I can see some settings can use Archetypes for specific cultures, such as Rohirrim or Men of Gondor for Lord of the Rings, or Cimmerian for Conan, but has anyone created any generic archetypes suitable for a fantasy game?

Some possible routes to go on this:

Class Archetypes

Archetypes could represent a certain general class of character, such as Warrior or Rogue, and then careers would broaden that out. For example a Warrior Archetype could then be could with a Soldier, Marine or Beserker career.

Cultural Archetypes

Taking a leaf from other games such as Runequest or HARP, archetype could represent a general cultural upbringing, so as some examples:

Seafarer: The character comes from a culture that is used to a life at sea. The could hail from a community of pirates or island dwellers who grow up learning the skills of seamanship

Primitive: The character comes from a culture that is seen as primitive by other cultures. This could represent a jungle tribesman or poor culture reduced to poverty, forced into being resourceful.

Civilised: the character comes from a culture that is civilised and used to open ideas regarding other cultures or races. Typically a character would likely come from a larger settlement with a higher level of education.

Rustic: the character comes from a rural culture and has learnt the ways of the land. Perhaps they come from a farming community or live in remote parts of the world.

Nomad: the character is used to moving across the landscape in tight communities.

Barbarian: the character comes from a tribe, typically in the more savage parts of the world where survival is paramount.

Role based Archetypes

Archetypes could be based on roles within the roleplaying party, so possibly Bruiser, Face, Sneak, Healer, Striker, Mage etc.

Option two is really interesting to me, I think it would be a great way to have a characters history impact the beginning of their adventures. “I’m a seafarer, raised on the ocean, I was found to be gifted with windfinding so I also cast magic”

For more generalized archetypes, I stumbled across this descriptive adaption of Jungian archetypes that someone had adapted for RPGs. I found it to be intriguing. Unfortunately, you have to use the Way Back Machine to see the entire write up. This was the reddit post that pointed me towards it.

3 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:

Option two is really interesting to me, I think it would be a great way to have a characters history impact the beginning of their adventures. “I’m a seafarer, raised on the ocean, I was found to be gifted with windfinding so I also cast magic”

Yes that would be my personal preference. I intend, once terrinoth comes out, to reskin any appropriate human cultures to something more general archetypes, so Free Cities Human, could be Civilised Human or whatever.

4 minutes ago, lyinggod said:

For more generalized archetypes, I stumbled across this descriptive adaption of Jungian archetypes that someone had adapted for RPGs. I found it to be intriguing. Unfortunately, you have to use the Way Back Machine to see the entire write up. This was the reddit post that pointed me towards it.

Actually thats very interesting. It may have some legs...

Some musing on those Jungian Archetypes, sans special abilities:

Architect – The need to build and create is at the core of the architect’s heart. Whether he’s painting a mural or building a new future for their home, he has a burning desire to create more than destroy. When it comes time to bring war, the architect is the one who devises the siege weapons and the tools with which an army can defend itself. To him, failure after creating his magnum opus is not failure at all – his failure comes only if he failed to build anything which would last beyond him. So long as he can create a legacy, he has accomplished his life’s goal.

Brawn 2, Agility 2, Intellec t 3, Cunnin g 1, Willpower 2, Presence 2

Starting Wound Threshold: 10

Starting Strain Threshold: 10

Starting Experience: 100

Special Skills: An Architect starts with one rank in Mechanics during character creation. They obtain this rank before spending experience points, and may not increase Mechanics above rank 2 during character creation.

Brute – The brute’s motivation is personal benefit. In her mind, if you can’t claim the prize for yourself and guard it by yourself, you didn’t deserve it in the first place. Note that the brute isn’t called such in reference to physical strength – the agile cat burglar and the charismatic con artist, or the brilliant hoaxer are all variants of the brute. In the end, she’s all about self-sufficiency and personal responsibility over the reliance upon others. Her greatest fear of all is to have to be rescued or to be unable to carry her own weight.

Brawn 2, Agility 2, Intellec t 2, Cunnin g 2, Willpower 3, Presence 1

Starting Wound Threshold: 12

Starting Strain Threshold: 8

Starting Experience: 100

Special Skills: A Brute starts with one rank in Resilience during character creation. They obtain this rank before spending experience points, and may not increase Resilience above rank 2 during character creation.

Caregiver – The caregiver thrives upon helping those around her, from being there for them emotionally, to solving their problems. In times of need, she’s the first one to be turned to, yet in times of joy she often feels left out or useless. What scares her more than anything is to be not needed, even if that is her end goal.

Brawn 1, Agility 2, Intellec t 2, Cunnin g 2, Willpower 2, Presence 3

Starting Wound Threshold: 10

Starting Strain Threshold: 10

Starting Experience: 100

Special Skills: A Caregiver starts with one rank in Vigilance during character creation. They obtain this rank before spending experience points, and may not increase Vigilance above rank 2 during character creation.

Offtopic : Oh, this is something that confuses me / bothers me in the system. I'm used to use archetypes/classes as classes/professions and races as species. I'm not sure if they have the same mean in USA like here, but well... I need more time to use archetypes as species and ??? as classes.

Anyway, to create generic archetypes there are many possibilites. You can use the Jungian as a base, as well the horoscope (our or chinese/japanese, 12 options) as a base, based on the creatures AND the aspects of each one:

Aries, taurus, gemini, cancer, leo, virgo, libra, scorpio, sagittarius, capricon, aquarius, pisces

Pig, dog, rooster, monkey, goat, horse, snake, dragon, rabbit, tiger, ox, rat

You can try the Eneagram (9 options), which works like the Jungian, both are personality archetypes:

The Reformer, The Helper, The Achiever, The Individualist, The Investigator, The Loyalist, The Enthusiast, The Challenger, The Peacemaker

In my opinition, these options works very well cause it's easier to create an empaty between the options and the players. You could try new names, just to "disguise" the inspiration. Maybe trying to use the fantasy as inspiration to give new names. Anyway, you would have 9 to 12 options, which is a lot and can fit everywhere.

35 minutes ago, Bellyon said:

??? as classes.

In Genesys, careers are the same as classes. It's just the terms that FFG has chosen to use. Archetypes are your background/upbringing (IMO). Species just means non-human archetype.

I didn't read the initial post fully and missed the reference to "fantasy races". The result was that my response wasn't fully inline with the original question.

34 minutes ago, lyinggod said:

In Genesys, careers are the same as classes. It's just the terms that FFG has chosen to use. Archetypes are your background/upbringing (IMO). Species just means non-human archetype.

I didn't read the initial post fully and missed the reference to "fantasy races". The result was that my response wasn't fully inline with the original question.

Thanks. I hope I can remember all of those names '-'

I'm used, like I said, to terms used in RPG's like D&D. Classes (+ archetypes), races, background...

Anyway, in any fantasy scenario, despite the fantastic aspect, any race has a base concept behind. In general, elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, gnomes... are all oversized human aspects. Nothing alien things.