When it comes to the world of comic book and fantasy characters of extraordinary abilities, everyone loves a superhero, and some of us even love the supervillain. Today we are going to look at a game that lets you take on one of those roles and see who comes out as the ultimate victor!
Overview of the Game:
Origin Story is a competitive card game for 1–5 players that combines trick-taking with tableau building. Players create and develop a superhero (or supervillain) by collecting story cards over five rounds, then use that evolving tableau to influence trick outcomes and score victory points. The game typically plays over five rounds, each representing a “chapter” in a character’s development.
Game Components:
The game box isn’t too large, and will give you quite a bit in the space it provides. Included in the box:
- 5 player mats
- 5 alignment victory point dials
- 64 story cards
- 52 standard playing cards
- 18 event cards
- 10 superhero reference cards
- 36 stamina tokens
- 1 dealer token
- Solo mode parts
Gameplay and Setup:
To begin, take all of the stamina tokens and form a supply. Shuffle the story cards and set them face down along with the event cards and place them face down as well. Each player takes a player mat, alignment dial, stamina token and their reference cards.
Origin Story is played over five rounds. Each round consists of setup phases, trick-taking, and an end of round step. The rounds represent “chapters” in your character’s evolution. Each round you will play a series of eight tricks. A trick functions like in classic trick-taking games:
Each player plays one card from their hand in turn. Players must follow suit if they can. The lead suit determines the winner, unless someone plays a trump which is usually the love suit. The highest ranked card in the winning suit wins the trick.
The dealer shuffles the deck of 52 playing cards and each player is dealt eight cards for each round to play out their turns. The only change is in the third round the dealer reveals one event card from the shuffled event card pile. This event applies additional rules or scoring modifications for that round only and then is not used in the following rounds.
At the beginning of the round each player takes a stamina token from the general supply and draws three story cards from the story deck. From those three, each player selects one story card and places it face up in the space on their player mat corresponding to the current round number. Story cards often grant abilities that can be “charged” using stamina tokens and influence trick-taking or scoring. Each player reveals one chosen superhero card from the two they set aside during setup and places it on the superhero space of their player mat. Round 5 continues like previous rounds but uses the final superhero card instead of drawing another story card.
At the end of each round, players tally victory points gained from tricks and any abilities they played. Depending on who you chose to be, heroes aim to win tricks, villains may aim to avoid tricks and then these points are tracked on each player’s dial.
After 5 rounds each player will have built a full story that is their player mat, story cards and superhero card. Players will total their victory points from tricks, story card and superhero card scoring conditions, event modifiers, and any additional earned points. The player with the most points wins!
Impressions:
Origin Story is a new trick taking game that really emphasizes the idea of the superhero story in ways I had not experienced before. I love a good card game but at times in the last few years have felt the trick taking genre has been overplayed. But here we see a new view on it in a way that is mor thematic then I usually feel these games can be. For that alone I recommend this one to check out.
The art is solid and fun, it has a graphic novel vibe that feels and looks great in ways that make it seem like a comic jumping off the pages. Each player board and superhero/villain power cards really look great and you will find yourself engulfed in the experience for sure.
The gameplay is quick and easy to understand, so if you are introducing this one to people who maybe do not normally play board games but have experienced a trick taking card game, it should be very easy for them to follow along. The idea of deciding between hero and villain is fun and lets you lean into the direction of your dealt hand which can be nice if you don’t feel like you have a strong hand to win all the tricks.
Overall Origin Story is a solid game and one that has secured a place in my collection. If you enjoy a good card game and love the comic book/superhero genre of games this is one you should really consider getting to your table!
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