8-BIT DUNGEON

AN ADVENTURE GAME OF FUNNY-SHAPED DICE

INTRODUCTION WHAT YOU NEED

This is an adventure game, which means that it’s a game
which will let the players go on adventures as characters.
These characters are pretty varied, and are described
below. In a lot of ways, it’s like a video game that a group
can play together, and which uses paper, pens, maps, and
dice instead of a computer. You have to do the math
yourself, but it’s pretty easy math, and it’s easier to change
things and add things to the game.
8-Bit Dungeon is a game for one to six players - yes, you
can play it ‘solo’. You’ll also need these rules (including
the character sheets), some writing sticks of whatever sort,
and a full set, or a bunch of sets, or a bucket, of funny-
shaped dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12’s). If there are less
than four players, though, some of the players should play
more than one character, so that there at least four charac-
ters being played.

IT’S CHANGED? LEGALISMS

Yes; 8-Bit dungeon has been revised to be less of a This game is a work of satire. It does not have a copyright
roleplaying game and more of an “adventure game”. It or a patent, and you can do anything you like with it. A lot
can still be run as a rules-light roleplaying game if you of people from all over helped write it. Levi formatted it
want to, but can also be played with no GM or even solo. and coordinated them, and pres@lrpsedm.com is his email.

CHARACTERS! THE JOB LIST

Everyone has a ‘character’ or ’adventurer’ -
which, in this game, is like having a game piece JOB HIT FIGHT RUN THINK SPECIAL
that follows special rules. We sometimes call NAME PTS DIE DIE DIE DIE
your character “you”. This really doesn’t matter,
in this game. So, some basics about you (the Black Belt 12 1d10 1d8 1d6 Fist of Fury 1d4
character). You are at The Inn with all the other
characters, and you have no Gil (money). So, you
have become an adventurer in order to get money Black Mage 4 1d6 1d10 1d8 Black Magic 1d12
to help your children, your sick father, or your
insatiable greed. You can make up a story about
that if you want, but nobody else will want to Blue Mage 10 1d6 1d4 1d8 Blue Magic 1d12
hear it unless it’s very short, very funny, or very
good. There are three steps for you to follow.
1. PICK A JOB. The Jobs are: Black Belt, Black Dragoon 12 1d10 1d8 1d4 Dragon Jump 1d6
Mage, Blue Mage, Dragoon, Fighter, Red
Mage, Thief, and White Mage. Each of them
does different things, and it’s all right if more Fighter 10 1d12 1d8 1d4 Heroism 1d6
than one player has the same job.
2. WRITE STUFF DOWN: Grab a character
sheet and write down all the stuff your Job has. Red Mage 6 1d10 1d4 1d8 Red Magic 1d12
All of that is in the list over to the right. Note
that you are Level Zero, all your bonuses are
zero, and you have no gear or skills. Thief 6 1d4 1d12 1d8 Sneaking 1d10
3. FIND OUT HOW THINGS WORK: The
rules are pretty simple, and there aren’t that
many of them. So take a look through them, White Mage 6 1d8 1d4 1d10 White Magic 1d12
and figure out how it all works.
 BASIC RULES AND ACTIVITIES
Listed here are some of the really basic rules for the kinds
of things that adventurers will do, and things that will Urggghhh…. My sweet,
happen to them fairly often. While there are quite a few formerly-internal organs. The
other things that can happen to the adventurers, most of next time someone says “We
those things happen less often, and are described wherever Quest!”, I’m going to kill them.
they come up in the text. Possibly more than once.

MOVING AROUND:
The whole group can, at any time, decide to move to
another place - or, if they are in The Dungeon, they can
decide to move from one room to another. They must stay
together, and can’t leave a fight unless they use Run.

