New England Overpower Rules (NEO) -- Interested?

[hudarklord]

The NEO rules are here -- https://sites.google.com/site/neogamerules/

In the late 1990s and early 2000s I designed a highly intricate set of modifications to Overpower that we played in the Boston metro area.  It was called "New England Overpower" ("NEO" for short).  The goal was to modify Overpower dramatically without adding dozens of homebrew cards in the decks.  The goal was to mine the hundreds of cards that had been printed and were never used because of severe flaws in the design architecture the game (like those that didn't count toward Venture, for example, and which were never played very often).

Below, I'm gonna harsh on OP some.  You must understand something -- I _LOVED_ Overpower.  LOVED IT!!  And I hated it too.  I hated that it wasn't as good as it should have been in spite of having some of the best core concepts of any CCG ever printed.  So, please, don't bother to go all fanboy and tell me how I'm wrong and how it's one of the best games ever in spite of its flaws.  Why?  'Cause I'll probably agree.

I probably spent thousands of hours studying it.  No, I don't just mean designing cards and playing games for fun.  I mean thinking about it hardcore like my life depended on it.  My vision started failing while I was at Harvard for grad school.  I had trouble even seeing what I was typing to edit my classwork.  I had an awesome GPA, but I got depressed about my failing vision and dropped out.  I felt like crap, and had trouble seeing well enough to do everything I wanted to.  I could, however, see the images of OP cards well enough to play the game if I memorized a lot of the card text.  So I did.  I played a lot of OP.  A LOT OF OP.  I loved game design, and I found in my fellow New England OP fans something that I wished I had had in grad school -- a whole team of super smart editors who understood the subject matter well enough to help edit my ramblings to make them usable.  All the flaws in NEO are mine.  Anything that's edited in a coherent fashion is their work.

The NEO system involved radical departures from all the deckbuilding rules in OP, plus a variety of changes to the in game rules, and a sophisticated system of cards that came onto the table prior to play.

It let you build MAX 6 teams featuring Nightwing and beat teams featuring Heroes for Hire and Spawn.  Almost every card was usable in one deck or another.

Here are some of the ideas I designed and my team developed:

1) Alternate character costing
In an ideal world you'd actually playtest all the characters and cost them according to their value in game, Specials and all.  Well, that clearly didn't happen.  The current costing system in flawed and makes characters like Hawkman more expensive than the Marauders.  I didn't want to come up with a custom cost for every character, because that would be hard to memorize.  So, while it's not a perfect measure of effectiveness, I came up with an alternate costing system that you could memorize based on grid scores and inherent abilities.  It makes lots of characters worth considering.

2) Replacement Draws for Bad Cards
Tons of cards in OP are just crap.  Why?  Because they aren't worth Venture and you'll thus lose the hand if you play them.  An obvious solution is to let you draw a card if you play something like a Basic Universe card.  The inobvious problem is that you thin your deck and can create a card draw engine to draw all your good cards if this goes unchecked.  We defined rules on what nets a draw, modified the minimum deck size, and limited the bonus draws to once per Battle.  Hundreds of cards became playable.

3) Restricted Cards Lists
Let's face it, some of these cards just weren't playtested.  They are gross.  Ty Bertrand's Spawn-Heroes for Hire-Spider Girl-Spider Woman deck filled with Black Knights and 9 or less avoids shows the worst case of the problem.  Instead of designing cards right, a few bad cards crept in and then subsequent designs were about nuclear arms escalation.  Welcome to the Restricted Cards List.  It's a list of the really gross cards.  You get one per every 10 total cards in your deck.  Now with a minimum sized deck you can't put in nine different team 9 or less avoids, three Black Knights, and all the other crap that makes everything else unplayable by comparison.

4) Alternate Homebases and Blocking Bonuses
I was sick of Marvel Universe.  Further, I was sick of being unable to use most of the MAX 6 characters in the game.  Why?  'Cause they can't block a damn thing.  You know what MAX 6 characters needed?  Bonuses to block high cards.  Mix those in with specially designed level 0 Combat cards (which duped with high Combat cards) and MAX 6 characters were on more even footing with MAX 8 characters.  I didn't want those bonuses all the time, or what's the point of having grid differences at all.  So I made different homebases with deckbuilding restrictions on them and attached alternate Venture bonuses and blocking bonuses to them.  That started the idea for alternate Homebases.  Then I went nuts and came up with really wacky ones that granted you a special game power or three that the other guy didn't have.

