Truly wondrous game that's stretched my understanding of tactical ttrpgs as a whole. Truly remarkable. The Errata / second edition that's in the works adds progression and a whole bunch of other awesome changes (like super moves) and its honestly everything I've ever wanted for this game. I'm so excited to play it again. Bravo!

Really creative system that makes a lot of innovations to the standard rules for TTRPGs. From the use of tokens to keep track of status effects to the system for health bars so that if the director wants certain characters to have more staying power, even PCs, they can.

It definitely needs some more polish but it's got so much potential and I'm on the edge of my seat for when it gets finalized

This I one of the most refreshing TTRPGs. Well, tbh is more of a wargame but a silly OP Saturday morning cartoons kind of way. Some of the art is done by the creator sine the kickstarter just barely funded, but I did really like some pieces too. BUT the game really shines in its flexibility of crazy builds and how well it models cartoon level action. The system is very crunchy but in a good Magic the gathering combo kind of way. Not only that, this game I would consider “early access” since it’s getting reworked as I write. Lots of good stuff coming!

I'm not giving Panic at the Dojo 5 stars because it's perfect; I'm giving it 5 stars because it's a boldly creative game that you should buy.

The mechanics are innovative, fun and fit for purpose, a rare achievement for a new system. Panic at the Dojo is captures the <i>feel</i> of mystical martial arts combat from media like River City Ransom, Streets of Rage, Wind Breaker, etc in a way that no other RPG I can think of manages.

Beyond the centerpiece martial arts combat, Panic at the Dojo has a very stealable mechanic in the form of stakes. The story effects of losing or winning are established at the beginning of fights and only rarely derail the story, so the GM never has a meta-narrative necessity to pull punches; the players are fighting opponents who <i>want to win</i> and will try to do exactly that.

There are real flaws: The layout is confusing and disorganized, the editing needed at minimum two more passes, at least one critical rule is only clearly stated in the appendix (knowing that you can only spend 2 iron tokens per attack prevents combat from becoming a massive slog), and as another reviewer pointed out, there is no character sheet. Finally the art does little to capture the feel of the game's inspirations.

Absolutely use the errata.

Overall, the flaws are outweighed to such an extent that I recommend Panic at the Dojo without reservation. This game is worth trying out, and its mechanics are worth studying.

Highly recommended.

This is a very interesting game. The rules outside of combat are barebones, but in combat it is a completely different beast! A combination of a beat-em up arcade game with OG Fatal Fury bosses (in the OGFF, you could battle two against the CPU "boss"). It is a very build-heavy game, and theorycrafters will have a field day with it. I really, really like the engine. If you are bored with always checking for succes and want to depend more on your strategy, this is the game for you! And the Game Masters will love the competitive side! three thumbs up!

I was writing an RPG very much like this one but then discovered this one already existed! Well worth the $2.50 and reads like a fun storytelling game with bidding as the main mechanic

The good: It's a really great fight engine with a lot of dynamism and out-of-turn interaction. My group is going through a 5 fight adventure (just finished fight 4) that's been a ton of fun- an elemental-themed Frantic hero playing a variety of roles, a Fused Wardancer/Punk hero who's been using Forbidden Power Iron to hit like a truck, and a Fused Demon/Trickster who's been unreasonably disruptive with well-timed Challenges. Foes feel really good to fight- they have powerful-but-not-insurmountable abilities that we can counter with the right tools- and our GM has had a blast putting together cool builds for us to fight (personal favorite foe: a Overwhelming One-Two Trickster who played attack and defense at the same time)

Out of combat, we've basically been doing freeform RP. No issues there- the system gave us some adjectives to invoke in response to challenges and got out of our way. Because it's so modularized, it's even possible to swap out with another system entirely- I've had some thoughts about strapping PaTD to Blades in the Dark.

We found a heavily automated Google Sheets character sheet which helped a lot with organizing our styles and keeping track of foes.

The bad: It could have used another pass of editing. Questions came up regarding 'on damage/on hit' triggers interacting with Iron tokens and Armor (Is 0 damage still 'dealing damage'? One-Two form suggests yes, but Knockdown Style suggests no), and it took us multiple sessions before noticing page 280's limit on Iron tokens spent per hit (which is contradicted by Armored Style). These were subtly impactful issues that led to our GM needing to fielding Power foes in order to break through our defenses.