FIGHTING THINGS:
When there are monsters, then there's a fight. In a fight,
there are turns. Every turn, everybody (monsters included)
gets to name one thing that they are hitting. Then every-
body rolls a fighting dice, and whatever they are fighting
loses that many hit points. If you lose all of your hit
points, your character is knocked out - see the other rules.
When a monster has zero hit points, it dies, and you can
take it's loot, as described later on.
RUNNING:
Each session, roll this die, and mark down the number -
these are points you can spend to run away between now
and the next time that you stay at the Inn. When you’re in
a fight, if you want to leave, you can escape the fight (but
not the room) by spending one of these points. Monsters
don’t follow people in this game. If you run away after
combat starts, you don’t hit anything that turn, but mon-
sters can still hit you before you leave. You can’t re-enter
a fight you’ve left (except with Thievery).
THINKING:
Each session, roll this die, and mark down the number -
these are points you can spend this session (or at least,
until the next time you stay at the Inn) to realize stuff.
When you set off a trap, you can spend one of these points
to ignore it for yourself, or three points to cancel it
entirely. Also, you may spend one at any time to find any
secret doors in a dungeon room; when you do this, roll 1d4
(don’t add anything); on a one put a door north; on a two,
put it east, on a three, put it south, and on a four, put it
west. If there was already a door there, you found nothing.
If the door would lead to outside the dungeon, you gain
2d6 Gil instead, since you’ve found hidden treasure.
AM I DEAD?
If you are dropped to zero HP (there’s no “negative
numbers”, so zero is as low as you go) then you're
knocked down and out, and can’t act unless someone with
White Magic heals you. If healed, you can act next on the
next turn. At the end of the battle, after your surviving
buddies have divvied up the loot, they'll give you some
water and a bite of crumb cake, and you'll have 1 HP
again. Some places where this changes:
• SOME DOWN, SOME RAN: If nobody is left in a
fight, but some ran away, then the people that are down
must roll to see who dies, as if everybody was down.
• EVERYBODY IS DOWN: If everybody gets knocked
out then the monsters get bored and leave. Everybody
has to make a d12 roll, the lowest roller is actually dead,
and needs to be brought back to life at The Church. The
other characters revive with 1 HP as usual.
• EVERYBODY IS DEAD: If everybody actually dies,
then the whole group wakes up back at the last Inn they
stayed at, but loses all of their Gil.
And now, we quest!

