RPG Maker Forums

One thing I've seen time and time again on these forums is that gameplay should be used to reinforce a game's theme or overall desired 'mood', but oftentimes, that's easier said than done. A mood of childlike joy could be enhanced by simplistic skills, bright, geometric shapes, and a very user-friendly UI. A mood of gloom or despondency might have five skills just to survive the world or use grim means like fueling powers with blood or souls.


But I decided to take on a stinker of a theme: moral ambiguity, the idea that there is no clear moral/ethical answer to any one question, and that 'good' or 'evil' can often be subjective. To reflect this, I've added many more social skills than I otherwise would in a video game rpg, am using a two-axis relationship system (each faction and each NPC gives you a Love/Hate rating as well as a Comfort/Fear one, allowing for more nuanced relations with each faction), have created a lot of very detailed NPCs with motivations other than the classic Kefka-esque one of waking up and deciding to do evil stuff, am creating many different ways of 'beating' the game as well as solving individual problems, creating ambiguity within the very physics of the world, etc. This has been a helluva thing to implement within the RPGMaker framework, and has given me many a headache.


So first, I'm curious how others would change gameplay for something as difficult to define and nebulous as 'moral ambiguity'? How would you craft the imagery, the skills/spells, the story, the combat, whatever, to reinforce a theme like that?


And second, tell me about the theme/mood of one of your games where you had to change major gameplay elements in order to make the gameplay fit. How did you go about brainstorming the issue?