Well, people are right in a sense. In the times that we set our imaginary world in people were full-fledged adults by the age of 15, give or take. Many men would have built a house, settled into a career and probably would have begun to make a family of some sort. Women would most likely already be married off and be knocked up by that point.

The simple fact of the matter is that while in an ideal world we could trust the playerbase to create a 13 year old and RP it properly (see: not do anything illegal and naughty) we can not. There would invariably come a 38 year old man who plays a 14 year old girl and tries to cyber with a 14 year old boy playing a 38 year old man. I know it's using an outside chance to establish reason for a rule, but it's easier to nip this problem in the bud and make "child" characters request only.

There's nobody saying that a young character can't be played. Exactly the opposite, I love to see "child" PC's running around. If the character has the extensive backstory involving certain other PC's and certain historically relevant events then I'm sure that there will be no problem getting the character approved. Just take 10 or 15 minutes, type it out and put it up here on the forums. Because leaving the responsibility to make mature decisions in the hands of the playerbase has always proved to be a bad decision in the past. All it takes is one bad apple to ruin the bunch and all that type stuff.

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"I once took the high road and it took me straight to hell and I stood there all by myself." -Hank III

just follow the guidelines to player age in the books?

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-Ja'acira Arrows'R'Us
-Balorin Wolfhammer- A dwarf so old he remember when the Beer stein was invented
Saisha Jai'diem Knight of bahamut, and abit of a looker

No. We already laid down our ruling.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

I can kinda understand where you're coming from (Though I had to read the thread about 4 times). It is a bit odd that you can't RP a 17 year old but you can an 18. However, moving the limit as far as 13 is a bit too much in my opinion.

Perhaps just keep it as request, and have different catagories? Eg, 15 and under is closely scrutinized, 16-17 less so?

I get that the main reasons to remove the request requirement is to remove that extra entry barrier to making the PC, (and there is one. I am terrified of making requests), but it is maintained for a reason.

Not really sure, I'm on the fence about this.

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"Hi, I'm Garnith, and I'm an Invisophile."
Garnith, Ranth, Rick, Burick, Elail, Deryl, Kane, Rini.
Suggestion Rule of Thumb: Don't think about how neat it would be to use, think about how neat it would be for people to use against you.

That's silly.

And the entry barrier is there because the entry barrier is supposed to be there. That's the point of it, it's sort of self defining.

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Davion Telemos - Monk of the Four Winds
Korthan Isharnos - Dragon Shaman of Thunder Spirit Zamasham

I can understand where the DM's are coming from on this and I personally don't feel a major difference in a few years(15-18). I mean, given its a fantasy world, which you guys know I love to remind everyone of, there's nothing to say that IC, "eighteen years of age" is established as adulthood. It's quite possible that some societies consider people up to 20 "children". And thus, they may still have reason to act like such(heck, even in our world, most still do). But in my personal opinion, given what in general may be an agricultural world, the "adult" age would be lower than "18", like back in the day when people on Earth just had large families for the sake of having help on the farm. You were born, the one to survive out of every 3, killed your first animal at 8, got married at 16, had kids soon after, and died at 30 a happy individual.

In terms of physical maturity for what we might consider the "dark ages" that D&D was originally conceived around, 15, 16, whatever would be about right. Which is what the book's starting age was based off of, most likely.

Again, I see each side of it, and I find that it really doesn't make a difference which way. Age isn't a completely concrete thing IC, even though they have calenders. It's not like everyone keeps up with exact, exact dates for every peasant child born to every streetwalker that spawns new adventurers. Heck, only one of my three mains knows even the year they were born, and that's because they were born in a church where the religion is very big on seasonal things and time.

"Age" shouldn't make an obvious difference between 15-19 or so ICly, given all the different social variables. Your age doesn't hang over your PC's head, even OoCly(Unlike names). Act according to the PC, whatever ruling we have. But by the same token, I feel that us saying "You can't play without a request a 15 year old because some old pervert might try to cyber with you" is just as laughable as saying "You can't play a druid and shagechange into a goat, because some foreigner will try to fornicate you." By principle, we should not allow it without a request because it shouldn't matter unless the PC has something specifically special about it to be that age(to play a younger person as a higher-level PC for instance), and by virtue and common sense, we should not allow it because "15" inevitably means someone will push the envelope more without (y)our say-so. Like people already claim abilities and "special" cases outside what is allowed and then are later retconned anyway.

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That was a good post, Dark. I don't agree on all parts, but I dig what you're saying and appreciate it.

I want to thank everyone who posted thoughtful responses, whether it was in opposition, agreement, middle ground, undecided or whatever else.

All I can say is, did I call it or what?

<3

At least we will always have Paris.