TOWN STUFF:
While the adventurers are in town, they will have the
option to buy things, rest at the Inn, and so on. These
things are described a little later on.
 SPECIAL SKILLS
Each of the Jobs has one special Die. This represents a
skill that people who have that job can do. Though other
characters can learn the special skills of different Jobs later
on by spending money, they will almost never be as good
at those skills as the characters that start with them.
Each of these abilities, much like Run and Think, are
rolled at the start of the game, creating a number of
“points” that the character can spend to use the skill. Once
these points run out, they can’t get more unless they go
and rest at an Inn and reroll them - and when they are
rerolled, just like fight and think points, the new points
replace the old ones if any old ones are left.
BLACK MAGIC:
Every Black Mage rolls this at the beginning of every ses-
sion. Instead of picking a monster to fight on any specific
turn, they can spend one of the points they rolled, and roll
2d6. They then choose one of the dice as “how many
monsters it hits”, and the other for “how much damage it
does to each of them”. If they would hit more monsters
than are actually around, then they have to choose adven-
turers to hit in order to make up the difference. Black
Magic bonuses are added, hut only to the damage done,
not the number of things hit.
BLUE MAGIC:
A Blue Mage rolls this die at the start of the session, to
determine how many points of Blue Magic they have to
use for that session. Blue Magic Points can be spent as if
they were monster points (these points are Poison,
Beatdown, Swarm, and Undead).
As a special note, a Blue Mage that spends a point of
Blue Magic as if it was a point of “Undead” can’t be
healed by White Magic for the rest of the fight, and takes
damage just like the Undead do, if a White Mage uses their
magic points to damage all the Undead in a fight.
DRAGON JUMP:
Dragoons roll this at the beginning of the session, to find
out how many uses of this ability they have that session.
To use this ability, they spend one point of it at the start of
any fighting turn. Monsters cannot attack them that turn,
and they can’t attack either. At the start of the next turn,
they choose one monster, and deal damage to it twice as
for normal fighting. Each of these “two hits” must be
blocked separately with Swarm or Undead points, if the
monster has them. However, this ability can’t be used
more than once in any fight.
FIST OF FURY:
Black Belts roll this at the beginning of the session, to find
out how many uses of this ability they have that session.
Once per fight, at any time, they can spend one of their
uses; for the rest of the fight, they roll two dice for
fighting, and take the best one.
I’m not saying I don’t
like swords. What I’m
saying is, two swords.
And some chain.
HEROISM:
Fighters roll this at the beginning of the session. In a
fight, anytime they hit a monster, they can spend a point of
this to do an extra fighting die of damage, plus fighting
bonuses, to the monster; they can’t spend more than one
point per hit, though.
WHITE MAGIC:
Every White Mage rolls this at the beginning of a session
to find how many magic they have that session. To use
magic, instead of picking a monster to fight on any combat
turn, they heal 1d10 Hit Points, plus White Magic bonuses,
to an adventurer. White magic can also be used to heal
adventurers in town and between fights. It can bring a
character back from knockout, but not from death.
RED MAGIC:
Red Mages roll this at the beginning of a session to see
how many times they can use their magic. To use magic,
they spend a point of this instead of picking a monster to
fight in a turn, and pick a target - adventurer or monster.
That target’s Fighting die improves or is reduced by one
size (1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d12) for the rest of the fight.
Alternatively, a Red Mage (and only an actual Red
Mage) can spend two points of Red Magic to get one point
of White Magic or one point of Black Magic; however,
when they use these points, their Red Magic bonuses and
their level are not added to the effects.
SNEAKING:
Every Thief rolls this at the beginning of every session.
This finds out the amount of times the Thief can effec-
tively go invisible, and not be attacked until he attacks;
while invisible, monsters can’t attack the thief; the thief
can attack, but doesn’t have to. The first time he attacks,
the Thief does damage equal to double their normal
maximum damage (all bonuses are doubled as well), and
then stops being invisible. A thief can “go invisible” as
soon as monsters are discovered, but before anyone picks
who they are fighting, but can’t go invisible during a fight.
However, as a special use, a thief can spend a point of
thievery to invisibly return to a fight they’ve run away
from, as long as the fight is still going on.
 WELCOME TO TOWN
The adventurers can move freely around town without
worrying about monsters and traps. Everything on this
page happens in town. Though the Adventurers can leave
town at any time, and wander around in The Wilderness,
they can’t go to a Dungeon until they have been given an
adventure by the Adventure Guy in town.
THE INN
Going to the Inn heals everyone completely except for
people that are currently dead, and allows everyone to re-
gain all lost Hit Points and reroll all of their “session
dice” (such as Run and Think). Visiting the Inn costs 10
Gil for the whole group, plus another 10 Gil for each level
that anyone in the group has - people with levels need
more space. So, a group of five Level 5 adventurers would
be paying 260 Gil on every visit to the Inn.
THE STORE
The chart at the bottom of this column show you what you
can buy with the Stuff you get from killing monsters.
• LEVELS: You must buy your levels one at a time. You
start at level Zero, and then buy level one, then two, then
three, and so on, until you get to five, which is the high-
est level there is. You can't skip levels, so don't try it.
You get a bonus to all rolls that you have dice for, ex-
cept skills, the same size as your Level - this bonus
doesn’t apply to things you don’t have dice for, like gear
does. Finally, whenever you gain a Level, add as many
Hit Points to your maximum as you had at Level Zero.
• GEAR: You can buy equipment at The Shop. When you
buy equipment, choose a kind of roll the equipment will
give a bonus to, and decide how big the bonus will be. If
you already have equipment for that roll, you must sell it
