Which is around right anyway. If you have a miltiary character with a single TOD, you're looking at a 25 year old which should be 5400 pts (5K base +100 per year odler than 21) plus another 300 from the aging table.
-Jackmc
Exactly the logic for the figure we chose. we figured we wanted folks with a bit of maturity, who had (on average) done one tour of duty or a few years of real life after schooling.. so we said 'ok with that as a baseline 5500 exp is about right for how 'good' of a guy a merc company is looking for.
But we are using the idea from the book of a 'baseline age' which means that's how much exp you get.. it does NOT mean all the characters are that age, and we don't award (other than the aging effects) anything for being above the baseline, or subtract anything for being below it.
I can quote the relevant section of the rules that says about 'experience is more than the sum of your age' and all that.
IMHO the way the rules presented the aging idea could have been better, because a lot of people seem to interpret it that you apply that '100 per year' to every character individually.. but I'm pretty sure based on the context of the next few sentences that it is NOT how they intended.
It also creates a situation where someone who wants to play a young hotshot with lots of potential and not many skills, is at a big disadvantage starting XP wise to the character with the 31 year old vet with stone average stats. and really that's not very fair to the players. I think a level xp playing field is far better