Your system works all right, and I think I may use something similar if I ever have characters that young. I probably would only use it for comedy purposes, or for a grimdark "you are all 5 years old and find yourself stranded in another country with no food, money, parents, or a way back, and some mean looking gangers approach you" type game.
Lord of the Flies 2072.
However, if the characters are teenaged, I simply give them less BP/Karma to use at creation, and make up for the difference quickly with extra rewards 'til they catch up with the team. Like, 100 less karma if you are 15.
That can work past puberty.... I gave a system for aging folk out of being children, which could be useful for child dependents, sidekicks, or if people run a children's campaign such as I'm proposing.... [Play-By-Post proposal here
http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=6453.0] If you have a 7 year old kid dependent (negative quality) when you start gameplay, by 15 you'd should probably have bought the dependent quality off, and by 18 they could be running with you -- or instead of you. Of course, the kid could be disabled or not runner-quality and need a babysitter for life. Up to you & the GM. But in the 8 years in-between, you might want stats for that kid so that the GM can at least aim some good pot-shots at them, have them kidnapped for ransom, etc. etc.
There's a thread under Rules & Such (Oops -- this IS that thread!) that's aged off the first couple pages about this -- not only are child "runners" appropriate for comedy, these stats could be used for dependents, for the kids in the campaigns & books (Look, a kid doesn't even have Pedestrian stats!), and for the occasional plant by the Bad Guys (kids with cranial bombs, lets say....) who think life is cheap and kids with innocent faces infiltrate their opposition more easily than double agents & spies (they're probably right).
However, yes, this campaign I'm proposing for PbP is for humor/fun. Too much seriousness in Shadowrun Land. Time for a reprise.
I might also give older characters (40+) MORE Karma/BP, but they earn less as time goes on. Depends on my mood and the balance of the game.
If you think age = an inability to learn, then you're both not up on the latest science, and you haven't met my 70 year old client (a businesswoman writing books and going strong at 70) who just learned how to take care of her own websites (I mean, she's taking care of some 5 websites now on her own...and she was helpless as a babe for the last 5+ years, completely dependent....). She's only an exception to the rule because she never bought the "can't teach an old dog new tricks" line. And that line was never true before the 20th century, so why should the 21st century continue that BS?
The age of the retirement/nursing home is over. And good riddance.
Runners are also outliers on the bell curve. They constantly & consistently defy "average joe" statistics. So why should they slow down on the learning curve at 40+? Genetics and "use it or lose it" facts of being human say they're going to be the guy still chopping his own wood for the stove past age 60 (know people in that category too) and learning new tricks all the time....because they USE them. And they may be the George Burns who at 100+ fathers a child, so the excuse that genetics gives up when you can't procreate anymore need not apply.
I'm 42. I don't think I'm learning less -- if anything I learn MORE because I actually appreciate information, skills and knowledge more than youngsters who are in the middle of or recently escaped from being force-fed proctored/approved information by The State & Authorities for 12+ years..... (I Am Not Opinionated™)
Anyway, if you want to have a conversation about Ages & Stages of learning/ability/disability and whether aged runners should burn out or fade away, we can take that up under Rules & Such. I can copy what I've said over there and have people hash it out....along with links to research that proves that people do make new neural pathways until the day they die -- barring some brain disorders such as Alzheimer's. (OOPs -- this IS that thread -- lol!)
