1. Introduction

In short: RPG Saga Engine is a framework for role-playing games in Unreal Engine 5.8: battles in several modes, characters, abilities, items, exploration, dialog, quests, saves and an enemy AI, all driven by data you author in the editor. You make a game with its tools, mostly without code or Blueprints. This chapter says what is in the box, how the plugin is organised, and how to read the rest of the manual.

1.1 Basics

1.1.1 What the plugin is

RPG Saga Engine gives you the systems a JRPG or a tactical RPG needs, and the editor tools to fill them with your own content:

• Battles in six styles that share the same party, abilities, items and rules: grid Tactics on your live map, Free Tactics (live tactics with free movement in meters), classic ATB, turn-based (by round or by timeline) and real-time Action combat, from sword fights to shooters. Each encounter names its own mode. The player never chooses it.
• Characters and growth: classes, stats and resources you define, levels, equipment, recruitable units, guests, Pacts (summons), and three growth systems (levels only, points to spend, or a growth board).
• Story and world: a global story state (flags and variables), a visual dialog editor, quests, puzzles, shops, inns, save points, maps, a clock and weather, and living NPCs.
• An adaptive enemy AI that gets smarter or makes more mistakes depending on how you play, without changing enemy stats.
• Editor tools: RPG Saga Studio (wizards for every task), the Configurator (every setting in one window), spreadsheet import and export, a battle simulator, a whole-campaign balance tool and many more.

Everything you make is ordinary Unreal data: Data Assets, Data Tables and Project Settings. You can open it, edit it, version it, import it from spreadsheets or script it.

1.1.2 Who it is for

• Designers and solo developers who would rather spend their time on the story, the characters and the world than on writing battle systems. The Studio explains every choice.
• Blueprint users who want to react to the game from their own actors and widgets. Every system has a Blueprint API in the category RPG Saga.
• Programmers and teams who want a tested, data-driven base to extend. The C++ source is included and every system has extension points (subclasses, interfaces, delegates, command handlers).

You do not need to write code to make a complete game. You need to know the Unreal editor: how to open a project, use the Content Browser, press Play and edit a Details panel.

1.1.3 The four layers of a game

The Studio organises making a game in four layers, from the bottom up. Each layer builds on the one below, and the included starter set already fills the lower ones, so you can start at any layer.

Chapter Game foundation and archetypes covers the first two layers. Later chapters cover content and world systems one by one.

1.2 How it works

1.2.1 Logic and presentation are separate

The plugin is split into modules, and the compiler enforces one rule: rules and state never depend on presentation. All game logic (battle rules, grids, pathfinding, abilities, items, AI, conditions and effects, story state, save structures) lives in a module with no actors, no widgets and no input. Because of this a battle can run headless, with no window and no rendering. The battle simulator, the balance tools and the automated tests all rely on it.

Presentation (actors, camera, input, UI, the world) sits on top and talks to the rules through events (delegates) and commands. Chapter Core concepts explains this in practice.

1.2.2 The modules

The boundaries are strict:

• RSECore never includes anything from RSE, RSEEditor or any optional module.
• The plugin never depends on a game module or on content under /Game.
• The optional bridges (RSEGAS, RSEStateTree, RSECommonUI) are inert until you use them. If you never touch them they cost nothing.

1.2.3 Where things live on disk

• Plugin content is under /RPGSagaEngine/ (turn on Content Browser → Settings → Show Plugin Content to see it): the starter data (/RPGSagaEngine/Data/...), the example map, the UI styles and more. Plugin assets are templates: the Studio never edits them in place and offers Create a copy in the project instead.
• Your content goes into your own folders, for example /Game/MyRPG. The wizards create assets only there.
• Settings are under Project Settings → RPG Saga Engine and are saved to your project's Config/DefaultGame.ini.
• Gameplay tags are defined in the plugin's Config/Tags files and in your own tag sources.

1.2.4 What the plugin turns on for you

The plugin enables the engine plugins it needs: Enhanced Input, Niagara, Animation Warping (optional), IK Rig (editor only), Online Subsystem and its utilities, Gameplay Tags Editor (editor only), and for the optional bridges Gameplay Abilities, StateTree, Gameplay StateTree and Common UI. None is Beta or Experimental. The plugin targets Windows (Win64) and Unreal Engine 5.8.

1.3 How to read this manual

The chapters go from the general to the specific.

1. Installation and your first project gets the plugin running and a playable slice open.
2. Core concepts explains the ideas every other chapter uses: data-driven content, settings, rules profiles, tags, events, saved state and validation. Read it before the system chapters.
3. Systems (foundation, characters, progression, abilities, items, battles, AI, story, exploration, world, visuals, UI, save, networking and so on) each follow the same shape. Chapter Game foundation and archetypes starts the series.
4. Reference chapters (Editor tools, Extending the plugin, Troubleshooting and FAQ, the Glossary) and four generated appendices complete the book.

Every system chapter has the same sections: Basics (the idea and a first working example using the editor), How it works, Key classes and assets, Settings, Blueprint usage, C++ usage, Advanced and Troubleshooting. If you only want to make a game, read Basics and Settings and skim the rest. If you extend the plugin, read Advanced and C++ usage.

The generated appendices are produced from the code, so they are always current:

• Appendix A: every Blueprint node, event and override;
• Appendix B: every Developer Settings class and its properties;
• Appendix C: every RSE.* console variable and command;
• Appendix D: every data asset type and its properties.

1.3.1 Conventions

• Class names are written as in the code: URSE... for objects, ARSE... for actors, FRSE... for structs, ERSE... for enums.
• Blueprint node names are written as the editor shows them, in bold or in step lists: Get Party Subsystem, Add Party Member.
• Menu paths use an arrow: Project Settings → RPG Saga Engine → Party.
• Settings are named as they appear in Project Settings, with their defaults when the default matters.

1.4 Key classes and assets

You will meet these first. Each has its own chapter.

1.5 Troubleshooting

• I cannot find a feature the manual describes. Check that you run the matching plugin version, and that the feature is not switched off in Project Settings → RPG Saga Engine → Features (see Core concepts).
• A class named here is not in my C++ project. Add the module to your Build.cs (RSECore, plus RSE for presentation classes). The optional bridges are separate modules.

1.6 See also

• Installation and your first project
• Core concepts
• Product pages: docs/product/index.md (overview), docs/product/modularity.md (using only part of the framework).