==============================================================================
                                   RPG Maker
                                   Full FAQ

                                Version COMPLETE
                                  by Dias Flac
                             DiasFlac84@Hotmail.com

formatted by Kuro Madoushi                  for use with the Sony Playstation
==============================================================================

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
 1) Introduction
 2) System Data
 3) Scenario Data
 4) A Word by Kuro Madoushi
 5) Legal Information
 
INTRODUCTION

"Switches?  Take Overs?  Intro Events?  Aaaaaahhh!!!  I'm gonna go insane!  
There's no way I can make an RPG!  Somebody HELP!!!"

This is probably what you're thinking if you're reading this guide.  You've 
been intimidated by RPG Maker's multitude of options and the instruction 
manuals that don't help you for crap.  But really, it's not as big and bad 
as it looks.  If you read this, you'll get an overview of what everything 
does, exactly how to do it, the basic options for the commands, and some of 
the more advanced stuff too.  Without further ado, we'll start with the main 
edit menu, which looks a little something like this...

SYSTEM DATA:

Title                            Skill
Configuration                    Monster
Gameplay Edit                    Dungeon
Parameter Name                   Field
Magic                            Monster Appearance
Item
Main Character                   Game Info

SCENARIO DATA:

Event                               Game Info

Now, I'm going to go in a logical order, explaining what you can do and in 
what order I advise you do it in.  First, Configuration.  You're confronted 
with this menu:

Edit
	Cursor Speed
	BGM
	Sound

Game
	Collision Sound
	Message Sound
	Level Up Sound

Most of these are pretty self-explanatory, but I'm gonna explain them 
anyway.

Cursor Speed--How fast the cursor moves during game creation.  Higher is 
slower and lower is faster.  I would definitely put this on high speed.

BGM--What plays while you're making your game.  I'd advise turning this off 
and putting in your favorite CD, but you've got 35 choices of tracks if you 
really want to listen to the same song for the hundreds of hours you spend 
creating your epic.

Sound--Mono or Stereo.  Simple.

Collision Sound--For the love of God, turn this off!  If you really want 
your game to make a sound every time you touch something, you can, but...no.

Message Sound--The sound the game makes every time a message pops up.  It's 
questionable using this, but if you do, make it something very quiet.  
Nobody will play your game if the message sound is annoying.

Level Up Sound--The sound the game makes when a character levels up.  Again, 
simple.

Next, I usually go to Parameter Name.  Don't let big words fool you, though; 
this is probably one of the easiest thing to do in the game.  I'm not 
going to show the menu for this, simply because it's so easy to explain.  
You take one thing, and you name it something else.  This is used for naming 
your monetary unit (Gold a bit overused, isn't it?), stats, and a bunch of 
other stuff.  Just look at it and you'll get the drift.

Next thing I check off the list is Gameplay Edit.  This is another fairly 
simple menu, but I'll put it in here anyway.

Special Moves                         Abilities
Use of Class                          M DEF
Monster Appearance

Special Moves--Choose On/Off.  If it's on, characters can learn S ATK's, 
that is, HP consuming magic.

Abilities--Choose On/Off.  If it's on, special effects caused by skills 
characters learn (like Critical Hit UP) are effective.

Use of Class--Choose On/Off.  If it's on, monsters will be weak to some 
types of magic that you give a certain "attribute" to.  Defaultly, these 
attributes will be called "Magic A", "Magic B", "Magic C", and "None".  You 
can rename them in Parameter Name, something like "Fire", "Ice", and 
"Thunder".  The weaknesses work sorta like Rock, Paper, Scissors, but not 
quite.  Here's how they work:

If a monster is "Magic A" type, "Magic A" does 1/4 damage, "Magic B" does 
1.5x damage, and "Magic C" does 1/2 damage.

If a monster is "Magic B" type, "Magic A" does 1/2 damage, "Magic B" does 
1/4 damage, and "Magic C" does 1.5x damage.

If a monster is "Magic C" type, "Magic A" does 1.5x damage, "Magic B" does 
1/2 damage, and "Magic C" does 1/4 damage.

If a monster or magic is "None" class, all magic behaves normally (duh.)

Understand?  I didn't think you would.  Thus, I wouldn't advise using magic 
class on your first game unless you use the instruction manual's table (page 
41, book 1) or this and read it very closely until you understand it.

M DEF--Choose On/Off.  Contrary to popular belief, M DEF actually has 
nothing to do with defending against magic.  No kidding.  I don't know what 
they were thinking when they called it "M DEF", because it actually is 
defense against status changes, which most games call "Constitution" (CON).  
I'd advise you rename this in Parameter Name something similar.

Monster Appearance--Choose Auto/Manual.  Auto is great because all you have 
to do is set a probability rate for each dungeon and the monsters you want 
in it, as well as a BGM.  With Manual, you have to do the same things, but 
you have to set zones where the monsters appear too.  I wouldn't use manual 
if I were you, but hey, that's just me.

The next thing I usually do is make a field map.  Here's how you do it.  
There aren't a whole lot of things to explain here, but here's a couple of 
things you should know:

-The L1 and L2 buttons are your friends.  If you press one of these when 
placing field tiles, it'll scroll through tiles that might look good on your 
field, one at a time, and you'll be able to compare the pieces while you're 
still on the map.  This saves you from trying to use the stupid "Parts" 
menu.  I advise that you don't use the parts menu, except for maybe the 
first piece of your map; use L1 and L2 otherwise.

-The "Tile A" option replaces unused map space with a map-looking 
background. The "Tile B" option just replaces it with black space.

-The "Town" option is for putting everything on the map, not just towns.   I 
hope this was pretty obvious, but hey, you never know.  Well, anyway, here's 
the menu you're prompted with when you want to place a town:

Graphics
Name
Appear
Destination
Location
Method

Now, for the rundown of the options:

Graphics--The graphic that appears on the field to represent the area.

Name--The name of the place.

Appear--Probably the thing most players have trouble with, simply because 
they are unfamiliar with switching.  If you are one of those unfortunate 
souls, check out my switching guide later in the tutorial, or go ahead and 
read this and just keep it in mind.  After all that rant, the actual 
function of this is pretty simple.  You pick a switch, and when the switch 
turns on, this area will appear on the field.  If you pick "Always" the town 
is always on the map.

Destination--Pick the dungeon the spot on the field represents.  I usually 
come back and do this, since I make my field first.

Location--The spot in the dungeon you selected that you want the player to 
be moved to.

Method--What kind of fade the screen does when the player moves to the 
dungeon.  Your choices are Black, Black Melt, White, White Melt.

-The "Path" command draws a walkable area from one place to another.  
Players can't go to places where there is no path unless they have a "blimp" 
item.  I pick "Path", I select one town, and then select the place I wanna 
connect it to.  The path submenu is much simpler than town submenu.  It 
looks like this:

Appear
Move

Appear--Same as it was in town.

Move--This command is rarely useful, but say you want to make a path to a 
town allegedly blocked by a boulder.  Thus, you would know the path is 
there, but you wouldn't be able to move on it.  After you talk to a miner in 
town, he agrees to clear the path for you, which, in turn, turns switch 001 
on.  For this, you would use set the path menu up something like this:

Appear: Always
Move: Switch 001 on

If you got confused there, don't worry--this is most certainly NOT a vital 
skill.  I don't think I've ever played an RPG that uses this.

The next thing I usually do is create skills.  If you know you're not going 
to use skills in your game, skip this section.  Otherwise, read on.  There 
isn't a whole lot of explanation to do in the first menu, so here's just a 
quick rundown of important stuff.

Ability--If you set Abilities on in Gamplay Edit, you can have a skill give 
a character some special ability (hence the name).  Here's a list of your 
choices, and what each one does:

None--Hmmm, I wonder?

First Attack--The character with this always gets the first attack in 
battle, regardless of agility.  This DOESN'T mean the party will have an 
increased chance of getting "First Attack".

Treasure Find UP--Increases the chances that an enemy will drop an item 
after battle.

1/2 MP Cost--Halves the amount of MP it costs to cast spells.

2x Magic Damage--SOMETIMES (which the manual doesn't tell you) doubles the 
damage an enemy takes from magic.

Critical Hit UP--Increases the chances of inflicting a critical hit.

Battle Heal--Commonly referred to as Regen in Final Fantasies.  The 
character gains a certain percentage of his HP after his turn.  I think it 
might be 5% or 10% of the character's max HP.

