Forums » Suggestions & Development Discussion » Character Age Restriction?

Okay, I know the title of my inquiry is a bit confusing and misleading, but I have a serious question/concern that I feel needs to be addressed publicly and I'm not sure where else to bring it up.

Lately, I have noticed that a fair number of underage characters are replying in the LFRP-AO forums. My question is: Is there a way to make a drop-down menu of ages on characters, much like there is for genders? I realize that this would be extremely time-consuming to code or implement, but it just creeps me out that so many underaged characters are replying to threads for adult content.

I know that it explicitly states on every LFRP-AO post that there is the possibility for adult content on the post, but I don't think the players are reading that or are under the assumption that because the player themselves are over the age of 18, it doesn't matter that their character is younger than 18.

What I am not asking for is for the player to be limited to 18+ on this drop-down menu. I myself have a character that can be played as a small child or an adult, though I have yet to play her as a child and might just get rid of that section of her profile altogether.

What I am asking is that with the drop-down menu for ages of the character, it basically blocks the player from replying to threads that the character as no business replying to. If you need an example, I can gladly provide one privately.

This sounds like a pretty good idea. Most of my characters are under 18 and I feel this would be a good idea to implant. I am fairly strict with my characters and what situations I put them under. Like I won't out Champon or Asroc in an R18 situation.


I wonder if reporting the said person with under 18 character be a good idea so the mods and staff know off hand?

Whilst I personally don't use the AO forum (Because I'm too lazy to bother trying to filter through all the sexual content RP to find the ones that are just there to avoid under-18 players and nothing else), I don't think restricting it to characters of a certain age is a good idea unless it's something the OP of the thread can control, though people can always circumvent that by posting with their main identity. Blocking under-18 characters from the forum entirely sounds like a bit of an overkill reaction. There are two big reasons I can think of for under-18 characters to use the forum without breaking site rules.

1) The AO forum isn't just for sexual content. Plenty of people go there just to avoid RPing with players who are minors.

2) If an RP has adult themes, but none of the more sensitive adult themes are inflicted upon the child character, I don't see an issue in that. There are plenty of movies with 18+ ratings that have child characters in them.

Honestly, the best course of action is just to report suspicious behaviour as it happens. If an RP explicitly states that it's looking for a sexual relationship between player characters and an underaged character is used to reply, naturally unless the player intends to age the character up for the specific RP, that falls into report territory.

i aged up the appearance of my characters because my faeries were small framed adults. but they were geeks and i kind of misused certain descriptors. by childish prints, i mean prints on one's clothes one wouldn't associate with the concept of maturity. like teddy bears, foxes, or puppies. still an adult, just short, undersized and proud of being small. stuff that halfling and faerie characters do in a lot of stories. where they adopt a persona that is less mature than thier true age as a means of deception commonly called Acting,

i also do a lot of Adult Roleplays that aren't sexual in nature, but deal with themes like capture, gore, suffering, loss, or something dark like escapism. because i like RPing with people who understand dark but not inherently sexual themes that are definitely not appropriate for children. most People use the R18 forum for sexual RP. but i think we need a separate subforum for Sexual RPs to make them easier to spot.

Edit: Fear is another theme i enjoy working with.

Gore is something I like working with along with something that strikes fear in them. Champon is an example where he was used as a weapon for war and pretty much screwed up his mind. He tries to shake it off by keeping an up beat life.

Maybe a more healthy balance with certain themed Rps could be implanted?

Possibly, though this feature would be low priority. In the meanwhile, please do hit the report button on those underaged characters responding to sexual topics!