Character Backgrounds: What's your habits and why?


Gamer Life General Discussion


I noticed in the "Horrible character backgrounds" thread that there was a tangent involving character backgrounds. Thought I'd make a new topic to discuss such.

So, in general, what's your habits involving your character backstories? How much, and why, if you can go into such detail? I recall one person in the above topic commented that when people complained about those with 8-page backgrounds, his first thought was "Yeah, that's a little sparse."

Honestly, I don't think I've ever actually written out a background, beyond perhaps some e-mail correspondence with my GM to hammer the fine points. Not to say I don't have backgrounds, I just usually keep them in my head, only telling my GM once or twice.

To be honest, I have a bit of an aversion to longer backstories, especially any that provide some specific motivation. I have a motivation for why my character is adventuring, but I don't like to go beyond that. And I do admit this makes me sound like I turn my characters into murderhobos.

The reason for my aversion is kind of silly, when I think about it, but it still sticks in my mind. Years ago, when I was just getting into tabletop RPing, at least seriously, I remember one of my fellow gamers telling me how they learned not to involve character backstories too much into their campaigns. They had a situation with a campaign where character backstory was involved. He said that it reached a point where no PC could die, because doing so would grind the campaign to a halt since the campaign was so personally involved. I wasn't told the specifics, and this was years ago, so I'm probably misremembering things.

I also have this feeling that if my character has some sort of long-term goal, that I'd be taking power away from the GM. At any time, my character could up and leave the campaign, because he has backstory he needs to fulfill.

And so, because of the above, my backstories do detail how my character knows what he knows, but his motivations as to why he's adventuring are either vague, mercenary, or somehow can be solved by running around killing things for money.

I tend to like filling in parts of the backstory as the campaign goes on, starting with a general idea, and giving bits and pieces later. One instance is a mercenary fighter character I'm playing in one game. He had a backstory of formerly being part of a mercenary company that was almost completely wiped out, so now he works freelance. I decided that large professional scary guy was kind of bland, so I gave him the added personality quirk how everything relates to an old war story, and he often refers to them. "This reminds me of the time we had to sneak up on an orcish encampment through their latrine ditch." Another reason I don't write out backstory. So I can keep it fluid if I decide to change something later. (Nothing serious, though, and nothing that would invalidate or force a retcon on previous actions.)

So how's about you? What do you do for backstory? And why?


Quite a good bit. I want to know who the person I am playing is, at the very least I am going to have a "the major events of the characters life from their perspective" outline: A highlight reel. I really don't like just having a blank slate with some personality quirks and filling in all of the details later. Now how much is necessary depends on the character. Sometimes it's enou to just fill in who the major people growing up in their life were and more or less what they were like. Some people are defined by who they were around. Some, you need to fill in events.


I have put a fair bit of effort into my Druids backstory. All of it GM approved so that it to some degree follow the plot. I have many allies and some big enemies from this. I have flaws that I will eventually get over. The backstory has given my Druid purpose.

I have seen people put a lot of effort into their backstories and some do nothing with them. In the Robo-Tech I have a bare bones backstory that bothers me. I want to fill it out more so I will be bothering my GM.

In the Campaign I am running almost all of my PCs have detailed backstories. And since they worked with me the backstories are tied to the plot. One guy is from a secret assassin guild that worked against the main bad guys and was taken out by the main bad guys. He was one of like six survivors. Another had his whole village destroyed/captured. He was saved by an old adventuring buddy, a bard and he feels shame at that. I have made this into a major plot point and if this PC dies and can not come back for whatever reason this plot point can still happen.


This is highly dependent on the game I am joining.

For a one shot or other short lived game I tend to just flesh out a simple outline and don't bother filling in details that probably will never see play.

For a campaign I explore who my character was at various stages of her life and set that against the upbringing I selected. Fleshing out details can be fun here because the GM has lots of extra time to show case some of them in play.


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Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

My rules on making a background are as follows -

1. Make one that is sensible for an appropriate experience level. If the PC starts at level one, no long backstory of high adventure. If PCs start at level 10, give a cliff notes version on common opponents and political affiliations.

2. Make sure a background is long enough to cover the subject, yet short enough to keep the GM's attention.

3. Don't be a cookie cutter of raised by wolves. This rule is just a pet peeve of mine - no friends outside of the group, no family still alive, just a void without plot hooks. Granted, almost every 80s Fantasy story started with the hero's village burning down. It still gets old if every character is Conan, Beastmaster, Yor, etc. Let us mix it up a bit.


