LogFAQs > #879667443

Here's an offhanded question for people here:

What's a realistic age for a young kid to be completely orphaned and have to "live on the street" in a large, medieval fantasy-esque city?

Talking the more Aladdin-esque street urchin as opposed to a situation where someone is taken in by a local thieves' guild or an apprentice/master sort of scenario. Or the more realistic-yet-depressing scenario of kids basically becoming prostitutes to eke out a living. ie, someone who probably sleeps in alleys, abandoned buildings, or even in alcoves in the sewers, and who mainly steals food, clothing, and trinkets in a crowded city (likely with some sort of bazaar or the like). Sort of the proto-stage before they can theoretically manage to graduate up to actual pickpocketing (which takes more practice, and isn't really beginner-level thievery).

Just curious for RPG-ish purposes. Thinking about a character who is basically forced to live on the streets and steal to survive, who is old enough to actually succeed and live for at least a few years (either as a traditional cliched "Rogue" origin story or as a segue into something else). But they also have to be young enough to actually fit the "street urchin" trope AND to explain away why they don't just get a job somewhere to try and support themselves.

Obviously, it isn't realistic to think that, say, a 5-year old kid is going to manage to survive on their own in those sorts of circumstances, but I was sort of thinking about just what age would be perfect for that trope to really work well.


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