The End of Aging

Copyright © 2005 by Drew Bailey
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

In general, I agree with JimG that as the aging process is understood, schemes will arise that thwart that process, essentially providing a cure for aging. I do not, however, believe that stopping the process alone will ensure extreme ages, as along with any biological factors contributing to age, there are also several other factors, such as the purely mechanical - My tissue is not designed to hold my organs in place for hundreds of years, my joints will not withstand hundreds of years of operation, etc. Even if I stop aging at twenty-six, at one-hundred-twenty-six, I may look good, but my joints hurt, and my spleen is dangling, among other problems. I think this begs for the rejuvenation approach, and this will be supported by a medical community that desires to sell you long life, not just once, but many times over.

If we can assume the rejuvenation method, it eases the game mechanic. An extreme aged character being generated doesn't buy perpetual life, they buy a four year extension at a particular age, and depending upon whether multiple career fields are allowed, they may only have the money associated with Social Class to spend on this. Once they enter play, they get the same benefit for the same price, with the same 4-year limitation.

I think I'd put the cost of a 4 year rejuvenation at 50 Trans, and a week at a CIV 7 advanced medical facility. This would permit a character of an independent trader background, with an average roll on the Social Level table, 1 4-year life extension. At the maximum, the wealthiest aristocrat, with starting cash at 2000 Trans, could buy 160 years worth of 4 year extensions. This is a lot, but not terribly out of line with the numbers most have expressed being comfortable with, and again, a very high social class, and lucky d10 roll on the table are necessary to get to this extreme. A more extensive 4-year subtraction from a character's age at the time of rejuvenation may also be available, but the price is likely very much steeper.

Using a system like this, I don't think I'd change anything else about the character generation system. If you can swallow that a character with 20 years in a career is no better than skill level-5 at a core career skill, then I don't see how the extra years in a career would improve on this. If you need reasons, you could always say after a certain amount of time, he's spending figuring out how to do his job with the new fangled technology. What you end up with at the extreme is a character that's very good (but not great) at a lot of skills. This doesn't seem unreasonable for someone that's been employed at the same career for 100 years (at the extreme). Most character's will not be able to afford this many extensions, and may begin play with a skill or two at level-5, and a couple at lesser numbers, depending on when their money runs out. The difference between a skill level 5 and a skill level 1 in Universe, does not threaten balance, in my opinion. And as those early ep's get us up to level-3 pretty fast, the difference is even less profound.

It will require extending table [7.6] Skill Point Table over additional years, but it's already approaching 1 pt per 4 additional years as it is, so extending this way makes as much sense as the table does to begin with. This would give a character at the rare extreme some 55 skill points to distribute (11 skills at level-5), again after the 160 years of life extension. Most characters would have quite a bit less.

It would also require extending table [7.3] Employment Table to determine how many years you were employed. The table is already very close to:

Roll 1-2 = 60% of stated
 3-5 = 70% of stated
 6-8 = 80% of stated
 9-0 = 90% of stated

Rounded to the nearest 4 year grouping. I'd extend it this way.

As JohnK points out, there are many social and economic factors to long life as well. In the Universe setting, over population may not be a major concern, as emigration to other systems would provide a pressure valve, although it would definitely need to be monitored, as colonies, especially those in hostile environments, must plan for population increases, with the infrastructure to support them. The plethora of other social and economic complications is almost enough to put us off extreme age idea all together. However, limiting the age extension to a 4 year period, and only to those few that can afford it (or perhaps as a benefit to those who contribute greatly to the federation) keeps the social chaos to a minimum, and will perhaps lend stability - the leader of a megacorp no longer has to hand the reins over to his incompetent offspring, or greasy underling maneuvering for the spot.

The real benefit of having a truly young character (as opposed to an artificially young, or older character) doesn't have game mechanic ramifications, but under certain GM's, may have other benefits. If your character is 30+ years old, and only has the laser pistol and 10 trans they mustered out with, they are by many standards, a looser. Where is the spouse (or ex-spouse), the children, the home, retirement investments, and college savings. What have they been doing with their life? Truly young character's are free of these limiting obligations.

This may be additional impetus to take those 4-year extensions in the twenties, or if the rejuvenation process takes us back 4 years, it becomes a way to stave off the complexities a GM may ask the player of an older character to explain. If I can gather the cash for a 4-year life extension that will hold me at 30 over the next 4 years, you've got me interested. If instead I wake up from the treatment looking and feeling 26, you've got me excited. In my excitement I may manage to hold off on accumulating the obligations and responsibilities normally associated with a successful adulthood. However, for anyone that feels longevity enhanced character's are too strong, this is the place to level them a bit. Longer lives require more extensive backgrounds to cover the additional years, and these additional entries may be fraught with GM imposed obligations.

SUMMARY

In summary, I would address longevity via advanced medical treatments in the following manner:

No one is permitted to undergo Life extension or Age reduction treatment prior to the age of 24, and the technology to take someone back further than 4 years does not yet exist.

At CIV 7, a character may purchase a 4 year life extension at their current age, for 50 Trans. Treatment requires 1 week at a CIV 7 advanced medical facility, and no other actions may be performed during this week. Subsequent life extension treatments that occur within 4 years, extend the duration a character remains at the current age. Subsequent treatments after 4 years have the full life extension effect.

At CIV 8, the above treatment is available, and a character may also purchase a 4 year age reduction, making them physically 4 years younger than their current age, for a price of 1000 Trans. Treatment requires 1 month at a CIV 8 advanced medical facility, and no other action may be performed during this month. Subsequent treatments that occur within 4 years of the last treatment, serve as life extension treatments, rather than age reduction treatments, and extend the time spent at the current age by 4 years. Subsequent treatments that occur after 8 years have the full effect of age reduction.

Table [7.6] Expanded

	Actual Years Employed
MODIFIED DIE RESULT	4	8	12	16	20	Per Add 4 years
2-5	1	4	6	7	7	+1
6-9	2	5	7	8	8	+1
10-13	2	6	8	9	10	+1
14-17	3	6	8	10	11	+1
18-21	3	7	9	11	12	+1
22-26	4	7	10	12	14	+1
27-32	4	8	11	13	15	+1

Also, the statement in [7.6] that reads, "If the character was employed for 16 to 20 years, no single skill may exceed Level 5" should be changed to read "16 or more years".

Example:

Charles is born into aristocracy, with a heritage wealth of 800 Trans. He decides to spend 750 Trans on life extensions beginning at age 24, which means for aging purposes, he is still 24, but for all other purposes he has extended his life by 60 years, making him 84 years old. Starting his professional career at age 20, he has a declared 64 years in his profession. With a die roll of 5, he gets 70% of the declared 64 years, or a total of 44.8 years, which is rounded to the nearest block of 4, or 44 years of active career. With an Intelligence of 7, and the skill point modifier for his career (Diplomat) at 8, he gets to add 15 to his die roll on table [7.6]. He rolls a 5, for a total of 20. Looking at the expanded table, we see the die roll of 20 gives him 12 points for the first 20 years, and 1 pt per 4 additional years, up to 44, or 6 additional points. The 84 year old character, with an apparent age of 24, begins play with 18 points allocated to allowable skills. None of the skills chosen can exceed Level-5.