RPG Basics

What is an RPG?

We'll assume you're reading this because you've heard that role-playing games (RPGs) are an awesome type of video game that a lot of people play, and you want to create one. You may or may not have ever played one, so we'll let Wikipedia help out here with a definition that we can use to start the design process:

“A role-playing game (abbreviated RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.”

There are some key words/phrases that we'll need to look at here:

• Characters
• Acting out
• Narrative
• Character development
• Formal system of rules

The game usually revolves around a central character, which the player controls. The player makes all the decisions about what the character does, the "acting out" part of the definition. Usually, the character is part of the story (narrative) that is happening and will need to make decisions that may affect the story's end. Along the way, the character will usually become more powerful, gaining or increasing in abilities and physical/mental attributes. These abilities and attributes, along with things like combat, the success or failure of actions the character does, and random events that may occur, all are controlled by the system in the game that is part of the rules that govern the game.

Types of RPGs

Within the RPG genre, there are a number of types of games, each of which adds one or more unique features or types of gameplay that distinguish it from others:

• Action RPG
• Massively multiplayer online RPG (MMORPG)
• Roguelikes
• Tactical RPG
• Sandbox RPG
• First-person, party-based RPG
• Japanese RPG (JRPG)
• Monster tamer

If you have any knowledge of video games, you'll probably have heard of games that fit within these, such as the Fallout series (action and tactical RPG), World of Warcraft (MMORPG), Final Fantasy (JRPG), and Pokémon (monster tamer).

The first step in creating your RPG will be deciding what type of game it will be, as you'll need to design and code the various systems specific to the type and integrate it into the main game.

What makes up an RPG?

While some of the mechanics and systems in RPGs may vary (Skyrim is a very different game than a game in the Fire Emblem series), most share some basics. The player steps into the shoes of one or more characters in a game world, controlling their actions, as the characters make their way through a quest or adventure. Usually things like the character’s abilities, skills, and gear will get better along the way until they’re powerful enough to defeat the “Big Evil” at the end of the quest.

The difference between RPGs is usually how they enable the character to get there. Some RPGs are melee-based. The Diablo series is a good example. Players usually spend most of the game is a dungeon-like level, fighting off almost endless waves of monsters. Some games have huge open-world environments that the character can wander around in, doing almost anything they want. Skyrim and the Fallout series would be examples of this type of game.

Whatever type of RPG you decide to create, they all have some things in common. The first would be the character(s) the player controls. The character is the player’s avatar: the eyes and ears into the game world. As such, the character is usually humanoid, allowing the player to identify with them.

Stats

A character usually has stats that describe the physical attributes of the character. Some typical stats for those familiar with pencil-and-paper RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) are:

• Strength: This stat measures the raw power a character has, allowing them to do things like lift heavy objects and increase the damage inflicted by melee attacks.
• Constitution: This stat measures how hardy the character is, and can influence things like how much damage the character can withstand, or how resistant to poisons they are.
• Dexterity: This stat measures things like hand-eye coordination, and possibly how nimble a character is. For more realism and flexibility, you may want to have this stat just measure hand-eye coordination and influence things like accuracy with ranged weapons, or the ability to pick pockets or locks.
• Agility: This stat is sometimes used by RPGs to measure overall body nimbleness, influencing things like acrobatics and stealth.
• Intelligence: This is the ability to learn something from studying or figuring out things based on your knowledge. It’s mainly important to magic-using characters in RPGs.
• Wisdom: Depending on your game, this could be intuition or the character’s connection to their deity (although I’ve never really liked this use of the stat). You might not even need something like this for your game, but it’s an option that’s been a D&D standard for decades.
• Charisma: This could be physical beauty or the ability to interact with other entities, or both. This could allow the character to sway non-player characters (NPCs) to do things they normally wouldn’t, or to get better bargains from shop owners.

Classes

Most RPGs allow the player to select a class for the character. This is usually the character’s profession or what they do for a living. Some typical classes would be fighter, thief, mage, and cleric.

You can have as many or as few classes (or even none) as you need. Many RPG players have a favorite class or style of play, and giving them the ability to play in a way they’re used to or enjoy most will make your game more attractive to them.

Race

Most RPGs take place in a fantasy world that has more humanoid types than just regular people. From forest-dwelling elves to monstrous orcs, allowing the player to select a race for their character can completely change the way the player experiences the game, and may influence the way they have to play it.

Your game world may have human towns with people that are fearful of non-humans and therefore bar them from entry or interact with them negatively. Although non-human races may have advantages over humans, this could present problems for the player they wouldn’t normally experience if their character was human.

If you have non-human races in your game, think about both the positive and negative aspects the character will have to deal with, as well as how the races compare with each other in terms of stats and abilities. The more options you give the player for customizing their character, the more difficult and time-consuming it will be to balance your game, so be prepared to allow for this in your development process.

We’ll examine stats, classes, and races in detail in Chapter 3.

Skills

Skills allow a character to perform some kind of action. This could be attacking a creature, pickpocketing someone in the middle of a crowded city street, sneaking into a house, or climbing the side of a mountain. Anything more difficult than what an unskilled normal being could do would probably require the character to make a skill check. Exactly how this is done is up to you.

Some RPGs have the character “buy” skills with points accumulated by gaining experience in adventuring. Some just allow the character to perform whatever skill they want and have them gradually get better at it.

RPGs that have a buying system could have skills only be usable by certain classes or could make it easier for certain classes to buy skills. Fighters would naturally learn combat-related skills easier and quicker than mages, for example. We’ll implement a skill system in Chapter 7.

Magic

The ability for characters to harness magical power is a staple in fantasy RPGs. Even RPGs in a sci-fi universe can have magic; it’s just called something different—psionics, for example. What’s manipulated would be explained in a way that makes sense in that universe, but the result is the same. Characters can do things that appear to be supernatural.

Magic systems can be as basic or complex as you want. You can have multiple types of magic-using classes: a class that manipulates existing matter, a class that can create objects or transform them, or a class that can return dead beings to a semblance of life. However, a magic system is probably the most complex and time-consuming system you’ll implement, so plan accordingly.

We’ll implement a basic magic system in Chapter 7.

Combat

Eventually, a character is going to come across something or someone they want to fight. Exactly how this plays out can happen in a couple of ways:

• Real-time: Time passes in the game exactly as it does in the real world. The player may or may not be able to pause the game to think through the next actions to take.
• Turn-based: The player chooses one or more actions to take for a set period of time, usually the equivalent of several seconds. The game may give the player points to spend to take these actions, and actions would cost a set number of points. This is usually restricted to combat where the character can move or attack with a weapon. Each entity involved in the combat waits in a queue for their turn to occur. How the queue is filled is dependent on the rules of the game.
• Hybrid: This is a mixture of real-time and turn-based that can vary depending on the game. The game could allow you to switch between both during combat or as a game setting.

We’ll implement a combat system in Chapter 9.

World

A character needs to have a place to do all the adventuring. We’ll create our game world in Chapter 6.

What’s next

These are just some of the systems that can be in an RPG, and they’re the ones we’ll explore in this book. For now, we’ll take a look at graphics and start to set up a system for having a sprite that represents the character move around on the screen. We’ll also start something to represent the world in which the character will dwell.