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Make sure your character acts their age

Child Trekkies

When you’re creating a new character you need to think about their age. Are they young or old? There are many different ways characters will act depending on their age, so it’s crucial you get it right for your character to be realistic.

Don’t be too young

Think about the job your character needs to do, or the role they need to perform within your game. If you’ve made your character too young, they might not have had time to learn all the things they’ll be asked to do on a daily basis. Remember that if your character is an accomplished scientist they need to have had time to study their field, so can’t be any younger than at least 22. At a push you could explain that your character is so clever that they studied early and were so far ahead of other kids their age at school, but this is one of the signs of a Mary Sue character, which should be avoided.

SEE ALSO: The many different types of Mary Sue

Also consider the other characters in your game, if they’re much older than your character, would they really be going on adventures with such a young child? They’d most likely leave them at home with a babysitter until they’re old enough.

Don’t be too old

This is rarer, but you might choose your character to be quite advanced in age, but then write about them going on adventures, fighting baddies and get involved in all sorts of athletics. Remember that if your character is old, they’ll get tired often and slow the other characters down. This is fine, as long as you make sure to roleplay the character appropriately to their age and don’t make them leap around like a teenage athlete.

SEE ALSO: Give your characters flaws

Again like with the character being too young to go on adventures, if you’ve picked a character who is so old they need a walking stick, it’s unlikely they’ll be chosen to go on dangerous quests where they need to do a lot of running and fighting.

Have you ever had this problem in your own RP? Is this something you’ve done yourself? Comment below!