Counter Attack--Sometimes when the character is physically attacked, he may 
counter attack.

Attack +1--The character attacks one more time than usual.

Reflect Attacks--The character reflects ALL physical attacks and the attack 
hits the enemy instead.  Unless you plan for magic to be the main choice of 
attack in a game, don't use this skill.

HP Drain--The character sometimes steals the HP from an enemy when 
physically attacking.

EXP UP--SOMETIMES (again, not mentioned in the manual), experience received 
after battle is doubled.

No Class--Basically, makes all the character's spells non-elemental, or 
whatever kind of attribute system you're using.  Not too useful.

Random Ability--The character gets a random ability during each turn of 
battle.  Pretty worthless, but I'm not gonna stop you from using it.

AI--The character is controlled by the computer.  Not useful as a skill that 
characters can acquire, but great for when you want to make a 
computer-controlled character.

Resist Magic--The enemy's magic is ineffective.  I wouldn't use this if I 
were you.

The stats listed on the screen are used to modify a characters abilities 
every time the character levels up.  You can make the numbers positive or 
negative.  For instance, say I give a character a skill I call "Berserker".  
I can have it increase his strength by and additional 2 points every time he 
levels up, but have it decrease his intelligence by 2 points at each level 
up simply by putting a +2 in the strength category and a -2 in the 
intelligence category.

Conditions--The conditions a character must meet before being able to learn 
a skill.  I won't put the menu here, because it's pretty easy to figure out 
what they want, but I will explain one thing.  The characters section at the 
bottom doesn't mean any character can learn the skill as long as the marked 
characters are in the party.  It means that only the marked characters can 
learn the skill.

S ATK--First of All, special moves had to have been turned on in the 
gameplay edit menu.  Secondly, you already had to have created S ATK's in 
the magic menu.  You'll be presented with a menu like this one:


Level                 S ATK                HP Cost

Level    +0
         +1
         +2
         +3
         +4
         +5
         +6
         +7

The most important thing to understand is the numbers down the side (+0,   
+1, etc.).  These numbers indicate how many times the character must level 
up after getting the skill before he gets the indicated S ATK.  If you set 
an S ATK at +0, the character gets the S ATK when he learns the skill (I 
think.  If not, it's after one battle.  You can tell how much I use S ATK's, 
can't you?).  If you were to set an S ATK at +4, the character would have to 
level up 4 times before acquiring the indicated S ATK.  You should know 
that, outside of an event, this is the only way a character can learn S 
ATK's.  You CANNOT in any way learn an S ATK like a spell, i.e., you can't 
tell the game to give the character an S ATK at level 4, or level 25, etc.

Next, for items.  First off, here's the item menu:

Type                 Drop
Sell                 Gold
Status               Break


Now, to go through all the types:

Other--Just what it says.  I use this typically for keys or items that are 
important to the plot.  There are also several other unique ways this can be 
used, though they're too complex to explain here.

Weapon--Used for, not surprisingly, weapons.  You get a few extra things 
added to the menu here:

Type                     Drop
Sell                     Gold
Status                   Break
Graphic                  Attack
Curse                    Atk#
Class                    Range
Magic

Who

You'll notice that Graphic, Curse, Class, Magic, Attack, Atk#, Range, and 
Who are all new.  Here's an explanation of all these things:

Graphic--What your weapon looks like when you attack.

Curse--If a cursed item is equipped, it can't be removed except by a spell 
or item that uncurses it.  Keep this in mind, however:  if a player uncurses 
something, the item breaks.

Class--Magic Class the weapon is considered to be, specifically.  Look up 
around the Gameplay Edit section if you need a refresher on what this is.

Magic--When you use the weapon as an item, the spell selected here is cast.  
However, the spell will NOT be randomly cast when attacking with the weapon.

Attack--Pick a number, any number, as long as it's between -9999 and 9999.  
You'll probably use positive.

ATK#--Number of attacks the weapon gives.  Pick 1 or 2.

Range--How many enemies a weapon hits.  Your choices are:  Single, Group, or 
All.

Who--This is who can equip the weapon.  Characters marked by a circle can, 
ones with an x can't.

Now, back to the original list we were going on, the type list:

Armor--Body equipment.  You'll get a couple new options, but you should 
recognize them from the weapons section.

Shield--Armor for one of the hands.

Helmet--Head equipment.

Accessory--For one of the two accessory slots.  You'll get a new option 
here, too.  I'll not list the menu, but here is the new option:

Effect--You can select several stats here, and you can also select Magic 
GRD, or one of the magic classes (attributes).  Pick anything but Magic GRD, 
and you'll get to pick a number again between -9999 and 9999.  That's how 
much the stat will change.  Pick Magic GRD, and you'll be able to pick a 
percentage, between 0% and 100%.  This is the percent of magic damage the 
accessory blocks.

Again, back to the type list:

Magic--An item whose sole use is to cast a spell.

Cure--An item that cures some status, HP, or MP.  You get a new option, but 
it should be pretty obvious how to work it.  It simply has you pick what you 
want the item to cure.

Transport--You are again presented with a new option.  In the new option, 
you have to pick either boat or blimp.  If you pick boat, then characters 
will be able to travel over paths that cross the sea.  After all, you didn't 
think you could walk over water, did you?  If you pick blimp, characters 
will be able to travel to ANY area on the map, regardless of if the area is 
connected by a path or not.

Key--If you really want to, you can use this option, though I wouldn't.  You 
make an item like usual, and then you pick the Key type, A through H.  You 
can then have a locked door where the player must actually go into his 
inventory and pick the key out that will open the particular type of door.  
It's a little complex (not really too bad) to explain, so basically, I 
won't.  Just use "other" items for keys; it's much easier and even gives you 
a little more freedom.

Food--The stuff that permanently increases stats.  You'll also be able to 
give a character experience through items in this menu.  Keep in mind, 
though:  even if you give a character enough experience to level up, the 
character won't level up until he survives a battle.

Now, on to the few other aspects of the item menu:

Sell--Whether or not the player can sell the item.

Status--Pick either Show or Hide.  If you pick show, the status will be 
displayed as normal when a player moves over an item.  If you pick hide, the 
item still appears in the player's inventory, but its effect doesn't.  This 
is pretty useless for equipment, though, because when the character checks 
to equip the item, it'll still show how much the stat goes up or down.

Drop--Whether or not the player is able to drop the item.

Gold--How much money an item is sold for in stores.  The player gets half 
this money back if he sells the item to a store.

Break--The percent chance an item has of breaking when used.  This does NOT 
include attacking with a weapon or being hit when wearing armor.  Break only 
affects equipment if the equipment has a spell in it and is used like an 
item.

Next thing I do, usually, is make some magic.  Here's the menu:

Name
Type
Effect
Use of MP
Points
Class
Range
Graphics
Message

I'll now explain the menu and all its subcommands:

Name--Could it be the name of the spell?

Type--Pick either Magic or S ATK.  S ATK won't be available if you turned S 
ATK off in Gameplay Edit.  If you pick S ATK, "Use of MP" becomes "Use of 
HP."

Effect:  Here's the one with all the subcommands.  This is what the spell 
does.  I won't explain the ones that are self-explanatory.  Here are the 
choices on the effect list:

None
Inflict Damage
Recover HP
Cure Poison
Cure Silence
Cure Confuse
Cure Sleep
Cure Paralyze
Cure Petrify
Cure Curse
Revive--Only with 1 HP.  There's no way to make it do any more than that.
Restore Status--Doesn't include stat altering spells (such as Attack up or 
down).
Decrease Attack
Decrease Guard
Decrease Agility
Poison
Silence
Confuse
Sleep
Paralyze
Petrify
Death
Increase Attack
Increase Guard
Increase AGI
Steal MP--Based on opponent's current MP.
Reflect Magic--Reflect spells are very unfair to give to PC's if you don't 
give bosses Dispel magic.  Think about all possibilities before deciding to 
use this.
100% Res Magic
50% Res Magic
50% Res S ATK
Enemies HP
Dispel--This gets rid of stat-boosting/dropping spells.  Doesn't remove bad 
statuses, though.
Teleport--Only to places the party has been.  Pretty well worthless.
Escape Dungeon
Encounter Down
Check Item--Gives the player all the stats that the creator knows about an 
item, including break rate, spell it's imbued with, etc.

