Origin Story is one of the most unique, enjoyable trick-takers I’ve ever played. However, in the base game, there were only 10 Superhero cards, making the end of the game feel predictable and quite dry. But with Origin Story: Heroes & Villains, 7 more Superhero cards and 14 brand-new Supervillain cards are added.
So does this mini-expansion fix the ending of a great game, or is it too little, too late? Let’s dig in.
Gameplay Overview:
In Origin Story, 1-5 players take up the great responsibility of becoming a Superhero or Supervillain and compete against one another in a trick-taker. Each player starts the game with an inherent ability unique to them, and as the game progresses, each player will get four new abilities they can use, as well as the final round Superhero or Supervillain card. These abilities are powered by Stamina, which each player gets one more added to their pool each round. While each player will have several different abilities, there’s a good chance that you won’t have enough Stamina to power them all, so choose carefully at the start of each round which abilities you want to power up.
Once all the abilities and Stamina are set for the round, an 8-card trick-taking session follows. It is a must-follow trick-taker, with one suit always being trump. However, because of the abilities that players choose, any and all rules are up for being changed, tweaked, or completely ignored. Scoring is straightforward, depending on your alignment: are you taking the Superhero route where each trick you win is worth one point, or are you going the Supervillain route where if you win zero tricks, you score four points? Of course, this scoring is also impacted by the abilities chosen around the table, so don’t expect each hand to be that straightforward!
After five rounds of play, the player with the most points wins. Choose your powers wisely to overcome your opponents to become the best Superhero (or Supervillain) and claim the title of the best Origin Story.
Game Experience with the Expansion:
With the benefit of hindsight, Origin Story is my third-favorite board game of 2025, only behind Moon Colony: Bloodbath and Hot Streak. I completely agree with fellow writer Brandon Bryson’s take on the game in his review, so I encourage you to check that out for yourself for a more complete review of the base game. I agree with his final score of 4.5 Stars, even if our minor points may differ. It’s a truly fantastic game that should be played by all trick-taking lovers out there.
But we’re here today to see how the new Heroes & Villains expansion integrates into the game. And I’m happy to say that this expansion pushes the game over the edge into a perfect 5 Star experience.
The base game had a real issue, in my opinion, with the end of the game feeling quite anticlimactic, and discouraging players from being a Supervillain from start to finish. The final powers were often either huge point drops or way too luck-based, meaning players were faced with no changes to their power tableau or faced with some horrid/explosive luck and no changes to their tableau. While these cards are still in the game, the density of more variance in the new final powers helps spread these less-than-exciting powers out.
All 21 of the new powers are engaging in ways the originals were not, encouraging your entire build in the game to be built around them. And since you aren’t locked into your final power until the final round (and since with the expansion, you’re given three instead of two powers to choose from), you always feel like you have a juicy option instead of a boring point drop. And hey, at the end of the day, guaranteed points when others are swinging for the fences can help decide a victory, especially with these newer options.
But the reason this expansion pushes the game into 5 Star territory is because of the support of the Supervillain archetype. In the base game, it felt like in the final round, players were always encouraged to play for tricks for points simply because of the design ethos of the original powers. However, with the expansion, there have been two games where a player was able to get away with winning zero tricks and either win or be highly competitive for victory. Even if a player is leaning into winning tricks, the Supervillain cards can still help decide a victory because some of them are built entirely around drawing and discarding play cards, making winning tricks much easier.
The only slight I have with the expansion is that, well, it should have been there from the start. In a weird way, this feels more like an errata pack or an apology tour, and not so much an expansion around expanding or evolving the game.
Final Thoughts:
With Origin Story: Heroes & Villains, Origin Story goes from a great game with a glaring flaw, to a masterpiece that I can recommend to anyone who is a fan of trick-taking games. It’s snappy, gorgeous, engaging, and exciting in ways very few other trick-taking games have even come close to. Origin Story should be checked out by most, but if you own or enjoy the game, Origin Story: Heroes & Villains is the easiest recommendation for an expansion of all time. And if that doesn’t sell you on it, know this: I have only ever enjoyed a handful of expansions before, and all of them are for Stonemaier products. They know their games and treat them with the love and respect they deserve, and Origin Story: Heroes & Villains is no different.
Hits:
• Fixes a flaw from the base game
• Improves variety
• Makes the ending less “solved”
Misses:
• Why wasn’t this just in the base game?!
