Another set of newbie Dating Sim questions (rmxp)

Ok, so I really  hope this is in the right section!  I read all the stickies and such, but even so my small newbie brain has trouble comprehending stuff sometimes.

It's been so long since I've posted here or looking into any rpg maker stuff... what minimal knowledge I did have of the program is totally gone now.  So, some of these may be really basic questions that can be answered by re-reading a bunch of stuff (which is what I'm in the process of doing, but I haven't quite found answers yet so I'll post them anyways).  I did a search on dating sim style games on here... found some cool stuff... but not exactly what I was looking for.  Sooo anyways....

-I was planning on trying to make a Dating Sim/Story/Murder Mystery game with RMXP for my first game.  In general would this be an easier choice than the standard type RPG?  The story, characters, artwork, locations, and major events are all already planned out... so it's just basically the actual game creation I'm concered with.

-The game will obviously heavily rely on the choices the user makes, the clues he finds, and the girls (or boys) he decides to hit on.  In terms of making the game... this means a lot of ... "variables", right?  (I wish I could find all the good tutorials I bookmarked last year...).  Any shortcuts or tips for this type of game-play that you might be able to suggest?  I saw a tutorial once (which I can't find anymore! AUG!) where the person used a web diagram to map out all possible courses of action and the results.

-About mapping.... are there any particular concerns I should keep in mind?  Since it's a story game, I'm not going to be using tilesets... but rather hand-illustrated maps and character art.

I'm sorry if these questions are kind of vague!  Still trying to get back into it ....

No, you could just use switchs and conditional branchs as far as decisions and them affecting your future.
You DO need to use variables if your going to store affection/emotion points for the dating section.

Anything else?

Don't use RMXP for that kind of game.
If your using hand drawn backgrounds, you might as well not use RMXP, but use this:

Adventure Game Studio
And if you're wondering what games theyturn out to be, download 5 Days a Stranger

RMXP has a lot of factors your type of game wouldn't use, and it'll be a waste of space.

Who cares? RMXP was made for the amateur game maker. It might not be 100% suited for that kind of game but it's ultimately the game author(s) who choose the platform to start their project on.

As for the link to "5 Days a Stranger", I'll check it out. It sounds like something I'd really enjoy.

Yea, I'm just showing other options available to choose from.
The game 5 Days a Stranger; is the first of a quadrilogy (or is it tetralogy?)
The next parts are 7 days a skeptic, Trilby's Notes, and 6 days a Sacrifice.

And I'll warn you; it's a bloody story.