Title: Starting Older Characters
Summary: Adding in a wider range of ages when creating a character. 17, 20 and 25 are all quite young, so why not some higher ages?
Details: Our realms are generally populated by much younger characters. This isn't inherently bad, but we do miss out on some diversity. Age penalties are all but gone, and when creating a character, you get to choose lower skills with a young age, or an older character who is much more experienced. There isn't a downside. Need there be? Make their skills suffer with age depending on age, giving incentive to start at a younger age, or make it the same. I would not be opposed to even having disadvantages, but age seems to very much be an RP system in Battlemaster now - and we should take advantage of that.
Benefits: A more age diverse noble populace. The game, if I'm being a big sceptic, will likely be gone by the time we have any new and old characters, so why not add this as an RP feature sooner than later?
Possible Downsides/Exploits: With age comes influence, and it would undermine the history of characters who have been around a long time.