Back to our regularly scheduled menu:

Use of MP (HP)--Do I really have to explain?

Points--How much HP is healed/taken away from target.

Class--Magic Class.  Only can be selected if "Use of Class" is on in the 
Gameplay Edit menu.  Once again, if you want an explanation of classes, 
check under the Gameplay Edit section.

Range--How many targets the spell hits:  single, group, or all.  The 
player's party is considered a group, so any group spells that target the 
party will hit the entire party.

Graphics--What the spell looks like.  I can't really give you an explanation 
of this since it's one of those things that you just have to see and 
experiment with.

Message--You can have the game put one of it's built-in messages in before a 
spell name.  For example, if I pick "Hurl ~ !" for the "Fireball" spell, the 
game will display "Hurl Fireball!" when the spell is cast.

Next up:  Main Character.  Here's the menu:

Name
Skill

STR                          Equip
DEF                          Level
STA                          Magic Level
INT                          Graphic      CLR
AGI
Luck
M DEF

Now, for my typical rant on all the stuff that's up there:

Name--Why do I even put this in here?

Skill--If you want to start a character with one of the skills you've made, 
this is how you do it.

STR--Has to do with damage.  It should be noted that for each of these 
settings, characters will gain the amount you put in here at each level up.  
Some things (like HP and MP) start off a little higher than you put them in 
(I think HP is 20 higher and MP is 10 higher), but the characters will not 
gain that extra amount at each level up.  They will gain the base amount you 
put in.

DEF--Protection from physical damage.

STA--This is the character's HP after you add that extra 20 you get at the 
start of the game.

INT--This is the character's MP after you add in the 10 you get at that 
start.

AGI--This has to do with turn order, chance to escape battle, and hit rate.  
You must also keep in mind that a monster's AGI also affects rate.  If you 
later run into trouble with monsters hitting the party, crank up their AGI, 
and that should fix the problem.

Luck--Chances of critical hits and evade are determined by this.

M DEF--This will only appear if you turned M DEF on in Gameplay Edit.  I 
also told you up there that M DEF doesn't have to do with defending against 
magic, but resistance to status ailments.  Don't forget that!

Equip--Put the character's starting equipment on him here.

Level--The level the character will be at when he joins the party.

Magic Level--In here, all the magic spells will appear.  S ATK's will to, 
but they're grayed out.  That's because you can't set characters to learn S 
ATK's at a certain level, remember?  Well, in here, you set a level number 
to a spell, and when the character reaches that level, he will acquire the 
spell.

Graphic/CLR--The graphic for the character and the color of the character 
you're using.  There are 68 graphics and 4 color sets for each graphic.

NOTE:  Also in the Main Characters menu is "Start Party."  When a player 
starts the game, these characters will be in the party.  Don't forget to put 
your characters that'll start the game in here!

Now, for making dungeons.  This is going to probably be the littlest 
section, but it still may be hard for you.  The only way to get better at 
making dungeons is to play other people's games and look at what they did.  
Eventually, you'll get better.  I'll explain a couple of things about 
dungeons, but that's it.

-Dungeons are EVERYTHING in this game.  No, they're not just dungeons, 
they're towns and every other area in your game.

-If you're making a custom dungeon, you'll first be asked if the dungeon is 
inside or outside.  The dungeon parts are, needless to say, different for 
the two.  Sometimes, inside is a wiser choice for a few outside areas (such 
as entrances and exits to caves).

-Wondering if characters can walk on the area you just put down?  Scroll 
over the tiles in question and bring up the menu.  There's a shoe icon in 
the top bar that shows the way.  If it's an x, they can't.  If it's a 
circle, they can.  Remember, just because it looks like a character can walk 
on tile doesn't mean he can.  The reverse is also true.

-There's a mode button at the bottom of the dungeon creation menu.  It turns 
on/off something the game calls Auto Fix.  It's really tough to explain what 
Auto Fix does, so just keep it on and trust me.

-There are two types of parts listed:  Parts 1 and Parts 2.  Parts 1 is just 
normal tile placement, while parts 2 is place of a "sheet" of tiles.  Not 
all parts that are available in parts 1 are available in parts 2.  When 
placing a sheet of tiles, here's what you do:  Press X where you want to 
start.  Then, move to where you want the sheet to end.  Note that you can 
only move down and right when making sheets.  Press X again.  Ta-da!  Oh, 
and while we're on the subject of unavailable parts, pretty well all of the 
parts in sample dungeons are not available in custom dungeons.

-You can't modify sample dungeons unless you do it with events.  Basically, 
if you modify a sample dungeon in events, all you have to do use a graphic 
and not put in any event contents.

-Under BG, there are two options:  tile and wallpaper.  Wallpaper is useful 
only in a few occasions, but tile is something you should use constantly.  
As long as it doesn't make a dungeon look too bad, use a tile background for 
walking space, as you can walk on many tile backgrounds.  This will save you 
A LOT of system space.

Next thing up on the list is Monsters.  This is one of the things that will 
truly make or break your game.  If your balance is bad, players won't play 
your game.  I'll help you along here.  As you are probably getting used to 
by now, I'll list the menu:

Name                            Graphic
                                Color
Edit Attack/Treasure            Reverse
HP
MP
Attack
Guard
M DEF
EXP
Gold

More explanations, coming right up:

Name--If I have to explain, I'm going to hurt someone.

Graphic/Color--There are 99 monster graphics, and 4 color sets for each one. 
  Pick one for your monster.

Reverse--Change the direction a monster is facing.  Generally quite useless.

Edit Attack/Treasure--I'll explain this at the bottom of this section.  I 
promise.

HP--HP a monster has.

MP--MP a monster has.

Attack--Has to do with damage.

Guard--Protection from physical attacks.

AGI--Has to do with a bunch of stuff, including the chance of escape, hit 
rate, evade, and turn order.  It's basically the combination of the luck and 
AGI stats of a character.

M DEF--Resistance to status-changing attacks.  Only appear if you have M DEF 
on in Gameplay Edit.

EXP--EXP your party gets for slaying the beast.

Gold--Gold your party gets for slaying the beast.

Now, as I promised, Edit Attack/Treasure.  Here's the basic menu:

Abilities
Attack Patterns
Class
Magic DEF
MagicA
MagicB
MagicC
None

Treasure
Content

First, I'll explain your options in the abilities menu:

No critical hits--The monster never hits critical.

Critical Hit Up--The monster gets more critical hits.

Double Attack--The monster gets two attacks.  Don't use this too often, 
especially in random fights.

Multi Attack--The monster gets three attacks.  Use even less frequently than 
double attack.

Miss 1/2 of the attacks--The monster misses half its attacks.

2x damage--The monster gets double attack power.  Even though I've never 
used it, I still assume it only works some of the time.

Auto Battle--Takes all your percentages that you put in attack patterns 
(which I'm going to explain next) and divides them evenly.  It only affects 
things that you already marked with a percentage.  I've been told that it 
also makes the enemy fight "smarter" with stuff like cure spells, but I have 
not confirmed.  Judging from what the instruction book says, it seems like 
auto battle is only in effect some of the time, but again, I can't confirm 
or deny this.

Now, on to the attack patterns screen.  Note that you can only set up to 
seven attacks per monster.  Here's your choices under the attack patterns 
screen:

Normal attacks:  Guess what?  This has another sub-menu!  I think this is 
officially a sub-sub-sub-menu now.  Well, anyway, these are the choices:

Normal Attack--A physical attack.

Charge Attack--Automatically induces a counter attack from the attacked 
character, whether the character has a counter attack ability or not.  Does 
normal damage, at least, according to the manual.  I, again, cannot confirm 
or deny.

Poison Attack--Normal damage plus poison.

Paralyze Attack--Normal damage plus paralysis.

Sleep Attack--Normal damage plus sleep.

Petrify Attack--Normal damage plus petrification.

Critical Hit--NOT to be confused with a hit that does extra damage.  This 
will instantly kill the attacked character.  It's probably wise not to use 
this except for super and final bosses.  It tends to make many players mad.

Next up on the attack patterns menu is Action, which, of course, has a 
sub-menu all its own:

Do nothing--The monster...does nothing.  Woo-hoo.

Guard--Just like when a player guards.  Physical damage is cut in half for a 
turn.

Flee--The monster runs.

Self-Destruct--The monster blows up when his HP is half or less.  Messy, and 
does damage to a character.