first. You can get equipment that gives a bonus to a roll
you can’t make (like a Fighter buying gear for +1 White
Magic); if you do, the bonus is treated as your roll.
• SKILLS: You can buy the special rolls that other
adventurers get (Heroism, Black Magic, and so on);
these are bought at 1d4, and your level doesn’t add to
them. They get more expensive the more you have.
• SELLING GEAR: You can sell gear. You get half as
much Stuff as you paid for it when you sell it.
THIS PRICE BUYS THIS... OR THIS... OR THIS...
100 Gil Level 1 +1 Gear 1st Skill
300 Gil Level 2 +2 Gear 2nd Skill
900 Gil Level 3 +3 Gear 3rd Skill
2,700 Gil Level 4 +4 Gear 4th Skill
24,300 Gil Level 5 +5 Gear 5th Skill
Level 4,
Fighting Gear +3,
Heroism Gear +2,
Black Magic 1d4,
Damn. I’m good.
THE ADVENTURE GUY
Every town has an Adventure Guy. It’s not always a guy.
But this is a person who will give you Quests. When you
go to this guy, they tell you what your next (or first, as
may be) adventure will be, and the kinds of things that will
happen if you go and do it. Quests always end up taking
you across the wilderness to a Dungeon, where you must
rescue somebody, kill someone, or get some special
treasure that doesn’t do anything for you.
Sometimes, Quest rewards involve the Adventure Guy
giving you money when you succeed. Other times, it just
involves them telling you that they are the only one who
knows where the Dungeons are, and if you don’t accept
their stupid quest, you won’t get any more adventures at
all. And sometimes, if you succeed, they’ll tell you how to
get to another town with all the same stuff, but with a
different adventure guy, who will hopefully be less of a
complete jerk.
Why do you agree to this? Well… It’s just what
adventurers do. History, tradition, that kind of thing.
THE CHURCH
The Church is where you go when people are dead in a
party and you want to revive them. Bringing someone
back from the dead costs 50 Gil, plus another 50 Gil for
each level that they have; if you can’t afford to pay for all
the levels that they have, they can be brought back at a
lower level, but the lost levels are lost for good, and must
be bought all over again at the store.
THE DANCING GIRL
Most towns have a dancing girl. There is no particular
reason for this. In the same vein, there is no reason at all
why most town guards, when you try to talk to them,
repeat the phrase “Welcome to Town!” over and over and
over. But these things are around. If any of them are
particularly interesting or funny, they will be described in
the adventure, where all the players can read about them.
 GOING OUT AND ABOUT
THE WILDERNESS
Traveling around the world basically means that you are
walking around outside, and will probably get attacked by
monsters. This may be what you want, since killing
monsters is the main way to get Gil. So, really, there are
two kinds of world travel.
• WANDERING AROUND: Upon leaving town, the
group can declare that they are “wandering around”.
They will then get in a fight. After the fight, they can
decide if they’re going to keep wandering around, or go
back into town. This process repeats as long as the
group wants it to, really.
• GOING SOMEWHERE: When you get a quest, you
will learn just how far away the Dungeon for it is,
measured in dice worth of fights. A basic adventure
might put the dungeon 1d4 or 1d6 fights away. You get
the idea.
• WILDERNESS FIGHTS: When a fight happens,
someone must roll 1d6, and add the levels of everyone
in the group to the roll. This is the total level of the
fight; the adventure you’re using will tell you what kind
of fight that is.
LEVEL 0 LEVEL 1 LEVEL 2
THE DUNGEON
A Dungeon is basically a big grid made out of rooms.
Each room is square, and you can go North, South, East, or
West into the next room through doors. Not all walls have
doors, so it’s kind of a maze. Adventurers move through a
Dungeon one room at a time, determining (and sometimes
fighting) what is in each room before going to the next.
• THE ENTRY ROOM: This is where adventurers can
enter and leave The Wilderness.
• THE MAP: Every adventure has a dungeon map. It
may be simple or complicated; it might even have “a
second floor” or more. If any special rules apply, they
will be described. It’s usually a good idea to put a little
token on it to show where the group is, and make little
notes on it about the rooms as the group goes along.
• SPECIAL ROOMS: There are often special rooms in a
Quest Dungeon. The Boss fight room, the Rescue-Me
room, and so on. The Adventure will describe these.
• REGULAR ROOMS: A Regular room will contain one
of the following: Monsters, a Trap, or a Puzzle. To
find out which, someone has to roll 1d6; on a 1, 2, 3, or
4 it’s monsters. On a 5 it’s a trap. On a 6, it’s a puzzle.
• MONSTERS: The numbers and dice used for monsters
are on the next page 2. Whenever the group meets mon-
sters, just like in the Wilderness, someone must roll 1d6,
and add the levels of everyone in the group to the roll.
This is the total level of the fight; the adventure you’re
using will tell you what kind of fight that is.
• TRAPS: If the group enters a room with a trap, it will
hurt everyone unless it is Noticed. Traps do 1d6 damage
to everyone, plus the number of the Floor you’re on. It
costs one point of Thinking to avoid this damage for
yourself, or three points to save the whole group.
• PUZZLES: If the group enters a room with a puzzle,
you have a chance to get extra loot by solving it. To
solve a puzzle, someone who has point of Thinking must
spend it, and roll the same die they use for Thinking -
they don’t get any bonuses. If their roll is, or beats four,
everyone gets as many Gil as their level, plus one.
• GOING BACK: If you go back through a room you’ve
been in and cleared out, someone must roll a 1d6. If it
comes up 6, whatever was there before is replaced with
monsters. If you come back to a room that you left in
the middle of a fight, the monsters are always still there,
and have fully healed.
LEVEL 3 LEVEL 4 LEVEL 5
 MONSTERS!
Monsters don’t Think or Run, but they do have a
few other tricks that the adventurers don’t have. THE MONSTER LIST
MONSTER HIT FIGHT ATTACK MONSTER
MONSTER POINTS LVL NAME PTS DIE PATTERN POINTS PICTURE
Every monsters will have as many points as their
level. All the “standard” monsters put all their 1 Scorpion 8 1d4 Descent 1 Poison
points into the same thing, but special adventure
and Boss monsters might have anything.
• BEATDOWN: This point is spent upon hitting 1 Imp 8 1d4 Descent 1 Beatdown