5) Superhero Teams That Don't Suck
The Fixed Roster Homebases (like The Outback) just weren't as good for the most part as a custom team.  Sure, Four Freedoms Plaza was playable, but not most of them.  Why?  Because OP is based on an attribute score system and most superteams in OP have characters with almost no similarity between each other in the "grid" department.  So Power cards are almost fully unusable for blocking.  Great, I guess I won't play Beast and Cyclops together after all.  NEO fixed that.  Comic book superhero teams were viable finally.

6) Heroes That Don't Suck Without Hundreds of New Homebrew Cards
OK, Nightwing is kinda crap.  But you love Dick Grayson.  You don't want to violate the hell out of the comic companies' copyrights and you don't want to waste $300 in printer ink printing custom cards that should have been designed in the first place.  What do you do?  Well, you first bring a card that Nightwing (and several of his buddies) can all bring to the table if you have the guts to play Nightwing.  It has to be pretty gross, right, cause Nightwing's not good?  Right.  You make the card printable with limited ink, no artwork, and plain text so it's easy to print.  Now you build a deck around it.  What do you know, it's like someone designed a card just to make Nightwing and everyone with a similar card pool devastating.  Oh, wait, somebody did.  They are called Strategy cards.  Bad heroes, bad battlesites, etc. can let you buy them and add them to your starting configuration.  Did I mention that some of them are extremely gross?  Fun.

7) Playable DC and Image Characters
Wow, a few characters aside, and it's really like Marvel went out of their way to design expensive, unusable characters when they built the DC set (and to a lesser extent Image).  An intricate network of Strategy cards and Homebases combined with the Replacement Rules and the revised character costing and now I can play DC and Image characters and beat Marvel characters from time to time.

Battlesites That Don't Suck.

Wait, Lee, battlesites don't suck.  There's The Outback, Onslaught's Citadel, and Age of Apocalypse.  Maybe Any Heroes if I'm bold.  Yeah?  How about the rest?  Strategy cards would fix them.  Better yet, how about changing the deck Stacking Rules so that good one per deck cards (like "Draw 3 cards") are one per Battlesite, but mediocre OPD cards (like a level 4 attack) aren't your only OPD card allowed on a battlesite.  Holy crap, you mean that I can play a level 9 attack AND "Target Character May Not Attack" AND "Draw 1 card, keep dupes" if I pick a Battlesite that doesn't happen to have a Draw 3?  Yes, you can.  Plus, while they're text only (to avoid infringing on the images), how about some DC battlesites for a change?  Love me some Justice League International.


NEO was tested for years (most of the early 2000s) and had regular tournaments and game nights.  By its very nature the system requires some memorization of new rules because it effectively intends to import alien concepts into Overpower without reprinting all the cards.  That's the downside.  It is a kludge.  What is sexy and simple with reprinted cards is a little clumsier if you have to use a crutch instead of fixing the problem directly.  The upside is the sudden massive playability of hundreds of cards and enormous deck diversity.

The good news about the system is that while it works best as a whole, a lot of the systems inherent in NEO are modular.  This means that you can, within limits, use some of the ideas without using others.  In all cases you won't need more than a handful of homebrew cards in your decks.  Most of the changes are on cards outside of your deck or in the rules of play.

For some reason, pockets of Overpower players have been coming out of the woodwork on various forums.  NEO has been mentioned in a number of places, even here.  I have no idea if the system would be of interest to anyone or if it is still relevant today.  In spite of all its flaws and warts, and because of all of its good parts, I'm willing to offer it up for someone to host somewhere if there are any calls for it.  

