So, you've finally bought RMMV, or you're considering it and are trying to figure out the big old "what's next".

Well, ponder no more because we're here to show you what you can and can not do with this pretty powerful piece of software.


The guide you're currently reading was originally posted on:
- Random Ravings[rrvs.blogspot.com]
- MMOC[www.mmo-champion.com]

Originally it was written with VX-Ace in mind, but has now been converted for MV, if any parts seem illogical, please let us know and we'll get it fixed.

You may find the official feature list on the RPGMakerWeb[www.rpgmakerweb.com] website.

Upon first launching the software you'll be facing a green ocean with a character in it.
If not, no worries - the first step to take is to click: "File -> New Project".
Select a good spot to save your first game or "test project", and hit ok. You'll notice a progress bar which copies most of your plugin/data assets to the new folder. That's so all the project's resources will be kept "with" the project.

Now, if you weren't facing a small lake of grass before, you should be seeing it now.
You'll probably have the urge to press some button or jump into drawing right away - resist that for now.

In the bottom-left there should be a panel with your "test project" name, and "MAP001" under it.
Right click on the project name, and select "Load...". This folder should provide you with a ton of inspiration and play-things with which to learn the initial basics. For now I'd recommend just picking "Regular Town".
Press F6 to enter event mode and right click the middle of the map. Select "set as starting position -> player".
Next, delete "MAP001" and hit the green arrow (F12) in the top-right of your screen.

Note: Across all your maps, you can only always have "one" player starting position. This will be used for testing your maps.

At this point you'll launch the game, and get control over the character.
If you used a small town as sample map, you'll quickly notice you won't be able to enter any buildings.

We'll get right into that.

If you're an avid RPG player, you'll know there's multiple areas, towns, overworld, dungeons etc which make up an RPG. To switch between these different maps, we need to create "Transfer Events" or doors in the places where you wish to allow the player to do this.

First, we add another map - easiest for now it just to right-click the bottom-left field again and add a sample field. E.g. load an existing prefab. For example "Inn 1F".
Your sample project will now have 2 maps. Feel free to select it and see how it looks.

Next up, we create the actual transfer event.
Go to your main map. Press F6, or the red pawn icon in the top bar to enter "event editing mode" again.

Right click a doorway and select "Quick event generation -> Transfer". Click the "..." icon next to the destination, and select the other map (Inn 1F if you followed the above steps), then select the starting position on that map and press OK.

Note: Doors work exactly the same (meaning you just walk into it), except they show a "door" in the place where the transfer event is initiated from.
Try it now, then press OK again to close the dialog and finalize the event.

Let's play test the new event and see if it works! (Ctrl+R)
If you now walk into the doorway, you'll notice the transfer.
But,. no way back yet.
See if you can create it before continuing to the next chapter.

Usage tips:
- To allow your character to transfer between the large map and town, it's advised to use transfer events.
- To transfer from town to interior or between interiors and dungeons, it's recommended to use a door event.
That's not set in stone obviously, as you can have houses with open doors use transfer events - be creative, use what you think looks best.

Since you've used a "quick event" just now, I'm sure you'll have noticed the other 2 choices there, so let's handle those as well.

Go to the "Inn 1F" map that you've got in the map list, and once again ensure "event editing mode" is active.
Find a good spot for your innkeeper (even through 1 wall will work, so you can put the innkeeper behind a counter) and right click to place him (same way and same menu as the other quick events). You can double click the graphic to select his/her appearance. Select a price and press ok.
That's it! Creating an inn has never been easier.

Obviously while testing your character will not have any gold, so for the time being it's a good idea to put up a treasure chest.
There's a quick event for this as well as you've no doubt noticed and read in the menu. Right click near the innkeeper and select "Treasure Chest". Set the content to be 10 gold or so.

If you want, you can select items, weapons or armor in the same manner.
You can obviously create and review items as well - just press F9 to open the game database.

Now that you've got a basic way to design the world your game will take place in, it's time to make travel a little more interesting.

Most avid gamers will recognize this as "random encounters". There's multiple ways of implementing combat in your game, some examples:
* Random encounters - (almost any 2D rpg) you walk around in world areas and dungeons and suddenly... "A wild Pikachu appears", then combat starts.
* Static creatures - (FF Mystic quest) any non world area may have creatures standing around as actors, talk to them to start combat. This allows the player to avoid combat if he chooses.
* A combination of the 2 above. (random in world, static in dungeons)
* Active creatures - (Lufia) instead of standing around, monsters move and can walk towards the player to attack them. This would require some scripting.
* Active creatures, and active player attacks. (Secret of mana, zelda, diablo) Live action - the player can attack creatures without being thrown into a turn based combat screen. This would also require some scripting. This may be tricky but luckily there are plug-ins just for that purpose.

For now, let's look at the random encounters.
Static creatures are fairly easy to add and we'll cover that soon as well.

If you haven't done so yet, add a map that will serve as your "world" map. You should know how to do so by now. Make sure you add a transfer event to go there from your town, and back from there into your town. Draw a city on the map using the B tileset on the left.



Open the event editor, and make some transfer areas around the town. For example you could set region 1 to nearby grasslands, region 2 to some forest, and region 3 to some nearby hills. (you can't walk on mountains by default)
Next, in the map box, right click on the new map and select "map properties".



On the right you right click (or double click) in the "encounters" box and select Slime*2. By default the troop will then appear across the whole map. Let's set it to appear in a specific region only. If you wish the monsters to appear more often, raise the weight from 5 to a higher number.

