may have the unique ability to speak with and influence dragons, but that doesn't help him in a dragonless area against a team of sword-wielding bandits. Without something artificial to even the odds, the child prodigy is woefully dependent on the rest of the party to protect him.

And that's not entirely a bad thing; most parties experience a certain degree of interdependence, each person bringing some useful range of skills to the team. But the child prodigy, generally, is particularly skilled at one thing, and otherwise an ordinary child in other areas. Making him too skilled takes him from "child prodigy" to "Mary Sue," and nobody needs that. But leave him with only the one skillset, and the rest of the time he's a burden. He's too slow, or too weak, or too frail. Until his particular area of genius comes up, he's an otherwise ordinary child, and an otherwise ordinary child has little or no place on most adventures.

[Knaight]

Or like any mech pilot game ever.

Those generally stretch the terms "military" and "sci-fi" to their breaking point, at minimum. With that said, that would be another example of child prodigies often being appropriate, such as in the nightmarish action-horror game Bliss Stage.

[Karl Aegis]

Child prodigies are pretty much the only way you're going to find pilots for a bio-titan outfitted with sha sensors in Tenra. Doubly so if you want to use any arts of war while piloting your bio-titan.

[Rhaegar14]

To offer a somewhat different perspective, I think I would have a really difficult time ROLEPLAYING a child prodigy. I'm twenty-two years old and don't have any kids yet or significantly younger siblings, so there aren't any children that are a part of my day-to-day life. It's been a long time since I was a kid and I don't think I could really get myself to THINK like a child, even a prodigy.

That said, I agree that it depends on the tone of the setting/game whether they would be welcome.

[Mastikator]

I agree with Mr.Moron, it depends on the specifics. A child progeny able to compose good music at early age could serve as a VIP.

Anything combat/adventure related that steps on the PCs toes is probably a bad idea, but a kid who's a genius at art or science would work just fine.

[Yora]

Nobody gets to play a kid in the games I run, and no character get any advantages at character creation.

[Anonymouswizard]

I've never seen a 'child' PC, all have been in at least the late adolescent stage of their race's life, with the youngest 'human' being either a 15 year old werewolf (metis) engineer explicitly labeled as having just spent too much time studying, or the 16 year old laser guided tykebomb assassin. Although I have nothing against child PCs, as long as they have a reason, but would personally never play anyone with less than 14 years of life, with my normal characters being the exceptional people in their mid 20s.

[Maglubiyet]

I wouldn't feel comfortable gaming children in military situations. Maybe, MAYBE, if it was cyberwarfare or some other videogame style approach, like drone pilots vs alien bugs or something.

Any campaign that focused on child soldiers would likely be very dark. Kids should be protected from wars, not thrown into them. Using children to fight would be a desperate, last-ditch effort at survival.

[TheCountAlucard]

Youngest character I've played at present was sixteen years old; he's a genius European hacker dwarf named L3NN¥, and he's been hacking from the shadows since he was eight… and it's really messed him up.

Not quite on the level of the (depressing to think about) routine problems that come up in child soldiers, but he's still very far from stable.

[Knaight]

I wouldn't feel comfortable gaming children in military situations. Maybe, MAYBE, if it was cyberwarfare or some other videogame style approach, like drone pilots vs alien bugs or something.

Any campaign that focused on child soldiers would likely be very dark. Kids should be protected from wars, not thrown into them. Using children to fight would be a desperate, last-ditch effort at survival.

The few games I've seen that focused on it are among the bleakest games I know. Grey Ranks in particular stands out - it's about young teenage Polish resistance fighters in WWII, centered around a resistance that ended up failing horribly. I'd say that the vast majority of gaming groups couldn't properly handle that level of bleak. I know that every one I've ever been a part of (with possibly one exception) wouldn't be able to.

[hymer]

@ the discussion in general: A word (or name) of warning: Wesley (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CreatorsPet?from=Main.TheWesley). And 'tis a grave warning indeed. Hadn't seen it mentioned, thought it ought to be. Oh, and obligatory warning of TV-Tropes link.

[Luminestra]

I tend to not care what my players play so long as they can RP it well. That being said, I have never seen a child prodigy RP'd well. five minutes into the game they usually forget they are a child and get upset when they cant do specific things (such as go into the bar, or when people have trouble taking them serious).

