So You Want To/Write an RPG: Difference between revisions

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[[Rule of Fun|The game needs to be fun]], first and foremost. It doesn't matter how awesome your story or how unique your setting, if the gameplay isn't at least adequate, the players won't follow.

How innovative are you planning to be? Some players still love generic dungeon-town-dungeon-town adventures, but others want more variety or a new spin on the genre. Some players love to see an occasional [[Unexpected Gameplay Change]], but others hate them with a passion. Try to decide early on which audience you're aiming for.

You may want to check out [[Video Game Characters]], [[Stock RPG Spells]] and [[Stock Monsters]] while you're at it. And [[The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Cliches|this]] and [[The RPG Cliches Game|this]] are both useful.

Do your characters have magical powers, or are they normal humans (they can be other species, though) who differ only in how strong, fast, resilient they are?

Is the hero a [[Featureless Protagonist]], or does he have some personality beyond what the player brings to the table? This is fine in free roaming [[RPG]]s or RPGs where the player gets to control everything the character says, and where what they say actually makes a difference. However, for your average Final Fantasy type game, a silent protagonist will ruin the potential for immersion. Interesting characters are a frequent draw of RPGs, and silent protagonists are harder to make interesting.

How feasible is a [[Low-Level Run]] (or even a [[Pacifist Run]])? Can a pacifist hero earn experience and go up levels? Or, for that matter, even survive the trip from one town to another? If your experience gain is based ''entirely'' on killing monsters, you may want to think this question over ''really'' well. Of course, if you don't care if a [[Pacifist Run]] is possible, this isn't a big deal.

A lot of older games are virtually unplayable nowadays due to slow speed, annoying controls, and the lack of certain shortcuts we have grown to know and love. Games like ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' and ''[[Dragon Quest]] I'' are virtually unrecognizable to fans of their modern installments, and playing them is like going from ''[[Warcraft]] II'' to the original ''[[Warcraft]]'', where you had to specifically select the "walk" and "work" buttons, and couldn't just right-click on the place you wanted to go or the thing you wanted to do.

And you should be very aware that a good game calls players back for another round: ''Replayability''. So consider the opening sequence, the introduction, the [[He Knows About Timed Hits|beginning tutorial]], and each [[Cutscene]] from the point of view of a person who has seen them before and wants to cut straight to the action. After all, no player wants to get stuck with fifteen minutes of ''Where Everything Is'' or ''How To Play This Game'' on their second time through. And when you've just failed to beat the just-after-cutscene-and-before-savespot Boss for the eighth time, you're going to want that cutscene to be ''completely'' skippable (so take the sensible route and make sure there's a savespot between the cutscene and the action... or make death reset you to the moment before battle).

A good rule of thumb is to allow all these things to be skipped in their entirety if the player so desires. No one likes [[Exposition Break|being forced to do nothing]]. They'll watch it the first time, and some players will watch it every time, but others want the freedom to just play, and you need to give it to them.

Some gamers will complain if you limit their options. Others will complain if the field is too wide-open and characters don't have enough uniqueness imposed on them. You can't please both groups with the same game. So choose one approach and stick with it.

Try adding a "Classic Mode" quick-play that puts the character into a [[Splat]] mold and streamlines the combat system/ [[Tech Tree]].

One possibility: Put the "save" capability inside an object that can be lost (or stolen, or broken) or a person who can be killed (or lose his memory). Or make it that you can only reset to the [[Save Point]] if there's at least one party member alive to do the reset chant.

The character's starting weapon. These are usually tossed when you get to the next town, in favour of whatever else you get. IRL, a warrior would choose a [[Weapon of Choice]], and stick with it (probably getting super-attached to it too). Make it an [[Evolving Weapon]] and/ or [[Empathic Weapon]]. or even the [[Sword of Plot Advancement]] (how's ''that'' for a subversion? The crappy hunk of metal you start with is the Sword that Slays Evil.)

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Themes and plots that are used frequently are preachy environmentalism (especially with a [[Science Is Bad]] [[Broken Aesop]]), racism (usually of the [[Fantastic Racism|fantastic]] kind), [[Be Yourself]], and anti-authoritarianism. [[The Empire|Evil Empires]] have been done to death, as have [[Corrupt Church|religions that are not what they seem]] and [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|greedy corporations]].

If you want to be subversive, try subverting [[Exclusively Evil]]. (And not just with a small, friendly [[Monster Town]], either). Just because some goblins jumped out of the woods to mug you doesn't mean that you're free to kill the next goblins you meet in a preemptive strike.

[[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters]]. Those Rebels you've been gunning down had loved ones. A [[Fatal Family Photo]] found while prying the boots and jewelery off an enemy can be a good way to induce a [[Heroic BSOD]].

