I was wondering based on the published literature if there were any rules or guidelines for aging, aging effects, the maximum human age?

No rules for that yet, probably not regarded as necessary. You could argue that Characteristics Advancements are to be seen as part of aging.

The core rulebook gives the idea that Feral Worlders count as "Old Ones" starting at ~30, Hive Worlders are "Old Timers" starting at ~40, Imperial Worlders are "Veterans" starting at ~45 and Void Born are "Methuselahs" starting at ~55. I would suppose that characters would live maybe another 20, 30 years (+/- 10) after reaching that stage - that is, unless they enjoy the benefits of rejuvenation treatments. It would also depend heavily on their respective home world and general health, of course.

There's quite a lot of games where you could draw inspiration from if you want to come up with houserules, though.

Very quick and basic idea:

• Youth (10-20): +1d5 Agility, -1d5 Strength
• Adult (20-30): no modifications from base values
• Veteran (30-50): +1d5 Intelligence, -1d5 Agility
• Venerable (50-70): +1d5 Intelligence, -1d5 Perception
• Ancient (70+): -1d10 all characteristics

Note: aging penalties negated by rejuvenation treatments, aging benefits always apply.

However, in general, aging effects are a tricky subject and they always also depend on the individual character in question, and what the different characteristics mean to them. A charismatic leader, for example, will likely keep his Fellowship bonus even in old age (or it may even increase), whereas someone who relies on his or her body to charm other persons may very well find his skills not work as well anymore, reflected by a drop in Fellowship. This could also be handled by Skill penalties rather than affecting characteristics directly, but as this would result in a very complex system I'd say that a GM should come up with appropriate modifiers "on the fly" and on a case-by-case basis.

There aren't any outlined and an important thing to note is that age can be a bit tricky in this particular universe. As a ship travels through the warp days might go by for them but in the material universe weeks or months might have gone by, though this doesn't mean they've gotten older physically or mentally. Another thing to remember is the exceedingly rich can afford drugs called rejuvinat, which basically slows the aging process down to a fraction of it's normal rate, Lord Sector Hax for example as the lord of the Calixis Sector is in his second century but appears to be in his fifties. Some worlds might have shorter or longer lifespans based on cultural/lifestyle/genetic reasons so someone who has lived their entire life on a pleasure world eating and living comfortably on nice sandy beaches with not an ork or heretic in sight will live a lot longer than the average metallican gunslinger fighting their way through day to day life through the Infernus of Gunmetal City.

I know you are considering putting Adeptus Astrates in your game so I'll give you a little info on them, it's unsure if Astrates have an upper age limit, rejuvinate or not everyone else will eventually die, space marines have never been seen to die of old age that I am aware of but do fall prone (rarely) to particularily virulent diseases and poisons. If they sat in their fortress monastaries tending gardens all the time who knows how long they would live for? But at the end of the day they are warriors and go to war with many reaching a few hundred years old but the oldest known living space marine is Chapter Master Dante of the Blood Angels Chapter at over 1200 years old. There are technically older space marines but then we are going into the live support/war engine that is the Dreadnaughts where some injured space marine heros are placed to continue to fight for the emperor, the oldest that I know of is Bjorn the Fel Handed, he is a Space Wolf and knew Leman Russ their Primarch personally and was the youngest of his great company and kind of acted like chapter master after he went off into the eye of terror to fight chaos. He still wakes up and tests their priests on recounting their old tales and sagas and from time to time to make sure that things aren't being told wrong.

Cybernetics are also a big problem for any ageing rules:

- Bones and muscles weakening due to age - Replace them with steel and motors.

- Memory fading - Grab a memorance implant (Rogue Trader) and your memory will become better than it was in the prime of your life.

Thanks for the answers/ideas/ and setting information. Sorry it has taken me so long to reply.

I take it that the drug(s), rejuvinat, are not covered in the books currently, right?

Nope, they're pretty much a card-blanche solution for characters that are supposed to be "really old". Such as Hax, for example. Just imagine that stuff to be insanely expensive and capable. This kind of treatment could even come in various forms, from simple daily injections to annual sessions in some arcane device that take several hours or even days.

It's not something that should concern the characters unless your campaign spans several decades.

The Rogue Trader books also talk of Halo Devices that are supposed to have some rejuvenating effect (only heard that bit on the forums, haven't investigated that yet), but they are of xenos origin and highly illegal.

Halo Devices don't merely rejuvenate you, they make you immortal. Of course, they also mutate you into a human - xenos hybrid monster that's cannibalistic, psychotic, insane, knows too much, and is almost tough enough to go toe-to-toe with a Space Marine or an unbound Daemonhost. The Inquisition can be expected to respond with truly extreme prejudice in such cases.

Cheers,

- V.