an enemy, and adds one to the damage done by

that hit. A monster with beatdown will use it 1 Skeleton 8 1d4 Ascent 1 Undead
each time they hit an adventurer until are out.
• UNDEAD: A point of undead is spent upon
being hit, to ignore the damage from it entirely. 1 Bat Swarm 8 1 Gangup 1 Swarm
However, if there are any undead in a room, a
White Mage (and only a White Mage, not just
someone with the skill) can spend one point of
2 Spider 16 1d6 Ascent 2 Poison

White Magic to deal 1d6 plus bonuses to every

undead monster in the fight. 2 Wolf 16 1d6 Ascent 2 Beatdown
• POISON: This point is spent upon hitting an
enemy. The enemy turns green, and takes an 16
extra damage every time they are hit from then 2 Shadow 1d6 Decent 2 Undead
on, and every time a new fight starts, until they
get healed by a White Mage or rest at an Inn.
A monster with poison will use it the each time
2 Arachnid 16 2 Gangup 2 Swarm

they hit an adventurer until they run out.

• SWARM: A monster with swarm points spends 3 Scum Thing 24 1d8 Descent 3 Poison
one each time it is hit, until it runs out. Each
swarm point spent reduces the damage taken
from that hit down to an amount equal to the 3 Pirate 24 1d8 Descent 3 Beatdown

monster’s level. However, a swarm monster

also doesn’t roll dice to attack; instead, it does
damage equal to it’s level.
3 Geist 24 1d8 Ascent 3 Undead

4 Villian 32 1d10 Gangup 4 Beatdown

ATTACK PATTERNS
There are three basic patterns of attack that
monsters will follow. If a group made of mixed
4 Mummy 32 1d10 Ascent 4 Undead

