8-bit Theater the RPG

8-bit Theater the Roleplaying Game Where You're the Light Warriors Getting Isekai'd to Save a Bunch of Worlds But It Always Goes Wrong Because They Are Real Bad at This (or 8BTTRPGWYTLWGITSABOWBIAGWBTARBAT for convenience) is based on LUMEN 2.0 created by Spencer Campbell of GilaRPGs. This game is not affiliated with Gila RPGs.

You are the Light Warriors

Ideally this game is for four players because there are four Light Warriors to play! But I'm sure you folks can figure out different ways for two or three players to work with four characters.

GM-less (or not)

By design there is no GM! Instead Players split key GM-like responsibilities and run the game collaboratively. But you can skip all that and have a GM in charge like a normal game. Maybe that's a whole different fifth person at the table? Or maybe one of the Players is doing double duty? Whatever your group prefers!

Diceless Combat?!

You spend resources to accomplish things but you can elect to spend the "wrong" resource to accomplish things that also cause COLLATERAL DAMAGE. Like, you know how in the comic there is a constant stream of catastrophes wherever the Light Warriors go? This is that! If you ever run out of your go-juice, simply recharge by indulging in your character's worst instincts — Black Mage hurts people for no reason, Red Mage executes "amazing" plans, etc.

Quick-n-Easy Characters

Character generation barely takes a minute 'cause you just choose from a few things to finish up your versions of Black Mage, Fighter, Red Mage, and Thief. Everyone gets a unique Skill and a set of Powers to select from. As you explore the world you'll unlock everyone's Job Change Ability and discover Accessories to equip!

And if ain't enough there's also an optional Stunt System that lets you do all the extra stupid stuff from the comic like building a cold fusion generator out of a block of ice or bickering with one another until your foes get bored and leave (hey, a win is a win).

Gameplay Loop

When Light Warriors Do Things they will eventually cause Collateral Damage that makes everything around them so much worse, so they've got to Do More Things to work around they've inflicted upon the world, but this is literally a vicious cycle that inevitably leads to realizing, "Oh Ye Gods What Hath We Wrought?!" TLDR the game is tuned to encourage you to do terrible/stupid things that will almost always backfire so you can spend most of your time laughing at one another.

World Building

The game gives you tools (random tables, yay!) to quickly spool up any setting you can imagine — everything from Generic Fantasy to Generic Sci-fi — and then fill those worlds with Factions and NPCs you can "help" and side quests you can "definitely do in a normal way" while the threat of Chaos looms!

Art by Hannako

All character and monster art in this book and its affiliated bonus items was drawn by Hannako Lambert.

A Fun Read

It's a short zine, maybe 36 pages, but the rules all look like this....

The Itch Super Bargain Bundle

You get the complete Game Book, the Official Battle Map, and two sheets of little standee cutouts all for one Super Bargain Bundle price!