Back in my 1e days a friend of mine used the same backstory for every character: his master/sensei/father was murdered by ninjas, even in a campaign where those didn't exist. I don't think it ever occurred to him to even try and make a different origin story.

Sovereign Court

I like to start with something interesting - a song, a profession, or a phrase. Then fill in things around it.

The start of my devil's advocate - You've go that infernal healin. (You've lost that loving feeling)

The start of Righty - He is the merry model of a modern elvish adventurer (from the HMS pinafore)

The start of Telessar - Let me test your immortality.

Why - I have many characters and it helps me to get the right mindset if I think of their central item - songs are easy for me to get the right mindset.


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Ugh... people who lost their parents didn't lose them they just gained new ones. Children can't raise themselves, so someone stepped up and became their parents. So I make these people who want no background describe these new parents instead. ~shrug~ and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. You know the saying "You can lead a horse to the keyboard but you can't make him write a background if he really doesn't want to."

Sovereign Court

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Usually a regular person that lived a normal life. Decided to go adventuring because he wanted adventure/glory/riches/legend/to do good/accomplish something.

I find those characters much more fulfilling than a MY FAMILY IS DEEEEAADDDD characters. They seem like lazy characters.

And I make sure to pepper my background with enough plot hooks for the GM without making it a Mary Sue.

Giving the GM plot hooks is not taking power from them. It's giving them fuel for a good story. Same with the character's agenda.

And that brings me to a very important part of the backstory creation.

You. Must. Not. Make. Your. Character. In. A. Vacuum. Ever.

You have to work with the GM incorporate your agenda into the game. Make adjustments if necessary.


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Hama says the truth. The best characters come from collaboration between players and the GM as a whole group.


As Hama said, usually a regular person that lived a normal life. The story starts with the game.

Generally I like to tie the reason to start adventuring to the actual campaign, rather than start off adventuring and then meet a bar somewhere and start the actual game. I prefer characters who aren't actually "Adventurers" as a profession or calling, but got caught up in the campaign somehow.

I do tend to be fairly minimal on backstory, I'll admit. It works for the games I'm usually in. Something with more of a sandbox approach might require more.

More generally, part of the reason a lot of people make orphans or other characters with few/no ties is that it's easier to have them go off wandering the world on adventures. No "I can't go off and save the world today. I have to watch the kids."

That and GMs tend to either completely ignore or horribly mistreat any DNPCs you do give them.

Sovereign Court

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My backgrounds tend to be pretty sparse. I am of the "my backstory is about to be written" philosophy. Also, I can not make a fully detailed character from the ground up. I need some in play reactions and story development to grab onto. For me, the character forms through play at the table. So basically I pick a birth place, occupation/school/etc that explains class/skills/etc, and reason for joining the adventure. From there the character comes to life through game play.

I have to agree with Hama on the collaboration comments. I find it really helps if the GM is active and gives me some requests so I know what to work with. The more the GM gives me the more I can give them.


Pan wrote:
My backgrounds tend to be pretty sparse. I am of the "my backstory is about to be written" philosophy. Also, I can not make a fully detailed character from the ground up. I need some in play reactions and story development to grab onto. For me, the character forms through play at the table. So basically I pick a birth place, occupation/school/etc that explains class/skills/etc, and reason for joining the adventure. From there the character comes to life through game play.

I very much agree. Things I try to force into place in backstory often don't match up well with the character as he comes to life - particularly relationships.


the other part of my character creation is me sitting down with a few quote books or a quote page, and start looking through topics and pick quotes that sound like so,etching that character might believe, or like to post on his wall. Once I've collected enough of these on a wide range of topics I usually have a pretty good idea what kind of person the character is. Sometimes I work backwards from that step to figure out why he feels that y about things. If he has a particular attitude towards nobility ... What prompted it? That gives me a backstory hook. Etcetera.

Shadow Lodge

Character backgrounds vary. My shortest was a paragraph. the longest is currently 71 pages single spaced and growing. Usually a character background will be a single page, but this character just grabbed me and said, "WRITE ME, DAMN IT!!!"

