The Path to a Great RPG

[The Gwaga Gmonk]

Hopefully, you’ve been following me since the first step. If you have, here’s what we have learnt about:
1.   All the basic planning
2.   Character creation
3.   Intro sequences
4.   Inventories
This is really the basic of an RPG. Do this, and you should be right. But there is so much more steps that truly make great RPG. This time I will cover those steps.
PART 5: Tying up the loose ends
Section Alpha: Mini games
Here’s one of the best bits, the mini games. Don’t confuse these with mini quests – I’ll go over those later. Mini games are little sub-games (duh) that yield some cool reward. It could be money, medicines or something else.
One of the most common types of mini game is a casino. The player bets some money, goes for a spin, maybe wins something, maybe losses his money. There are two ways to make a casino:
1.   CASINO STYLE. This way, the player chooses an amount of money to bet and wins some more.
2.   ARCADE STYLE. This way, the player buys some kind of betting chip (coins, tokens and whatnot), bets with them, wins some more, and then uses them to “buy” stuff from the casino.
Not all mini games have to take place in a casino, however. Another way is to make things like a “Memory” card game without cards. Or maybe a “Whack-the-Gator” inspired puzzle. There are so many ways to make mini games. Just use your imagination.
Section Beta: Mini quests
Don’t confuse these with mini games. I’ll go over those later.

Just kidding. The difference between mini –games and –quests is this:
GAMES are just that – games, like you would play in real life.
QUESTS are just that – quests, a mission to go on.
Mini quests could either be optional (“Please save my little Babycakes! I’ll give you money!”) or compulsory (“Please save my little Babycakes! I’ll give you something you can bribe a guard with!”). It’s good to have a mixture of both. What separates mini quests from the main one is that mini quests have nothing to do with the storyline. For example, the story could be that you must save the world from an unspeakable evil (how original. To do this we’ll probably find five legendary crystals, put them in place at the Altar of Suns and battle the villain, only to realise he was just a distraction from the REAL evil…). But a mini quest to attain a key item could be saving somebody’s widdle munchkin Babycakes. It may just be me, but I don’t think saving a cat from up a tree has anything to do with acquiring five legendary crystals.
Section Gamma: NPC interaction
Every game must have NPCs. Without them, you’ve got a party of heroes trying to save a world inhabited by nobody from being destroyed by nothing whilst trying to rescue nobody. Not a very good game. There are three main types of NPCs:
1)   The Wizened Old Men. These don’t necessarily have to be men, or even old. These are the characters that offer their help, but don’t actually join your party. Most of the time their help is in riddles, like “Seek the drop of morning sun” or “The lifeblood of the planet is the key”.
2)   The Villainous Ones. These are the villainous ones. They’re out to get you. They could be anything. Townspeople, dogs, butterflies, bushes, letterboxes, they’re all out to get you.
3)   The Random People in the Street. These are the unimportant ones that must be there. They are unimportant because they don’t do anything, but they must be there or we will have the whole “empty universe” thing going again. Taken from the game Exodussia – a game that has voice overs mainly, but when talking to someone in the street:
“Why don’t I have a voice over? Is it because I’m just an extra? This sucks.”
Really, those three categories summarize everything about NOC interaction.
Section Delta: Puzzle logic
While your puzzles may seem perfectly reasonable to you, they may not to someone else. Get a few testers to try it out. Alternatively, you could tell them solutions to your puzzles and see if it makes sense to them.
On the other hand, you can’t cave in to everything your testers say. Keep some of your ideas in. You don’t want your game to be too easy, do you? Here’s a good way to go:
1)   EASY PUZZLES. “Use key to open door”.
2)   HARD PUZZLES. “Use hairpin to pick lock on door”.
3)   FRUSTRATING (in a good way) PUZZLES. “Use beer to make chimp drunk. Use drunken chimp to scare girls. Steal girl’s hairpin. Use hairpin to pick lock on chest. Use key in chest to open door”.
Include a healthy mix of all three. Make about 50% HARD PUZZLES, about 30% EASY PUZZLES and about 20% FRUSTRATING (in a good way) PUZZLES.
Section Epsilon: Easter eggs
Easter eggs are commonplace in entertainment. They aren’t actually eggs, of course; in fact they have nothing to do with Easter at all. What they are are little subtle nods to past things, or little hidden goodies. For an example of a “hidden goody” egg, take a look the video games Rareware make. In every single one of them almost, there are hidden pictures of other Rareware games. An example of a “nod to the past” egg is in an MtG card: Purge. I’ll explain this a tiny bit:
Terror is a famous card. It was in the very first MtG set and has been popular ever since, reprinted in more recent sets. Terror says “Destroy target nonblack nonartifact creature”. However, in an extremely recent set, Purge was printed. It says “Destroy target black or artifact creature”. The egg, however, is in the flavour text.
The flavour text of Purge says “For the first and last time, the horrific creature experienced terror”. See the egg?
Section Zeta: Hidden treats
The final loose end is the hidden treats. These are little things you can add to your game that aren’t necessary, but are cool if the player does them. An example is from the last step in the path, when I said the “super-duper enemy-smashing evil-nuking really really big spell” that is hidden in the game Chrome Tide: Origins. Another example is with the game Banjo – Tooie. In this game, with some work, you can find an item that allows you to transform into a dragon, which helps a lot, but isn’t necessary. The treats don’t even have to be useful; they can just be cool extras, like finding a hidden character in an RPG that does something funny or something like that. However, be sure to make the ones that ARE useful harder to find than the ones that are just entertaining.

That’s all the loose ends tied up. But we haven’t finished just yet, no way. Join me next time when I will lay the final step in the Path.
Until then, I can’t be stuffed thinking up a “may you” ending for some reason,
–   The Gwaga Gmonk

[Araloth]

I love this serie!
can i post it on my own site when its finished?

[The Gwaga Gmonk]

Sure, as long as you give me credit. Part 6 will be up tomorrow.

[Araloth]

thanks

[The Gwaga Gmonk]

Oops, a bit of a delay. The final step will be up shortly, probably tomorrow. Sorry 'bout the delay.