[Frozen_Feet]

I tend to not care what my players play so long as they can RP it well. That being said, I have never seen a child prodigy RP'd well. five minutes into the game they usually forget they are a child and get upset when they cant do specific things (such as go into the bar, or when people have trouble taking them serious).

I dunno, being upset at not being able to do those specific things sounds perfectly in-character of a child. :smallwink::smalltongue:

I think the most heart-felt argument I've heard against playing children was that a typical RPG setting is a horrible place, and people would rather play their elf-games without having to think of horrible stuff happening to kids. Me, I don't really buy that, but then again, many of my players are horrible kids who have no qualms about imagining horrible stuff happening to other kids. As such, I'm pretty indifferent to the concept.

[Rater202]

I'm in a game right now were the Pcs are child prodigies.

but prodigy is more of a handwave-the system has age categories tied to XP, but very little mechanical effect tied to age category. We hand waved that our characters were prodigies so that we wouldn't have to have a timeskip with no growth in abillity after five episodes.

[Cealocanth]

Pretty much the only time I've seen a child prodigy RPed accurately is when there was an actual child playing the character. That doesn't mean that they weren't annoying, pestering, needlessly tactless, detrimentally curious, and generally made most of the other players want to kill them. I came to the realization that even in a game where you are basically playing pretend, a certain level of maturity is expected in each group. That level changes based on the group, but if you can't hold yourself up to that, it's immersion breaking. Although it may be inaccurate compared to IRL children, it's usually better to RP them as relatively mature, though inexperienced people, like Clementine in The Walking Dead. In other words, accurate RP does not good RP make.

[dps]

I'm twenty-two years old... ...It's been a long time since I was a kid


That's both funny, and a bit sad.

I'm 53 and still basically a kid. Which, granted, is a bit sad, too, but I think I prefer my situation to yours.

[Loth17]

I think they are cool if they are sorcerers, clerics or wilders as none of those require many actual years of experience from a lore perspective.

[BWR]

I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'prodigy'. The definition of 'child' can vary. In Rokugan, for instance, once your sensei and family accept you as an adult, you are an adult. This is generally around 15, but has canonically been as young as 12 in at least one case (Hida Rokhiteki). And some characters have been sociopathic, competent murderers at the age of 5 (Hida Kisada). In games like Ars Magica, set in a fantasy version of early 13th century Europe lots of people become adults at the age of 12. If we are talking about really specially talented kids who are far an away better than their contemporaries and many of their seniors, well, PCs in general tend to fall into this category so it's hardly surprising if it shows early. And as others have noted, it can be a very common part of the genre one is playing in.

In the games I've played and run, playing children doesn't happen very much with one notable exception. In that one we have a lot of children of other characters running around and being part of a very powerful, very visible family with immense political power, they are often the targets of kidnapping, political power plays, assassination attempts (and sometimes successful), supernatural events and more. Mostly they'll be good little victims and wait for their older and more experienced family to come along and save them, but in one memorable instance a trio of siblings were kidnapped. The youngest was somewhat younger than 10 and the elder twins were around 11-12 (I can't remember exactly). The twins, upon realizing something wasn't right, made a break for it and thanks to some lucky dice rolls got away. One rode off, the other hid in the nearby forest, resisted all temptation to rush in and save his little sister despite the dire threats from the kidnappers, followed stealthily on foot the kidnappers and sister who were mounted, without food and snuck in to their hotel room and killed most of them in their sleep with a sword he stole from one of them, then defeated the sole surviving memeber - an experienced soldier - and got his sister out of there alive. And all this was done with sub-par mechanics (he was a child after all) and some impressive non-fudged rolls. The real kicker? The whole affair was hushed up because the family didn't want it to get out that a scion of their house snuck around like a thief and killed people in their sleep (despite being basically trained for that).

[Earthwalker]

I am against them.

Podigy children in RPGs are just going to encourage children to be podgy in real life.
I say in all these RPGs make these children take more exercise and also switch to a healthier diet. I blame the fast food chains.

No more podgy children !!

[goto124]

I often act like an immature child even when I'm not trying to :P

[Feddlefew]

I've had one child prodigy-ish PC I've okayed. The elevator pitch was "14 year old noble uses ancient cursed censer summon an outsider to impress friends, summons pit fiend by mistake and is forced to become warlock to escape fate worse than death." Unfortunately the campaign never came together. :smallfrown:

I think, for D&D at least, it really depends on the campaign and the PC's class and backstory. I'd be more willing to allow child or teenaged thieves, sorcerers, and warlocks in my game than monks, clerics or fighters, for instance. And only in very idealistic and/or gritty games.