The GM rightly thinks I'm insane. I can't argue with him. The only saving redemption is that so far the other players love my background story almost as much as the game itself.


Varies wildly.

I used to be one of the guys that had virtually no background and anything I had was a cliché. But that was actually mostly due to a very antagonistic GM long ago. If I said I wanted to be a person of influence, my reputation would be ruined. If I wanted wealth, I would be constantly robbed. If I mentioned someone I liked, that person would be a hostage (with no chance to rescue) to force me to do bad things. If I mentioned someone I didn’t like, he would become the BBEG who knows all about me and is built around killing me.*
So for years I had the classic/hated “I’m an orphan from the time of the goblin wars that is trying to find his place in the world.” Since there wasn’t all that much a GM could use against me in there.

* Note: Before the vilifying starts, I do not consider that guy a bad GM. We were teenagers and we were all playing the game the way everyone about us was playing the game. He did that stuff because everyone else did it and we thought it was the right way to do things. After time past and we game in contact with gamers that didn’t do that, he also stopped. But it took me longer to get out of the habit.

I am mostly over that now. But I still don’t always have much of a background. It depends upon where the character will be used.

I’ve had a GM that doesn’t care about backgrounds – I think enough for me to know how the guy will behave and react, but that’s about it.

I’ve had a GM that wants you to have one so he can get an idea of how you are going to play the PC, but he isn’t likely to actually use it in the campaign. I probably won’t have a lot more, but it will be on paper instead of likely just in my head.

I’ve had a GM that will write major parts of the campaign around your background if you give him something creative/interesting to work with. If I can think of something unique I will flesh it out fairly well.

Oddly enough, I’m finding I have a bit more background for some of my PFS characters. Since I am up to 7 PFS PC’s that don’t necessarily get played more than a few times I year, I actually forget the characters. I will actually sit down, and forget what this guy does or why. So I’m having to write a bit more for them so I can remember “Oh yeah I play this guy as pretending to be way overconfident but he actually has a plan to flee if needed.”

For me, the background also grows a lot while I play a PC through the first few levels. I start playing him and find “Hmm… I’m being a real ash-hat to the nobles. Why is that? Ok, a noble at the rectory blamed him for the drugs found in the dormitory and he got away with it due to his mother’s family connections. That’s why he got thrown out of the rectory (he didn’t just quit).” A few levels later… “Ok it worked, but that was stupidly foolhardy thing to do. Apparently I’m not afraid of undead like most people. Why is that? Well let’s see. There was a prophecy that no one in my family would be seriously hurt except by those living around them. I’ve interpreted that to mean I can’t be hurt by undead. Yeah, that works.”

Rarely can I come up with any kind of interesting background before I have started to actually play the guy. It is just the weird way my mind works.

Shadow Lodge

ElterAgo wrote:
Rarely can I come up with any kind of interesting background before I have started to actually play the guy. It is just the weird way my mind works.

I have characters like that too. Character concepts I like but never really bothered to set up a background for until I finally get a chance to play them. So I don't worry about setting up a character background until about the second game session.

Liberty's Edge

After I make the character, I go through a few different one-paragraph drafts of what his backstory actually IS.


I usually come up with a background just explaining how my character decided on his class, what his parents and siblings names and professions are (if i would know), and how I know anyone in the party if I do beforehand.

My current 3.5 group we all worked with the DM and came up with an idea to have an urban campaign where we all worship the same god, and usually are doing work to deal with things for the church, so our "backstory" is being written by our actions. It's been quite fun.


First, I find out what I can about the nature of the campaign, its setting, and the themes of the kinds of stories the campaign will be about. Ideally, this is pretty much the same kind of information provided in an Adventure Path Player's Guide.

From there, I figure out what kind of story I want to tell within those parameters. Do I want my character to be a selfless hero? A mercenary who's in it for the money? Someone who seeks to become famous? The kind of person who just rolls up her sleeves and does what needs to be done? Etc. It's at this stage when I start to envision the character's general personality and identity.

Next, I figure out what game mechanical options best reflect the kind of character I want to run. (e.g. race, class, archetype).

I then fiddle with numbers to get a preliminary statblock. I'll pick traits, feats, and skills that reflect what I think this character would have learned so far.

And from there, I'll fill in the rest of the backstory.

If I have the opportunity, I like to bounce ideas off other players, so that we can integrate our stories.

I don't think I've created a boring character yet!