Steal MP--Steals MP from a character.  I don't think it works quite the same 
way as an MP stealing attack, though I'm not sure.  I don't use this command 
hardly ever.

Hide--Basically, the enemy is dead until it comes out of hiding.  That 
includes the end of battles, too.  If enemies are hiding at the end of a 
battle, the battle is over.  I don't ever use this command.

The other two (or one option if you turned S ATK's off) are Magic and S ATK. 
  Those are pretty self-explanatory.

Now, going back to the main Edit Attack/Treasure menu:

Magic GRD--Is only available if "Use of Class" is off in Gameplay Edit.  If 
it's on, quoting from the manual, "enable[s]  the magic guard value set in M 
DEF."  If anyone has any idea what this does, explain it to me.  I just let 
it be, and all seems to go well.

The Various Magic Classes (MagicA, etc.)--If you have "Use of Class" on, and 
mark one of these classes as no, then magic from that class will not do any 
damage to the enemy.

Treasure--The percent chance the monster will drop an item of battle.

Contents--The item that the monster may drop after battle.

We're coming close to being at the end of system data!  These next few 
concepts are pretty simple.  The next thing I'm going over is Monster 
Appearance.  Here's the menu, along with descriptions (Note to all you using 
manual monster appearance against my advice:  your menu will look the same, 
but you have to press Triangle (I think, though it might be X) over one of 
the zones that I explained way back in the Gameplay Edit section):

Select Monster--Pick the monsters you want to appear in an area.

Probability--Chances of encountering monsters.  I STRONGLY recommend that 
you use nothing other than 1.

BGM--Music played for battles in the dungeon you're setting monsters for.

Battle Test--I won't explain the sub-menu here, since it's quite simple, but 
I insist that you use this.  I've played some games that where the creator 
evidently didn't use battle test, and either EVERYTHING missed and/or did 1 
or 2 damage (including the final boss) or there were tons of enemies that 
were WAY too powerful.

Onward to the game info screen!  Here's the menu and explanations:

Title Name--Unsurprisingly, this is what will appear on your title screen.

Scenario Name--Make ABSOLUTELY sure this is the same thing as the scenario 
name you have in the Scenario Data's Game Info option.  If not, the game 
will not load properly when the game command is selected from the main menu.

Staff Name--Where you brag all about yourself for those whopping first four 
lines of credits you get.

System Password--Generally, you'll want to put this on your game right 
before you release it to people.  Sadly, there are people in this world who 
will try to steal your ideas.  Here's a safeguard.  Just don't lock yourself 
out.  Write it down somewhere and put it where you won't lose it.

Delete Data--Delete EVERYTHING loaded in System Data.  You probably won't be 
using this any time soon.

Finally, the last thing to take in system data is Title.  Here's the normal 
stuff I give:

Screen--Pick one of 9 choices.  The most commonly used ones are "Book", 
"Stars", and "Magic Symbol."

BGM--The song that plays for the few seconds your title screen will probably 
be up.

Text--Pick yes or no.  Yes displays the title of your game which you entered 
in Game Info.  The only reason you'd want to select no is if you've made 
your own title screen in anime maker (yeah, right) and wrote the name in on 
there.

Color--The color of font your title is displayed in.  You get the a whopping 
3 choices:  Blue, Silver, or Gold.

Place--Where on the title screen that the name of your game will appear.

Effect--How your titles comes into the screen.

Preview--Look at the prettiful title screen that you just made.

That's it for system data!  Now, for Scenario Data...


SCENARIO DATA

First of all, I'm going to hand out pointers on some very basic things that 
you need to be able to do.  Just because I say basic doesn't necessarily 
mean obvious, though.  For many of the sections in Scenario Data, I will be 
giving basic uses of how to use a particular command, how to actually use 
each command, and some more complex uses of each command.  Also, the Game 
Info section will not be covered in this part.  Don't worry, though; it's 
just like the system one, except shorter.  All you need to keep in mind 
about it is that you want the scenario name you type in there to match the 
one you typed in for scenario name in System Data's Game Info,  Now, on to 
the basic scenario/event commands.

First, you'll enter the event screen to find all the dungeons you have 
created so far.  Pick one to begin placing events in that dungeon.  Now, I 
want you to press Triangle.  Along with your basic Cut, Copy, and Paste 
commands, you'll see Start Point.  You can (logically) only place one Start 
Point per scenario.  This is where the start party (set in system data) will 
begin the game, or, if you make multiple scenarios, the given scenario.  As 
soon as you place one Start Point, the old one is removed.  Also, you need 
to know that Cut is the only way to remove events that you no longer want 
from a dungeon.  There is no delete button for events.

Now, on to actually entering the event screen.  First, press X somewhere on 
the screen where there is no event (I'm assuming there probably aren't any, 
if you're reading this, but I have to make sure).  A menu will pop up with 
the choices of Create Event, Treasure Event, Duplicate Event, and Intro 
Event.  I shall presently digress and explain each of these commands in 
detail:

Create Event--The basic event creation command.  You'll probably use this 
one the most.  It doesn't do anything special, but all event commands are 
available here.  Denoted by a number, somewhere between 1 and 128.  You can 
place no more than 128 of any combination of events in a dungeon.

Treasure Event--An event that occurs once, and after that, does nothing.  
Though you will probably most often use it for treasures, it can be used for 
ANY one-time and one-time only event.  You set a before graphic, you set an 
after graphic.  Before the event is activated, you have the before graphic 
showing, after it's been activated, the after graphic shows.  Simple enough? 
  All event commands are available from the Treasure Event menu.  However, 
you can't set additional pages in Treasure Events, and Treasure Events can't 
be the target of Take Overs or Duplicate Events.  If you didn't understand 
that, just keep it in mind--you will soon enough.  Denoted by the letter T.

Duplicate Event--Makes inaccessible copies of an event.  Good for when you 
want to make large ranges of things do the same thing (like making a big 
poisonous marsh that deducts 3 HP from the party every time they step on 
it).  First, you pick one normal event, which we call a "base."  Really 
complex terminology, huh?  (ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!...oh, sorry, I 
just couldn't resist)  Anyway, then select the location where you want the 
base to be duplicated.  Poof!  That's it.  Now, any time you modify the 
base, all the duplicates will be modified automatically.  The only other 
things you need to know about Duplicate Events is that they can't be the 
targets of Take Overs or other Duplicate Events.  Denoted by the letter D.

Intro Event--These are events that occur automatically when a player enters 
the screen.  You are limited to only one of these per dungeon.  Many 
commands are disabled from this screen.  Basically, everything works exactly 
like a normal event other than that and the fact that it doesn't use a 
graphic.  You can put down multiple pages, page conditions, etc.  Since 
Intro Events don't appear on the map, they obviously cannot be the targets 
of Take Overs or Duplicate Events.  The only way to access the Intro is to 
find a spot without an event on it and come to this command from the menu.

Now, let's head back to the basics of creating an event.  Pick Create Event 
from the menu and you will see something like this:

Event No 1     Page 1/1    MEM

Event Contents:
Graphic:
Move:
Start:

Page Conditions:
   -
   -
   -
   -
   -
   -

Now, first of all, I want you to hit Triangle.  Another menu pops up.  
Several commands on here should be familiar to you, but you'll also see "Add 
Page (front)" and "Add Page (back)."  Picking Add Page (front) will 
basically take whatever you have on the current page and push it up one 
page.  A blank page will take its place.  Also, you'll notice pages have 
changed from 1 to 2 at the top of the menu.  If you pick Add Page (back), a 
page is added to the end of the set of pages which you have.  Basically, 
you're just adding a page without disturbing the others that are already 
being used.  Keep in mind that events start by trying to activate the page 
with the highest number, and then descend from there (example: When the 
player starts the 4 page event you create, first, the game will try to 
activate page 4, then 3, etc.).  This will be very important when we start 
to talk about page conditions.  Remember it!  That's all I really wanted to 
tell you about the menu under Triangle.  Now, back to the screen I showed 
you above.

Here is a list of what everything means in the menu I showed you above:

Event No--The Event Number you're in.  Not really to important to remember 
except for Take Over events.  You can also see this on the outside of the 
event (the number that's inside the box).

Page x/x--The current page you're on/the total number of pages.

MEM--Don't worry about this one.  It just shows how much memory is left in 
the dungeon you're putting events in.

