Do you like RPGs? I have some questions for you!

[wheat pasta]

I'm in the very, very, very (very) early planning stages of my own RPG and I have to confess I don't exactly have the best concept of the genre. I haven't played too many but I still want to try and capture the essence of them.
You don't have to tell me how dumb I am, I already know

Anyway, I wanted to ask the diehard RPG fans out there a few questions so I can get a better feel for what I'm doing. Feel free to answer just one question or all of them or none of them or wish that a plate of lasagna would fall from the sky and land in your lap.

• What are the quintessential classes you feel every RPG should have? And as a followup, which class is your favorite and why?
• How many different characters do you like to choose from? I was thinking I'd have somewhere around 10 with a tentative 5 classes and a choice of male or female for each class.
  
• How many party members is ideal for you? Three, four, five? More? Less?
• Do you like knowing exactly where you're supposed to go and what you're supposed to do, or do you prefer minimal direction?

• What do you think makes a good RPG great? Strong characterization, a good story, exotic places or epic fights? (These are examples, feel free to come up with your own reasons)
• Conversely (and lastly-- for now at least), what about a bad RPG in your eyes makes it bad? Convoluted crafting systems, flat characterization, annoying battle mechanics, [insert other flaw here]?

Thanks for reading and I look forward to some answers


(As an addendum, I just want to state that I'm not currently looking for help with the game itself, not that I'm expecting offers but I don't want anyone getting their hopes up or anything.)

Spoiler: for your time, have a chinchilla picture

 

[A-Stump]

My favorite RPG of all time is Tales of Destiny. There were no classes, but certain characters were better at performing different tasks than others.

If I were to suggest any mechanic to borrow from Tales, it'd be the Swordian factor. Legendary weapons which become unlocked when they meet their masters. These weapons allow each character to fight to their fullest potential and in fact served as characters themselves (The Swordians could talk!). I'm not saying just blatantly rip off Tales of Destiny but that system was legit and creative as fuck.

 

[Surtur]

Ok, I will answer these in my usual tl;dr style.

• What are the quintessential classes you feel every RPG should have? And as a followup, which class is your favorite and why?

What is the genre? Fantasy? Sci-Fi? Horror? A mix of more than one? I am going to assume you are talking Fantasy here at first, but I will mention the other stuff later. The standard classes are Meatshield, Heal bitch, Glass Canon and Skill Monkey, or Fighter, Cleric, Mage and Thief. Now, these go all the way back to Dungeons & Dragons, and early RPGs were typically attempts to make digital versions of D&D, so if making a cRPG it is good to look at the source. Of course there are other classes and depending on the game, you may not need certain ones, but most classes will be variants on these four types. Now, when we move onto other genres it gets a bit trickier. In Sci Fi, you can still sort of follow this trope. Instead of Knights or Fighters you may have Soldiers who fire pulse rifles, but the mechanics are the same. Horror is a fun one. I like Horror because it works real well classless. I recommend looking at the Call of Cthulhu tRPG to see what I mean. In CoC, you don't really have classes. While you have an occupation, all it does is determine your primary skills, it is acceptable to make your own occupation by selecting your own skills. Something like this can work well in any other genre, a player can select what skills their character is good at, rather than only what their class is restricted too. They will start out better at this but can still learn other skill sets if they choose too. The Elder Scrolls games also play a bit like this.

• How many different characters do you like to choose from? I was thinking I'd have somewhere around 10 with a tentative 5 classes and a choice of male or female for each class.

Depends, what is the style of game? Action? Turn-based? Tactical? Action games can have just one, like Elder Scrolls but turn based games should have a large enough pool to be able to balance the party. Tactical games should have a large selection of characters.

• How many party members is ideal for you? Three, four, five? More? Less?

Again, what type of game? In general, around 4 is ideal. In D&D 4-5 is the recommended party size and most cRPGs I see about this much, Final Fantasy uses 3, Dragon Age uses 5. If the game is tactical, you will need a bit more.

• Do you like knowing exactly where you're supposed to go and what you're supposed to do, or do you prefer minimal direction?

