RPG Maker Glossary

A

Articles

The counterpart to tutorials, articles serve to inform and inspire rather than to instruct on methodology. Articles regarding RPG Making have been written since the time of Don Miguel's site. This wiki intends to completely replace them as a medium for RPG Maker information and inspiration.

C

Characters

Characters are the sentient beings, human or other wise that the plot in an RPG revolves around.

Developing Characters

The process of developing a character is a lot more complicated than many people realize. In order to make your character feel real, you have to put the work into it.

Character Names

Names are powerful in fiction. They can give a subtle hint to the reader (or in this case, the player) on the nature of the character. You can choose to either stick a name to a character and base their personality on your perception of that name, or create the character first, and the name later.

For contemporary names, imagine your character's full name. First, Middle(s), Last. Is the family name paternal or maternal? Does he/she have any nicknames?

Fantasy names, on the other hand are somewhat easier. Usually just a concoction of the author's mind, sometimes with a basis in history.

Character Background

The background is the most important aspect of your character. It will decide how your character thinks and acts. There are a number of factors to consider.

How was your character raised? In a family envorinoment? An orphanage? With a single mom? Single Dad? Two Dads?

What kind of education did your character receive? Did they graduate? What social group did your character most identify with in high school? College?

Does your character like to keep fit? What does he/she do to keep fit? Does your character play any sports? Can they swim?

What kind of music does your character like? Can they play an instrument?

What kind of mundanely interesting stories would your character have for the water cooler? Is he/she popular? Does he/she have any special skills?

These are just a few of the questions you should be asking.

Character Personality

With any hope, your characters background will have pointed towards a particular personality style. It should give you a specific area with which to work with. From here on out, you've got a fleshed out, realistic character with a background, and a real sense of history. Kudos.

Character Styles

Hero

A hero describes a character who is defined as morally good and is positively viewed by the society. A hero is usually controllable by the Party or supporting NPC as it is framed as either a protagonist or an ally. However, a hero can be framed as an antagonist or a neutral based on the context of the story.

According to Joseph Campbell's Hero of the a Thousand Faces, a hero also refers to the 'point of view' character or the main protagonist controlled by the player. A hero is archetypically defined as young, naive boy or girl who embarks on a journey or an adventure to learn more about their potential and their places in the world. A hero's journey is usually referred as a rite-of-passage; a social and spiritual journey for a person to reach maturity.

When creating a protagonist for a game, the character usually falls into one of two genres. The first is the silent hero, the one who has little or no lines. This is done to ensure that the player can best put him/herself in the characters place.

The second type is the developed character, who are designed to interact with the story as a clearly defined character similar to a main character in a novel. This type of character actively talks, has definate motivations, purposes, and clearly defined personalities. This type is best suited for games with an in-depth and complex plot, although they may not be relatable or connected to the player.

The two types are indicated to be sliding scales. It is possible to create the character that contains both elements, but the creator may risk making character underdeveloped or not connected enough to the player as the player may start wondering the validity of the character and asking "Why is he doing this? What's his motivation?"

Villain

A villain describes a character who is defined as morally bad, evil, and is negatively viewed in the society. A villain is usually not controllable.because it is framed as an antagonist, but sometimes it can be framed as a protagonist or a neutral based on the context of the story.

A villain as an antagonist is usually depicted as an obstacle. It provides challenge in terms of narrative and gameplay for the player to overcome. A villain is usually an antithesis of the hero: being static, selfish, ruthless, extreme in its methods, and morally motivated for a wrong or twisted cause. A good villain can be extremely dangerous to people or the society despite seemly being noble or righteous. A villain usually represents a person the player have to "deal with" or should not associated with because it can bring disasters to oneself and others.

NPCs

An acronym for "Non-Playable Character", NPC refers to any character not controllable by the player. NPC, however, stereotypically refers to minor characters who are not important to the story, notably town people.

Most NPCs are characters that the player talk to during the gameplay. A primary role of an stereotypical NPC is to have characters the player can interact with in town, dungeon, or world map. They provides information, items, quests, shops.

Cliche

A cliche describes an idea that is used too often that it loses its meaning, value, and significance. The most common cliche, perhaps, is the adventurous hero who is often quite young, wields a sword and is destined to Save the World.

Cliche and archetype are different things. An archetype refers to a recurring image of hero or narrative pattern which can be used as the base for the writers to develop further. A true cliche happens when the writer follows the format religiously without acknowledging knowing why it is being used or without trying to utilize the format for an effective storytelling. A cliche usually feels empty, boring, pointless, and/or contribute nothing new to the table.

Custom Menu System (CMS)

Refers to a developer-created menu system that operates independently or in conjunction with the default menu system in an RPG Maker program. The term custom menu system refers to a devloper-created menu system that operates independently or in conjunction with the default menu system in a PC RPG Maker.

External links

The Grand List of Console RPG Cliches

Custom Battle System

In order to allow more flexibility, some developers who use RPG Makers decide to program their own battle system rather than use the default one.

D

Database

Main article: Database

In RPG Maker 2000 and its sequels, the database stores information on things like Parameters, Monsters, Chipsets and more.

Default Battle System

The type of battle system used in default by the RPG Maker in use.