However, on the whole this is a really fun system! Foes are tricky but not unfair, and players have an incredible amount of versatility in battle that other systems struggle to match. Every fight has been incredibly distinctive- I'll remember the fight where our foes just kept tossing us into the big pit in the center, the one where the Crying Control foe destroyed the entire arena, and even the Some Guy gang (named stuff like Some Jerk, Some Punk, etc.), but the party has still had the tools to come out on top.

Based on read only: A brilliant take on Dungeon World (DW) that allows for Stardust (Neil Gaiman) like stories, Avatar: the last Airbenders stories, and various other interesting options. This is one of my favorite supplements for DW

Based on a read-through only I had rated this 5 stars. Conceptually, it is brilliant! It looks easy enough to run and and play, thematic, and the articulation of how far narrative could you push a game like Dungeon World before you break it. Unfortunately, in play, I have found this game is pushing narrative moves so hard, it does break.

Both attempts I made to run or play lead to confusion and frustration immediately following the first move of particular playbooks. Unlike the best PbtA games where if you follow the genre conventions, you will find a move to use, Fellowship's move triggers are really awkward. The feedback loop can circle around over and over until you feel like you are playing a game of narrative Chess where the MC and the PC player sometimes stalemate by doing the same actions and getting the same results over and over. It made me wonder, does this game really follow the tenants of "failing forward" or not? I have asked other PbtA fans online about their experiences and everyone of them also mentioned that while they wanted to LOVE this game, it just lead to a similar experience to what I had. As my experience seemed to be fairly universal, I have updated my rating to fit what I have experienced.

I'd highly recommend the Inverse World book for Dungeon World for the same setting and a superior game. the Fellowship PbtA moves all feel so forced. Dungeon World feels more trad but also more natural.

Great alternative to D&D when trying to get into powered by the apocalyse games.

Criminally unrrated, play this now.

I love everything about this game. The art is a big part of that, to be clear, but as my introduction to the PbtA genre of systems, it was really eye-opening. I love the dedication to including the expected fantasy races, and also doing so in such an open-ended and customizable fashion.

The structure of play is grand, too. The focus on the party as a unit, and why it has to be, and helping people along the way, and community being strength rather than individual power being the be-all end-all... So much in modern fantasy fiction and gaming pulls from the aesthetics of Tolkein, but this is the first game I read that cared to emulate the heart of the LotR story: a mismatched, diverse, caring, and dedicated crew setting out to face an apocalyptic force with the backing of eveyrone they help along the way.

As a note: the on-the-spot imagination required to play this is daunting, and not common in mainstream TTRPGs as an ask of the players, so it's worth knowing that going in.

A world that makes your mind sparkle with ideas, even after years or DM-ing and working in the "use your brain to imagine thing" field for a good time.

A very solid world to put players one and see what happens.

the game is overall a good one and has a good character creation system, but they forgot to include any type of character sheet in the book. Personally I feel that this was a mistake even with the simplistic game rules, as a sheet is just good for organizing character's statistic in a way that looks good and helps keep the feel of the game going. Speaking of the book, maybe I had some sort of printer error but the front dozen or two pages were some I Spy game for children ages 2-5, half printed on each page. Honestly this feels closer to a wargame than an rpg, as there is no advancement that I can see to make a hero more powerful and very little in the way of mechanics for out of combat stuff, with the somewhat weak justification of "If you have a skill that covers it you succeed, if you do not you just comically fail automatically." . The combat system is a very solid foundation but I feel that it is just that, a foundation, and to maybe come back and try the game again when it has actually built on it to make a proper rpg. As it is now I would reccomend Panic at the Dojo be kept an eye on unless you really need a kung fu fix, but not purchased until maybe some sourcebooks come out that make it a bit more playable as a campaign game rather than a single night of fun. The game has potential but it feels like it was so hasty about showing off this combat system that it neglected everything else.

A great game all around. Dragged down in some places by poor choices in book layout. Most of all. I would say the game has an issue with a total lack of an extended play example to show how some of the more esoteric moves are supposed to be handled.

Most of all. This is signified by the move Paying a price. It's a very important move. Used constantly troughout the book. But because it only has a short and rather unclear description of what it does. I have found myself using it completely the wrong way for several session. Normally. I would look for a play example as a guideline for how the game is supposed to go. But that was lacking here. What makes this all the more exasperating is that there are several much simpler moves that do have attached play examples.

If these issues were in some way adressed. I would happily bump up my rating to a 5/5

Edit: All 4 books are out now and I can confidently say this is my favourite system of all time.