Age and Aging

As discussed under Age (p. 20), you
can start your adventuring career at
any age that falls within your race’s
usual lifespan. However, unless you
are Unaging (p. 95), you will experi-
ence gradual decline once you age
past a certain point.
Beginning at age 50, make a series
of “aging rolls” each year to see if old
age is taking its toll. (If you did not
note an exact birthday, roll on the first
day of every game year.) At age 70, roll
every six months. At age 90, roll every
three months!
If you have Extended Lifespan
(p. 53), each level doubles the age at
which you must make aging rolls (50
years), the ages at which aging rolls
become more frequent (70 and 90
years), and the time intervals
between aging rolls (1 year, 6 months,
and 3 months). If you have Short
Lifespan (p. 154), each level halves
these numbers.
Aging rolls are a series of four HT
rolls – one for each of your four basic
attributes, in the following order: ST,
DX, IQ, HT. You may not use any form
of Luck (p. 66) on these rolls.
Infections are possible anywhere, but
some places (especially jungles) may
harbor especially severe forms of
infection.
Open wounds treated with antibi-
otics (TL6+) never become infected
except on a critically failed First Aid or
Physician roll. People wounded under
less-than-clean circumstances (GM’s
decision) and who do not receive
treatment must make a HT+3 roll,
modified as follows:
Ordinary “clean” dirt in wound: +0.
Dung or other infected matter in
wound: -2.
Locale harbors a special infection:
-3.
These modifiers are cumulative,
and replace those listed under
Contagion (p. 443).
On a failure, the wound is infected.
Treat this as any other disease. A typi-
cal infection requires a daily HT roll,
modified as above, with failure indi-
cating the loss of 1 HP. Most infections
Modifiers: Your world’s medical
tech level minus 3; e.g., -3 at TL0, or
+4 at TL7. +2 if you are Very Fit, +1 if
Fit, -1 if Unfit, or -2 if Very Unfit.
On a failure, reduce the attribute in
question by one level. A critical failure,
or any roll of 17 or 18, causes the loss
of two levels. Exception: If you have
Longevity (p. 66), treat any roll of 16
or less as a success, and treat a 17 or
18 as an ordinary failure – and if your
modified HT is 17+, only an 18 fails!
When you lose an attribute level to
age, reduce your point value accord-
ingly. Reduce all secondary character-
istics and skills based on that attribute
to reflect its new level. For instance, if
aging reduces your IQ by one, your
Perception, Will, and skills based on
any of those three quantities also drop
I’m 37. I’m not old.
– Dennis,
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
progress until the victim either makes
a HT roll, ending the infection, or
takes so much injury that he dies.
Treatment with antibiotics (TL6+)
gives +3 to HT rolls. This usually halts
the infection before serious injury can
occur.
If drugs are unavailable, or if the
patient doesn’t respond, a surgeon can
cut out the infected tissue if the injury
from infection hasn’t progressed
beyond a certain point. On the head or
torso, this limit is the patient’s HP/2.
On a limb or extremity, it is the
amount of injury required to cripple
the body part. Surgery cannot help
infections more severe than this.
The surgeon must make a Surgery
roll. This inflicts 2d of injury to the
head or torso, or amputates a limb or
extremity. On a success, it cures the
infection. On a failure, damage or
amputation occurs but the patient
remains infected.
by one. If any attribute reaches 0 from
aging, you die a “natural” death.
At the GM’s option, you may lose
advantages or gain disadvantages of
equivalent point value instead of los-
ing an attribute point. For example,
your Appearance could decline, or you
could gain Hard of Hearing.