Another thing you could try is getting infected by [[The Corruption]] while fighting the enemy, going from a noble [[Paladin]] to a slavering Daemonspawn, [[And Then John Was a Zombie|the very thing you're fighting do destroy, something the character has been raised from birth to abhor]]. Abilities granted by [[The Corruption]] could be [[Cast From Hit Points]], and tied to a [[Karma Meter]]. Not using it makes the game harder (and the abilities are wicked cool, like [[Animate Dead]] or [[Spawn Broodling]] or some other sub-set of [[Lovecraftian Superpower]], just to make it extra-difficult to resist using), but using it untill you accidentally kill yourself or hit zero Karma leads to a [[Downer Ending]] or [[Nonstandard Game Over]] because the [[Big Bad]] considers [[The Corruption]] to be "A gift, given to my children," and he/ she/ it therefore owns the character, body and soul. Getting a low Karma score brings into play "I-created-you-so-you-can't-touch-me", (which, as far as One knows, has no trope) making the [[Final Boss]] fight very hard. Low Karma score could [[And Your Reward Is Clothes|make a character gain]] [[Evil Is Sexy|a really slikny, revealing version of the Daemonhunter's uniform]], weather with [[Absolute Cleavage]] or [[Walking Shirtless Scene]] (manky, pockmarked grey skin optional), and they could get [[Uh-Oh Eyes]] and [[Spikes of Villainy]] and /or [[Shoulders of Doom]]. You could also have some weapons infected by [[The Corruption]], and make them steal HP whenever you make a successful [[Critical Hit]], and hurt the character when they miss. One could even go so far as to [[Transhuman Treachery|let the player keep going as a Daemonspawn if they bottom out their]] [[Karma Meter]], or a Zombie if their health hits zero.

Make it [[Survival Horror]]. Try [[Playing the Player]], [[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]] style. The RPG equivalent would be [[Final Fantasy X]] - you could try [[Stray Souls Dollhouse Story]] style, maybe even with the protagonist being the victim of the twists instead of the companion. The RPG equivalent of that would be [[Persona (video game)|Persona]].

Whatever weapon your character uses, the player will grow attached to it. That is why the Rust Monster is so feared, and the Disenchanter so reviled.

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Weapons, obviously.

Depends on your setting. If you're going for relative realism, try to stay away from [[Impossibly Cool Clothes]]. Nomura, we're looking at you. Using the traditional [[Black Mage]] and [[White Mage]] outfits seems to be public domain nowadays.

Hoo boy. First, are you going [[Fantasy]], [[Sci Fi]], modern/unpowered, or something else? That's really going to inform your choices in combat and such.

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''[[Earthbound]]'' took a sudden veer away from the traditional RPG setting with a modern yet fantastic world that worked up from crazy townsfolk to cultists, zombies, bigfoot, aliens, robots, and an underground community of talking monkeys. The hero withdrew funds from an ATM <s>machine</s>, drove around on a bicycle, killed monsters with a baseball bat, and could catch heatstroke from being in the sun too long. He could also get homesick (a serious status ailment that needed to be cured by a quick phone home). The fight with Giygas at the end is also required reading for those wishing to make a memorable [[Final Boss]], as it effectively conveys just how pants-wettingly terrifying a fight with an outright [[Eldritch Abomination]] should be.

''[[Phantasy Star]] IV'' went with sci-fi underpinnings, complete with alien worlds and spacecraft, plus [[Psychic Powers]] in an alien language that you had to work out as you went (assuming you didn't just [[Guide Dang It|look it up]]). Consider this a lesson in the pros and cons of not using [[Canis Latinicus|Latin]] for your spell language, if there is one.

''[[Fallout]]'' earned notability by breaking a long line of games without a [[Standard Fantasy Setting]]. It also allowed open-ended character creation rather than the standard [[Fighter, Mage, Thief]] [[Class and Level System]] (though one may argue that it only used a hidden fighter/thief/diplomat selection of its own).

* If you want to go ''really'' oldschool, consider checking out a [[Roguelike]], early ''[[Ultima]]'' games, or ''[[Wizardry]]''.

''[[Horrible Demon 2]]''. The backstory is that there was a [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|horrible demon]] running around until the hero with the [[Infinity+1 Sword|legendary sword]] ''[[Rock Beats Laser|threw a stone]]'' at it and it went away. Now the hero this time round has summoned it (by the way, one reviewer likened it to a buffalo/[[Pokémon|Pikachu]] hybrid - the Game Boy does have graphics limitations but [[Special Effects Failure|not to that extent]]) but it's gone out of control and you have to stop it. There's no challenge because, in keeping with the backstory, you can buy a stone that you can throw at anything to effortlessly defeat it. [[Anticlimax Boss|Including all the bosses.]]

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