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RPG Do's and Don'ts

Basics of an RPG
In an RPG, there is usually three bodies. They are
Selection
The Body
and the Ending
I will go into them into more details further on.
When you combine these three parts, you have to do it smoothly. You can't
just go from the Selection Stage to the End automatically. Niether can you have the body before the selection. In this tutorial, I am hoping to be able to inform you on how to use these.
Selection

The selection stage is vital. It is where players will choose their characters. These might be as simple as a hero arena, or as complex as a hero builder. When creating this stage, there is a few things to remember.
  1. Be open on classes. It's no fun just to have warrior, mage, assassin, etc. for every race. Mix it up. Add a special class or two for each race.
  2. Think of races. Its boring just being human. But, remember, there is a limit. You don't want too many races, nor do you want too little. I like to even it out with 4 or 5.
  3. Define your races. Would a human have the same archery skills as and elf? Would a demon build better machinery than a dwarf or goblin? Add racial bonuses along with your customized classes to each race. It will make the RPG better.
  4. Create a system. This can be interperated in several ways. I will give you what I think is important.
First, create a solid spell system. Whether it be from spellbooks or regular hero-style ability learning, (or a combo of the two, so that heroes upgrade by learning spell books like they would normal abilities, with new a new spell for every level, like in my map,Starshatter ORPG keep it consistant and balanced between classes and races. Add a few different racial spells. Give maybe a dwarf warrior a mechanical move and the elf a more magic- based ability. Try to lean more towards GUI and JASS spells than edited standard spells (changing icons, effect models, etc.) Make sure that if you are doing a regular spell book like in Defi4nc3, make sure that you use something like this trigger. (it is not exact, but a rough outline on what you should do)

  • Events
  • A hero gains a level
  • Conditions
  • Triggering unit's level = X
  • Actions
  • Unit - Add X ability to triggering unit
Second, make a resource system. Will you have points for skills, rare items, upgrades, etc? Create research centers such as houses or bases if you are considering the first or last, or think up your own.

Third, add in any other things you require. Like pets, mounts, or maybe side-classes and occupations. Make sure you add stuff into your RPG to make it stand out. You don't know how many D3f4nc3 rips I've seen. Make your RPG unique at the beggining.

The Body
In each RPG, there is a body, or the main part. This is where you would layout dugeons, quests, etc. Towns and landmarks appear here. A few tips for creating towns.
  1. Use your races as different town settings. Create an elven forest village or a high-tech dwarf citiadel. You get my point
  2. Always put in a source of healing in your town. Whether it be a simple fountain of mana or an elebrant temple, make sure that the towns are refuges
  3. Tying with the tip above, create guards stationed near the entrance(s) of your towns. If you have a giant city or capital, you might want to create more guards to lower the chance of creeps coming into the town and spawn-killing you over and over again.
  4. Put shops and other buildings such as a bank or another source of extended inventory (Stash). Make sure that your shop prices are accurate. I don't want to pay 1000 gold just to get a +6 dagger. That is stupid.
  5. Make sure that , if it is a 2 teamed RPG, that cities are "raidable". This means put moderation into guards' attack, HP, and such to make raids challenging, not impossible. Add a mega boss too. Such as the king of the Angels in the giant cathedral in the High Elven fortresses. You get my point.
Now, to move on to quests. They aren't required, but they're recomended.
  1. Make sure that the quests are multiplayer friendly, if not a campaign. Make sure, that if it is a faction quest, that raiding people cannot do the quests that only the other tream can do.
  2. Create depth into your quests. Have your quests build into your story.
A good quest is a quest that gets you involved. I believe the best quests I have seen were in Hunter's ORPG, everything was just awesome, with cinematography, and it was drawing you in. Make sure that you have a reward that suits the diffuculty of it, the harder the quest, the better reward. A bad quest is the opposite.

Terrain is a big issue for an RPG. I use a term the three S's to describe this. They are simplicity, being straightfoward, and space.

Simplicity defines what it looks like. An elabarate terrain versus a simple but well done terrain in a multiplayer map doesn't work. High ammounts of detailed terrain do not work, because they lag. Now, if you are on singleplayer, elaberate terrain maybe will fit. Make sure you have atomsphere and mood to your map.