[Geddy2112]

It's important to remember that "child" varies wildly in high fantasy. A goblin at 12 is an adult, an elf at 12 is closer to infancy than adulthood. By the time that elf truly becomes an adult around 100, that goblin is dead or setting a record for longevity. This is just looking at the biology and not factoring in the fact that goblins have a much higher mortality rate due to violence etc.
Generally I am against any character that has not hit adolescence/adulthood/puberty of their respective species and tribe. Not from the fact that children can get hurt and die, but that children this young are generally helpless and useless-even prodigies usually wont surface as functional before puberty. They might have 1 thing they can do well, but are otherwise incapable of doing anything seriously helpful. Certainly race and culture play in-some societies let kids grow up, while others mean you have to start being an adult before your body fully develops. The kids in the former might be "adults" but not ready to face the world, but the younger "kids" might be ready to adventure having already seen the world with adult responsibilities.

As far as prodigies, most adventurers are not just Joe Blow off the street with nothing to offer, but none (should) start at level 1 being a demigod either. It really depends more on level than age- a character starting at level 1 is typically going to be younger and while they might have 1 or 2 things that set them apart they are not super special. A campaign starting at level 10 or so means the characters have made a name for themselves and seen life's hard knocks. Certainly most of these characters will be older, but that is not to say that the goblin who grew up constantly fighting for his life and rose to power from nothing, or the elf trained from birth to be a powerful wizard don't have a place.

I am currently playing a 14 year old Kitsune witch in a pathfinder campaign. Certainly above average intelligence, but by no means godlike or a prodigy, just a kid who likes math and has a fondness for arcane magic. My age has never been a problem in a world of adults, if anything it helps. Having a young face means people are more likely to trust me or not take me seriously, but since we are all evil we use this to our advantage.

Age is just a number. Some people don't mature till far past adolescence, some never mature at all. It was not all that long ago when humans were adults at 13, now most countries treat 18 as adulthood.

[Eisenheim]

I was recently part of a playtest for Young Centurions, for FAE, where all the PCs are essentially child prodigies of one kind or another, and that was tons of fun. I'm not sure I've ever seen them in a game where they weren't part of the expected design.

[Segev]

I never quite outgrew identifying with the child character in fiction, so I still have a predillection for playing kid characters. I won't claim that I was a child prodigy, but I was always a bit mature for my age as a kid, so playing a kid who's primary kid traits are a sense of wonder and excitement while having sufficiently mature analytic ability to function in a grow-up party is not too difficult for me.

And since I'm a power-gamer who likes having phenomenal cosmic power, the "prodigy" part is mostly built-in to any concept I'm likely to pitch.

That said, they can easily be obnoxious. I'm sure my own characters have come off that way to some. I know others I've seen who definitely have. They are very prone to being mary sues if one is not careful.

[Sith_Happens]

That's usually less "Child" and more "Teenager". When I hear the word child I think of someone roughly in the 7-11 age range or so. A bit younger than your typical blunders-into-it mecha hero.

Yeah, OP should really define "child" here. I'm currently playing a sixteen year old warblade in D&D 3.5 and don't consider him a "child" at all.

[Twice]

Personally I think children are fine. But there aren't any rules for playing them by raw so they wouldn't pass with half of my GMs. Part of the neigh half simply just finding children as an ill fit in their more graphic settings which is entirely acceptable.

EDIT: Elven Children are hilarious in my book.

[McStabbington]

They are a trope, just one that I've seen done well extraordinarily seldomly. In no small part, that's because the two traits conflict with one another: part of being a child is still having to learn and grow one's abilities and skills under the tutelage of those wiser and stronger than you. To create a character that violates that core tenet of childhood is to always ride the fine edge of a power fantasy I've long since stopped having.

Honestly, in those few instances where I do play children, I tend to explicitly avoid the prodigy trope for just that reason. My child characters may be surprisingly resourceful and capable for their age, but at they are still fundamentally children. My last child character was an eight-year old boy in a WoD campaign that treated his vampirism as a nascent superpower, in no small part because he was just an eight-year old kid who hid under the bed while a Lasombra ate his parents. Underneath the Batman talk was a deeply disturbed young vampire.

