Origin Story: Review
Information:
Mechanics: Trick Taking, Engine Building
Player Age: 14+Player Count: 1 - 5 PlayersTime to Play: 45 Minutes
Game Designer: Jamey Stegmaier, Pete Wissinger
Player Age: 14+
Game Designer: Jamey Stegmaier, Pete Wissinger
Introduction:
Trick taking games is a genre I'm open to, but still exploring. Stonemaier intrigued me as soon as it was announced with Origin Story a trick taking game that had a large focus on Engine Building. Four out of five rounds every player will add one of three story cards to their engine. They will then charge the abilities from these story cards based on their strategy for the round determined by cards in hand and the alignment decided (different ways to score per round). The game is an interesting mix of engine building and planning the round ahead.
Game Anatomy:
Playing Cards:
The trick taking cards come in four suits, brains (green), love (yellow), strength (red) and speed (blue).
Ranging from 1 to 13.
Yellow will represent the trump suit. The suit will win the trick above the lead suit, but can only be played if the player has none of the lead suit to play.
Story Cards:
Story cards are how players will develop their engine. On each story card, there are attributes, there are also stamina values on the top left. Some cards can have multiple stamina costs, this means the action can be charged multiple times. Some story cards are ongoing abilities once charged or abilities that require the player to activate them through spending stamina allocated to the card.
Stamina:
Stamina is an interesting resource, players will create engine building possibilities through story cards. But, at the start of the round these abilities will only be active if the player has placed the stamina on these abilities. This creates an engaging planning phase before each round of trick taking.
Event Cards:
Once per game, at the start of the third round one event card will come into play. This event will shake up how scoring for that round works.
Superhero:
Each player will be dealt two superheroes at the start of the game. At the start of round five every player will select one, this will create new scoring conditions for the last round. Giving players a strategy or outlet to build towards when they are building their engine.
Character Cards/ Player Boards:
This is a great player board, that will make you feel thematically like the origin story is concluded at the end of the game.
As the game progresses the story cards and the superhero card will be revealed and remain on this board. Each player board also has a unique character with unique art and unique abilities that can be charged with stamina.
Alignment Dials:
Over the course of the five rounds the victory points gained each round will be tracked cumulatively on the dials. At the start of each round players will decide if they will align with the heroes or the villains for this round (flipping the dials to the matching side). The heroes will gain one point for each trick they won. The villains however like to go for all or nothing and gain four points if they lose every trick.
Setup:
- Shuffle the story, playing, event and superhero cards separately and place the decks within reach.
- Each player is dealt two superhero cards.
- Each player gains a player board and alignment dial set to 0.
How to Play:
The objective is simply to have the most points after five rounds. To do this players will have various ways to score from their charged abilities, their chosen alignment and the event/superhero card in their respective round. Each round will consist of an initial phase which is a mix between round setup and planning ahead. The players will then play a round of trick taking which will last eight cards.
Round Setup:
There are a lot of steps before the round commences that are essential for the gameplay of each round. In the round setup players will get the cards dealt, the event will be revealed if necessary, Players will receive and select the new story or select their superhero card, charge abilities and choose alignment.
Each player is dealt eight cards at the start of the round.
Only in the third round will an event be revealed that can change the rules and scoring of the current round.
Each player will gain three story cards and select one to add to their character card, improving the player's engines.
On the fifth round instead of the story cards, players will select one of their two superheroes to reveal and activate.
Each round, every player gains another stamina tokens, they then allocate the stamina tokens on their character abilities and story abilities planning for the round ahead.
The last step before playing each round is when players will select and reveal if they are heroes or villains this round.
Round Gameplay:
The actual round gameplay is very intuitive for anyone who has played trick takers in the past. The person leading the trick decides which card to play and that becomes the lead suit. Every other player in clockwise order has to play a card matching that suit if possible. If the player can't follow suit they can play any card from their hand, the yellow is the trump suit.
The winner of the trick will be the highest value in trump suit or the highest value in the lead suit, the winner will keep one card from the trick to show a successful trick.
In the image above is the blue one was the lead card then the blue four would win the trick eventhough the red 15 is higher.
The winner will lead the next suit. Once all eight cards are played scoring will commence. There will be other ways throughout rounds and at the end of the trick to gain points. The main way will be by matching points for alignments. Heroes gaining points per each trick one and villians gain four points for not winning any trick. After five rounds the highest scoring player has won.
Final Thoughts:
- Plenty of variability.
- Lots of ways to score points.
- Interesting engine building.
- Each round player can decide to focus on winning tricks or aiming to lose all tricks.
- Divisive art but I do enjoy it.
- Two player mode, that does work well.
Trick taking is a genre I am still slowly exploring. The element I like about Origin Story is that each round feels engaging and fresh while slowly building up to a satisfying final round. Each round is unique as players look at their hand of eight cards then commence with charging specific abilities and deciding their alignment (hero scores for each trick won and villains score four points for no tricks won). This decision process really helps players understand and plan what they want to achieve for the round, creating active decisions at the start of a round instead of planning as the round is underway. The engine building is very interesting unlocking new ways to score and new abilities that allow for ongoing benefits or ways to mitigate their luck when the round is going against them. This is a trick taking game that I can easily recommend for not only fans of trick taking games, but fans of engine building games as well. Games that are more than just trick taking games have always been my preferred way to play trick taking games and Origin Story is no exception.
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