Good Idea?

I was considering a different (possibly already used) idea for getting a particular type of magic and possibly abilities with that being that there are teachers who 'teach' you an ability or magic for a price of a certain amount, each being different forms of currency. Is this a good idea or no? Of course not all places will be able to teach you all the abilities so no worries about anyone buying a mega-ultra ability at the beginning. Also would I need a script to do this?

You wouldn't need a script at all, it's simple eventing, using the 'Learn skill' option in the Event Command menu.  As to whether it's a good idea or not, as usual it boils down to how it is implemented.  It can work well; I've also seen it done in such a way that it was a pain in the neck.

There are many scripts for Skill Shops, but I don't know about how you would go about having each ability cost different currency (or why you would want to). I did once see a script that let you purchase/learn skills with TP. If you just use basic currency, what I had done for one of my games was that the shop would sell Tomes or spellbooks, and after you bought them, you would read them (by accessing them in the menu), and you would simply learn a new skill, that way I wouldn't need a script.

Here's a Skill Shop script by Tsukihime: http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/9746-learn-skill-shop/

Not sure if that's exactly what you're looking for.

But whether its a good idea or not, I can't really say, but I can say that its a system that can work well. Dark Souls for example sells skills, however the best skills are both distinguished by greater price, and higher stat requirements to cast them.

Thank you both for your opinions, I hope to hear many more!

The core of the idea is sort of like Pokemon's TM and HM learning. Implemented well will definitely yield good results I believe. (Hnnnggh yes teaching Swampert Ice Beam~). So yeah, play around with the idea a bit and see what you come up with as well. I think with script calls/ regular events, you can use other costs as well; TP, HP, MP or even some of your base stats.

In my current work-in-progress, there are 5 ways my characters learn skills:

1. Level up.  I use this for a fair number of healing magic skills

2. Trade in Life Force (dropped by certain enemies) to learn a skill

3. Talk to a Master.  In exchange for a certain amount of Gold, if your party member is a high enough level, teach a Skill.  I use this for specialized weapons skills

4. Party must be hit a certain number of times by that type of attack to learn a Skill.  For example:  Get hit with 10 Fire-based attacks to learn Fire Storm attack.  I use this for certain Magic attacks.

5. Significant Plot Event.  When a specific event happens, the healer learns the Resurrection spell.  Until this point, there is NO way to revive dead party members...

So, I think, if they are implemented well, any of those methods can work.

And none of these require any scripting.  I use normal Events for most, and store specifics (how many times the party received a Fire attack, for example) in Game Variables

I don't see any need for different forms of currency for each teacher.  I have one specific teacher who doesn't take cash, but there is a very good in-universe reason he does not.

You could also have some Skills taught as rewards for quest completion.  "Thank you for returning my sacred ruby.  I will teach you Ultraslash as a reward."

All very good ideas, I never realized that so many different ways could be done without scripts. When I was contemplating the idea I was worried that I would have to get into scripting and all kinds of things like that, it's good to know that I won't have to do a bunch of that at least for this portion of the game.

I think it's generally a pretty rewarding thing to "buy" skills and it tends to open up a lot of choices for the player as to how they want to build their character up.  So yeah, definitely a good idea if well-implemented.

As far as the Alternate Currencies thing goes, it's easy to do.  You can keep track of the alternate currencies using variables throughout your game, and swap that currency in right before you do Shop processing if you want the skills to be "buyable" from shops.

Example: In your game, Variable 91 tracks "Rods", Variable 92 "Gems", and Variable 93 "Cones", which are all alternate currencies.  You main currency is the normal "Gold".  You've chosen to reserve Variable 99 as a placeholder for when you run alternate currency shop events.  And in this particular event, the player can buy skills using Rods.

Event Setup:

Set Variable 99 equal to the party's Gold

Lose 999999 Gold

Gain Gold equal to Variable 91

Message: "Here you can buy stuff with Rods!"

(Optional: Set a switch or variable that can be checked by the Window_Gold window so that the shop displays the alternate currency abbreviation [maybe "R"] instead of "G"/gold.  This is the only part that would require a couple lines of coding, and even then, it's completely optional and just to make things look better.)

Shop Processing (just set the prices as normal, since Rods are the game's currency while you're in this shop)

(Optional: Set that switch or variable back so "G"/gold is once again shown in Window_Gold)

Set Variable 91 equal to the party's Gold (this looks a bit strange at first but think it through and you'll see why this is here)

Lose 999999 Gold

Gain Gold equal to Variable 99

Set Variable 99 to 0