Re: off topic: 300 year old elves

> Also, for my own referance, I generally start elves' ages dependent
upon a
> ratio... If the avg lifespan of a human male is 80, and begins
adventuring
> at 19, you can define the exact age of your "20" year old elf like
this...
>
> 19    X
> -- = ----
> 80   1200
>
> the math...
> 19(1200) = 80(X)
> 22800 = 80(X)
> 22800/80 = X
> 285 = X
>
> Do the algebra and you have your elf age, in this case 285. If you
think
> the lifespan of an elf is different, then just change the 1200 part
and do
> it over.
>
> I've also read the Krynn books... in there, they state that elves
become
> adult elves at the age of 80 or so, roughly the lifespan of a human.
That
> would mean that the mat would appear thusly...
>
> 18   80
> -- = --
> 80   X
>
> X = 355
>
> And that is 3 times less than the PHB... I don't know about you all,
but
> the whole age thing is a headache for a game. You might as well just
say
> your PC Elf is of an age equivalant to an X old human thereby saving
> yourself the headache of figuring out when your character will die,
> especially since he/she is most likely to die in combat.

First different authors have shown different opinions on this.  RA
Salvatore, in his Drizzt books (let's NOT start a thread on this),
says elves develop fast to maturity and then slow down so maturity,
IIRC is in the mid-twenties.  I think a Dragon article or another
novel I read used the same idea.  So we can see the proportional
statements aren't always accurate, at least early on (though if they
apply IYC that's fine also).

Second human maturity is closer to 14 or 16.  18 is just a legal age,
and merely a legal age in the states at that.  I could cite numerous
examples (including "modern" cultures in modern times) but most
warrior/hunter/worker cultures consider adulthood to come between 12
and 16 (varying by culture).  I would suspect the same would be true
for most AD&D cultures.
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