Angry’s Question of the Week: Martial Archetypes
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September 18, 2018

All right, kids and kidettes, it’s time for Angry’s Question of the Week!

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: “what the motherloving hell Angry’s Question of the Week!” Basically, I’m going to ask a question and you all get to answer it. In the comment section. Provided you follow some highly restrictive and rigidly enforced rules. Because I’m Lawful-Angry.

And then we’ll do it all again next week. And every week thereafter.

Why?!

Here’s the thing: somehow, I’ve ended up with a readership that is actually pretty clever and creative. I guess some of my brilliance has started to rub off on some of you through the Internet. And that means my comment section is often full of some pretty interesting ideas. And very few crap ideas. That’s right. Somehow, I’ve managed to build the only website on the entire damned Internet with a comment section that is worth reading. Probably partly because I’m so amazing that everything I touch turns to something great. But mostly because I’ve spent enough time policing the thing and making myself so unapproachable to trolls and morons that, in some sort of Darwinian process, I’ve weeded out most of the crap people.

Or else, there are just more good people in the community than bad and I’ve never noticed before.

Meanwhile, ever since I started talking about game design – and making serious noises about building my own game – people have been coming out of the woodwork to tell me about their homebrew rules and hacks and systems and games. And those people have some pretty neat ideas. Meanwhile, other people who want to build their own crap keep coming to me and asking me for ideas. And I just don’t have time to spew out ideas for everyone.

So, I figure that I can match up the idea-makers to the idea-needers by giving some sort of brainstorming seed and then backing the hell off and letting everyone piss their best ideas into the brainstorm wind.

Oh, and I also need ideas too. See, I’m also building all sorts of crap and writing articles all the time. So, I figure I can also plunder my loyal readers for future content ideas.

How?

So, how does this work? Well, it works pretty much like I said. I’m going to pose a question. Sometimes, it’ll be an easy question like, “what’s guarding the tomb?” Sometimes, it’ll be a hard one like “name something you can’t easily do in D&D or Pathfinder, but you should be able to do?” I’m going to pose the question “as is.” No explanations. No expansion. Nothing.

But I don’t just want people spewing words into the comment section like it’s their own personal blog. I don’t want opinions or discussions or anything else. That’s where the rules come in. Every post must follow the rules. First, the only comments allowed are answers to the question. If you want to have a discussion, go somewhere else. Hell, if you’re one of my qualifying Patrons, feel free to have a rip-roaring discussion about the week’s question in the Angry Discord. I might even set up a separate channel for Angry’s Question of the Week Discussions.

So, comments must answer the question. No more. No less. Very importantly, that includes offering opinions or judgments on other answers. Sorry. No. That’s not how brainstorming works.

Second, no repeat answers. You can’t give an answer someone else already said. That means you have to read every answer that’s been answered. That also means that, as the list goes on, the answers will get better. Because all the easy and obvious answers will be taken. And because you have to read each answer before you offer your own, the next rule is super important.

Third, every question will specify some kind of limit. It’ll always be a limit on the length of the answer like “one word” or “five words” or “one sentence of no more than fifteen words” or something, but it might also include other limits “one adjective and one noun” or “proper names only” or “nothing that has already been published in a rulebook.” You must work within those limits.

Fourth, don’t post any idea you don’t want other people using. Once you put an idea out there, it’s owned by the public. So, obviously, don’t violate any intellectual property rights. Beyond that, though, be aware that someone might like an answer you posted so much that they build on it. And I might like it so much, I steal it and use it as the basis for a future article or bit of homebrewed content or whatever.

The rules will be enforced strictly and without mercy or compassion. I will simply delete any comments that don’t conform to the rules. And if someone repeatedly breaks the rules, they may end up with comment privileges disabled across my site. So, don’t play if you don’t want to play by the rules.

One last thing. Next week, when I post the question of the week, I’ll obvious take a moment to discuss the answers posted to this week’s question.

Now, on to Angry’s Question of the Week.

New Rules!

Within one hour of this article going live, it became clear that there were two rules that needed to be added.

Fifth, everyone gets to post one answer. If you post more than one, only your first answer will be approved.

Sixth, one comment equals one answer. If you’re able to summarize your answer in one word, great! Good for you! That doesn’t mean you get to give five answers.

So, to summarize:

  1. Only comments that answer the question are allowed. And comments may only contain answers to the question. NOTHING ELSE.
  2. No repeating previous answers, so read every answer before you post your own.
  3. Obey all stated limits and restrictions in each question.
  4. All ideas and answers belong to everyone who reads this site to use as they see fit.
  5. One comment per reader only
  6. One answer per comment

You Don’t HAVE TO Hit the Limit

Here’s another thing. Just because you have five words doesn’t mean you need to use all five. You don’t need to post a weird haiku thing to explain a concept like “swashbuckling pirate” or whatever. Honestly, five words is a lot for an archetype. But since most people don’t seem to know what an archetype is – based on the answers I’ve already seen this morning – I guess it’s hard for them to describe one.

Comments will be Delayed

Due to a number of trolling attempts, spam, and other bullshit – which I suppose is what I get for thinking my site was immune to that crap – all comments on my site are now being held for approval. I will approve them in batches a few times a day. In short, your ONE answer won’t show up immediately. It’ll take some time. And yes, that means you may not be the first person with that answer and your answer might get the axe. Sorry. You can always come back and try again with a different answer.

Spamming, trolling, trying to circumvent the rules, or otherwise screwing with me will result in your being blocked from my site. No ifs, ands, buts, or appeals. And if there is too much of that crap then Angry’s Question of the Week will become Patron only content and the rest of you will never see it again.

With all of that out of the way, on to Angry’s Question of the Week!

Angry’s Question of the Week for September 18, 2018

A few weeks ago, I talked about how D&D and Pathfinder had this problem dealing with low magic settings and that it didn’t help that pretty much every class bar two had access to magical power. And that prompted A LOT of e-mails, comments, and discussions. So, here’s the question of the week:

In five words or less, describe a heroic or adventurous fantasy character archetype who does not draw on any magic at all. No spells, no supernatural abilities, no blessings of the gods, nothing that couldn’t exist in historical Earth or in a non-magic setting.

Okay? Go!

Edit: Okay, that was my bad. The question originally read “in five words,” not “in five words or less.” That’s why everyone was forcing their answer to five words exactly. Sorry about that. Fixed.

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264 thoughts on “Angry’s Question of the Week: Martial Archetypes”

  12. Okay all. I realize I made some mistakes when I posted this. First of all, I didn’t put limits on the number of answers per user or the number of answers per comment. Second of all, I didn’t lock down comments and force them to wait for approval. Third of all, I used the phrase “in five words” instead of “in five words OR LESS.” I have fixed all of those issues and added some more details to the post. Well, this was the first attempt. It’s pretty funny how all of the problems became clear in two hours of my phone buzzing frantically after the post went live.

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