Creating a main character and party in RPG MAKER WITH is key to shaping your game. The main character guides the story, while party members add variety and depth. Learn how to customize characters and set your starting party.

Creating Your Main Character and Party Members

Building Custom Characters Shape Your Game’s Identity

Custom characters give your game and players a sense of originality. Characters shape the core of the game's story, whether they're available at the start or introduced later as recruits.

Creating a Main Character and a Party can be done using the Database, which is accessible from the Editor Submenu. In this article, we will make two characters: One from scratch, and another based on an existing character preset. We will then turn these characters into party members.

How to Create a New Character

Add New Characters Through the Database

1	To create a character, press the ZL Button and select Go to Database. The Database Edit Screen will appear.
2	Select Actors. The Actor List contains 8 default characters, complete with Classes, Walking Characters, and Battler sprites that you can customize on your own or use as is.
3	For now, let's add a new character. To do this, select the + Icon and input how many characters to add.
4	Select the empty character slot and set the changes. For our main character, we used the image and sprites from the Actor 2 folder. We also added a name and a nickname and set his class to Magic Swordsman.
5	After you're done with Basic Settings, go to Initial Equip. In this Menu, you can change the starting equipment of a character. We'd like our main character to gain better equipment during the adventure so we'll leave this on default for now.
6	If you want to add special traits to your character, go to the Traits menu and select the plus icon. Here, we can set Skills, Equipment, Attack, and other Parameters for our character. We'll leave these settings at default for now.

How to Copy and Paste Characters

1	For our second character, we're going to copy and edit an existing character template. For this example, we are going to choose Gordon from the Actor List. To copy the character template, press the ZL Button and select Copy.
2	Move to the empty character slot, press the ZL Button again and select Paste.
3	You can now start adding in the changes. For this example, we changed the name, nickname, character image, and sprites but retained the class. We named him "Rustyn."

How to Set Characters as Party Members

Add Characters to the Starting Party Through the Database

1	Now that we have Gran as our main character, we are now going to set his starting party members.
2	From Database Edit, select System, then select Starting Party and select the plus icon.
3	Up to 3 party members can be selected or created to accompany your main character. In this example, we have already created one Swordsman character to stand with our main character so we'll select Alfred, who is a Priest, and Kiara the Sorcerer.
4	Once the selections are done, Press the X Button and select OK. Your main character and party members are now set.

Tips on Creating Custom Characters

Add Character Backstories

Make your characters stand out by customizing their looks, personality, and backstory. For example, a lone samurai character who carries the weight of a tragic past adds a layer of drama and intensity as a recruitable character.

Character Creation Settings Explained

Diversify Character Roles

Be imaginative while ensuring that the stats, classes, and abilities of your custom characters are well-balanced and that each character’s skills harmonize with others. For example, introducing a Monk character class can add an extra layer of versatility, blending some offensive prowess with healing capabilities.

Character Class Settings Explained

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