Post by kvt-dev in Panic at the Dojo comments

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Hello! Picked up Panic at the Dojo after hearing about it via, of course, OSP. Glad to have found your work.

It seems right up my alley, and well-designed: lots of opportunity for interesting decisionmaking in fights and while building a character; and a clean and clear approach to framing those fights. Almost feels like a board game, especially with how symmetrically fights are designed. Several of my friends are also interested, so I may actually get to run the game!

So, caveat that I've read through but not played it yet, I have some questions of intent/clarification:

1. Song Form's details says that you are always your own ally; does this hold everywhere? e.g. can a Teacher can use Inspired tokens and '3+: Watch Closely' on themselves?

2. When Phantom or Elder Style reduces the cost of an action, does that include reducing the cost of gates beyond the first (e.g. would Sing Along be reduced from '1+ or 4+ or 6+' to '1+ or 3+ or 5+'?

3. When you Sing Along without being in Song Form (e.g. via Focused Phantom or Elder Style), you don't have a song token type selected. Is the intent that you simply can't pick the 'gain 2 tokens' mode, or something else?

4. Are Chaos tokens intended to be usable for any action (i.e. as an action pool '4'), or specifically for actions with a cost or gate of exactly '4+' (and no lower)?

5. If something like a Chaos token ("used exclusively by the X") is stolen (e.g. via Syphon Style's '2+ or 6+: Power Converter'), can the recipient use it for its native function?

6. Can a Teacher use multiple Inspired tokens in the same turn?

There's also a few things I've spotted that may be infinite loops; either I've misread something, or they would be good targets for errata:

- Fused or Frantic Phantom + Song Form + Elder Style

If Phantom and Elder Style's cost reductions stack, that would mean the free 4 action from Sing Along would be enough to meet the 6+ gate of another Sing Along, repeating the process and accumulating resources.

- Chaos token + Motivating Style's '4+ You Can Do It!'

If you copy a chaos token, you can use You Can Do It again by expending that chaos token, healing/moving/etc. as you repeat the process. If you can't target yourself, this can still be done with two characters that are fused Demon/Teachers. Inspired tokens could work similarly, but are less egregious since it isn't guaranteed.

- Frantic Phantom + Blaster Form + Vampire Style, using Flare

Distracting Style's '1+ or 2 basic tokens: Flare' can give two enemies a weakness token while using Blaster Form; if you're also using Vampire Style, that would give you two power tokens if I'm reading correctly, which can repeat the process to give those enemies an unlimited number of weakness tokens.

I do really love this system, already; that's why I'm engaging with it so much. Thank you for making it :)

aimlessPolymath1 year ago (3 edits)

While not an infinite exactly, Brawling Zen is tremendously difficult to take down except by specific approaches.

When your shield is broken by damage from a foe, you gain one Power token from Brawling, then Zen deals 1 damage back to them. If you don't spend Power tokens on this hit, you gain a second Power token, meaning you can immediately put up a new shield with Tough It Out, arguably before the next damage action comes in.

Traps, Crush, and Armor/Iron tokens can counter this to some extent, but it's pretty difficult to break otherwise.

With a bit of setup (an ally with Dance, the Found an Opening bonus, or access to Chaos tokens), a Frantic Phantom with access to Patient style can gain access to Waiting Game outside their turn without being restricted by Patient's 'one action per turn' limit, letting them take it an unlimited number of times before cashing it out as one big infinite-power action (useful for, ex. Movement to generate infinite Speed for some sort of token action).

Edit: Missed that shield damage does overflow to HP! Whoops!

djtooth103 days ago

You can only have one shield active per turn, a new one will not become active until the end of turn.

aimlessPolymath98 days ago

From Brawling Form:

Brawling Zen can rebuild its Shields as they break. While inactive Shields don't normally become active until the end of the turn, you can use Tough It Out after your active Shield breaks to immediately have a new active Shield.

itch.io

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