SCALYTANK'S PROFILE

Go with VXAce.

I would stay away from rpg toolkit, it was used to be good, but it's community fell apart, and the engine only supports software rendering*, and also it's unfinished.

* Yes, VXAce has software rendering also, but in toolkit it's so poorly implemented, that you will lag, as soon as you add content to your game. I think the only way to fix that, is turning off sprite transparency, and turning down hardware acceleration in the control panel... Now you don't want every user to turn off hardware acceleration on their pc, just to be able to play your game.

Your other options are (if you wish to learn some scripting anyway):

"Game Maker 8", Has support for any kind of games, and is actually hardware accelerated. (using directx). This is a really good engine, but creating an rpg with it is harder than with VXAce.
LINK: http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/studio

"ika", My personal favourite. Uses python scripting (you can even extend it with psyco, for a large speed gain), has openGL rendering, and generally a really powerful engine. The only drawback is, that it doesn't have official finished editor. I have written an editor for ika, and is really full featured now. However a bit harder to use than rpg maker, and I haven't published it yet. (the editor has similar features, as the rpg maker editor).
If someone would like to develop his/her game with ika, I will be glad to send this editor to him/her.
LINK: http://neverbeen.hu/data/ika-win-0.63.zip

I also think, that in game maker, you can have some kind of eventing (there are a lot of tutorial online, just google it), But in ika, you certainly need to know scripting, to write your game logic (there is no default one, like in rpg maker, just a toolset to aid you)

I would also suggest, to stay away from rpg maker 2k and 2k3, and even XP and VX. (VX is pointless, Ace has better support, and is more powerful, and XP is outdated, as well as the old rpgmakers)

I can't think of any more engines right now, but maybe there are better alternatives.

Edit:
Just to note, that if you want a *lot* of eyecandy, and really large sprites in your game, I am pretty sure, that any engine with software rendering will lag to death. At least this is my experience on the subject. But if you really don't want more than 640*480 resolution, and lot of images spinning around the screen, ignore this statement :D

I mainly use ika, as my engine, which uses Python scripting. I like python very much, for game scripting.
My first scripting language was actually ruby, but I found, that ruby was a bit slower than python (or the software rendering of rpg maker crippled the performance), maybe the latter...

About lower level languages: C++ may seem overcomplicated for a newbie, but it is sometimes necessary. Today's interpreted languages are approx. 30-100x times slower, than C/C++, and if one wants to create a more complex game (heavy action combat, lots of pathfinding), it's the only way to go (for the engine, not the game logic)... The other path would be java. It's slower than C++ in general (around 2x,3x times) but that should be enough (you don't want to make the next starcraft, or elder scrolls game, don't you?:D)

I may help you with scripting, in python, or ruby. just add me on msn or skype:
lustmord91@hotmail.com

or mail me: lustmord20@hotmail.com

best regards! :)

Download added ^^

*Hint for playing:
- Always follow the little footprints. :)

But look at the "free" music and art topics... I guess, scripting is easier than art?:D