New to the site, proposed Overpower Dice Game concept...

[JBOP32]

Big fan of Overpower, didn't think people still played or made custom cards.  Found this site thru boardgamegeek looking up old games I used to have.

Anyway....

I'm a huge super hero and board game fan. Loved both since I was a kid. Getting into graphic design and having access to the net I tracked down old games I used to have and either bought them back or looked into making an update version. One of my favorites from back in the 90's (now I feel old) was Overpower. I was able to track down a digital copy of every hero card and special and started to wonder if I could translate it into a dice game.

Why a dice game? I sadly no longer have my cards. I bought the entire first series and was livid when they released the IQ set making all my cards irrelevant (that and my mall no longer carried the sets and no comic shops or internet to track them down). I was new to the whole 'expansion set' nightmare that plagues popular games- as it continues to this day with set after set of Heroclix and the 'power creep' that makes weak characters juggernaut like in defense. So I quit. It wasn't until I started gaming again- board gaming with college buddies that I wish I still had my original set. The biggest gripe I had when revisiting the rules (and trying to find two boosters to get reacquainted with on ebay/comic shops) was the deck building. I didn't want to take the time to sift thru box after box of cards just to play the game. I wanted a simple solution but still maintaining all that was great about Overpower. When it comes down to it- OP is really superhero Uno with special cards. Dice could easily replace the power cards. The random result of the roll would replace the luck of the draw from the deck. All I had to do now was tinker with the special ability/powers cards...and so it began.

I used eight sided dice, one for each stat to replace the standard attack cards: Energy, Fighting, Strength, and Intellect along with a special 6 sided die with a '+' a '-' and a blank symbol (used to play a special) to modify the rolls of the other dice. Specials would be chosen at random from a draw pile to be placed in your hand or under a character. Gameplay remained the same- take out your opponent or infiltrate their base.

I tried one test game with a buddy of mine and it seemed to go ok but was missing that super hero feel. Essentially, you are rolling dice and comparing which is higher to win that battle. Players would roll all their die and cherry pick what to keep then reroll up to two times to get something better. You'd then place the die on the character card (behind a paper wall as to keep secret from your opponent) and then reveal who was attacking who. Simple enough.

I have all my old files on my desktop and continue to go back to it again and again. It really has the potential to shine as a fun print and play. Thought I'd join here and see what develops. Thanks for reading this far into my rambling...

From what I recall, each character had about six or seven special cards. Not sure now translate that into a die and not end up with dice for every different character. TSR's ill received Marvel Super Dice was also in my possession at one point, but never played as I found the rules confusing. A great concept, just not fleshed out.   Looking into rules for X-Men: Alert game as well for potential ideas. Would love to stay true to the core OP game, but willing to make adjustments/modifications to make it work as a dice game.


Thoughts? Ideas? I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

[clericblackdave]

Not into dice.  I'm a card person, so I'm instantly biased against the dice mechanic.


On a side note though, its not that expensive to get back into it if you had friends that play.  THere is overpower online (if you can get it to work), or you can buy cards semi-afford ably on a lot of different websites.

[steve2275]

no dice

[Jesse]

Heroclix is basically the dice (and mini-fig) version of OverPower.

[JBOP32]

I loved buying Overpower back in the day- the thrill of the hunt for packs and boxes, the reveal, and adding it to my binder and card boxes. But those days are gone.

Researching into the rules and amount of cards from the originial, I'm looking more to revamping the X-Men: Alert game from '92 at this point (with a heavy influence from High Noon Saloon but set in a city and the ability to use super powers). I want to try to use the stats from the character cards and their specials into my variant. I loved the idea of recruit X-men during the game and the ability to go back to headquarters to heal. Will it be difficult to merge the two? Probably, but worth it in my opinion.

I can post updates here if anyone is the least bit interested- but from all the views and little feedback I think I'm better off posting to boardgamegeek.

[Palatinus]

I like the idea of using old game components in new ways.  I'd be interested to play test your ideas.  Just let me know what stuff I'll need.  I have a copy of X-Men: Alert as well as Under Siege.

I'm also happy to collaborate on this if there is anything you would like me to work on.

[JBOP32]

Thanks! 

I'm looking to purchase a copy of Under Siege (never played, but visually I like the look of that board better than Alert-which is what I had when I was 12). I like the idea of exploring the x-mansion and discovering captured x-men or being attacked by evil mutants.  I'd want to go back and adjust the stats for each of the X-Men and design new cards with their stats and specials from IQ Overpower.

Have you ever played the board game TOMB? It kind of reminds me of that- exploring tombs and not knowing what you're up against. Essentially TOMB's turns consist of one player being the DM and the other player choosing what to do. Each tomb COULD contain a trap (which you have to disarm to move forward or you get wounded and have to leave the tomb) a monster (which you have to defeat to gain experience points and gain access to the treasure it's guarding) or you guessed it, treasure. Some times you get just a trap and no treasure, sometimes it's nothing but treasure, and sometimes just one tough monster. It's different every time. I think having a option like this in Under Siege would give it that old TSR Marvel Super Hero RPG  feel without getting too complicated. Not sure what would replace treasure though....hmmmmm...maybe broken piece of Cerebro? Maybe that's why the EM attacked the mansion in the first place- to prevent Xavier from using Cerebro to locate more mutants to be on his side? Let's go with that for now. 

