Just wondering your opinions on what connection there is between age and roleplaying ability. Does age bring maturity to your approach to roleplaying, or just experience? Or does it even matter?

The short answer to this question is: Yes, I think it does.

However, to get more involved with this, it is important to remember that certain people mature at different rates than others do.

Roleplaying is more about experience and thought. It has nothing to do with maturity, honestly. I was roleplaying at 10, and I was pretty mature for my age, but not mature. I was good then, and continued to develop with experience. Now, in my 6th year and after putting in a lot of thought into roleplaying and how to create a cohesive and interesting story, I think it has much more to do with how much thought and time you invest into it.

I think maturity DOES play a role in role-playing, even if it isn't an enormous one. You have to know how to adapt and respond to all sorts of circumstances, and know when enough is enough.

Eh...I'd say, age only brings experience. Asides from that, it doesn't matter too much as far as I'm aware.

I think it's both - age and experience.

It has a lot to do with capacity.

A young person lacks the capacity to have as much experience as an older person has. An older person might not actually HAVE as much experience as they could - but they have that capacity to have experienced more, simply because they've lived longer.

I think it also has a bit to do with emotional maturity. Kids haven't had time to grow emotionally yet, and will be more likely to go through periods of emotional angst than the older players. The whole puberty thing can cause a young player to do things that he might not do if he was older and past that stage in his life.

Please note - I can't emphasize this enough - that I am being VERY general here on purpose. When I say "will be more likely" I mean just that. I don't mean "will always" or "will usually" - I'm talking about capacity.

An older person has the *capacity* to be more level-headed during tense scenes than someone with raging adolescent hormones. It doesn't mean the older person WILL be more level-headed - but they have already passed that stage and the likelihood of breakdown is reduced.