A New World of Heroes with Trick-Taking in Origin Story
Create the backstory of a unique superhero with abilities from allies, gadgets, powers, talents, and much more in Origin Story.
The announcement of Origin Story was quite intriguing, as trick-taking in a solo mode is literally a tricky endeavor! I was also interested in the theme, as a lot of superhero games focus on the giant battles after building up all of those powers. But what of the backstory? Very neat! I settled in to see what sorts of tales were ready to come alive with these almost-heroes!
Disclaimer
I played for the first time on a very sad personal day. Maybe it was unwise to try to learn a new game, but I wanted a positive distraction. I try to be fair whenever I spend time at my solo table, yet I know I was a bit out of it. I still think my first impressions are important to share, and I acknowledge I wasn’t in the best mental space to learn and play a new game.
No worries: I’m OK! I just want to be clear that I should probably come back to give this one another look. How we feel when we play games can have a big impact, and this is as much a note for myself as to why I may want to revisit the game.
Game Overview
Game Name: Origin Story
Publication Year: 2025
Designers: Jamey Stegmaier & Pete Wissinger
Artist: Clémentine Campardou
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Over the course of 5 rounds of trick-taking, a character slowly builds up abilities. Stamina is used to power these up, yet it often comes down to making some tough choices! The solo mode involves a pair of solo opponents whose abilities help them win tricks and take away scoring opportunities.
First Play
October 31, 2025
Complexity
2
Latest Play
October 31, 2025
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
45 Minutes
High Score
46
Game Area
36" x 20"
Low Score
38
Slight Rulebook Woes
I’m used to the common practice of learning a solo game: The first step is usually going through the multiplayer rules, then using a separate solo rulebook for modifications.
Although clear enough, I had to flip back and forth between these rulebooks. It was a case of read this page, now ignore it and use the other rulebook, and then check the next page.
I got far too confused at first, and this isn’t even a complex sort of game! Not my favorite initial learning experience.
It also felt like there were limited visual examples for some important game situations. Still, I made it through!
Cards for Superheroes
This might look like a compact game box, but there’s a lot of content packed inside! I enjoyed the artwork on most of the suits, along with the unique ability cards. So much to see!
I will note, however, that the solo mode made me feel like I was swimming in cards. This setup simply shows all of the hands spread out to evaluate, yet visually… Quite daunting.
Most of this became second nature during my first play, but initially, I felt like I was looking at a card-related explosion.
It’s also probably just me, yet the 1 and 7 on the cards looked a little similar at a glance, so I had to pay careful attention.
Nnamdi’s Story
A number of character boards are included, each with their own unique artwork laid out in comic book format. These panels are covered up with an ability each round. Awesome!
The starting abilities are somewhat all over the place, though. Some, like Nnamdi’s, work in most cases. Others favor playing as a hero or villain, taking away that choice.
For each round involves choosing a side, which is tied to planning out how to win tricks… Or lose them.
I didn’t feel like I was coming up with a storyline for Nnamdi, even though he clearly had some cool cards!
Card Considerations
It was neat to have partial information about the cards, yet each solo opponent typically replaced some of these before playing a card. This was pretty awful for me at times…
There was a sequence where I had about 3 or 4 tricks all planned out perfectly, and a couple of unlucky draws made me lose all of them with no way to do anything differently.
That randomness is typical of trick-taking games, but it felt a little disappointing with a play time over 30 minutes long.
I enjoyed the theme and idea of the system, yet as a solo experience, I felt like I didn’t quite mesh with the game.
A Sea of Cards and Visual Overload Potential
First, I think that the way the cards are laid out works very well and makes sense. I could take a look at the possibilities and formulate a bit of a strategy around my own card plays, while the solo opponents still had the chance to surprise me with the random card draws. But keep in mind that aside from the player row, the card rows can’t be organized or reordered.
So each round, I was presented with 24 cards. It’s not that it was too much to parse, but with the colorful suits and prominent artwork, I had to do a little extra work to understand what might happen. That’s not a problem in general: I love having the challenge of puzzling through the possibilities! It was more a case of being visually overloaded.
It’s something that may be a non-issue for many players, and maybe you’re one of them! For me, though, I find that I get distracted from trying to make the simple decisions about card values and suits. It all looks like a big jumble, and I feel intimidated when I need to understand how to optimize a multi-card approach. Hence, my issues with this play space!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 & 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Level 0 & Level 1 Difficulty Levels
Outcome: 38-15-10, 46-17-35 (2 Wins)
It was fun to see a lot of different cards during my second play, and it felt like I had a little more of a strategy to work with. The effort of evaluating all of the trick-taking rounds while keeping track of my abilities was a lot, though. I still appreciated elements of what the game brought to life in the solo mode, and perhaps I’ll give it another chance one day! Sort of like its own superhero story… Sounds about right.
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
6
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
5
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Seeing a character grow with new ability cards is interesting, particularly when they work very well together.
- There is a good deal of variety in how a character might specialize with all kinds of superhero-related cards.
- Choosing to play as the hero or villain during a round can be a very interesting element that doesn’t always pay off.
- Managing a pair of solo opponents isn’t particularly difficult or time-intensive, and creates some neat moments.
- All of the artwork is beautiful in its own way, depicting all kinds of features to create a unique take on superheroes.
- After the first few rounds and full play, most of the gameplay is relatively straightforward and intuitive.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Learning how to play takes a fair amount of flipping around across both rulebooks in a rather frustrating sequence.
- Placing all of the cards in rows makes sense for evaluating the probabilities and choices, yet it’s a lot to look at.
- The balance can swing wildly with a few card plays, but play time is fairly lengthy for this degree of randomness.
- A lot of gameplay feels quite mechanical, and the theme doesn’t really shine, particularly with the event cards.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the level 0 difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the level 1 difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you enjoy the most about Origin Story? Have you worked your way up in terms of the difficulty level? I’ll likely come back to this one down the line, although the core mechanics didn’t quite resonate with me. Branching out and taking chances on solo games is worth it, though, as I still learned more about my preferences and had a bit of fun as Nnamdi!
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