Role-Playing Game Design

Learn the fundamental design elements of a role playing game, with an emphasis on the steps a creator should take before starting to code.

Ever since their origins in pen and paper, RPGs have been gaming’s primary vehicle to tell grand stories. The genre focuses on a few key elements to engross players in a save-the-world-scope narrative. Critical to the RPG’s success is the connection between the player and their character, a bond often formed by allowing the player to customize or otherwise shape the development of their hero.


This class will survey six important factors to flesh out before beginning to actually develop an RPG: narrative and questing, character progression, the “single complicated mechanic,” the “mini game,” battle, and balance. 

Students will also engage in discussion about certain tropes important to the genre, and how to both implement them successfully and change them to create their own unique game. After discussing these concepts, students will be able to structure their own RPG game design going forward.