Using RPG Maker Graphics in an IRL card game?

So, maybe this is the wrong category, but I didn't find any better, sorry!

For a week or so, I have this craving to design my own "trading card game", basically something that
plays similar to Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic or Hearthstone, but a non commercial game, in which anybody
can print their own deck without any cost attached to it.
I got the idea, because I really like some of the battler graphics the, for example: VX Ace RTP has, but in a real
game I'd never use them because they are way too static.
So I got more and more into the idea, I already set up rules and stuff, but today I remembered that there is written
somewhere that I can't use the RPG Maker graphics in any other way than in RPG Maker products.
I'm mainly worried, because I'd like to give my friends access to a website that allows them to build their own deck, and then print it. And that website would display the cards and obviously some of the graphics as well then, if I was just using them completely in private, I wouldn't even be here and or worry.
So now I am debating with myself wether I can still use some of the graphics the way I like to or if I simply can't because a website would be software outside of rpg maker. I also already sneakily thought that maybe disguising my card game as an advertisement for an actual rpg maker game, could be a loophole? After all the licenses state that limited use for advertising is allowed. I also wouldn't make it easy to rip any of the graphics of a card picture, because they are obviously rescaled, maybe colors are edited, there is a most likely messy background on the card and sometimes parts of the battler (I mainly want to use battlers.) would even be cut off.

Can somebody maybe tell me if I am worrying too much or paying too much attention to detail? I'm pretty sure everybody is going to tell me that I simply can't use the art but hey, still worth a shot to be a descent human for once and ask if I can.

Oh and maybe some people have input on if I can't use the images, where I can find similar style monsters and pictures that would fit perfectly in a project like that.

The way I understand it is you can't use the art in this case, sorry. If you can find DLC with any use terms you could use that though, but I think only a couple packs do that (maybe Pop Horror? Check the store DLC and see, it should tell you before you buy now. If you can't see it, ask)

So, I just had another random idea. What if I didn't make it a website, but actually an rpg maker (for example: MV) project, that's basically a deck builder, and in it, people can just... screenshot the game and then print their screenshots. I even could technically implement my MV game into a website and everything would have been created with RPG maker mv, ... that should be legal right? Especially if I never tell anybody to explicitly take screenshots of my game?

That's trying too hard to find a loophole, and defeating the point. The point is the engine is cheap due to the license saying use it in RPGMaker. to allow it outside of the engine, the price would go up significantly to offset the non-exclusive license. The artists agreed to make that art only because they knew it was exclusive to the engine, so do you really want to find a way to go around that?

I did the math and if you bought all that art separately I came up you'd spend $20K. So can you respect the wishes of the artists and not try to find loopholes for that art? Or should we start charging 20K for the engine to offset the license?

I mean yes. I think it's only natural that I want to find an outlet for my own creativity, I have fun desgining game rules and stuff, I want to try make a card game. I bought the RPG Maker, I have access to all the graphics, I supported the community with my real money, but I probably won't use these graphics in an RPG Maker game, so why can't I use them in this project. I honestly don't see the point of this rule in the licenses in the first place, but I'm not the one to go argue with big companies that calculate stuff like this and know what they are doing - I'm just trying to have fun.

Oh and, I don't know if a loophole like this in its essence is such a bad thing. The artist made the graphics so they can be used in RPG Maker projects by inspired young game developers, I am still using them like the artist intended, especially if I manage to event a deck building system in RPG Maker MV.

[move]Product Discussion and Support[/move]

@Touchfuzzy Could we have an official answer on this one please.

Does Enterbrain not sell licenses to use RTP for NON-RM projects anymore? I thought it was like $800 to buy a non-RM RTP license...

@UNphiltered_khaos no, the RTP was never sold non-RM, that can't be done due to it being contracted from japan - only Kadokawa can decide on that.

some non-RTP shop resources that were done by artists for Degica directly had been offered with a non-RM licence in the past, but currently that part of the shop doesn't exist.

This would not be allowed. This is due to the licensing of the RTP on the part of KDKW, and no amount of arguing about it, or the opinions of anyone here will change that.

It just is what it is. The graphics are for use in RPG Maker projects only.

But my game is/will be an rpg maker project.

Who will knock on my door and check if my project is a project?

Well, sure, but you're not talking about using your creativity, you're talking about how your desire to use someone else's creativity regardless of what they want means that you should be able to. How would you feel if someone took your card game without your permission and made it into a major part of their own game, especially if they asked you and you said no?

You're thinking too inflexibly for someone who is claiming to be creative. There are lots of ways to make a card game that don't require RPG Maker graphics, why not find or create some of those? Open Game Art might be a good place to start.

You are only making it a game so you can distribute the resources so others can use them out of the game. Your ultimate goal is to use the resources for something that is not an RPG Maker game. It's as simple as that.

You asked for an official answer, and you got one. It's not the answer you wanted, but I suspect you're really not surprised (due to saying in your first post that you already thought it wasn't allowed). Now you need to stop trying to find ways around it - because there are none - and look for alternatives. Find resources that are not bound by those terms. RPG Maker is a tiny universe - I'm sure you can find people outside it who can make great resources for whatever purpose you need.

The thing is, if I wasn't looking for a cheap and very quick method I wouldn't want to use RPG Maker graphics to begin with. I am just interrested in what I have to do, so that I can make it happen. I mean, what does my project need so that the end goal suddenly isn't this anymore. Does it need a story? Would it be enough if the card was able to be played in the game itself? I just think the licenses are super vague because I find so many loopholes, people use BGM's of RPG Maker in Youtube Videos as background, people use graphics on websites and nobody seems to care or go after them. I know nobody of you can change it, I just think it's kind of sad.
To be fair though, in the last 6 hours or so I already looked for alternatives outside of RPG Maker because I got super annoyed. I'm fine now, so this discussion is actually done, thanks for the help and official response! (Especially because it was pretty quickly.)

The fact that you see other people breaking the EULA without anything happening doesn't mean they aren't breaking it. When it is brought to our attention or we learn about it, we address it.

That would be like saying "Well, I saw someone steal a candy bar from the store and they weren't prosecuted so it must be legal." Well if the store and/or cops never knew about it, of course they never got prosecuted. The internet is a big place, we don't see everything.

The RTP is fantastic but its not the only source for pixel art.. you can find and use plenty of other works which are free to be used. There are also several online card generators and you can get cardstock your home printer can use.

If the card game was an RMMV game itself, it would be allowed, right?

As long as it's used within the game engine, yes.

To be fair, if you're doing just a web deployment, the "engine" is basically just a collection of JavaScript files launched by a dummy HTML index page. It is possible to hypothetically modify those files beyond all recognition as having come from RMMV. It would sort of defeat the point of using MV since, for all intents and purposes, you'd be using your own custom-built JS engine - but it would allow you to use the resources that came with it, so long as you could prove that you owned RMMV and it was used in some (however small and meaningless) fashion to build the game.

No. That discussion has already been done to death. A custom-build JS engine is NOT RPG Maker, so you would not be allowed to use the resources. People need to accept the terms of the products they use and stop trying to find ways around it.

RMMV does not have anything that prevents you from modifying the scripts provided and in fact includes functionality that promotes exactly that. A custom-built engine made from the scripts provided by RMMV, using the editor to package the whole thing, is technically made with RMMV. If I claimed my custom engine was just an extensively-modified set of RMMV scripts, how would you prove otherwise?