Everything's free, you just have to know where to get it.

I'd recommend using RM2K3 over RMXP. Sure, RMXP has the graphics, but unless you can code in Ruby, RM2K3 is the better maker. It has more things you can do, and a side-view battle system.

See the thread at the top of the forum page? RM2k3/RTP sites? There should be a download for it in there. If not, ask me or BlueCube for a link. I think Blue might have one knocking about from a few day ago.