Overpower Deviant Art

[Tussin]

http://overpower-3rd.deviantart.com/
http://overpower-3rd.deviantart.com/gallery/



interesting ideas.

Two new concepts have been added to OverPower with the creation of Third Edition (besides the concept of crediting artists for their work).  Those being, Identity and Affiliations.  Firstly, I've introduced Identities to provide some much needed clarification.  Any given character's true identity was something that was never addressed in the original game, leading to some bizarre conflicts and confusing situations.  With the release of the Classic expansion, variants and clones were introduced to the game on a fairly wide scale, taking their cue from earlier DC promotional variant characters.

It was a way of adding some depth to the game's deckbuilding by referencing more obscure characters and alluding to changes to popular characters' abilities over the course of their histories.  The most notable being Spider-Man's black costume, which changed him from a Fighting- and Strength-based character to a Strength- and Energy-based one.  It's a great idea, but was never implemented very well in the original game.  Human Torch had a variant that was actually a separate character, which made no sense whatsoever.  Shang-Chi had a colon in his name, which was usually the indication that a character was a variant.  But there was no other version of Shang-Chi ever printed.  Angel had a variant that was printed before his original Character card ever got made.  Some variants had pretty awkward names, and some just weren't different enough to really warrant being printed.

As far as clones went, too many of them were just lazily thrown out there.  These were characters who deserved a lot better, deserved to be fleshed out and given their proper due, with their own arrays of Special cards, instead of just acting as alternate versions of other characters.  One of the biggest failings of the game was that it favored then-current flash-in-the-pan new characters who lasted a few issues at most over classic enduring characters with decades of history.

DC showcased the worst examples of this.  Wally West was the Flash during the '90s, hence, he was the Flash included in OverPower (along with Tim Drake as Robin, Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern, and Connor Hawke as Green Arrow).  Those are all fantastic characters, but naming those guys as the only characters to bear their respective names does a massive disservice to the legacies of those names.  It means they couldn't have done a Guy Gardner or Hal Jordan or John Stewart GL without indicating it was some sort of variant or clone of Kyle's GL.  This is a decision that showed absolutely no forethought on the part of the DC sets' original designers.

This is why the concept of identity needs to be included.  It's meant to prevent things like having a character named "The Flash: Barry Allen" and trying to explain why that character with a colon in his name is actually a separate character from the one just called "The Flash."  It's also necessary for characters who have taken on different identities over the course of their careers.  Now instead of having a single "Henry Pym" character, we can have an Ant-Man, Yellowjacket, and Giant-Man each with different Power Grids and Special cards, that would only count as variants of characters named Henry Pym.  It means we can have a Scott Lang Ant-Man and a Henry Pym Ant-Man on the same team.

This allows for more true representations of those characters.  There can now be a character simply named "Venom" who represents the Eddie Brock, Mac Gargan, or Flash Thompson version.  And some Special cards may even be playable by all versions of a particular character named "Venom," or "Captain America," or "Green Lantern," or what have you.  Some Specials may be playable by all versions of "Henry Pym" or "Bruce Banner."  Identity = flexibility.

Identity is meant to clarify, but my second new concept, Affiliations, is meant to expand.  Affiliations are going to be a whole new type of card.  You'll see them once I get finished with all the Characters and Special cards, but basically, they're going to act as sort of a universal Inherent Ability for your team, the strength of which is determined by how many aligned characters your team consists of.  Almost like Homebases, but since the card goes in your deck and doesn't activate until you play it, the random factor mitigates the card's effectiveness.  The earlier you get to play it, the more useful it will be.  All Affiliation cards will be One Per Deck, and as of now, I'm only planning to make one card per Affiliation, plus one universal "Marvel Universe" or "DC Universe" Affiliation which would apply to every character from those publishers, even those without any listed Affiliations on their Character cards.

Despite the fact that Affiliations are all One Per Deck, their abilities will not be designed to be too powerful.  The concept will work as a way to promote teams of related characters rather than completely random mixed bags.  Additionally, certain Special cards and Inherent Abilities will interact with the concept of Affiliations, opening up more creative game design avenues to pursue.