This is an artistic direction. Are you trying to tell a story or are you trying to let players immerse themselves in your world? You have two extremes, a Theme Park and a Sandbox. Theme Park is when the player is mostly there for tyhe ride. You guide them from place to place, and while they make certain actions, they will always go from point A to point B to point C. A sandbox is completely open and these games are generally reliant on the player to do things for themselves. Sandbox games tend to be multiplayer, since single player games usually require some direction. Of course most games are somewhere in the middle. For example, the Elder Scrolls leans towards sandbox. There are definite goals to achieve but the player is the one who decided what goals to complete and how they opt to complete them. Dragon Age: Origins is a bit closer to the middle, same with most Bioware games. There is a definite goal, so you start at Point A and end up at point E, but you can do points B,C, and D in any order, this creates an illusion of choice.

• What do you think makes a good RPG great? Strong characterization, a good story, exotic places or epic fights? (These are examples, feel free to come up with your own reasons)

Depends on the style of game I am playing. If I am playing a sandbox, I want lot of options, I want to be able to build things may way, and I also want places to explore. In this case, I would say good mechanics and good design matter the most. On the flip side, if I am playing a theme park, I can forgive basic mechanics if the game is well written.

• Conversely (and lastly-- for now at least), what about a bad RPG in your eyes makes it bad? Convoluted crafting systems, flat characterization, annoying battle mechanics, [insert other flaw here]?

Its bad when its poorly executed. I can deal with complex games or simple games, I just care that they are done well. Same with story or graphics.

 

[Watcher]

RPGs are a very tricky concept to implement in a game, much less implement well.

Some of the best rpgs I've played like the Shin Megami Tensei games did not even implement classes but rather allow the player to specialize themselves gradually. This is actually legitimately my favorite way to play an rpg. Anyway, onto the questions.

• What are the quintessential classes you feel every RPG should have? And as a followup, which class is your favorite and why?

You need a fighter, mage and thief class. The fighter is the most generic class, just hit shit and take hits. You need this class because pretty much 70% of players will play as it. It's best to make it the most viscerally satisfying class so people like it.

Mages are squishy but do loads of damage. These are for the players that like to min-max their stats and love being able to overpower enemies.

And finally thieves are sneaky but indirectly fight their opponents through the use of traps or hitting from behind depending on the mechanics. These are the classes for players that legitimately want to think their way through a situation rather than purely going toe to toe with an enemy.

I personally like all three and they revolve around different play styles. You can also further have different classes that are based on a mixture of the three above. Like having a Cleric (Fighter/Mage hybrid focused on healing), a Ranger (fighter/thief hybrid focused on ranged weapons) etc.

• How many different characters do you like to choose from? I was thinking I'd have somewhere around 10 with a tentative 5 classes and a choice of male or female for each class.

It largely depends on the story. Final Fantasy 6 had 14 playable characters and the story didn't revolve solely on any one of them. Whereas Persona 3 had like 7 or so and revolved solely on the main character.

• How many party members is ideal for you? Three, four, five? More? Less?

This is something you'd have to determine through programming and testing. Usually rpgs have 3 or 4 depending on the mechanics.

• Do you like knowing exactly where you're supposed to go and what you're supposed to do, or do you prefer minimal direction?

This is again something that's very hard to really quantify. Since different rpgs do both things well. Like Dark Souls has minimal direction and it's a great game, but then again Final Fantasy is heavily scripted and some of those games are pretty good. It's one of those instances where you'd have to write the story out and determine how often you dole out plot from there.

• What do you think makes a good RPG great? Strong characterization, a good story, exotic places or epic fights? (These are examples, feel free to come up with your own reasons)

Stats and replayability are the main reasons I play an rpg. I like starting out with an rpg and not understanding anything about stats, and regularly making mistakes. But as I play more of it I like being able to then look at the stat screen and gradually understand what everything does. And what is useful to invest in. This also allows for multiple playthroughs if there are multiple classes to play as.

• Conversely (and lastly-- for now at least), what about a bad RPG in your eyes makes it bad? Convoluted crafting systems, flat characterization, annoying battle mechanics, [insert other flaw here]?