Gave the Under Siege rules a quick read through too. I'd love for a turn to go something like this:

-Select your team (at beginning of game, can recruit up to a total of six instead of three)
- Choose floor to explore, then a room on that floor
- Roll for surprise (roll dice, whichever shows most symbols either Evil Mutant (EM) or X-Men (XM) gets to attack first. Thinking a stat would need to be added to the character card to show just how many dice they could roll for the surprise. The veteran X-Men would be higher while noobs like Jubilee would be dramatically less.
- Surprise Roll may be altered depending on a characters special ability. Example, Wolverine would be able to sniff out the bad guys without them knowing it- thus eliminating the need for a surprise roll. Cyclop's leadership would let you re-roll a dice. Nightcrawler could 'port ahead and clear rooms without even entering them. Maybe this is too much? 
- Attack (this is where the Overpower Stats come in. As mentioned earlier, you'd roll all four 8 sided dice- energy, strength, fighting, and intellect dice along with the bonus die (a plus sign- to add +1 to any die, a negative sign- to subtract -1 from any die, and a blank side (an option to use an additional superpower). You'd compare your dice against the EM strength and add up all of your dice to see if you meet or exceed that number.  This is where I need your help- not sure all the power levels of the EM's so this might get thrown out the window. Maybe instead, you take your highest roll (in addition to any superpowered attack values) and compare that agains the EM's defense?

My other idea is once I get the game, to recreate the x-mansion rooms on styrene to make a smaller board that isn't HUGE. Just how big is that gameboard? Or, could you scan the board so I can recreate them in illustrator? I almost don't need to buy the game except for the board itself and to flip thru the survival guide to the x-mansion book.    I have a copy of the rulebook, I can easily remake the character cards and chits/markers and use my massive collection of Heroclix to replace the gray figures. Am I missing anything else? Wait, the 70 under siege cards that show the 52 rooms of the mansion. If you could scan those that'd be great. Are they much different from one another or is it just a different color and number per card? If that's the case, I'd just need one to make a base template.

I hope you're getting as excited as I am about this. 

UPDATE:

Working with stats taken from Overpower (energy, fighting, strength, and intellect)to replace the four stat names from board game Tomb. Essentially, each level of attack could total up to the max amount of damage your character could inflict. So just like in Overpower, you may have a character that can do up to 7 damage, but only if you draw a 7 level attack card. Or in this case, roll 7 axes. Below is my chart. LEVELS represent those in overpower. The numbers below it are the green, blue, and red columns just like on the Tomb character cards. I've color coded this to make it easier.

LEVEL 8
              3        4         1
LEVEL 7
              3        3        1
LEVEL 6
              2        3        1
LEVEL 5
              2        3        0
LEVEL 4
              2        2         0
LEVEL 3
              1        2        0
LEVEL 2
              1        1        0
LEVEL 1
              1        0         0

Take Rouge for example, using her Overpower stats:
Energy 4
Fighting 4
Strength 7
Intellect 2

Her new Tomb stats would be this, using the chart above:
Energy (level 4)    2 2 0
Fighting (level 4)  2 2 0
Strength (level 7)  3 3 1
Intellect (level 2) 1 1 0

Does that make sense? Too easy? Too complicated? I've yet to work in their superpowers/specials- I wanted to get basic combat under my belt first.

[Palatinus]

I have never played Tomb.  It does have similar mechanics to Under Siege though.  There is definitely room for more functions for the search tiles.  The options are basically nothing happens, you fight an evil mutant, or you find an X-Man.  Except if you already have three on your team, then you find nothing.  Battles could certainly use some upgrades as well.

I think if you wanted to implement all of your ideas you would need a totally different board and different Under Siege cards.  Part of the reason why the game uses the cards to allow you to pick which room you go to is because of the way points are calculated.  You need to clear floors before your opponents in order to get the most points.  If you can freely move from room to room as you choose then this mechanic will no longer function.  6 X-Men would be way too many per team with how the board is.

In any event, there is a lot of potential in the game, but I recommend getting a copy and trying it.

[JBOP32]

I was watching some auctions on eBay and found one for under $20 complete. It should be tomorrow! I chatted my ideas with a buddy of mine and decided it was best to nix both overpower and tomb stats for the character cards. I'm going to keep the under siege stats and combine characters from alert as well. Although I'm replacing the gray figs with heroclix ones I wasn't able to get maverick or cable so I replaced them with marrow and mimic- two of my favs. I've created all their cards in illustrator and added in one extra power based on overpower and the ability to combine an attack with another x-man on your team like 'fastball special' if you had wolverine and colossus. I'm going to redo all the cards as well. I want to include objects in the rooms (specific to each floor like a chest in the attic and a weight in the danger room) that players can use to increase their attack or hide behind for cover. Each character will have a strength number to see whether or not you could lift/use said object. I may be getting ahead of myself, but I tracked down a heroclix sentinel as well and would want to incorporate it into gameplay. I can send you a PDF of the characters cards tomorrow. Thanks for replying!