Event Contents--Press this to get into the event creation menu.  If it 
displays none, you haven't put anything in the event yet.  If it displays 
yes, then it does have stuff in it.

Graphic--You've got a bunch of choices here.  Let me list and explain them:

Character--Pick one of the 68 characters.

Object--Pick one of the 129 objects available for events.

Color--Pick one of the 4 color sets available for the character or object.

Face (direction)--Select this until the character is facing the direction 
you want him to.  Objects cannot be made to face a direction.

Ghost--Makes the character or object transparent.

No Graphic--I wonder what this does?

Now, back to the other stuff on the main menu:

Move--Most of these are pretty obvious.  This is how the event moves.  
You're probably going to be using this for characters most of the time.  The 
only thing worth explaining here is the "Flashing" choice.  This is where 
the event just stands where you place it and flashes.  I, personally, have 
never used it.

Start:  How the player activates the event.  The first part is what action 
the player must take to activate it.  Touch and Check are probably your most 
common choices.  Use Key and Use Item force the player to go into his 
inventory and pick the appropriate item to activate the event.  Do Not Start 
is primarily used for stuff activated through a Take Over.  Again, if you 
don't understand what I'm talking about, just wait; you will.  The second 
part is just the direction the player can activate the event from.  I'm not 
going to list the choices here, as they are quite obvious.

Page Conditions:  Here's a biggie.  Page conditions are things that must be 
fulfilled in order for an event to activate.  You cannot set page conditions 
for the first page of an event, but every other page is fair game.  Your 
choices for page conditions are:

Switch--Pick what switch has to be on or off for the page to activate.  I'll 
explain switching in great detail later.

Character--Used if a certain character needs to be in the party or can't be 
in the party for the page to activate.

Item--Used if the player has to have an item or can't have an item for the 
page to activate.

Gold--Used if the player has to have less than the entered amount or more 
than the entered amount of gold for the page to activate.

Party--Used if the player has to have a particular number of members in his 
party for the page to activate.  Specified means the player must have that 
number of members in his party, other means the player must have a number of 
members in the party other than the one listed.

System--Whether or not a certain Game System (those will be explained later 
on in the appropriate event command) must be on or off for the page to 
activate.

Now, even though you may not understand everything I'm about to type here, 
I'm going to give an example of a famous event that involves page 
conditions.  This is also a good time to tell you how I'm going to give 
examples.  In an example, I will list the menu just like it was when I 
introduced it to you.  Below the menu, you will see numbers like this:

00:
01:
02:

These represent event contents.  After the numbers, different event commands 
will posted, like this:

00:Display Message:

Anything that follows the event command (the event command in this case is 
Display Message) will be either a sub-command a message.  Note that what I 
type will not necessarily be what you see on your RPG Maker screen. So, you 
can end up with something like this:

00:Display Message:Message 1:(This is the example text.)

What you see in parentheses is an actual message that will be displayed.  
Now, on to the Page Conditions example.  Remember, if you don't know what 
each command does, don't worry.  Now, without further ado, the page 
conditions example:

The Event 1   Page 1/2
Event Contents: Yes
Graphic: (Aeris custom sprite)
Start: Check
       From All

Page Conditions: None

00:Display Message:Normal:(Flower Girl:  Well, I'd sell you some flowers, 
but it looks like you're broke.)

The Event 1   Page 2/2
Event Contents: Yes
Graphic:(Aeris custom sprite)
Start: Check
       From All

Page Conditions: Have 1 Gil

00:Display Message:Normal:(Flower Girl:  Would you like to buy a flower?  
They're only 1 gil.)
01:2 Way Choice:Yes/No
02:Gil -1
03:Add item:Flower
04:Display Message:Normal:(Flower Girl:  Thanks a lot!)
05:Choice 2
06:Display Message:Normal:(Flower Girl:  I'm sorry to hear that...)

Well, even if you didn't understand everything I just put down, what happens 
is if you approach the flower girl and have no Gil, she won't offer her 
flowers to you.  If you do, it's your choice whether or not to buy the 
flowers.  What you have to keep in mind is that RPG Maker is "stupid", that 
is, it will "remove" items even if you don't have them.  Thus, if a player 
has to give up an item to do something, you need a page condition for him 
having the item.  If the player doesn't have the item and he activates the 
event, and you forgot page conditions, the event will go right through 
without a hitch, except the player didn't have to actually possess the item 
to get through.  This can be a huge problem.  Also, the game will not remove 
equipped items.  I'll explain later how you can force the player to unequip 
items.  Now, on to the event commands.

First of all, you should know that there are 27 event commands.  You access 
the command screen by pressing X over the first empty slot (labeled 00) in 
event contents.  I know you only see 9 now, but if you press left and right 
on the controller, you'll be able to find the other 18.  Also, you should 
know that there is a cut, copy, and paste for commands.  It's under another 
menu you have to press Triangle to get to.  Once again, cutting is the only 
way to delete unwanted event lines.  Now, on to the actual commands:

1: Display Message

Basic Uses--This is tied for the command you will probably use the most 
along with Move Location.  It (obviously) displays all your messages.  You 
are presented with a sub-menu of wonderful message types to choose from.  
Here are your choices and what they do:

Normal--Box appears at bottom of screen, message is displayed.  You can put 
up to 12 pages of text in one normal message command.  Note that what RPG 
Maker considers a page differs greatly from what a computer considers a 
page.  You don't need to use separate normal message events to signify 
dialogue.  You'll use simple RPG style text, like this:

(Text page 1)

Bob:  WHAASSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPP!

(Text page 2)

Tom:  WHAASSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPPPPP!

As you can see in the bizarre example above, you can put more than one 
character speaking in the same event.  If you press L1 when typing in text, 
then press down one more time than it takes to be at the bottom line, you'll 
automatically be advanced to the next page of text.  If you string multiple 
normal message events together, it'll all look like the same set of text 
boxes, so really, you have an unlimited amount of pages.

Main Character--A little bubble appears above the main character's head with 
the message.  The major drawback of this message type is that you can only 
fit 12 characters into the tiny space it gives you.  Pretty useless except 
for famous messages like "...", "!!!", "???", or "Zzzzzz..."

Event--Same as main character, just over the event point instead.

Message 1--The message scrolls up from the bottom of the screen.  You, 
again, are restored to 12 pages of text.  Breaks between this message type 
(when you enter 2 message 1 commands together) are characterized by long 
spaces of many lines.

Message 2--Works the same way as a normal message, but displays the message 
in a black box in the middle of the screen.

Now, back out of the sub-menu, sort of...

How do I use it?--Well, it's pretty obvious, ain't it?  Select Display 
Message, pick the message type, choose Enter Message, and enter the message. 
  That wasn't so painful, was it?  Well, if you had trouble with this, I 
advise you seek help immediately.

Complex Uses--None.  It's a freakin' message!  What did you expect?

2: Move Location

Basic Uses--This is also a pretty simple concept.  In fact, it's easier than 
display message.  All it does is moves the party to a different place.

How do I use it?--Pick either dungeon or field.  If you pick dungeon, you'll 
be prompted for a dungeon to move to.  After you pick the dungeon, you'll be 
prompted for a location to move to in the dungeon.  Pick the location and 
you're done.  If you pick field, you'll be prompted for a field map, and 
then you'll be prompted for a town on that field.  Pick those things and 
you're done.  You need to make sure you don't place anything that you want 
to work after a Move Location, though; everything after a Move Location is 
ignored.

Complex Uses--Move Location isn't just for moving the party through a 
dungeon, it's for ANY time you opt for a change of venue.  This includes 
flashback scenes, dreams, events occurring in the mysterious time known as 
"Meanwhile...", etc.  If cleverly used with things like making the party 
disappear, Intro Events, etc., you can make the things I listed above.

3: Take Over

Basic Uses--This makes one event lead into another event.  That's it.  When 
an event reaches a Take Over, it just starts executing the event you tell it 
to move to.  The instruction book makes it sound like some sort of 
hellacious process, but it's not.

How do I use it?--When you make a Take Over, you'll be prompted for the 
event and page you want the Take Over to move to.  Pick it and you're done.  
Quite simple, actually.  Know, however, that everything after a Take Over is 
ignored, and a Take Over ignores page conditions.  Say I make a Take Over 
the moves to a page with a condition of having an Ice Crystal.  The game 
will NOT check to see if I have it or not, if the event with the condition 
starts from a Take Over.  Don't Take Over to places with page conditions, 
kids.  It just won't work.