[Yukitsu]

I love playing as child prodigies, I've done about 4 games playing as one of various sorts. DMs haven't complained about them so far, I usually make it through OK.

[Freelance GM]

I allow child prodigy characters in my games with the caveat of "...if you're comfortable with the child character dying."

To me, a PC is a PC, and I can't give a player plot armor because their character hasn't hit puberty yet. It would be unfair to the other players. I make this very clear to the player, and if they aren't comfortable with the idea of their kid character's grisly demise, they are not allowed to play a kid.

That being said, one of the most unique characters a player ever played in one of my games was a child prodigy. The character was a Gnome Wizard with 18 INT and 5 WIS- the player decided the character was a child with Savant Syndrome, and role-played it accordingly. The character was a magical prodigy with a nearly eidetic memory; she was like a walking encyclopedia (read: put tons of ranks into Knowledge skills) but acted and spoke like a toddler. The character didn't completely understand how much power she had either- she would cast spells at things because they frightened or annoyed her, or because another party member kindly asked her to.
It was one of the best incidents of role-playing a low ability score I've seen, and the group had a lot of fun getting into/out of trouble because of the gnome.

[Segev]

My last child character was an eight-year old boy in a WoD campaign that treated his vampirism as a nascent superpower, in no small part because he was just an eight-year old kid who hid under the bed while a Lasombra ate his parents. Underneath the Batman talk was a deeply disturbed young vampire.

That sounds like a fun character. How'd he get turned? Did the Lasombra find him after all and decide not to eat him for some reason?

And, to be fair, Batman is a deeply disturbed child after his parents die, too. ;)

Vampires are an interesting thing wrt child characters: they might really be as young as they look, but they could be as mentally old as any adult, if not older. They're an excellent excuse to play an adult mind in a child's body if one wishes to.


Elven children are interesting because there are so many directions one can go with them. To me, the most boring is the idea that, physically, elves age at a human rate up to maturity; that leaves most of a century wherein these physically-mature beings are considered "children," which begs questions about their mental maturity and the prejudices of elven society. Are they "man-children," or are they adults who are irritatingly treated like kids anyway?

My own flavor of them treats their inability to sleep as a racial disability that they have to learn meditation to overcome. I've detailed it elsewhere, but in essence, elves can't develop long-term learning and form good, solid long-term memories until they learn to meditate. Since meditation requires learning, as well, it's a bit of a catch-22 to start off with, and takes a long while to get started. As they go too long without meditating, they become more fey, less focused, and more distracted by the wonders of the immediate present; when they come fresh out of meditating, they're the stentorian ancient beings of vast experience who find the immediate present to be hideously fleeting.

Finally, the other fun variant is the one that suggests elves grow at a proportional rate considering their age. So an elven kid is a kid for decades. Their mental maturity is more culturally influenced than physically (though some physical nature applies); they act like kids because there's no expectation they should do otherwise. (You can see, in human children who have been forced into grown-up problems like poverty and taking care of themselves and their sibilings, that humans, too, can act more grown up if life demands it. It's not a good thing, but it's visible.) This variant is interesting because it allows for an elven child who is still a child in relative years and physical form to behave with maturity more akin a grown human...if he was raised with humans and just hasn't grown physically, yet.

One of my elf wizard concepts is an elf kid who was adopted when he looked to be about the same age as, maybe a year or two older than, his adoptive human parents' 11-year-old son. His adoptive brother's grown up, gone into training, etc., and so the elf followed suit, wanting to keep up with his new peers, and trained as a wizard (given his racial proclivity). So he looks a child, but has the same training as a human wizard in his late teens/early 20s. And has the life experience of a grown human.

[GungHo]

I don't usually have people play them, but I have had campaigns around them... e.g. protecting the Golden Child.

[Ettina]

Like any character concept, they're good if done well and annoying if done badly.

[McStabbington]

That sounds like a fun character. How'd he get turned? Did the Lasombra find him after all and decide not to eat him for some reason?

And, to be fair, Batman is a deeply disturbed child after his parents die, too. ;)


Short short version? Lasombra didn't check the house well enough before deciding to crash for the day in the basement. The kid found him and attacked him with a knife. It . . . went very badly for both of them. As a consequence, there was a little diablerist running around the city with no clue what he was doing and convinced he was fighting vampire supervillians.

