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Other RPGs / Review of 8-Bit Theater: The Roleplaying Game
« on: October 13, 2024, 06:09:54 PM »
I kickstarted this game a while ago, got it a couple of months ago, and am finally getting around to writing this review. It's been 11 months since my last review, I think that means I'm not as enthusiastic about writing these as I used to be.
Yes, this is the official RPG for 8-Bit Theater written by the author of 8-Bit Theater (Brian Clevinger) and no, this is not a joke. The full name of this game is 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).
If you don't know the source material for this, you should GO READ IT RIGHT NOW!
The PDF is 40 pages cover to cover. This will not be a long review.
Table of Contents:
- The Core Idea
- Playing The Game
- The Four Players
- The Four GM Roles
- Keep It Moving
- Your Characters
- Light Warriors
- Accessories
- Encounters
- Collateral Damage
- Making Enemies
- Campaign Play
- World Building
- The Orbs & Fiends
- Summon Chaos
- Omelette Theory
- The Old Road
- The Long River
- Great Mountains
- Dark Forests
- Exploration
- Factions
- Faction Clocks
- Adventures
- The Home Base
- Memorable NPCs
- Best People Ever
- NPC Names
- Setting Information
Okay, many of these chapters are less than a page long. Instead of a nice organized review this is going to be more free-form and rambly. My Mork Borg and The Company reviews were like this as they were also short zine games so I have given myself precedent here.
Review
I'm going to assume that you're familiar with the source material, either because you've read the webcomic in the past or because I already yelled at you to GO READ IT RIGHT NOW. Unsurprisingly, in this game you are playing the Light Warriors and you need dice and paper and writing utensils. The author makes fun of the reader for needing to be told this. (Also unsurprisingly, the entire book is written in a snarky and amusing tone. So, in short, the "Core Idea" (see what I did there) is that you are running around like a murderhobo and party cohesion isn't really an expected thing. This is not a game designed around balance, and this is a game that rewards players for being dumb/goofy/hyperviolent.
The game has two phases, Exploration and Encounters. These are self-evident. Also dice rolling isn't needed in combat, abilities just work and chaos will self-manifest anyway.
Want to get weird? No? Too bad, we're getting weird anyway. This is a game for four players because there are four light warriors. The four GM roles mentioned in the table of contents? Those can be divided between the four players! Take that standard game design, why have one person tell everyone what to do when EVERYONE can tell everyone what to do!!!1!11! Don't worry, you can still have a GM who has all of the GM roles. Speaking of, these roles are: Running Encounters, Building the World, RPing the NPCs, and Recording Calamities and Grievances. Exciting stuff! Oh, and there are rules for how to tell everyone to shut up and listen to you if you're the encounter person and there's an argument about encounters (or, you know, whatever).
Characters basically have three attributes (called Approaches): Violence, Deceit, and Genius. Guess which one Black Mage has the most of. You spend points from your Approaches to accomplish stuff. It happens automatically! Bonkers! There are also rules for using the "wrong" approach, or no approach at all. These rules usually end in collateral damage. Oh, you also have Health, "Mayhem" (to refresh your exhausted skills), and Skills (to do stuff). Skills have a regular effect that doesn't require an attribute and a Charged effect which exhausts the skill when you use it (this doesn't impact the ability to use the regular effect). Oh, and you get Powers (starting at one and upgrading your home base can give you access to more). Plus gear! Everyone loves gear! Your gear is Accessories! You can accessorize and be pretty! Oh, and getting four orbs lets you Job Change. You can be a Blue Mage because that works out great every time no matter what!
Okay, now that you have a rambling and barely coherent idea of what characters are like, the four light warriors and there stats are listed. In what should be of no surprise to anyone ever, the four light warriors are: Black Mage, Fighter, Red Mage, and Thief. In addition, there are exactly 20 accessories. Want an accessory? Upgrade your home base and roll a d20 to see what you get.
Encounters are "where arguments get settled". They don't have to involve violence, but they most likely will anyway. Other options include all of the weird stuff that happens in 8-Bit Theater. There are rules for how to use the Tactical Battle Map (things are near or things are far away), rules for rounds and turns and what you can do in your turn (take any two actions on the list, can't repeat an action in the same turn), rules for doing weird crazy stuff because, you know, 8-Bit Theater, rules for enemies, and rules for DEATH. Here's a hint. Everyone died? No they didn't.
Remember when I mentioned collateral damage? No? Are you even reading this review properly or are you just skimming? Anyway, collateral damage has rules to specifically cover all of the mayhem and destruction that you yearn for. Also it powers the Doom Clock (and this is where recording Calamities and Grievances comes in).
Anyway, on to the next chapter. Got to give you a reason to buy the book, can't spoil too much, I don't want Brian Clevinger mad at me even though he seems like a cool guy.
Making Enemies is not the opposite of Making Friends. It's a chapter on creating enemies to fight because a whole monster manual is just not necessary you know? Oh, and the Fiends and Chaos also get little blurbs.
Campaign Play is all about world building and the world map and blah blah blah but the main point is that you can play this game in any world in any setting. It doesn't have to be 8-Bit Theater 2: Electric Boogaloo. I'd like to explicitly call out the Omelette Theory chapter which basically boils down to "you can't save the world without breaking a few worlds".
How am I only halfway through the book?
I covered Encounters so I guess I should cover Exploration. It uses dice! It involves exploring the hex map you built earlier that I didn't explain! You can camp!
Oh, and there are Factions! I'm sure I mentioned that in the table of contents but honestly I'm on a roll right now and scrolling up to the top of this post feels like a lot of work. The factions can have Faction Clocks because they're doing stuff even when the Light Warriors are ignoring them. Isn't it immersive! They can also be involved in Adventures (or the Adventures might have nothing to do with the Factions).
I keep mentioning the home base so I guess I should talk about The Home Base chapter. It's the center of the world map, it has a noteworthy feature, and it can be upgraded using resources that are...collected...from Adventures. Remember, upgrading gives more powers and random accessories to the Light Warriors.
There are then multiple pages about NPC generation then there are about...a lot of things, plus printouts to track the world map and factions and faction clocks and whatnot.
That's it, we're done.
Final Thoughts
As expected, this is a silly and ridiculous game about being silly and ridiculous. It's technically a cooperative storytelling game so I should hate it but you know what, it's fine. I don't think I'd play this game anyway but that's because I prefer things to be a little more serious. It's not like I didn't know what I was getting into when I backed it in the first place.
