"In properly designed systems, most level 1 Commoners are capable of fighting." Saying that, you're assuming all properly designed systems assume a world where the baseline of what people do to live is 'kill stuff.' It doesn't have to be so, there can be worlds where not every bush and piece of road is full of Random Encounters looking to eat people. Then again of course it all depends on how we define 'capable of fighting.' We could say it's doable by everyone except quadriplegics, or we could say it takes not only a bit of training but also the guts to not panic when the situation comes up, which is rarer than many think.
Re: few thoughts...
Saying that, you're assuming all properly designed systems assume a world where the baseline of what people do to live is 'kill stuff.' It doesn't have to be so, there can be worlds where not every bush and piece of road is full of Random Encounters looking to eat people.
Then again of course it all depends on how we define 'capable of fighting.' We could say it's doable by everyone except quadriplegics, or we could say it takes not only a bit of training but also the guts to not panic when the situation comes up, which is rarer than many think.