[Jay R]

No PC should get either more or less power or abilities because of the age or other fluff of the character.

Therefore, since real children have less power and abilities than real adults, any child PC should be more-or-less a prodigy - simply because they should have the same rough level or power and abilities as any other character.

[Segev]

Short short version? Lasombra didn't check the house well enough before deciding to crash for the day in the basement. The kid found him and attacked him with a knife. It . . . went very badly for both of them. As a consequence, there was a little diablerist running around the city with no clue what he was doing and convinced he was fighting vampire supervillians.

And the concept just sounds better and better. How'd he decide to drink the Lasombra's blood?

[McStabbington]

And the concept just sounds better and better. How'd he decide to drink the Lasombra's blood?

"Decide" is a bit too strong a word to use in this case. The kid suffered some serious injuries in the process of torporing the vampire, and between the weight and his blood loss and broken bones, didn't have the strength to get out from under the body when it fell on him before he bled out.

Little dude woke up ravenous and, unsurprisingly, found a way to get the body off him.

[Jay R]

I once played an 9-year-old Thief name David, in original D&D. His greatest moment was going up to a guard at the city gate while crying, and saying "I'm lost, and I can't find my daddy, and I'm tired, and I'm thirsty, and I'm hungry, and ..."

When the guard turned his back to get him some food, David stabbed him in the back.

[Honest Tiefling]

Personally, I am uncomfortable with characters under the age of 16, and even that is pushing it for me. I think it is a combination of factors, the first being tone inconsisenty. Too many times, the teenage or younger characters are extremely happy and cheery for going though mass murder. Then again, I hate it when adult PCs causally mention the slaughter of people as if it is a great way to pass an afternoon. I think the problem is more pronounced and more common with characters of a younger age.

The other problem is, why is my character doing this? Often I feel as if those who play such concepts expect others to go along with it. In many cases, I would agree, but I often find it hard to justify why my non-murderhobo has decided to bring a small child to a bloodbath with the potential danger of this child getting hurt or worse. If other threats like the undead or demons are afoot, it seems like a really bad idea overall to bring the kid along. I feel as if this can put certain characters into a bind that the player of the young character should address. Sadly, in my experience they do not consider this issue and wonderdery my character might have moral objections to this.

Doesn't help that I have had creepy experiences with online RP, and that people tried to make a Bliss Stage game in a nearby FLGS. I know that not everyone who wants to explore this concept is questionable, but damn did these things put a sour taste in my mouth.

[goto124]

How do you guys feel about adult-aged people who act childish nevertheless?

[TheCountAlucard]

How do you guys feel about adult-aged people who act childish nevertheless?That's called a "gaming group." :smallamused:

[Segev]

At the risk of regretting this: what is a "Bliss Stage game?"


As for why a kid character is with the party... sometimes, it is just plain inappropriate. That said, there are plenty of ways to arrange it. It may require OOC cooperation from the other players to allow it to be forced upon their IC characters, but it can be done. A favorite example of mine is Jackie Chan Adventures, wherein Jade manages to stow away and be already in the thick of whatever adventure is occurring by the time the grown-ups are aware of her presence. It's too late to send her away; it just wouldn't be safe, or possibly even practical.

That particular excuse requires either off-screen awesomeness at stowing away, or that the kid PC be very good at sneaking and escaping. Honestly, these are good things for a kid to have anyway, and many PCs aren't bad at them to begin with. Kid characters being able to wriggle out of danger likely will help the consciences of other players, too. Rogues and magic users are good kid character archetypes for this reason: they have "tricks" for getting out of binds. Including "we're tying you up and delivering you to the local orphanage to keep you from following us again."

If the objection is a moral one, based on kids shouldn't be in danger, the kid willfully putting themselves in that danger means the party now has to watch them. It obviously becomes the kid's (and his player's) job to make sure the kid pulls his own weight, mechanically, in the party, though.

In all, you do want to work it out with the other players, OOC. Understand the role the child PC will play and work out the expected interactions. It's very easy for IC antagonism (even of the "it's your own good" variety) to become OOC irritation if the player of the adult expects his character to succeed at keeping the kid from coming along, or the player of the kid expects the party to just accept his presence. If, on the other hand, it's an OOC accepted fact that the kid will find a way to tag along, then the RP-related efforts to prevent it and their inevitable failure won't generate hard feelings.