Complex Uses--Well, there aren't really any.  A Take Over is a pretty boring 
event command, actually.

4: 2 Way Choice

Basic Uses--Anytime you want a question with 2 choices answered, here's your 
pick.  There's a sub-menu to go with this one, too.  Here are the choices: 
and explanations:

Yes/No--The player picks either yes or no.  No maybe, no 
sometimes-always-never, just yes or no.

2 Messages--You enter the two choices the player has to choose from.  You 
enter the first choice on the first line of text and the second on the 
second line.  Simple enough?  Use it for stuff like, "There are guards at 
the door.  What will you do?"  and make the choices "Break through" or "Look 
for another way."

Probability--One of the most fun things to use, if you know how to use it 
properly.  You'll be prompted for a percentage.  The percentage you enter is 
the chance that choice 2 (NOT 1) will occur.  I'll explain some of the more 
complex uses a little later.

Win/Loss--You need to use this right after a battle event.  If the player 
wins, choice 1 will occur.  If the player loses, choice 2 will occur.  Note 
that a loss in a battle with this afterwards doesn't cause a Game Over.

How do I use it?--Well, there's not a whole lot to explain about selecting 
one of the options, but I'll give you an example of how to set it up in an 
event screen:

Event 1  Page 1/1
Event Contents: Yes
Graphic: (some guy)
Start: Check
       From All

Page Conditions: None

00:Display Message:Normal:(Do you think I'm cool?)
01:2 way choice:Yes/No
02:Display Message:Normal:(Hahaha, I know I am.)
03:Choice 2
04:Display Message:Normal:(You suck!  I hate you!)

The two major things you should have noticed were the placements of events 
that occur after each choice, and the Choice 2 thing that popped up. I'm 
going to explain the latter of the two first.  Choice 2 appears 
automatically after you pick 2 Way Choice.  Now, for the prior.  Whatever 
you want to occur after choice 1 (Yes, in this case), you put directly under 
the 2 Way Choice command.  Whatever you want to have occur after choice 2 
(No), you'll put under the choice 2 command.

Complex Uses--If you use 2 way choices with switches, you can make the 
choice occur only once, and from there, can change the entire direction of 
the plot by activating a switch after each choice.  Also, you can do really 
neat things with probability.  You can use probability to make casino games 
and other cool things if you're really creative.  I've used it to make a 
pickpocketing system.  If you've played Parasite Eve, you should know that 
most chests had a 90% chance of giving you a "normal" item, and a 10% chance 
of getting a "good" item.  You can do that with probability, too.

5: 3 Way Choice

Basic Uses--It's a 2 way choice plus 1.  The main difference is the fact 
that you can only select 3 messages and Probability from the sub-menu.  I'm 
not going to explain this any further since it works exactly like a 2 way 
choice with 1 more choice.

6: Switching

Basic Uses--Stop it!  Don't cover your eyes!  Read this!  Really, it's not 
as bad as it sounds.  Again, this is a case of the instruction booklet 
overcomplicating something.  All a switch is is a thing in the game that 
shows you've done something.  It's either used to make things appear or 
disappear (including areas), or simply as a page condition.  If you want to, 
imagine switches as items in your inventory that do absolutely nothing.

How do I use it?--The sub-menu for switches is surprisingly simple.  All you 
have to do is pick whether you're turning switches on or off, and what 
switches you're affecting.  For some reason, I've seen people assume that a 
switch number has something to do with an event number.  THEY HAVE NOTHING 
TO DO WITH EACH OTHER!!!  Erase the thought from your mind completely.  Now, 
I'm going to give an example of switching.  The scenario I'm creating will 
be that king wants you to slay a dragon, and then, after you slay the 
dragon, he will give you some other quest in a distant land.  I'm going to 
show how to make the switch make the dragon vanish forever, the king say 
something different, and how to open up a town and path on the field with a 
switch.  Note that the events I create will both be labeled as 1 (since the 
2 events would be in different areas), but I will specify which is which by 
putting (king) by one and (dragon) by the other.  Now, the example:

Event 1 (king), Page 1/3
Event Contents: Yes
Graphic: (king)
Start: Check
       From All

Page Conditions: None

00:Display Message:Normal:(Please slay the vicious dragon which is 
terrorizing my kingdom!)

Event 1 (dragon), Page 1/2
Event Contents: None
Graphic: No Graphic
Start: (doesn't matter, since there are no contents)

Page Conditions: None

Event 1 (dragon), Page 2/2
Event Contents: Yes
Graphic: (dragon)
Start: Check
       From All

Page Conditions: Switch 029 off

00:(roaring sound effect)
01:Battle (fight with the dragon)
02:Change Event Graphic:No Graphic
03:Switch 029 on

Event 1 (king), Page 2/3
Event Contents: Yes
Graphic: (king)
Start: Check
       From All

Page Conditions: Switch 029 on

00:Display Message:Normal:(Good job defeating the dragon!  Now I want you to 
kill the Unicorn in the Distant Land.)
01:Switch 030 on

Event 1 (king), Page 3/3
Event Contents: Yes
Graphic: (king)
Start: Check
       From All

Page Conditions:Switch 030 on

00:Display Message:Normal:(Hurry up and kill the Unicorn!)

Now, I'll go WAY back to system data and create an area called Distant Land 
on the field map.  Assume that I already created the Castle and Dragon Cave 
(though the Dragon Cave isn't important at this point).  I explained this 
when explaining the field map, but I'll tell you about the important part 
again, since it has to do with switching.  When you create "Distant Land", 
it'll prompt you for, among other things, "Appear."  If you set "Appear: 
Switch 030 on", "Distant Land" won't appear until after you've slain the 
dragon and talked to the king.  Now, create a path as usual from the Castle 
to the Distant Land.  Set "Appear: Switch 030 on" and "Move: Always."  Now, 
the scenario will play out like this:  If you talk to the king before 
slaying the dragon, he'll say what's on his first page.  Go to the Dragon 
Cave and slay the dragon, and the dragon will never reappear due to switch 
029 being turned on.  Also due to the switch, if you go back and talk to the 
king, he'll say what's in his second page of contents.  Talking to him also 
turns switch 030 on.  Talk to him again, and you'll get a different message, 
the one that's in his third page.  Switch 030 did this, as well as opened up 
"Distant Land", and the path to it from the Castle.  This may have been a 
lot of writing, but the concept is actually very simple.  Also, if you think 
you're going to use a lot of switches, I'd advise you keep a notebook of 
what switches are activated when.  If you or someone else finds a problem 
with a switch somewhere, you can find the source very quickly as long as you 
have a notebook of switches.  If not, things can get very messy, very fast.  
You're also much more likely to lose track of what switches you have and 
haven't used if you use a notebook.  Final note:  The max limit on switches 
is 500, but don't worry about exceeding it anytime soon.

Complex Uses:  There are a ton if you become really good with it.  You can 
even make your own battle systems if you use them right, but such things are 
VERY complex, and take hours to do.  If you want to make a new battle 
system, go right ahead; it'll probably make you and your game very popular, 
verging on famous.  A simpler complex thing (that sounds weird, doesn't it?) 
you can do is this: make townspeople say different things after you talk 
them.  To give them, like, 4 different things to say, have the first page 
turn on switch 001, the second page turns switch 002 on and has a condition 
of switch 001 being on, etc., until you get to the last page, at which point 
you turn all those switches off.  This is also the kind of thing that will 
burn your switches up like mad, but go ahead and use if it you're not going 
to have a bunch of townspeople.

7: Change Screen

Basic Uses--Change Screen is used when you want anything the screen to 
change colors or move.  Pretty self-explanatory, no?  There are sub-options, 
of course, for what kinds of changes you want to occur.  Here they are, and 
what each one does:

Shift Screen--You can make the screen move up to 65 spaces in any direction. 
  Note that the screen will not shift back unless you use the next command.

Default Screen--Moves the screen back after a shift.

Flash Screen--Quickly flash a bright light on the screen.  Good for several 
things when combined with sound effects, such as flash lightning and a 
character getting hit.

Swing Screen--Moves the screen back and forth a couple of times.  Primarily 
used with sound effects to generate an earthquake effect.