monsters attacks the group, and don’t all have the

same pattern, then they use Descent. 5 Green Ogre 40 1d12 Gangup 5 Beatdown
• DESCENT: The first monster attacks the
adventurer with the highest Hit Points, they
second one the next-most, and so on; once eve-
ryone has a monster of this type attacking them,
start over with the highest and work down again
TAKING THEIR STUFF!
until they’re all assigned. Every time a group of monsters is killed completely, all adventur-
ers gain as many Gil as the total levels of the monsters. If the
• ASCENT: Ascending monsters work exactly
whole group runs away in the middle of the fight, but kills some
the same was descending ones do, except that
of the monsters, they get nothing - but if some characters run, and
they start at whoever has the lowest hit points.
the monsters all die, all the adventurers still get the same amount
• GANGUP: Monsters that gang up all attack
of Gil. Even dead adventurers get a full share of the Gil from a
whichever adventurer has the most hit points, fight, so long as somebody survives and manages to finish off the
and keep attacking them every round, until that monsters.
adventurer either falls down or runs away.
 ADVENTURE ONE: CORNERIA
Why, yes, as it
happens, I do have
a quest you can go
on. And if you do
it, I’ll build you a
bridge!
THE BASICS
The king of Corneria has lost his daughter. To be more
specific, his daughter has been taken away in the middle of
the night to be prepared for marriage to the dastardly
Garland, whose castle is in the north. The only thing that
he promises to give the adventurers is a bridge out of the
area. Unfortunately, the King is the only Adventure guy
around, and there’s no other way out of the country. So
the adventurers are pretty much backed into a corner on
this one, unless they want to throw their cool new Job
outfits down a well and take up sheep-herding.
• VICTORY: The adventurers complete this adventure if
they defeat Garland in battle and rescue the princess.
• TRAVEL: The castle of Garland is 1d6 fights away;
roll this number when the group declares that it is going
to the castle. If the group doesn’t like this number, they
can get into one fight, and then go back to town, rolling
again when they leave again.
• STORES: The store in town doesn’t sell anything worth
more than 100 Gil. The group will need to get to the
next town before they can buy anything better than this.
AT THE CASTLE
The map on the next page shows how Castle Garnish (the
dungeon) is laid out. The castle only has one floor, and the
adventurers are all probably level zero. Thus, all monster
encounters are made up of 1d6+1 levels of monsters,
unless the adventurers decided to hunt monsters for levels
before coming, or left to rest and came back with levels.
• THE PUZZLE ROOMS: These rooms are known to
contain puzzles. Nothing fancy about them.
• THE BOSS, LORD GARNISH: Lord Garnish is
standard Level 4 Villain, except that he also has a point
of the Black Belt ability, Fists of Fury. When he is
defeated, though, all the adventurers receive Gil as if
they had defeated a Level 5 monster instead.
• THE PRINCESS: This room contains the Princess, and
nothing else. If the adventurers enter the room, then the
Princess is saved - getting to the princess in one piece is
harder than actually saving her.
• THE TREASURE ROOM: This room doesn’t have a
door. To get into it, the group must get into a room that
is on one of it’s four sides, and find it by spending think
points. If they do get into it, the room contains 30 Gil
for each adventurer.
MAP OF GARLAND’S CASTLE
5 5
3

THE FIGHTS 4 2

Roll 1d6 If the group is in If the group is in

+Levels THE WILDERNESS THE DUNGEON
1 1 Imp 1 Skeleton

2 2 Scorpions 2 Bats

3 3 Imps 3 Skeleton

4 4 Scorpions 4 Bats
1 Green Ogre 5 Skeletons 5 1 5
5
6 6 Imps 6 Bats

7 7 Scorpions 7 Skeletons MAP NUMBERS

1. ENTRY ROOM
8 8 Imps 4 Shadows 2. BOSS ROOM
3. PRINCESS
9 9 Scorpions 9 Bats 4. TREASURE ROOM
2 Green Ogres 5 Shadows 5. PUZZLE ROOM
10
 PRINT & CLIP CHARACTER SHEETS
BLACK BELT (12 HP/Lvl) FIGHTER (10 HP/Lvl)
Level & Notes: Level & Notes:

FIGHT RUN THINK FISTS _______ HP FIGHT RUN THINK HERO _______ HP
ROLL 1d10+__ 1d8+__ 1d6+__ 1d4+__ 1d__ ROLL 1d12+__ 1d8+__ 1d4+__ 1d6+__ 1d__

NOW N/A NOW N/A

BLACK MAGE (4 HP/Lvl) RED MAGE (6 HP/Lvl)

Level & Notes: Level & Notes:

FIGHT RUN THINK BLACK _______ HP FIGHT RUN THINK RED _______ HP
ROLL 1d6+__ 1d10+__ 1d8+__ 1d12+__ 1d__ ROLL 1d10+__ 1d4+__ 1d8+__ 1d12+__ 1d__

NOW N/A NOW N/A

BLUE MAGE (10 HP/Lvl) THIEF (6 HP/Lvl)

Level & Notes: Level & Notes:

FIGHT RUN THINK BLUE _______ HP FIGHT RUN THINK SNEAK _______ HP
ROLL 1d6+__ 1d4+__ 1d8+__ 1d12+__ 1d__ ROLL 1d6+__ 1d12+__ 1d8+__ 1d10+__ 1d__

NOW N/A NOW N/A

DRAGOON (12 HP/Lvl) WHITE MAGE (6 HP/Lvl)

Level & Notes: Level & Notes:

FIGHT RUN THINK JUMP _______ HP FIGHT RUN THINK WHITE _______ HP
ROLL 1d10+__ 1d8+__ 1d4+__ 1d6+__ 1d__ ROLL 1d8+__ 1d4+__ 1d10+__ 1d12+__ 1d__

NOW N/A NOW N/A