Begging: PC's carrying on about in finery, well armed and equipped with a flair for drawing attention to themselves should be surrounded by beggars constantly, seeking the smallest penny or schilling from such illustrious and generous sorts of themselves. Yet adventurers, walking moneybags that they often are, sneak about towns and villages without ever being accosted by hordes of needy children, thrusting pitiful dirty hands up at the PC's beseechingly!

Placing the characters' heroic deeds in contrast to the desperate acts of survival that occur every day in every town and city may make the characters reflect upon the nature of the society and the inherent inequalities that exist in a system that they champion. Why can't adventurers spend as much time helping children at orphanages as they do rooting out imaginary cults and the like?

The adventurers were pleased with themselves, and chortling with glee. A mere night's work had allowed them to smuggle in goods to their patron for a very generous fee. The ease of their work and the size of their payment filled them with exuberance, and as the first rays of the sun chased way the bigtter chill of the retreating night they jostled each other playfully and bragged of the pleasures and luxuries their new found wealth would afford them. Their merriment ended as they were startled out of their revelry. Lying in the street were the still bodies of three small children, cold and blue, still vainly clinging to each other for warmth. The sight of the frail small corpses sobered them up and they continued along their way, each lost in their own melancholy thoughts.

The necessity of crime, and the poverty that drives to children to these acts can illustrate the hostility and grim nature of the world. Yet adventurers deal in death and misery to their enemies and foes. Yet death, and suffering, can be employed in a different manner by a GM.

In truth, the players would be more likely to witness funerals of small children, or dead children frozen to death than they would bodies of orcs and goblins, when in truth the reverse is more likely. Players, sadly, should equate childhood not with happiness, but mortality.

Funerals of children, grieving mothers should all reflect a high mortality rate that exists in medieval society, even one with clerics who can heal. Poor children dying or being murdered, with none caring about their demise, since they are viewed by many as vermin, or a problem to be ignored.

Andrea was lost in the Drakwald; her fear turned to gratitude as she saw a faint pillar of smoke ahead through the tops of the trees. She hurriedly entered the clearing, shaking away the cold and exhaustion from her long flight. She stepped forward and was immediately greeted by the barking of a half dozen of the ugliest dogs she ever saw, wild and mangy looking. Moments later, a dozen or so small faces appeared from windows and doorways, children who looked even more feral in appearance than the dogs. Dirty, unkempt, and by the looks of them bruised and beaten as well. Andrea looked at their bare feet, matted hair, and threadbare clothes and pitied their poor little lives. Aghast, she turned away from their fearful, pleading eyes, and entered into the deep forests again.

It is not just children in urban areas that suffer, but children in rural areas as well. They often have little to look forward to then slaving away on land that they'll never own, or squatting on property on the dangerous fringes of civilization. For them, even their childhood is short, dangerous, and harsh.

The children are quite likely ignorant, being illiterate, and their minds full of nonsense and superstition. While they may be full of critical knowledge of their area outside that domain they are ignrorant and this ignorance can be dangerous. For them, there is little access to knowledge to improve their lives or become anything other than their parents are.

Marco Tintorreti waited patiently there, suppressing the frustration within. The long trip, on such a delicate yet important matter of diplomacy, and he was kept waiting! Waiting! The gall! A young page walked in, bearing ink, quill and parchment. As he approached, the young lad misstepped, and lurched forward a bit, and a single drop of black ink landed upon Lord Tintorreti's sleeve. He exploded, he rose above the frightened lad, holding his cane high, and brought it down upon the youthful crown! The boy crumpled, but Lord Tintorreti did not stop until the child was a mangled heap and his cane had split in two from the beating.

Power in the Old World affects all, and its distribution is unequal and the source of hardship for the many and luxury for the few. Just as children live in poverty, all to often they are the victims of people seeking power.

Children are vulnerable than most to the abuses of power, and those with great power can use their power against them with little resistance. Wealthy merchants can have child beggars beaten to keep them away from their estates and places of business, while nobles can ride over children with impunity, or incarcerate them for crimes real or imagined.

Those with little power are able to take out their frustrations on those with less power: children. There's no need to go into great detail on child abuse and violence against children, other than to note that the inclusion of such material into a campaign must take into account the sensibilities of the group and what exactly they are comfortable with.

The Ostland Five were bursting with energy! They were alive! They were paid! And they'd done much to help the people of the area! Here, they were relaxing in a local inn, sitting by the warm fire to chill their bones. "The Black Goat", that had hunted down and slain so many and terrorized the people of the land was defeated, its foul, giant beastmen body pierced by a dozen arrows. A hard pursuit and fight, but victory was theirs! Rolf, raised his tankard in celebration, the others grinning followed. Rolf started "Today, we made the lives of the local people better, and for that...", and then paused dramatically before continuing.

Suddenly the sound of a dish crashed from the inn's kitchen. The landlord burst through the door into the kitchen, its door swinging wildly, and a small child stood there amidst broken dishware. As the door swung shut the landlord was seen looming over the child and his screams could be heard. "You oaf! You clumsy cursed brat! You know how much that cost me!" The door swung open again and a glimpse of the innkeeper could be seen, his hand raised above his head. Violent smacking sounds, strangled sobs. A woman's voice interceding, and soon her yelps were heard as well, and the door swung to and fro, giving the horrified patrons snapshots of the resulting beatings.

The Ostland heroes, defeaters of orcs, beastmen, and even darker evils sat there, unable or unwilling to face the beast that lurked in the human heart.

In conclusion, childhood is a topic that should be explored by GM and player alike, but not our own childhood with myths of innocence and care-free pleasures, but rather a childhood colored by the grim desperation of the Warhammer World. Childhood can be used as a source of character development as well as a means of bringing home to characters a sense of what they are fighting for, and against, in their daily struggles in the Old World.