Change Color--The color of the screen is changed to the one you specify by 
your modifications of the Red, Green, and Blue present.  This has myriad  
uses, including used for fires, flashbacks, darkness, etc.  The screen stays 
like this until you use the next command.  You also have the choice of just 
changing certain elements:  You can change only Character Color, Only Map 
Color, only Event Color, or any combination of the above.  (NOTE:  I'm not 
perfectly sure about the names of the options, but I know they pretty well 
have the effects they imply.)

Default Color--Restores the color to Red 16, Blue 16, Green 16.

How do I use it?--You pick the command and one of the sub-options.  With 
Shift Screen, you pick the number of spaces the screen will move and the 
direction it will move in.  With Change Color, you modify the amounts of 
Red, Green, and Blue in the screen to get the color the way you want it.

Complex Uses--Change color can be used to make characters "blush" if you 
change only character (or event, in the case of another person) color 
without changing any of the others.  Think about other ways change color can 
be used inventively.  There are plenty out there.

8: Inventory

Basic Uses--You use this to add or subtract Gold or items from the player's 
inventory.  Generally, you'll use it for treasure boxes.

How do I use it?--This is yet another very simple command.  You choose 
either Add Item, Remove Item, or Gold.  The first two are pretty self 
explanatory.  When you want to add Gold to the player's inventory, pick Gold 
and a positive number.  When you want to remove it, pick Gold and a negative 
number.  The main the to keep in mind here is that you can't remove equipped 
items from a player's inventory.  There is, however, a way to get around 
this...I'll explain that down with the Game System command.

Complex Uses--With a few other commands, you can use the inventory commands 
and page conditions to create a blacksmithing system, or your own unique 
shop system.  These kinds of things can add A LOT to a game.

9: Wait

Basic Uses--I'm gonna explain everything here, as it is the simplest command 
to explain.  All it is is a period of time where the controller is disabled, 
somewhere between 0.1 seconds and 24-ish (I think 24.6) seconds.  You simply 
use it for pauses, moments of silence if you will.

10: Event Status

Basic Uses--Event Status is used simply to do something to the event you're 
using.  There's a bunch of sub-commands for this one.  Here they all are:

Event Direction--The direction you want the event to turn at any given time.

Move Event--Move the event any direction, a certain number of spaces.

Move to Point--Move the event to any given point.  Note, however, that the 
game will not pay any attention to the path taken to the point, so even if 
the character will be walking through an object, the game will allow it.

Flashing Event--Make an event flash for a specified amount of time.  Good 
for killing off characters or for transformation.

Turn Right--The event makes a full 360 degree turn, starting by turning 
right.  Often, this is used to represent dancing.

Turn Left--The same as above, just beginning by going left.

Change Event Graphic--Changes the event graphic temporarily.  I'm pretty 
sure the duration of this change, however, is only as long as you're still 
in the specified event.  The graphic will return to normal after the event 
plays out if you don't use a switch or something similar.

Unable to execute--Prevents the player from activating the event as long as 
he is in a particular room.  The event will reset, however, after the player 
exits and re-enters the room.

How do I use it?--Using this command is very simple--just pick a sub-option 
and go.  A few of them require you to specify things, but they're 
self-explanatory.

Complex Uses--Unable to execute is also an excellent thing to use in a 
non-random battle system.  Just stick this at the end of each battle, and 
enemies won't regenerate until the player leaves the room.

11: Party Display

Basic Uses--Party Display is used whenever you want to change how a party 
member or the entire party looks.  As usual, there are sub-commands.  Here 
they are:

Disappear--Makes the entire party disappear.  This doesn't stop until you 
use Default.

Ghost--Makes the party transparent.  Again, this doesn't wear off until you 
use Default.

Default--Removes the effects of the rest of the Party Display commands,

Flashing--Works just like "Flashing Event" in Event Status.

Main Character--Changes the graphic of a particular character in the party 
(not just the one in the lead).  I'm not sure if Default restores the 
character to his default graphic, as I have never used the command.

How do I use it?--Again, just pick a sub-command and go.  Very simple, 
really.

Complex Uses--Use Disappear in conjunction with several other things to make 
a cut-scene where the main party isn't involved.  Main Character can be used 
for a point when a party member changes skill (as long as it's not in a 
skill shop--at least, a skill shop in the normal sense).  If you played FF4, 
think of the point where Cecil (SPOILER, for those who haven't played it) 
changes from a Dark Knight to a Paladin, minus the level drop.

12: Party Members

Basic Uses--Generally used for changing party members.  That's really just 
about it.

How do I use it?--You'll be presented with a very simple sub-menu when you 
select the command.  Add and remove characters do just that, but, if you 
remove a character and then add him, he'll come into the party just like he 
had for the first time.  If you use Change Whole Party, on the other hand, 
you can make it to where the character will come back just like you left 
him.  That said, the only thing left to explain is Move to Front, which 
simply moves the specified character to the front of the party.

Complex Uses--Change Whole Party can be used in conjunction with some other 
commands to make a place where you can change party members, thus allowing 
you to have more than 4 members in the party (but not the ACTIVE party, just 
the party in general).  Don't ask me how to do this, however.  I've never 
used a party-changing room.

13: Move Party

Basic Uses--Guess what?  This command moves the party in some way, shape, or 
form.  Here's the sub-commands:

Character Direction--Makes the lead character (and ONLY the lead character) 
change directions.

Move Party--Move the party x number of spaces in a given direction.

Move Party to Point--Works just like Move to Point in Event Status.  The 
same warning goes with this, too.

Gather Party Members--Brings all the characters up to the tile the lead 
character is standing on.  This is almost utterly worthless, as it lasts 
only as long as the player doesn't move the characters.

How do I use it?--As is becoming habitual by now, just pick a sub-command 
and go.  Most of these will ask you to specify some self-explanatory things 
again.  Of course, since they're self-explanatory, I won't explain.

Complex Uses--There aren't any.  After all, it is just movement.

14: Party Status

Basic Uses--Allows you to modify the physical status (i.e. NOT stuff like 
Strength, just temporary things) of the entire party.

How do I use it?--Here's another self-explanatory sub-menu.  Your options 
are Poison, Paralyze, Petrify, Restore Status, HP, MP, and Increase EXP.  
Anybody care to take a stab at what each does?  All you really need to know 
is that you can increase or decrease HP and MP through their respective 
commands by setting positive or negative numbers.  Oh, yeah, and keep in 
mind that if you give a character enough experience to level up through 
Increase Experience, the character will still have to fight in and survive 
another battle before he actually does.

Complex Uses--The HP, MP, and Restore Status commands can allow you to 
develop a Tent-type item that can only be used at save points if you use a 3 
way choice and some page conditions.  If you want to know how to do this, 
you can always email me.  It's somewhat lengthy, so I can't fully explain it 
here.

15: Character Status

Basic Uses--THIS is how you modify permanent stats, such as strength.  There 
are also a few other things you can do in this menu.  Here are the 
sub-commands:

Learn Magic--This gives a certain character a certain spell OR S ATK.  
Unlike the name implies, it can be used for both.

Change Skill--Changes the skill of a given character.

Remove Equip--Takes ALL the equipment off a specified character.  Good for 
when characters leave the party, but you don't want them to take their 
equipment with them.

Change STR, DEF, etc.--Changes the stat you pick, up or down, by the amount 
you put in.

How do I use it?--Surprise!  This, too, is fiendishly simple.  Just follow 
the self-explanatory sub-menus.  It's amazing that a game with such a hard 
manual to understand has such simple sub-menus, isn't it?

Complex Uses--There are tons of them.  Learn Magic can be used to make a 
system where characters gain magic ONLY by doing things, and not by leveling 
up.  With page conditions and Remove Item, you can make an enemy skills 
system similar to FF8's.  The stat-changing commands allow you to make a 
non-random battle system where levels are irrelevant, and characters gain 
random stat-ups after a battle when used in conjunction with several 2 and 3 
Way Choices.  There are plenty more, I just can't list them all here.

16: BGM

Basic Uses--Changes the game's music in some way.  This is a simple and 
usually infrequently used command.

How do I use it?--From the sub-menu you get when you select the command, you 
can change the track that's playing, the volume of the music, the tempo, and 
the reverb.  This is really quite a boring command.

Complex Uses--There are none.

17: Sound Effect

Basic Uses--Well, you just place a sound effect somewhere in the game.  
La-dee-frickin'-da.