RPG Maker 2000

A front view battle system, which is turn based. Enemies are shown at the top of the screen.

RPG Maker 2003

A side view battle system like in the Final Fantasy games for the SNES, which is mostly turn based but has elements of the "Active Battle System" found in the Final Fantasy series. Enemies are shown at the left of the screen and actors are shown at the right of the screen. Actors are animated and are shown attacking using weapons.

RPG Maker XP

A somewhat front view system is used, where player characters are shown in the status window at the bottom and enemies at the top of the screen. It is a turn based battle system.

RPG Maker VX & VX Ace

A front view system is used. It is a turn based battle system.

RPG Maker MV

By default, a front view system is used, though a side view battle system can be selected. The front view system is very similar to RPG Maker VX Ace. Side view battle system shows enemies at the left of the screen and actors at the right, and actors are shown to attack using weapons. It is a turn based battle system regardless of side view or front view being used.

Sim RPG MAker 95

A overhead view tactical battle system like in Fire Emblem games.

Donglish

Refers to the poor English translation created by Don Miguel for RPG Maker 2000.

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Evil

The opposite of Good. Evil is generally characterized by performing malicious acts to harm others, for example, destroying cities or worlds, or murdering people intentionally, or peforming selfish acts at the expense of others, such as taking away resources from other people or using other people as pawns or slaves to advance a plot.

Event

Main article: Event

An event in RPG Maker usually refers to an object that is able to be configured.

F

Features

Common Features

Day/Night System

Job Class System

Custom Battle System

Custom Menu System

Multiple Endings

Enter Hero Name

G

Gameplay

Basically, what the player actually does when playing the game. Role-playing games as a genre tend to have gameplay revolving around battles, overworld navigation, puzzles, and sometimes minigames, though other gameplay elements of course may be in these games.

L

Level

A level in most games usually means a map that a player must complete in order to continue on with gameplay. In most RPG games, however, the term level usually refers to a stat that when increased causes a character to become stronger.

M

MIDI

A file type accepted by RPG Maker 2000 through RPG Maker VX Ace for music. It is low-fi and incredibly small in size. Many are ripped from professional videogames. MIDI music is played back differently across operating systems, meaning that the quality of MIDI music is not consistent across various systems.

MP3

An audio file type accepted since RPG Maker 2000. It is larger than a MIDI file, but it is played back exactly the same across operating systems.

N

Noob Game

Everyone's first game is one of these. Often have Cliche plots, RTP graphics and dull gameplay.

P

Party

In most RPGs, multiple characters travel together in a group called the party. Members of the party are controlled during combat. RPG Genres that don't use the party system often have different battle dynamics, like a ABS or TBS.

Pixel Artist

Someone who creates small scale CG graphics. Also called a spriter.

Plot

Also known as the storyline. A plot refers to "what happens" inside the text, which covers everything from overarching narrative, story elements, characters, themes, etc. Most video games have plots, and almost all books and movies have plots as well.

R

Ripping

When graphics, sound effects or music are taken from a preexisting game, especially a professional one, and converted into resources for RPG Maker usage.

Resource theft is also sometimes called ripping. Pulling music tracks from a CD or DVD to store on a hard drive is called ripping as well, and these ripped tracks may be used in some RPG Maker games.

RPG

Role Playing Game, a video game genre distinguished by its focus on advanced plots or character building rather than gameplay and frequently by the player's ability to control multiple characters simultaneously in the same party. Generally, RPG games share a various amount of tropes, and most turn based RPG games use the same basic battle system.

RTP

The acronym RTP is short for "Run Time Package". The RTP is the default resource pack for each maker, containing all the default graphics, music and sound effects for RPG Maker 2000, 2003, XP, VX, or VX Ace. The use of these graphics is generally considered unprofessional and is usually frowned upon. However, many people have been able to use the graphics proficiently and have created notable games using the RTP resources.

RTP is dropped and is not a feature of RPG Maker MV. Despite this, users may refer to the default assets of RPG Maker MV as RTP assets due to the history of the feature.

S

Skill

A type of attack or ability that is commonly able to be used in battle or in the world. Skills usually require the use of "MP", usually short for Magic Points, and when the user does not have enough MP, skills can't be used. Skills have various effects, for example, some skills teleport actors to a different part of the world outside of battle, while others can restore HP of party members.

Sprite

Refers to any pixel art, especially if it's small in size or depicts a character. Typically refers to charsets and Battle Charsets

Sword

Most RPGs have a medieval setting, and since the weaponry reflects this, swords are a staple of RPG combat.

Switch

A named object which is always on or off at any given time. This is one of the primary building blocks in events and scripting.

T

TBS

Usually put the player in control of many more characters than a typical party allows for, the TBS, or Tactical Battle System is designed to simulate military combat.

Tutorials

Explain how to do things with software.

Tileset

An image or set of images used to store tiles which are then used to construct a map or playing field.

V

Variable

Main article: Variable

A named object which can contain any integer value. This is one of the primary building blocks in events and scripting.

W

WAV

A file format used for sound effects and music in RPG Maker 2000. WAV files are often larger than those of other file types and it is recommended that they be used sparingly.