What are some alternate ways to think about archetypes?

[dbm]

Instead of approaches, you have genres: War, Romance, Comedy, and one or two more.

I hadn’t thought about that, however it is a pretty good description of the differences between the Spidies in ‘Across the Spiderverse’.

It’s kind of a meta tag: the context you do things in.

 

[Autumnal]

I hadn’t thought about that, however it is a pretty good description of the differences between the Spidies in ‘Across the Spiderverse’.

It’s kind of a meta tag: the context you do things in.

Yes, very much so, in both counts.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

An ideal, perhaps?

Take Freedom and make it a title for a person, and you have The Free.

The Free, The Discuplined, The Just, The Stalwart, The Faithful, The Clever, etc

 

[Laurefindel]

There’s many ways of defining archetypes but the « what they do » is the easiest tool to use for a rpg.

Otherwise, I remember a few systems running around « how they do it », giving archetypes such as « the strong dude », « the quick guy », « the clever girl », « the pretty chick » etc, which ultimately came pretty close in end result to « what they do » archetypes.

Then there are a few classless (or almost classless) rpg like the new Alien RPG series and the WEG Star Wars that use archetypes to give examples of characters, but ultimately these archetypes are just guides to justify specific builds.