Prior to a certain age I personally believe it's best to just have them in the "background" so to speak and not actually played by a PC.

The cutoff for this would be around 4 or 5 years old, IMO.

And while it should go without saying, real children don't tawk wike dis so pweez don't do dis. :|

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Rev. Reene

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo."
-- Enoch in Neal Stephenson's The Confusion

>>A very well roleplayed.. what is he? Five-year-old?

No but the GMs pretended he was that old so we rolled with it. And yes, that character is played very well. It reminds me a lot of another child character I know to the point that if I didn't know better I'd say they have the same player.

Didn't he have a birthday party( that I came late to) and I think he was seven.


~Not all things are meant to be.~

Lanita

>>Didn't he have a birthday party( that I came late to) and I think he was seven.

We have the exact day he was born in Prime. I don't remember what it was, but I think someone posted it when the birthday party happened and he would have been less than four at the time, iirc. Someone feel free to confirm or disprove, however, since I don't have it off hand.

I would also suggest playing the child yourself through act/smile/etc until they are around the age the Reene suggested.

That's what I did with both of Shadeau's kits, then I played them myself for a little while, and now they're off with relatives of hers in a small family hub/pryde.

Why did I ditch them off other than it being typical of Prydaen? Because it gets VERY boring role playing as having children. Your entire RP has to change, which is fun for a good while, but it gets really annoying not being able to RP the things that you used to do and enjoy.

Like staying away from home for weeks, months, maybe even years at at time. -grins-

I would seriously think this over good and hard before committing to this.


Shadeau Moonith,
Player of.

--
Badtooth slips an ice pick in his spidersilk garter, tightening the ribbons securely below his knee.
>gasp bad
You gasp at Badtooth!
>wave shade
You fan yourself.

I'd roll up any names that you like so no one else can take them, then when the time comes for someone to play, either transfer the name or retire the character so someone else can reg it (if you can even still do that these days).


Shadeau Moonith,
Player of.

--
Badtooth slips an ice pick in his spidersilk garter, tightening the ribbons securely below his knee.
>gasp bad
You gasp at Badtooth!
>wave shade
You fan yourself.

My character's husband and I decided to have children IG as well. We have two kids, actually. Both times, we RP'd them from infancy, even did a naming ceremony for them out of respect for the Prydaen tradition, and we used props and ACTs to make it seem like they were actually there. It helped that all of our friends and family played along and added to what we were doing with the kids. They too would incorporate them into their ACTs if the kids were in the room with us. Props to use would be like baby blankets, bottles, toys... actions like rubbing the blanket or shifting it from arm to arm sort of helped give the impression a baby was being carried by the parent, etc. It takes a lot of imagination and creativity to pull it off.

As Shadeau said, it's not something to undertake lightly. It takes a lot of effort to keep it going, not everyone is into that sort of RP and may not play along with you if you do it (though I've never run into someone so rude as to imply there isn't actually a kid or anything, they just didn't really act along or acknowledge the kid being in the room.) We were lucky to already have a group of friends that were very easy-going about that sort of thing. I myself will always play along with someone else who is doing it, even if I don't know them well.

Also as Shadeau pointed out, if you take it seriously, then you will be drastically changing how you RP. My character didn't travel when her kids where babies.. she stayed at home about 85% of her time, her friends usually came to visit her rather than her going out to meet up with them. After a short while, we RP'd that they had a nanny that lived with them and took care of the children so the parents could be away.. short day trips at first, but after a while we were able to resume most of our usual activities. We still talked about our children as if we saw them and spent time with them each day, but they weren't a constant presence in our RP.

Once the older child was about 8 years old IG, we decided to get him a player to bring him to life. (We had reserved the name when he was born, and maintained a character to look like him, but didn't actually have him logging into the game while we did this ACT RP with the baby.) Yes, we actually waited the full 8 years IG, but that was our choice. We had considered maybe speeding up his age a little so that he'd grow up faster, something plausable where folks wouldn't notice the difference too much (because, as I said, our friends got involved in our RP to a certain extent). But, we found that once we weren't really acting like they were constantly there, time actually passed quickly on its own and before long the children were growing up faster than I realized anyway. Once we found the right person to play him, RP'ing with him was great fun and a lot less tedious. It made us want to have the second child played by another person too, as she was already 4. We found someone for her by the time she was 5.

That's how we did it, and I'm not saying anyone else should follow our example. I explained our way just in response to your question. That being said, I wouldn't recommend going with the idea that she's only pregnant right now, they have a wedding, out pops a baby, and he's running around town on his own as if he's an older child, or adult. Unless there really wouldn't be anyone to know the difference, I wouldn't count on it flying too well with folks who know you and know that you only just gave birth to that son 3 days ago, and now he walks, talks, and probably hunts. I may not be all that familiar with Rakash anatomy, but one would think they follow some kind of infant-toddler-child progression, even if it's at a faster rate than a human.

Whatever you might choose to do, I hope it turns out well. You can take our comments as a grain of salt and do it however you like.. all that really matters is that it's something you enjoy doing and fulfills whatever it is you're hoping for by having a family IG.

Good luck!
~ Fayeza.

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"Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children." -- Kahlil Gibran