In the end, if you play NEO you'll use Overpower cards, but it'll raise the complexity bar and the strategy bar really high.  It'll also feel, in many ways, like a different game, because in some ways it is.  It's the beginnings of a game I would have designed if I could have built Overpower.  Eventually I did go on to design a game called Powerstorm.  It was one part Wildstorms CCG, one part NEO Overpower, with a little bit of Vs. System, and a lot of custom engineering thrown in.  If you played Overpower you would have said it was an Overpower clone.  If you played Wildstorms you said it was a Wildstorms clone (even though the two games have little in common).  In truth, the basic game was designed to feel like OP to bait my friends into playing it, but the advanced game felt to most people who played it like something quite different.

Whereas the Powerstorm rulebook was more polished, the NEO rules are a bit more a kitbash.  They aren't as easy to read, but all the good ideas are there, hidden behind some mediocre organization.

With or without my NEO modifications, Overpower is a fantastic intellectual creation for all of its flaws.  It gave me some of the best years of my life and some of my very best friends.  I hope it has done the same for you.

BTW, I can still barely see what I'm typing, so I can only pray that some of this was coherent.  Let me know if you want to see some NEO goodies.


Lee

[a_noble_kaz]

I'd be very interested in seeing your custom rules. I learned about NEO first from justabgkid.com/emporium, and i have been mighty curious as to the particulars of your game design. as a matter of fact, me and my friends use level 0 power cards in max 6 decks. send me a link or something!

[hudarklord]

Thanks for the interest.  

The NEO rules are here -- https://sites.google.com/site/neogamerules/

BTW, the Emporium got the game text of the Level 0 cards power cards correct, I think.  They fouled up the rules.
http://justabgkid.com/emporium/ae-0powercards.html

First, there was no level 0 Any Power.  I didn't test one.  I don't know how it affects the game balance, but could improve MAX 7 decks.  I probably wouldn't use it during play without playtesting it.

Second, on that site they wrote:
"When used DEFENSIVELY they act just like a Level 8 Power Card. They can be used to DEFEND against any attack that a Level 8 Power Card could be used to defend against. "

Not in NEO they couldn't.  They could block just a zero unless boosted by a numerical modifier special or basic universe card.

MAX 7 and MAX 6 teams had custom homebases that gave them higher per hand venture bonuses and bonuses to block specific higher power cards.

A typical custom Max 8 team homebase often got a +1 venture bonus each round

Max 7 team homebases often got
"Your team is +1 to defend all attacks of 6 or greater if you have no MAX 6 character in Reserve,"
and a +2 venture bonus each round if they had no MAX 6 characters in reserve (+0 otherwise).

Max 6 teams homebases often got:
"Your team is +2 to defend all attacks of 5 or greater," along with a +3 venture bonus each round.


The idea for level 0 power cards goes like this.  Let's say, for the sake of argument that a MAX 7 team (A) stacks one each of 0 to 7.  Let's say the MAX 8 team (B) stacks one each of 1 to 8 power cards.

A: attack with 0
B: block with 1

B: Attack with 8
A: Block with 7

A: Attack with 1
B: Block with 2

B: Attack with 7
A: Block with 6

A: Attack with 2
B: Block with 3

B: Attack with 6
A: Block with 5

A: Attack with 3
B: Block with 4

B: Attack with 5
A: It hits

A: Attack with 4
B: It hits

A hit with a 4 (plus a +2 homebase venture bonus) for 6 venture.
B hit with a 5 (plus a +1 homebase venture bonus) for 6 venture.
It's tie on venture, and almost even on damage.  In the long run, the MAX 8 team can have some advantage, but it's fairly minor.


Here's a sample homebase location for custom teams.

STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY

Team Defense Bonus:
Your team is +1 to defend all attacks of 6 or greater if you have no MAX 6 character in Reserve.

Homebase Venture Bonus:
* Your homebase venture bonus is +0 if you have a MAX 6 character in reserve, or +2 otherwise.

Pre-game Enhancements: 1 character may start with one of his Specials in play on himself if that card is a "Permanent Record" or "K.O.  Modification" card.  

[Note from Lee: So, you could start with Deadpool's 30 hits to KO card in play on him, if you wanted to]

Deckbuilding Restrictions:
Any MIN 6/MAX 7 team regardless of cost and which is now tournament legal.  