I don't have a 'Habit' per say.

For some characters I write a short story about a defining point in their lives. For others I have a bunch of dot points. My current character got the bare minimum backstory initially and I'm planning on growing it as I get a feel for their worldview and personality.


KestrelZ wrote:

My rules on making a background are as follows -

1. Make one that is sensible for an appropriate experience level. If the PC starts at level one, no long backstory of high adventure. If PCs start at level 10, give a cliff notes version on common opponents and political affiliations.

Hear hear! Except that this leads to a couple of conundrums presented by the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Jade Regent Player's Guide actually suggests an option for making Ameiko, Koya, Sandru, or Shalelu into player characters, yet how are they supposed to start Jade Regent at 1st Level when they have been through the events of Rise of the Runelords, and especially in the case of Koya, who is 60 years old? (To a somewhat lesser extent, one could ask the same question of the iconic Wizard Ezren.) In the case of Koya, who I actually have the kernel of a cool idea, I was trying to think of some explanation in which she HAD progressed to higher level but got depowered and had to start all over (think of the "Gilgul" ritual from Mage). But for this to happen to ALL 4 of these characters seems like an awfully big coincidence, and even if it happened to them as a non-random event (for instance, Karzoug's machinations), to expect ALL 4 of them to retain their sanity through the process seems like an awfully tall order. Separate but related to this, the glacially slow manturation rates of Elves (including Drow), Dwarves, Gnomes, the various Plane-Touched (including Elemental-Touched, but strangely not including Fetchlings), and Dhampirs sort of enforces a history that is at least chronologically long -- see a whole thread about this.

The upshot is: The Pathfinder Campaign Setting won't let me be entirely guilt-free with regard to this, so I'll try to make the best I can of it.

KestrelZ wrote:


2. Make sure a background is long enough to cover the subject, yet short enough to keep the GM's attention.

I can do the first part, but I might not be able to help you with the second part . . . :-)

KestrelZ wrote:


3. Don't be a cookie cutter of raised by wolves. This rule is just a pet peeve of mine - no friends outside of the group, no family still alive, just a void without plot hooks. Granted, almost every 80s Fantasy story started with the hero's village burning down. It still gets old if every character is Conan, Beastmaster, Yor, etc. Let us mix it up a bit.

Again, hear, hear! Come on over to UnArcaneElection's Weirdo Collection! These are weirdos that don't just pop out from a void. Yes, two of the three Humanoid (in form if not necessarily creature type) characters no longer have their original parents, but this is my response to the glacially slow maturation rate of Dhampirs and Tieflings compared to the natural lifespan of their Human parents, who, in both cases realized they weren't going to live long enough and managed to find an Elvish foster family (actually the same particular foster family) to finish raising them; even though the original Human parents were cursed, they actually DIDN'T die particularly horrible deaths. The third Humanoid character has her original parents that are still alive and well (except for having impaired vision as she does); THEY were the ones who started on the Romeo and Juliet path, but instead of committing suicide, they made the harrowing escape from the Darklands, and she was born on the surface. Ignore the robot behind the curtain (that has my real name on it, and that I can't seem to do anything with other than mess with the icon -- not sure why apparently only my Paizo account has this problem). But one final character is a cat, who is sort of a cross between Garfield and Nermal, in part due to having an over-tolerant master.

Liberty's Edge

This thread got me thinking about my characters back stories, and how fully 3 of my ongoing characters have been enslaved by orcs before becoming adventurers. Although worse than that, when I first started playing PF, and PFS in particular, I created a 2 weapon fighter from Andoran who grew up in a farming village. Then I finally read Valeros' back story. I had created Valeros. Or very near him, anyways.

Nowadays I tend to only put as much back story in to give the character a morale compass, without giving the character specific goals to accomplish. It seems a lot easier to fit these characters into a story without feeling the disconnect between your characters background and where the story's headed. Of course, I do have one campaign that makes the exception, which started by working with the GM to make backgrounds tailored to the campaign. I don't know how I feel about it though, it almost feels like the GM won't kill us as our PCs are too integral to the story. Kind of feels like we're just going through the motions at times.

Also find that PCs with light back story tend to grow into proper characters in time, formed by their experiences.