[Honest Tiefling]

I think the best way to describe Bliss Stage is that it is a game based on "romance". There is only one adult character in the game. Figure out why one of my standing rules for tabletop is that anyone suggesting it (Alongside FATAL and Cthulutech) gets punched in the gonads.

Now , I could dig a scenario where you're a hundred miles from anything resembling civilization, so it is either take the kid or let them die. Having them fight could just be unavoidable, as some enemies would see them as hostages or food. That's fine. There is a very good reason for the situation.

Except the times that I have seen younger characters, the player never does this. One time it happened in a large city with an orphanage. I guess what I want to say is that if you want a difficult concept, please put in some effort to help other characters, instead of doing nothing and get upset at paladins for not wanting to traumatize children. Yes, other players should help, but all sides need to pitch in not just others.

[Segev]

Oh, it is absolutely on the shoulders of the guy with the character to do the lion's share of the work to explain why the character is part of the adventure.

[Sith_Happens]

At the risk of regretting this: what is a "Bliss Stage game?"

Think "Evangelion meets Falling Skies with heavy dating sim elements that are the main means of character advancement."

Slightly longer version, Bliss Stage is a semi-obscure game in which you play as teenagers...
Fighting a guerilla war against alien conquerers...
Using mecha...
That literally run on the Power of Love...
To which end every PC has a designated NPC love interest...
Your relationship values with whom constitute four out of your six ability scores...
And yes, by "ability scores" I mean the ones that determine how good you are at fighting aliens.

[Segev]

Think "Evangelion meets Falling Skies with heavy dating sim elements that are the main means of character advancement."

Slightly longer version, Bliss Stage is a semi-obscure game in which you play as teenagers...
Fighting a guerilla war against alien conquerers...
Using mecha...
That literally run on the Power of Love...
To which end every PC has a designated NPC love interest...
Your relationship values with whom constitute four out of your six ability scores...
And yes, by "ability scores" I mean the ones that determine how good you are at fighting aliens.

Ah, so a romance-anime-plot crossed with a super-robot plot. Eh, I can see that being done well or creepy, honestly. Romance-excuse-plots are just ways to add drama and force teen characters who might otherwise be too shy to participate in the plotlines. (Though it CAN go creepy, depending how it's handled.)

[Sith_Happens]

(Though it CAN go creepy, depending how it's handled.)

The one part that I've ever actually seen make people go "NOPE" is that getting maximum Intimacy requires exactly what you think it does.

[Segev]

The one part that I've ever actually seen make people go "NOPE" is that getting maximum Intimacy requires exactly what you think it does.

True love's first kiss?



More seriously, having looked at the TV tropes page for this game... that's required? That gets squicky fast since it implies that the parental and sibling relationships can't have maximum intimacy without being incestuous. And that you can't possibly have a bromance or bash sisters duo with maximum intimacy (since crossing that line changes the relationship to a different set of tropes entirely).

[Rater202]

The core rules point out that blood relationships automatically get +1 intimacy by default, but they still max out at five-they even specifically say that you don't get rewarded for incest.

The squicky part is that it's totally viable to have a PC who is only 13 years old, and the oldest a character can be before "blissing out" and falling into a coma is 17 unless they're an insomniac or taking all of the drugs. And only the GM is allowed to have one.

[Frozen_Feet]

Meh, that's not nearly as bad as sleazy middle-aged managers in Tähti, which is a game about Teenage Mutant Pop Idols in Near-Future Finland. And that game was specifically marketed towards young girls. :smalltongue:

Or maybe I'm just inured by having seen what real 13-year-olds often do.

[Cluedrew]

... I wonder if I should start a "do not play" subsection in my tabletop RPG list.

To child prodigies. I have two half child prodigies. One was a robot who had a childish wonder about it most of the time. The robot was also very trusting, although strong enough that most people never betrayed that trust. The other was just someone who looked way younger than he actually was. That one was actually sort of a joke to parody the female characters that are like that, although he got more justification than they usually do.

In the general case I would say it is like other character concept. If done correctly it is great, if not it is not. For instance they often don't make scene if they are anywhere near the front lines, but who says they are soldiers, maybe they are computer/spell theory wizzes or artists or... you get the idea. Actually who says the RPG is about fighting at all? Sure many are but not all and once you have the imitate threat of death out of the way it makes a lot more sense to have them along.