[Note from Lee:, in other words no X-Babies, no Reyes or Captain Mar-Vell, no Beyonder, and nobody with an 8 for an attribute score.  X-Babies are called a "MIN 5" character.  They fit on teams that need a best score minimum of 5 to join.  Here, you have to have at least one 6 on your grid to join.  For homebase purposes, Reyes and Captain Mar-Vell are considered MAX 8 characters because of their inherents.  Beyonder is an infinity grid and can't be only any grid restricted team.  MAX 8 characters are guys with 8s on their character card.  They need not apply either.]


The zero power card was just a zero.  It could kill like a big card if it hit, and it often did, but you had to sneak it through.  It typically wasn't a way to block big attacks.  The extra duplication text was to make sure that MAX 8 teams didn't end up with yet another row of power cards.  MAX 7 teams typically played only with the 0 Multipower card.  MAX 8 teams tended to field no zeroes at all (hmmm, I saved a level 0 card, I drew an 8, I discarded the 8, and I'm so glad I stacked the 0 now!).  MAX 6 teams fielded 3 zeroes of their choice usually.

Hope that helps to clear up things.

If some other people chime in I'll cobble together a NEO package and let someone upload it.

Lee

[Onslaught]

For some reason, pockets of Overpower players have been coming out of the woodwork on various forums.  NEO has been mentioned in a number of places, even here. 

Hey cool, could you link me to the other forums that have Overpower discussion? Thanks.

[hudarklord]

I said "forums" and meant venues: this site, another site, get togethers, Facebook.  In part I heard about regular gatherings of OP players in the Toronto area.  I was talking with Michael Sutton yesterday.  He used to do tournament ratings for Overpower and he's just started playing again.

I don't know that they have a forum, but this site has some decent content:

http://justabgkid.com/emporium/homemadeemporiumhome.html

There's a Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5852678335

Hope that helps.

Lee

[Nostalgic]

Just wanted to say I loved the costcapping formula and use it with my friend when we play nowadays though we don't use the NEO system. (I seemed a bit...complex.. when I first looked into it.)  We've also been using the emporium's rules for the level zero power card as it was a symple and effective boost to the max 6 guys, but we've also included a lot of the homemades on that site as well.  I'll probably look in to NEO again when I have time to sit down and digest it.

[hudarklord]

Just wanted to say I loved the costcapping formula and use it with my friend when we play nowadays though we don't use the NEO system. (I seemed a bit...complex.. when I first looked into it.)  We've also been using the emporium's rules for the level zero power card as it was a symple and effective boost to the max 6 guys, but we've also included a lot of the homemades on that site as well.  I'll probably look in to NEO again when I have time to sit down and digest it.

As noted, the Emporium got the idea from me, but our cards worked VERY differently.  Check out the link --
https://sites.google.com/site/neogamerules/

The rules with all features turned on are fairly complex.  But it's modular.  You can turn on specific options while ignoring others.  The site explains how to "ease into" the system without turning everything on at once.

[BasiliskFang]

wow, that was so complicated, i wouldn't know where to start.

[thetrooper27]

I mentioned the New England OverPower in one of my earliest posts, and this one jumped out at me when I saw it in unread posts since last visit.

I enjoyed chatting with hudarklord online years ago, and I've read his complicated, but refreshing system (at least as much as I can understand it).  I really like the replacement rules, the cost capping, and though I never used any of his strategy cards and such, I thought they were a great idea, too.  I remember him telling me about the extent of playtesting they did, and how large the group was... I would've really enjoyed being in on that.  I'm enjoying just posting with you guys and learning how the original rules worked.  The tough part is we all want new stuff to play.  When we think of new ideas and custom cards, the fun would be putting them to the test.  I'm not a DC guy, but wouldn't everyone love to see those characters find their way into some decks?  NEO offered some good options for that.  I think there are alot of cool options, and maybe some good ideas for custom cards in the works.  If you guys haven't checked them out, and you have some time (maybe you could print them and read them on the john ) I suggest you give them a shot.