What Age You Would Choose For your Characters on Your Maker Game?

[Kes]

Usually mid-twenties or so. I have had a couple of older characters for story reasons. I have never had, and do not intend to have, teenagers going out to save the world because the adults are so utterly useless, and they are so brilliant that in a couple of weeks they have more skill and power than anyone who has trained for years. Though, tbh, my stories are not exactly 'save the world' anyway, but you know what I mean.

 

[Lornsteyn]

I voted adults, but I also like timeskips in games.
So maybe you start as child/teen and after some time there is a timeskip after you play as adult.

 

[Andar]

99% of all kid heroes are there to get kids as customers by allowing them to identify with the heroes - and that goes double for TV series instead of games.
And it goes with a lot of suspension of belief because the kid heroes are rarely logical. Sorry, but any adult 2x-years will always be much stronger than any kid and most teens simply because of body mass and experience.

That doesn't even mention that if you want to keep kids as customers you'll need to keep the game content on their age bracket as well, making a lot of plotlines too complex for children to follow.

So if you want to have any story or game that is more complex than "bugs bunny stole the carrots" then you'll have to use late teen at the earliest and preferable 2x-adults.

 

[rekkatsu]

Young Adult and mid-20 mean quarter-life crisis (nowadays) lmao, it's interesting personally but it's based on which time do you take.

 

[GachaPringle]

my game that i am currently creating features an 11 year old as the main character, so yeah XD

 

[duty]

As a former teenager, I can tell you with complete confidence that teenagers are awful.

The big question is what's the age of adulthood in your setting. A hard fantasy setting, where life expectancy is mid-40s would mean someone is middle age in their 20s.

Some cultures don't recognize adulthood until an individual has passed a certain right of passage.

Despite the subjective nature of age, it makes sense for the characters to be at an independent stage of life where it is socially acceptable for them to wander around, shop, and otherwise interact with people of their own accord.

 

[Mystic_Enigma]

I myself lean towards the kid to teen range. Happening upon many games and shows with such characters tend to have an effect on you...Though unlike most cases, they're savvy enough to make most decisions competently.

 

[Aesica]

Adults, no contest. I always thought kid heroes were stupid, even when I was a kid. And teenagers? Naw, I've played enough games where all the biggest badasses were "17" or "19" or (the old guy) "24."

Edit: My average character age tends to be mid/late-20s. Old enough to be past the "my brain is still stupid" age, cuss, drink, talk to (implied) hookers, etc, but young enough to hopefully still appeal to younger players as well as older.

 

[BURNING_JUSTICE_Games]

Almost always adults, but I do like to use younger characters if I plan to age them up later, because I find that growth and transformation to be pretty fun

 

[Mewgles]

It really depends on the overall story. But as some other users mentioned, the young/teenage heros are a bit oversaturated in rpgs right now. In general I prefer my heros to be in their mid to late twenties, maybe early thirties. But an overall variety in terms of age is always a breathe of fresh air, so I don't mind having one or two much older protagonists join the party.

 

[orange~]

Because some erm...adult... things can happen in my games, all the main characters are above 18. But I tend to prefer making characters that are over 25 anyways. I think a big factor is your own age really. As a kid I used to make kid characters in my games, as a teen I made more teenage characters, and now I make characters closer to my own age again.

I'd like to try making some more lighthearted content one day with a kid or teenager protagonist. In a medieval setting, I think it would still be believable for a teenager to save the world too as people were considered ready for adult work and hardships at the age of 13 or 14 already, so I'm sure teenagers were a lot more mature back in the day.

 

[Kes]

@orange~ Socially they might have been more mature, but their brain development would not have been any quicker, and we now know that the brain doesn't get its full quota of synapses etc. etc. until we're about 25. Also, the type of weapon used in the medieval period required many years of practice to build the upper body strength needed to use them, and no 14 year old would be able to.

 

[The Stranger]

I chose adults, but it really depends on the story and characters. I have no problem whatsoever with teens fighting. I mean, you can join the army in real life at the age of 16 here, and child soldiers have existed throughout history; even the Romans sometimes used 14 year olds as recruits.

I guess I might use younger characters if I wanted to tell a story about someone exposed to war and such for the very first time. I'd be more inclined to use young characters, even children, in stories that weren't all about saving the world, fighting gods, and being part of some sort of military organisation.

My main project uses only adults, though.

 

[Leokids]

For all Of those People: Why?

 

[The Stranger]

For all Of those People: Why?

Why what? Not too sure which group of people you're talking to. lol.

 

[Punamaagi]

While I chose 'Adults' in the poll, I often prefer if there's a bit of an age difference between characters. To me, age is a character trait much like race, gender or education, and the differences can lead to interesting dialogue and contrast.

The main cast in my project includes both a teenager and an adult who is in his early thirties, and to mix things up (even further), the teenager is a very highly educated prodigy of sorts whereas the oldest adult... has spent most of his life living in the woods and can barely read. This allows me to play a little with the difference of knowledge vs. life experience, or intelligence vs. wisdom.

 

[ShadowHawkDragon]

Another thing to think about is the world setting and story themes.

Some examples:
-A low-magic semi-realistic world with a more serious story-line based around war and conflict: adults.
-A story where magic often trumps skill, and puts story emphasis on growth and development as the party learns and comes across new experiences: mid to late teens.
-A 'cuter' story with a focus on discovery and making friends with monster inhabitants: children.

Overall choosing the age of the cast comes down to the story, setting and target audience, that and personal preference.

 

[bgillisp]

For The Book of Shadows everyone in the party was between 19 and 25, with the youngest having just turned 19 shortly before the story began. For Shipwrecked the party members range from 16 - 41 years old though, with the 41 and 16 year old a father/daughter pair that ended up surviving the shipwreck and now both join the party.

I haven't thought much beyond those two games, but most of my stories it would make almost 0 sense for anyone under 18 to join the party barring unusual circumstances.

 

[Shikamon]

Mostly I always choose mid-teen protagonist ( 13 - 16 ) because they could still grow up as characters, from wide-eyed idealists to maybe some adult-minded teen who knows his/her responsibilities. Maybe he/she will do some mistakes but they will learn from it. I don't feel game/story should be very realistic like how a kid could save the world. Well, of course, they can't if they are just normal kid but all protagonists have some kind special power/background to make them destined to be heroes.

 

[RCXDan]

Imma be real with you, dawg: it's almost always gonna be characters who are 18 or older, and for many reasons. I personally have a lot of playable characters who are grown adults in their 30s or even 40s going out trying to save the world or whatever, and I try to include older family members because you know what, it could actually be way more interesting than having them be dead or abusive or brainwashed.

Kid heroes saving the world has always been like... not believable to me? Anybody younger than 15 being better heroes/fighters/whatever than hardened veterans is pure plot convenience nonsense, and the more serious and complex your story is, the more I expect this kinda trope to be deconstructed. It really is that kind of thing where you have to decide what mood you want to go with, and what your target audience is.

There's only two characters I can name of mine that are both 14 and playable, but neither of them are even half ready to tackle the hardship and horrors my world contains at their current age. I still include them to show off that they have a wild amount of untapped potential that will explode when they grow older, but right now they are not viable.

Plus like @Punamaagi said, there's a lot of variance even among adult ages and that tends to invite a lot more opportunities to have interesting characters.