[Sith_Happens]

And that you can't possibly have a bromance or bash sisters duo with maximum intimacy (since crossing that line changes the relationship to a different set of tropes entirely).

"Changing" any tropes isn't actually necessary, you can just add "...with benefits" at the end of the ones already present.:smallwink:

[Segev]

To be fair, particularly when it comes to fantasy-esq settings, I tend to stop considering a character a "child" anything at 15-16 or so. The cultures mimicked usually had childhood end earlier still.

14 is really kind of the oldest a character is a "kid" and not a "young adult" outside modernish settings.

So when "child prodigy" is mentioned, I usually picture between 8 and 12 years of age. (And, to be honest, I have difficulty telling kids younger than 8 apart based on age other than classifying as "baby," "toddler," and "small child." I know there are huge differences, but my experience with children that age is, sadly, so far removed that I can't really tell them easily.)

Therefore, "child prodigies" to my mind don't tend to include teenagers without explicit note that this is the case.

[The Insanity]

Sorry for not replaying for so long. Wasn't in the mood for this discussion, but I'm better now, and I have a related question. But first, replies.


It depends on the specifics. There are games where they fit, games where they don't, and games which don't cover any material where they even have the potential to exist as NPCs. This needs narrowing down before it really means much. For instance, there's a big difference between games that focus on adventuring parties in lots of danger having child prodigies and games in which they are likely to come up in similar places as the real world. There's a difference between superhero sidekicks (where genre convention practically demands them) and military science fiction games (where they are horribly out of place). RPGs just cover too much territory to have just one answer.
Well, I pretty much only play D&D, so I guess more that sort of thing.


Nobody gets to play a kid in the games I run
Can I ask why?


and no character get any advantages at character creation.
Me neither.


I think the most heart-felt argument I've heard against playing children was that a typical RPG setting is a horrible place, and people would rather play their elf-games without having to think of horrible stuff happening to kids. Me, I don't really buy that, but then again, many of my players are horrible kids who have no qualms about imagining horrible stuff happening to other kids. As such, I'm pretty indifferent to the concept.
Yeah, I don't get it either. It's not a real kid, he doesn't exist. And I don't really see a difference between a kid or any other character, young or old.


I think they are cool if they are sorcerers, clerics or wilders as none of those require many actual years of experience from a lore perspective.
I ignore those "requirements" and I suggest you do too. They're just limiting your roleplaying for no good reason.


I allow child prodigy characters in my games with the caveat of "...if you're comfortable with the child character dying."

To me, a PC is a PC, and I can't give a player plot armor because their character hasn't hit puberty yet. It would be unfair to the other players. I make this very clear to the player, and if they aren't comfortable with the idea of their kid character's grisly demise, they are not allowed to play a kid.
This.


No PC should get either more or less power or abilities because of the age or other fluff of the character.

Therefore, since real children have less power and abilities than real adults, any child PC should be more-or-less a prodigy - simply because they should have the same rough level or power and abilities as any other character.
Also this.


Yeah, OP should really define "child" here. I'm currently playing a sixteen year old warblade in D&D 3.5 and don't consider him a "child" at all.
Me neither. I consider a "child" to be pre-teen, but past infancy. 12-13 years at most, generally in the 6-11 range.

My question is: What makes a child, you know... a child? I'm making a character that was recently reborn, so he's essentially a child, but with an adult's memories and skills. And I do not mean an adult in a child's body. An actual child. So he's going to have the mentality of a kid.

[goto124]

The squicky part is that it's totally viable to have a PC who is only 13 years old, and the oldest a character can be before "blissing out" and falling into a coma is 17 unless they're an insomniac or taking all of the drugs. And only the GM is allowed to have one.

Come to think of it... if you 'bliss out' at 18, as far as the not-blissed-out society are concerned, you die at 18 years old. Essentially, a rather short-lived race whose entire lifetime lasts a whooping 18 years. Adulthood starts at what, 4 years old? Does the idea of teenagehood even exist? 17-year-olds aren't newly adults- they're elderly! If I'm not wrong, the setting is a world in constant war against aliens. These people grow up fast. Edit: Apparently you can't Pilot until you're 13. Still, living in this world...

But yea, unless you really want to touch on the scary implications, this sort of game is best avoided. On the flipside, if you removed the age restrictions and made everyone adults, Bliss Stage would be significantly less creepy...