So I got into D&D as of this year and the Tortle look to be one of the races I could have a lot of fun rp wise.. Just curious though the lifetime int he book says on average they live to be roughly 50 years old. But unlike some races where it would say "the oldest recorded" it doesn't say that... it just says on average. I started thinking they are adventurers and the lifespan for adventurers isn't usually too old due to the dangers within the universe of D&D. Also I started thinking about turtles and tortoises in real life live for a long ass time, The tortles just flavor seem they could live for quite a long time.

So would it be accurate to say it is entirely possible for them to live for 100's of years if not killed by monsters or falling due to traps? Just wondering because this would effect the character design and RP of them since rp relies on what they are, how their existence is shaped by their culture and biology, ect. Also I don't know a lot about other editions lore except 4e is the one nobody talks about and 3.5 is the most played aside from 5e.

Well thinking about tortoise, they live long because they move their bodies slowly, and conserve a lot of energy I think. They're able to keep their health well because of that, but tortle's move a lot more, they think a lot more, and they stand on two legs. Standing on two legs instead of 4, holding up the weight of their shell constantly probably uses a lot of energy. While me and others have argued they should live longer, I think that 50 must be the max of their lifespan.

I think making the tortle's lifespan only 50 years is a mistake on WOTC's part. It makes no sense for a race very explicitly based on real-life tortoises and turtles, who easily live centuries, to have a shorter lifespan than an average human! I don't know if WOTC is going to change that at all, but in my games at least I'm going to ignore the official lifespan and say tortles live about as long as elves do.

See the metabolism thing would be a good argument if we didn't have skinny agile elves living to be 1000 years of age... and if you add on top of that where humans live longer than apes when we evolved from them meaning for all we know the tortles should be able to live at least human life spans if not much longer. Like that is what really gets me with the whole tortle thing just seems they may need to retcon or give a good explanation for it since to this day people are still asking the same questions about their lifespans lol.

If I DM I would probably just go the rout of they live average 50 due to being adventurers and being nomadic quite often leading to danger since they never gave a hard cap for their lifespan in 5e... that is where my issue is though like I don't know how they worded things in the old editions for them... like is it still vague? or did they put a hard definite lifespan?

The oldest known tortoise lived to 177 years old, so I'd imagine that Tortles should have a similar (perhaps longer) lifespan. 

In my upcoming campaign I'll be playing as a Tortle, and I actually set his age as 95 when writing his backstory, and his relationship with one of the other party members who's a Halfling is kind of based around being at least that old. Then I read the Tortle Package more closely and realized they're only meant to live to 50... so we just decided to just homebrew that they have a 200 year lifespan instead in this setting, since mechanically it doesn't have any real effect on gameplay. 

I like to imagine that their average lifespan is so low because as they travel to and from their home village they just.. kind of get randomly picked off by dragons. Kind of like a random hawk swooping down and grabbing a turtle in real life. I mean they do kind of have a rather large target on their back.

Some vultures pick up tortoises, fly super high up with them, and then drop them, and then eat the smashed tortoise remains. I imagine Dragons, giffons, perytons and other flying creatures would do to Tortles. Maybe even Giant Vultures do that to Tortles.

Quote from LeviRocks >>

Some vultures pick up tortoises, fly super high up with them, and then drop them, and then eat the smashed tortoise remains. I imagine Dragons, giffons, perytons and other flying creatures would do to Tortles. Maybe even Giant Vultures do that to Tortles.

 You say that like they don't likely do that to all the other races as well. Although I guess Tortles are easier to see from a distance than a lot of other races...

Honestly, I run them to live similar to greenland sharks, where they live for a long time and just age bad cosmetically, my tortle wizard is 100 years old and is in the front half of his life imo.

Personally, if it were my campaign, I would say that tortles (like their tortoise cousins) can survive for centuries - probably topping out somewhere in the 200 to 400 range. But! There's a catch. As a tortle ages it slows down, so it really wouldn't be functional as a playable character beyond its 80th or 100th birthday. It could still be around as an NPC dispensing wisdom and whatnot, but - I mean - look at an old tortoise... dude's not exactly gonna be dodging fireballs or exploring dungeons. 

Just my 2 c.p.

I like this idea. Unlike other players, I don't find it immersion-breaking that tortles don't live for hundreds of years - real-life tortoises that live over a century are somewhat exceptional. But 50 years just seems absurdly short-lived. 70 or 100 I could accept very happily as a house rule, as you can still play a character that "feels" old or has experienced decades without them being already on the verge of death, but 50? Goblins live longer. Tabaxi live longer. Bugbears live longer. Locathah live longer. In fact, the only official playable race with a shorter lifespan than tortles is aarakocra. Even grung live as long as tortles!