How do I use it?--You pick one of the 78 sound effects, then you pick one of 
the 19 pitches for it.  Wow, that was painless.

Complex Uses--On occasion, people have actually been known to compose songs 
entirely out of sound effects when they use them in conjunction with Wait.  
Keep in mind, though, that you can't have anything happen while a song is 
going on if you made it with sound effects, and songs usually take several 
hours to compose.

18: Shop

Basic Uses--Unless you intend to create a custom shop system, this is what 
you'll be using for all your shops and inns in the game.  Here's a listing 
of the shop types, and what each one does:

Inn--Set an amount of Gold the player has to stay to spend the night.  
That's all there is to it.  The game even has a couple of default messages 
programmed into it that'll be used when you use Inn.  Inns, however, will 
not restore the party's status, so if you want that, you'll have to add it 
in as a separate command.

Item--Used to sell any items you created.  This includes weapons, armor, and 
anything else you've made.  Sadly, there are no default messages for this or 
any shop that follows.

Skill--Shops that allow the characters to change skills.

Trade--I've never seen this used, and I've never seen a reason to use it.  I 
may be wrong (since I've never used it), but the way I understand it, it's 
basically like selling items and then turning around and buying some, with a 
few exceptions.  First, you never actually get the Gold for "selling" the 
items.  Secondly, since you never get the Gold, you don't get change if you 
go over the price.  Finally, you can't exchange the same items.  If this 
seems to complex, don't use it.  Even if it doesn't, still, I wouldn't use 
it.

How do I use it?--As usual, all the real explanation was in the sub-command 
list.  The menus themselves are very easy to operate.  All you need to know 
is that you cannot set more than eight items for sale in a given shop.

Complex Uses--About the only complex use with this is using it in 
conjunction with a 2 or 3 Way Choice.  You can have one guy have separate 
shops for everything.  That's really not THAT complex.

19: Battle

Basic Uses--This is used any time you want an event-induced battle, like 
talking to some angry townsperson.  Also, this is used for bosses.

How do I use it?--You'll select the monsters you want in the battle and the 
battle's BGM.  If you want the battle to end after a certain number of 
turns, you have an option to do so.  When you select Battle Till End, you'll 
also find that you have the choice of ending the battle of x turns.  This 
isn't all that useful, but it can be used on occasion.  Note that the player 
cannot run from event-induced battles, and he can't view an enemy's stats in 
an event-induced battle via magic or items.

Complex Uses--Again, there are none.  It is what it says, nothing more.

20: Game System

Basic Uses--This is used to change something major about how a game works.   
  Here are the sub-commands:

Magic--Turn the use of Magic on or off.  Sadly, there's no command like this 
for physical attacks, so you can't make places like the Fanatics' Tower in 
FF6.

Level--Turn the gain of EXP on or off.  This is pretty well worthless.

Equip--In this command, you're given a list of parts of the body to shut 
equipment off for.  This is most useful when using a blacksmithing system.  
I'll go into more detail in Complex Uses.

Skill--Turn the ability to acquire skills on or off.  Again, quite useless.

Gold--Turn the ability to acquire Gold on or off.  Do things get more 
worthless?

Monster--Finally, something useful.  This command will allow you to turn 
random encounters on and off.  This is great for places that you make safe 
for travel, like clearing a path for a village.

How do I use it?--It usually isn't using it that's tricky, it's remembering 
to turn a given system back on that can be confusing.  At the entrance to 
the dungeon, there should be an intro event to turn a system off.  At all 
exits, there should be a Game System on event to counteract this effect.  
For example, if you turned monsters off at the beginning of a dungeon, you 
should have an event that looks like this at the every possible exit point:

Event 1, Page 1/1
Event Contents: Yes
Graphic: No Graphic
Start: Touch
       From All

00:Game System:Monster:On
01:Move Location:Field:Wherever

Understand?  If not, you probably won't use Game Systems in your first game, 
so don't worry.

Complex Uses--One of the best uses for Game System is in a blacksmithing 
system.  There's always the hassle of trying to find a sure-fire way of 
getting an item out of the player's inventory.  Since you can't remove 
equipped items, you have to make sure the player doesn't have the item 
equipped.  This is how you do it:  In a blacksmithing event, make sure to 
turn the appropriate part of the body off (Head for helmets, both arms for 
weapons or shields, etc.).  Immediately after, remove the item from the 
player's inventory.  Finally, before the event ends, turn the systems that 
you just turned off back on.  This will unequip a certain part of the body.  
Don't forget to remind the player you unequipped that part of the body!

21: Effect

Basic Uses--Just creates a special effect on screen.  Optionally, you can 
use a sound effect with it.

How do I use it?--Well, you designate the effect type (which is defaultly 
Explosion), then the location of the effect (defaultly Main Character) and 
finally the sound effect for the effect.  Finally, hit preview to see what 
the effect will look and sound like.

Complex Uses--There aren't any.

22: Display Title

I REALLY hope I don't need to explain this.  All it does is displays the 
title you made in system data.  Thus, I shall go no further in my 
explanation.

23: Ending

Basic Uses--You use it to either roll the credits, or to take snapshots for 
the credits.

How do I use it?--Well, you just pick ending or snapshot.  Ending...ends the 
game.  Snapshot will basically take a picture of wherever you put it and 
show the pictures during the credits.  You can take up to 20 snapshots for 
the credits.  During a Test Play, a flash and camera sound will occur when 
there is a snapshot taken.  Note that this will NOT occur during the normal 
game.

Complex Uses--There are none, at least, not directly for this command.  
However, you should know that you can make your own credits (usually using 
message 1) so you can put stuff after the credits.  Nothing will work after 
the normal ending command, so make your own credits if you want something 
special to happen after the credits.

24: Prohibit Escape

Just like Display Title, this only needs a little explanation.  All this 
does is prevent escape magic or items from being used in a dungeon.  When 
the player leaves the dungeon (Remember:  Dungeon means room in RPG Maker 
terms.  Don't forget that!) he will be able to use escape magic/items again, 
so there is no "Turn Escape On" command.

25: Save Point

I love these simple explanations, don't you?  This takes the player into the 
memory card screen so he can save his game.  That's it.

26: Next Scenario

Basic Uses--Well, you probably won't be using this command any time soon if 
you're new to RPG Maker, but it allows you to make a game that spans several 
memory cards.  Though you are limited in the amount of System Data you can 
make, Scenario Data is unlimited.

How do I use it?--Just enter the name of the next scenario.  Don't make any 
mistakes!  Also, just like on a disc change, you should warn the player of a 
scenario change.  Put a message that says something like, "Insert memory 
card with Scenario Data B, (Title of Scenario), on it now. (Press X when 
ready.)"

Complex Uses--The Scenario Name appears in the middle-right (sorry, that's 
the best way I can explain it.) part of a save file.  If you have many 
one-block scenarios, you can make "Chapters", like Chrono Trigger had.  Each 
part of the game can have a different name.  I've never seen anyone do this, 
however, so be warned that not everyone may react positively to such a 
change.

27: Exit Event

Ah, the mystery command.  No one on the face of the planet has found a use 
for this thing yet, so if you find one, email it to me.

Well, I hope you understand things a bit better now.  This FAQ should be 
enough to get you well on your way to learning how to make your first RPG.  
Keep it by your side as you make your first game, and use it often.  If you 
have any questions that aren't answered here, email me at 
diasflac84@hotmail.com.  You can send comments there, too, if this thing 
really helps you.  Come visit me and my fellow RPG Makers at the GameFAQs 
board for RPG Maker (www.gamefaqs.com).  Just type "RPG Maker" into the 
search box at the left of the webpage and click on "Board" once you find it. 
  Have fun with RPG Maker!


A WORD BY KURO MADOUSHI

 Dias Flac is a veteran member of the RPG Maker message board at GameFAQs, 
 unarguably the most popular person there. For quite some time, he has been
 there, making intelligent posts and offering help to newbies. Due to his vast
 knowledge of RPG Maker, many people on the board, including myself and other
 friends, wanted Dias to make a FAQ. Well, he finally did it.

 I have a little experience writing mediocre FAQs and biased reviews, but I
 offered to format the guide for him, and being the kind person that he is, 
 he gladly let me. Here in this little section he let me make, I want to 
 honor him very much. Let's all give him a weird, individual round of 
 applause. 

 This document is copyright 2001 by Jerrod Peach. All rights reserved.

 

 

 