1. i do a lot of PCs that are a squire, apprentice or younger relative of another PC as does Ilina.
2. Ilina and i play a lot of Young PCs we coordinate as childhood friends at the very least
3. Ilina and i play a lot of fae and elementals
4. we both used to use backstories loaded with NSFW Dark Elements
5. we both play a lot of very NC-17 rated characters, but we don't do what the steriotypical creepy otaku does at first glance, dark, but not fatalite immature
6. we both play a lot of characters who at least look cute on a cosmetic level, even if they are truly darker and less adapted in personality
7. we play a lot of high functioning sociopaths who can at least fake empathy and work alongside good characters
8. we play a lot of glass cannons


My only thing to add is that I always try to include either a plot hook or a significant NPC. That way the GM can have a filler arc while they set things up for the next big plot arc or they can have some help adding things to their main story.

KestrelZ wrote:
Don't be a cookie cutter of raised by wolves. This rule is just a pet peeve of mine - no friends outside of the group, no family still alive, just a void without plot hooks. Granted, almost every 80s Fantasy story started with the hero's village burning down. It still gets old if every character is Conan, Beastmaster, Yor, etc. Let us mix it up a bit.

I take umbrage to that one. It's practically required for the Feral Child Druid Archetype. Mine did include a significant NPC in the form of his parents' killer so I tried to do something.

Also no one can truly make Yor because you can't make your theme song blare whenever you do something totally awesome.


Larkos wrote:

...

Also no one can truly make Yor because you can't make your theme song blare whenever you do something totally awesome.

I actually had a player do this. It was funny the first time. Even slightly amusing the next few times. But we eventually asked him not to come back because he refused to stop doing it.


Aranna wrote:

Hama says the truth. The best characters come from collaboration between players and the GM as a whole group.

Most of my GM's and players are not interested in collaborating on any character backgrounds.

They just don't see any need/reason to do so.

Sovereign Court

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Because it makes the overall story better and a player more invested.


i'm actually trying to break my otaku habit temporarily saturday when i return to the saturday savage worlds group with Ilina

i will be playing an obese diabetic male 41 year old hispanic monk named Jose Cuervo after the Tequilla brand, unlike most members of the science fiction inquisition, he is a nice, charitable and family oriented guy with 27 nephews and 33 nieces. though he has power armor and a plasma rifle and comes from a liquor farm on Jupanus 6. a desert planet named after a portmanteau of Jupiter and Uranus, he is a jolly and amiable but not so attractive old fellow with a heavy set gut and isn't very athletic, using implants to compensate his lacking physical attributes to normal levels

he is a merry fellow in the Vein of Saint Nikolas and Very Charitable.

Ilina will be playing his red themed fiery and softening counterpart, Miguel Cortez, the guy who climbed the ranks and gets along, being 43 and less large, but more brawny but at the same time, quicker and more athletic

Jose is a dedicated ranged combatant, Miguel is more melee, their families get along, they are both from the same community in the same planet, and well, they are the Red Oni Blue Oni pair of "Blue Joe" and "Red Mike"

not in a relationship or anything, just a monk and a grand inquisitor from the same faction who work alongside an allied group to keep tabs. both are rather out of our comfort zone.


Why make him diabetic? That seems like artificially handicapping for no real benefit role or roll wise?

Sovereign Court

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That's like when one of my players made a narcoleptic character that had a 5% chance to fall asleep whenever he did something strenuous. And when he dropped in the middle of battle, the player got pissed at me.

YOU made a narcoleptic character.


Aranna wrote:
Why make him diabetic? That seems like artificially handicapping for no real benefit role or roll wise?

the diabetes is merely description for why Jose has a low strength agility and vigor. other than roleplaying eating a lot of beans for the fibers once in a bit of lip service to explain he controls his type 2 diabetes through diet rather than use of metformin, it isn't much of a handicap. plus. diabetes is the logical outcome of frequent merrymaking.

Shadow Lodge

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Hama wrote:

That's like when one of my players made a narcoleptic character that had a 5% chance to fall asleep whenever he did something strenuous. And when he dropped in the middle of battle, the player got pissed at me.

YOU made a narcoleptic character.

I think that's awesome. I had a cleptomaniac character once. The DM rolled randomly for strange things found in my pockets. Reciepts, silverware, non-magical trinkets that belong to important NPCs. Got us into trouble all the time but the entire party had a blast with it.


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I tend to make a three structure backstory: youth, call to action and their current situation.