Complex mechanics that are poorly implemented. Such as crafting systems, difficulty spikes etc. RPGs are at their best when the mechanics are easy to grasp. The easier it is for the player to level up, the more he will want to. What you don't want is a player who feels forced to resort to a guide someone publishes online. The mechanics should be relatively simple, but at the same time allow for many kinds of characters to be created.

Like I said earlier rpgs are very hard to implement. And sometimes it's best to not even make an RPG but instead create a Diablo-esque hack and slash or a platformer style game. But if you do create a good rpg, players will likely clock hundreds of hours into it.

 

[wheat pasta]

Gwaah thanks for the awesome feedback, guys! I wasn't sure what would happen if I posted this.

@A-Stump I've played a couple of Tales games and I thought that in particular was really cool (After my ex girlfriend had to patiently explain to me that the weapons could talk..)! I hope I can come up with something even half as original and badass.

@Surtur If you were still curious I'm planning for it to be fantasy, turn-based... that kind of deal. I figured it would be simplest since I'm most familiar with that manner of RPG. Thank you for the ginormous response, you've given me a lot more to think about.

@Cuddlebug I haven't played Shin Megami Tensei but I hear it's good. Maybe I should look into it for.. research. You have some interesting opinions.

 

[Surtur]

Sounds good. How do you plan on making this anyways?

 

[Overcast]

Personally, my favorite RPG would be Final Fantasy IX. I think it does everything I would want in an RPG. It tells a good story, has a set of likeable and unique characters, has a battle system in which everyone has their own job, (i.e. Zidane's the thief, Vivi's the mage, Garnet's the healer/summoner) it has a ton of memorable locations, an awesome soundtrack, and it has a couple of strong themes going on in it.

I know I'm fanboying over it, but my god I love the game.

I also enjoy the SMT games, Chrono Trigger, the Disgaea series, Xenoblade Chronicles, the Fallout series, and Dark Souls.

 

[wheat pasta]

Sounds good. How do you plan on making this anyways?

Probably just going to goof around in RPGmaker since it's easily accessible and relatively simple to use once you know the basics. I also have a friend who suggested he program for me, but he's busy with other stuff and this was a while back, so who knows.

Personally, my favorite RPG would be Final Fantasy IX. I think it does everything I would want in an RPG. It tells a good story, has a set of likeable and unique characters, has a battle system in which everyone has their own job, (i.e. Zidane's the thief, Vivi's the mage, Garnet's the healer/summoner) it has a ton of memorable locations, an awesome soundtrack, and it has a couple of strong themes going on in it.

I know I'm fanboying over it, but my god I love the game.

I also enjoy the SMT games, Chrono Trigger, the Disgaea series, Xenoblade Chronicles, the Fallout series, and Dark Souls.

FF IX is my favorite too We seem to have similar tastes!

 

[Le Bateleur]

All the suggestions so far have been really good.

Only thing I'd add is that research is so important. There are several free Flash RPGs on sites like Kongegate and Armor Games that are very highly-rated by players. Sonny 2 and Epic Battle Fantasy 4 come to mind.

Look at successful games like these to work out what players enjoy and value. Also try a few of the poorly-rated RPGs to see what people hate so you can avoid it.

 

[Bgheff]

A heads up, a plan on how to make it and having someone to do the mechanics goes ahead of any ideas you have. Lots of people have ideas, it takes skill and time to see it through. Even an RPG maker game will take several people if you want to do it in a reasonable time.

 

[wheat pasta]

All the suggestions so far have been really good.

Only thing I'd add is that research is so important. There are several free Flash RPGs on sites like Kongegate and Armor Games that are very highly-rated by players. Sonny 2 and Epic Battle Fantasy 4 come to mind.

Look at successful games like these to work out what players enjoy and value. Also try a few of the poorly-rated RPGs to see what people hate so you can avoid it.

Great advice! I'll definitely do that

A heads up, a plan on how to make it and having someone to do the mechanics goes ahead of any ideas you have. Lots of people have ideas, it takes skill and time to see it through. Even an RPG maker game will take several people if you want to do it in a reasonable time.

True enough. I'm definitely not going too tryhard on this yet, I like to think my expectations are decently realistic as far as time and effort go. Thank you for the wisdom