If you follow the conservation effort of the galapagos tortoise, the absolute stallion of a male saving their species was well over 100 years old pumping out baby batter left and right, id say tortoises stay functional to the end, just maybe not as a speed demon.

With no actual "cap" presented, you should be able to state it yourself.  Kobolds are said to be able to live for 120 years, but generally don't see anything past 30 due to the lives they lead.  Tortles could easily fall into the same role, with their shell sometimes being a detriment (extra weight) or perhaps something within Tortle life killing them off in large numbers at younger ages.  In all, this is your game, so whatever parameters you and the DM agree upon are the right ones.

Well there is a cap, it says 50 in their racial page, but i disagree with it, and so do most dm's

Part of the reasoning for the seemingly short lifespan may be the reproductive cycle given in The Tortle Package:

When a Tortle nears the end of its natural lifespan, it seeks our a mate and procreates. [...] The parents spend the remainder of their lives guarding the compound, defending their offspring, and sharing a lifetime of knowledge before they die.

Reproducing only near the end of its lifespan would make tortle population growth very slow and susceptible to extinction. The loss of a whole generation of baby tortles is part of the background for the tortle ranger I just started (he's a young one with a mission imparted by the elders).

The idea of an old adventuring tortle seems counter to their nature, as appealing as it is.

In addition to considering lives as adventurers knocking down the average, also consider real life examples for why average age of turtles and tortoises is much, much lower than after reaching maturity for many species: high early mortality. This also adds flavor and reasoning to the bit about spending their late years creating a compound to protect their young.

I know it's been a few years, but my take on Tortles is this: Tortles are the longest living race, but they are rare and constantly on the move. They're only thought to live 50 years, because a Tortle will typically stay in an area for about 50 years, then move on and change their name. Then again it could be because I'm Asian and Turtles are one of the 4 Auspicious Beasts in Chinese folklore, whom symbolizes knowledge, perseverance, and longevity. So if I saw a turtle person, I would expect them to live longer than everyone else.

The average lifespan of a turtle or tortoise is highly dependent on the species. Some species may only live 10 to 20 years in captivity, while others can live up to 150 years. In general, most turtle and tortoise species can live well into their 50s if provided appropriate care.

At first I believed that this was because tortles died after reproducing (much like octopi) but, after looking this up, I think this is what WOTC based it off. As the 50s is in bold, I assume this is the reason and they didn’t actually read the article. 150 is a LOT for a fat, shell wearing creature, but for some reason Kobolds live to 120?!?! 

Maybe Tortus just age slower, maybe Tortles have a different sort of dog-years like system?

But yes, seeing as it is in bold and the first thing that comes up when you look up ‘tortoise average lifespan’ I assume this is it.

To add more to this theory: What we do know is that sea turtles live a long time (some can live up to 50 years or more) and have similar lifespans to humans. Most marine turtles take decades to mature—between 20 and 30 years—and remain actively reproductive for another 10 years.

The 50 years is also in bold. Probably, WOTC just tried to find a common age between them, as tortoise+turtle-tortle.

Remember, turtles have short lifespans making this not very unrealistic, but yeah because they’re mostly based of tortoises I play them living up to 350 years, maturing at 35.

Prsonally, I lke that they've flown in the face of the cliche with this one.

For starters, it firmly reinforces their whole mantra of "you can change anything for your games".

Secondly, I'm fed up of every new race being intrinsically better in most ways than the Human. Eveyone seems to be able to live longer, se better in the dark, and do more cool stuff than humans can. In so far as character power is concerned, there is rarely any case for making your character a Human unless there is one feat you really want, or you rolled all odd numbers for your stats. Most of the new races even let you decide whether you're small or medium, rather than saying "these guys are small, deal with it!".

So far as justification is concerned, I would consider that a tortoise can live over 150 years - if it's on an island with no predators, being incrdibly sedate. A Tortle is much more active, and as a result will wear out quicker. Tortoises aren't meant for running through dungeons, diving out of the way of fireballs, and all that jazz. If you subjected a tortoise to the stresses of a tortle's life (and I thoroughly recommend that you don't), even if you remove the chance of early death, they'll naturally die much earlier.

In my games, Tortles have the capacity to live a loooong time, but the ones which do are the ones living a slow-paced life - librarians, shopkeepers, nobles, and that sort of thing. The ones which adventure, or are more physically active, simply last less time. Perhaps they only have a finite number of heartbeats, and once they're gone, they're gone.