One thing that tends to happen in all my character backstories is the major event that turns them into adventuring. For one it was being imprisoned on false charges and quest for justice/vengeance. For another it was being tasked by his monk master to travel the world to find the answer to a question given to him as a final test. For my latest one it was finding out his father, presumed to be dead at seas, had been seen recently.

I also tend to somewhat define their moral standing with one question: how readily would they kill another sapient non-evil being (non-evil as in demon, devil etc)? Some have no qualms about it, others do it in self-defense and one wouldn't do it even in self-defense.

This form can easily swift if the GM has the backstories revolve around the campaign story, like when all our characters were adoptive brothers from the same village.


UnArcaneElection wrote:
KestrelZ wrote:

My rules on making a background are as follows -

1. Make one that is sensible for an appropriate experience level. If the PC starts at level one, no long backstory of high adventure. If PCs start at level 10, give a cliff notes version on common opponents and political affiliations.

Hear hear! Except that this leads to a couple of conundrums presented by the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Jade Regent Player's Guide actually suggests an option for making Ameiko, Koya, Sandru, or Shalelu into player characters, yet how are they supposed to start Jade Regent at 1st Level when they have been through the events of Rise of the Runelords, and especially in the case of Koya, who is 60 years old? (To a somewhat lesser extent, one could ask the same question of the iconic Wizard Ezren.) In the case of Koya, who I actually have the kernel of a cool idea, I was trying to think of some explanation in which she HAD progressed to higher level but got depowered and had to start all over (think of the "Gilgul" ritual from Mage). But for this to happen to ALL 4 of these characters seems like an awfully big coincidence, and even if it happened to them as a non-random event (for instance, Karzoug's machinations), to expect ALL 4 of them to retain their sanity through the process seems like an awfully tall order. Separate but related to this, the glacially slow manturation rates of Elves (including Drow), Dwarves, Gnomes, the various Plane-Touched (including Elemental-Touched, but strangely not including Fetchlings), and Dhampirs sort of enforces a history that is at least chronologically long -- see a whole thread about this.

The upshot is: The Pathfinder Campaign Setting won't let me be entirely guilt-free with regard to this, so I'll try to make the best I can of it.

KestrelZ wrote:


2. Make sure a background is long enough to cover the subject, yet short enough to keep the GM's
...

In regards to this, on my worlds, I tend towards rejiggering eves and the like to start out at the same growth rate as humans with a slowly accelerating "drag" on their age. So say an 18 year old elf might be the equivalent of a sixteen year old human, but from there the difference accelerates until at some point the age of the longer lived one reaches a plateau ... It gets rid of the need to explain the growing up bit, at least.


Going over my characters I noticed something. Not a single one of my characters lacks some kind of parent. Even if they were adopted like my changeling they still have someone that raised them still living.


RDM42 wrote:

{. . .}

In regards to this, on my worlds, I tend towards rejiggering eves and the like to start out at the same growth rate as humans with a slowly accelerating "drag" on their age. So say an 18 year old elf might be the equivalent of a sixteen year old human, but from there the difference accelerates until at some point the age of the longer lived one reaches a plateau ... It gets rid of the need to explain the growing up bit, at least.

That would be my inclination as well (or have Elves, Dwarves, etc. mature noticeably slower at first, but not glacially slower like they do by RAW), but wouldn't that break things in the existing Pathfinder Campaign Setting?

One thought I have been turning over in the back of my mind is to have the maturation rate of Elves (and possibly other long-lived types) be conditional: Under optimal conditions they mature only moderately slower than Humans, but when things get tough, such as when they don't have enough food to grow normally, they are able to slow or even completely pause maturation as a defensive mechanism to avoid aberrant growth, and then start right back up where they left off when conditions improve; in contrast, Humans that have to grow up with insufficient nutrition are just hosed, even if they don't die outright. This would likely use some of the same genetic modifications that made Elves/etc. long-lived in the first place. (On Earth, some organisms actually do something like this -- nematodes, for instance.)

Back on topic, meanwhile I am going to have to try to think of some explanation in which Koya HAD progressed to higher level but got depowered and had to start all over (think of the "Gilgul" ritual from Mage) -- doesn't fix the other 3 prime NPCs of Jade Regent, but at least might fix the most egregious prime NPC background/Level clash.

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