More story/character related tutorial goodness!

[Roland_Deschain]

I'm not skilled with RPG maker itself, story is more my forte. For this tutorial, I have a few general ideas and tips for all games and character types, focusing more on the history before the game and the storytelling itself than characters.

To start, every game world needs a history. How detailed it is is up to you, but all game histories do need to share a few key ingredients.
CHARACTERS
Characters, aside from your main party, are extremely important. They can be as powerful and well-known as gods or as simple and unassuming as Tom the Bartender's uncle Thomas, who worked as a stable boy. They add realism to the world, add smaller stories and "hidden" details for those seeking them. As an example made entirely on the spot, the party meets a pretty cliche farmer named Bill. Around Bill's house are portraits of an old man with a long purple beard and freckled, greenish skin. Upon further searching, the party finds a journal by a man named Eduardo who describes the taunts he endures due to purple hair and an orc father, talking about the day his son Bill was born. While Eduardo and Bill may not be important to the final story, these minor details serve to make a world more detailed and realistic.

WARS
Whatever your thoughts on war, every country has a bloody history of them, even Sealand. While a war may not necessarily be the major event leading up to the story and may not have too much of a presence, including books on it and having a few people mention it ("We thrashed them like the Greeks crushed the Trojans!" as a terrible example) could make all the difference in the world between a believable history and a government cover-up world. :p

More coming probably Tuesday, school tonight and work all weekend.