Now would be a good time to test your newly added monster encounter.
Seems to work right?

Let's cover that static monster next.
Go to your town map and open the "event editing mode"(F6).

Right click on the map and select "New event".
Double click the "graphic" and select something from "Monster" the blue slime for example.
Double click the first line of "contents" on the right and select from tab-3 the "battle processing" button.
Then, select the "Slime*2" again.
Ensure the "trigger" (in the bottom) is "action button". This will ensure if you press space next to the monster, you will initiate the attack. (Also see below how to hide the monster after defeating it)

Time for another test?
Using these 2 combat encounter techniques you'll be able to add some basic excitement to your game.
(You have to keep in mind that the story will obviously be the more important part)

As just stated, the story is important, but... how to tell a story in a game?
NPC interaction will get you a long way, your character will move through the world you create and talk to NPCs to gain quests, new party members, or be sent off to rescue the kingdom or world from mortal peril.

NPC Types.
* The nobody: One or two lines of text - if any.
* Chatterbox: The NPC that wants to tell you a ton of things, and has you smacking space because you don't care about it. Much like the nobody, these guys are pretty straightforward.
* Innkeepers and vendors: You already know how to make an innkeeper, we'll get to vendors later.
* Quest NPCs: NPCs that activate a condition in order to progress through the game
* Party members: Most RPGs don't let you start out with a full party, you find these along the way, and after meeting a certain trigger they will join or leave your party at a later time.
* Static monster: Monsters can talk as well - certain bosses or villains for example will have more dialog than plain mobs. Explaining the evil master plan as you sharpen your sword, or taunting you at your inability to prevent the next event. (You already know how to make a static monster, see above)

So, let's add some text.
In order to create a NPC with some dialog, you once again create an event (F6 mode again).
Right click somewhere in town and first select a proper graphic. (Much like creating a static monster, you create a static NPC)
Next, Add a new event content (right click, insert) and select "Show Text" from tab 1.
You can then select a face graphic to show the actor you're talking to, or leave it blank for generic NPC or the narrator.
Fill in the text you wish to show.
I put up a dog here, so I added the text "Woof".

You now have a generic "nobody" NPC. He's a good boy though.

To create a chatterbox, simply insert extra text lines. (or select the batch entry checkbox)
Note: To simulate chat between your character(s) and the NPC in question, simply set the character portrait, or prefix the text with the name of the NPC you want to indicate is saying the text.

If you wish to give the player some interaction, you can insert the "show choices" message.
When you add the choice, you'll notice the contents branches into a "when yes" and "when no", under each of these choices you can then add more text, or special actions, such as giving the player an item, or adding/removing a party member.
If you wish to create a false choice to which the player MUST agree, even though he's given a choice of yes and no, you can create a so called "loop" (also on tab 1).
Note that after adding a loop, you have to add a "break loop" in one of the choices, or the player will be stuck with the NPC.

The below script is originally from VX-Ace, but still works in MV. You'll find more "code" blocks like this in the guide pages to come, sadly you can't copy paste them into the editor.

Example:

Beside adding party members this way, you can also set "switches", which may be used to determine other NPC reactions (for example to allow you dungeon access).
Or transferring the player to another map.
And many more things.

Be sure to change your default starting party in the database editor -> System.

If you used the above "add party member" example, you'll notice the NPC will still be seen standing there, after "bringing her along". This is obviously somewhat counter intuitive. So, let's add a switch.

Switches control events, such as you pulled the magic sword from the stone, defeated the crypt fiend, talked to the dog, entered the graveyard, and so on. Using switches you can control the game progression and make new areas or party members available for your hero to discover.
Keep in mind, adding a LOT of switches will quickly make your RPG's script more complex for you to manage, so it's recommended to give clear and easy to understand names to each of your switches, so even if you come back and start editing again a month or two later, you'll know what the switch does, and why you added it.
For example:
* Crypt Boss Slain
* Party Marsha Available
* Party Marsha Added

Lets alter the above script by adding another NPC to the town, which makes the other NPC "available", and then change her dialog so you don't make her available a second time. After all, if you pull one switch, you reset another.

The basics would be:
* You enter town (or talk to a certain npc), raise switch "Marsha available".
* Marsha should now be visible to talk to, and get added to your party.
* After adding her, the initial switch that set her as "available" should now no longer be possible to re-set, otherwise you'll be able to see her in two places at the same time.

To make this, we edit the above existing event and click the "..." button next to the "Conditions-Switch".
Let's name the switches and press OK:
* 0001: Marsha Available
* 0002: Marsha Added to Party

Next, we set the condition switch 0001: Marsha Available to the above script which allows you to add her to your party.
And, to the bottom of the script we insert two new script lines:
This way, the event won't show up until she's "available", and she'll be hidden after completing the event.
The second script line will be used by the NPC or event that makes her available.

To ensure she's made available only once we insert a "flow control -> conditional branch (Tab 1)".
In the dialog that follows we have it check the switch "0002: Marsha Added to Party" is OFF, in the first line of the branch.
(In the "else" statement, you could add a different response, such as "oh hi Marsha " - to indicate the NPC recognizes she's in your party when not actively following you).

Be sure to add the "Marsha available" switch to somethign else - such as talking to the dog above.
This ensures Marsha becomes available for recruitment after talking to the dog, and that she won't show up a second time after talking to the dog again later. Since she's already in your party.