Being Straightfoward is to get to what you want. When you are making a mountain that looks rocky, don't pile rock upon rock upon rock until you have it. Make it to the point, don't try to beat around the bush to get it more detailed. We want to see a mountain, not a pile of rocks.

And lastly, space. I learned this earlier when I released a screenshot for Starshatter. It was too crowded and jammed, that I felt horrible when I heard the comments. So, let's say it now. DO NOT EVER CRAM DOODADS TOGETHER, but the only exception is enviromental doodads like bushes, grass tufts, etc. Keep it evenly spread out in a layout, rather than shoving them in a tight circle, square, etc.

Finally, Dungeons
What makes a dungeon fun is three things: challenges, puzzles, and rewards.
To accurately create a good dungeon, follow these guidelines.
  • -Create mini-bosses in each dungeon as a sort of checkpoint. Once you kill Miniboss 1, a gate opens to the next room, etc.
  • - Use puzzles involving elevators, levers, and foot switches. For easy dungeons, make it fairly simple. However, the higher level the dungeon is based on, the harder the puzzle. Blizzard's examples in the last few Undead campaign levels of TFT are great examples.
  • - Make the dungeon worth it. Have rewarding loot at the end. Don't have a mega-hard dungeon and give the people crappy stuff. That is what we call 'stupid'. If you don't want to add items, you can add 'points' in a system.
The Ending
Hopefuly by now you have sort of an idea about creating RPGs. Now, to wrap the game up. I have a few strageties for ending.
  • Complete the plot. If a demon steals a sacred artifact, kill the demon at the end to get it back. Simple.
  • Destruction. If the RPG is a two or more teamed, (I would stick with 2 teams and go no higher) you might want to create team leaders to kill to win the game. The Horde has to kill the Alliance King. The Alliance has to kill Thrall.
  • Freelancer. This can be optional or added on after someone wins. Its where it doesn't really end, but rather just 'continues' in a loop. WoW and most MMOs are this type, where it is updated frequently but you can never win it. After a game finishes, it might go into 'Freelancer' mode so that players can just mess around and do quests to improve their characters. :D
 
Last edited:
Level 40
Joined
Dec 14, 2005
Messages
10,532
  1. Use [list] tags for the lists; they look much better
  2. Maybe use bold, larger font instead of colours for the sections? Some of the colours are a little hard to read
  3. Centering everything looks a little bad
  4. Instead of Selection, I would call it 'The Heroes' or 'The Characters' or something of the sort, but that's just a personal opinion
 
  1. Use
    [list] tags for the lists; they look much better
  2. Maybe use bold, larger font instead of colours for the sections? Some of the colours are a little hard to read
  3. Centering everything looks a little bad
  4. Instead of Selection, I would call it 'The Heroes' or 'The Characters' or something of the sort, but that's just a personal opinion

1. Yeah: When I wrote this I was a little nooby when it comes to PHP. I will update it.
2. Ditto. I wil update it
3. Yeah, I have sorta noticed that just the Hive's format is left alligned more so than most boards.
4. The Heroes or The Character sounds a bit more like creating the characters and focusing on them, rather than kickstarting the game.
 
Level 12
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Messages
1,092
This is actually pretty decent. Makes me want to start a RPG map. I like how you hit some of the large main points of RPG's, but you need to get into more detail. This may mean talking about the difference between 'good quests' and 'bad quests' and whatever else needs to be touched upon.
 
I don't think this tuto is really useful.What i see is how you make RPG.
And all you say are "already made idea" mostly inspired from wow (spell book,item,starting town,class,raid etc...)
Let people have their own idea of making rpg.
If people follow your words there is no place for originality and innovation.

+You present your tutorial as a do's and don't but then you make 3 parts.I don't see the do's and don'ts....
 
Level 36
Joined
Jul 1, 2007
Messages
6,677
But i have a question, whats a good RPG terrain? atmospherical, I´m planning to make one around the 4 aspects and his reincarnates.

rpgscreenshot.jpg

This is a terrain from the RPG I am working on. Still, it's only basic, and not too great atmospherically, but it could give you the feeling of what RPG terrain should look like :)
 
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