[AO user]

Those are great cards & grids!  Cap's multi 9 is nice

[chuu]

Thanks, these cards are great looking

[steve2275]

holy crap
speaking of caps 9 multi

[justa]

Good looking cards.  Quality work again!
     I like the Affiliation concept, but I always thought it would work better through homebases and aspects.  For example, X-Mansion, Danger Room, and Krakoa give different versions of X-Men with different team abilities.  It also negates the need to remake EVERY character card to make it all work.
     As for the "identity" issue, I agree 100% with what you posted as text.  However, I don't see how the cards you made agree with the philosophy.  Why create a character card that is identical to the "legacy" card, just to give them their own specific specials?  And not so much the character cards, but the specials!  IMHO, a good half of the characters you made don't have an alternate version of a different "real" name of the same "code" name (or "base" character name) to warrant making specials specific to the identity.  For some examples, who was ever Professor X other than Charles Xavier?  James Howlett turns out to be the Real name of the guy we knew only as Logan for so long.  Would Logan specials really be any different?
     What would you do with an identity like Hal Jordan.  In addition to Parallax in the legacy cards, I've collected over the years a Green Lantern: Hal Jordan character to use Green Lantern specials, Hal Jordon characters with specials, and Spectre characters with specials.  Could be a "house rules" discussion, rather than "custom cards".
     And why cling so to the legacy card names?  If replacement is the reason, so be it.  Many others have done the same.  I've always felt addition was better than replacement.
     Maybe I'm just not seeing your big picture.  I don't know.

I do know they're decent cards, and I appreciate all efforts to keep the game I love going and growing.  Good luck with this new project direction.

[chuu]

Sorry Junta, i do not believe that the creator of the cards actually frequents this forum...

[Tussin]

yeah.. i think the alternate names on specials is a little excessive, Mysterio is Mysterio is Mysterio, i would however think having alternate stats for different people who became said villain or hero.

maybe set a different innate on each as well to add a little more flavor.

keep the same sum value, but do that so it can be fit best to what you like or need in your deck.


Mysterio : Quentin Beck 6-3-4-6 (he would be considered original Mysterio)

Mysterio : Daniel Berkhart 6-4-4-5 (Considered a Clone, even though it is a Variant)

Mysterio : Francis Klum 5-3-5-6 (May Not Be Spectrum KO'd With Energy Special Cards.)

just for example, the key stats of any Mysterio naturally have great energy/intellect, different people have different fighting and strength potential. still 19 points, stats still work together, different innates can give more diversity

for Daniel his innate could consider himself a clone, it ties in with mysterio's illusions, nothing overpowered about it.

[justa]

     Tussin, you get my drift! But go another step further....why maintain the legacy grid total?  Legacy OverPower seemed to be more about cashing in on the Magic craze to suck up our disposable income, and promoting on-going comic projects, than it ever was about making the game and the characters consistent or in agreement with comic history.  (We get to do that!)
     While some base characters would not be affected by which identity is inside the costume (as you did with Mysterio), some identities would require different grid totals.
     The Iron Man armor is a good example of this.  Iron Man: Tony Stark has (and should have) a higher grid total that Iron Man: James Rhodes (War Machine).  While the legacy cards put Green Goblin between the two characters, I would put Iron Man: Norman Osborn (Iron Patriot) at a 23 (1 point above Tony Stark) due to fighting ability.  (Same suit, and equivalent intelligence, albeit it expresses in a totally different bent).
     Another good example of different grid totals/abilities is legacy Spiderwoman (Julia Carpenter)/Arachne vs Spiderwoman/Jessica Drew.  These all DESERVE their own specials above and beyond, or separate, from what ever is the base character.
     I can see Cap A, Carol Danvers, Dr Doom, and Venom getting specials for the identity behind the mask, but to use WITH the base character specials, not to Replace the originals.

     And for Chuu: From the write-ups with the cards in deviant art, I assumed these cards were from OverPower Balance, who has posted in this forum before.  I guess I also assumed he (or is it she?) would appreciate some feedback.  BTW, any more Babes cards any time soon?  They were cool and very usable.
     (and think Peter Wolfe: "I believe I'm "justa" ......)

     as justabgkid (not me) says: "OP LIVES!"  And I agree.

[Tussin]

yeah i can agree with that, maybe a better way is to have like 4-5 specials for every base character that each hero or villain can use, and have 1-2 unique special suited just for them perhaps?

Mysterio : Quentin Beck (maybe he created a device that the other Mysterio's didn't find or care to use as part of their set or kit)

Mysterio : Daniel Berkhart (maybe he created an alternate or new technology to use)

[Kyoujin]

I.  Love.  These.

Lots of great cards for characters that never see play...except Thor...

[drdeath25]

Wow! This is the first time i ever really checked these out. These are SUPER NICE. Probably the highest quality homemades i've ever seen. Game wise, It actually seems fairly balanced too, except for a few cards. Im very impressed with this guys work. Love how he has a comment on the bottom of the page for each card stating his intentions for creating the card.

Some random thoughts:

- Black Panther - Everything Batman wishes he could be in Overpower.

- Prof. X: Psychic Suggestion - As a non-OPD, would this be the best card in the game? (He gave Reed Richards one of these too)
"Avoid one attack of 6-or less, attack is shifted to one of opponents front line characters, who may defend"

- Magneto - Really enjoy this Hero card artwork for some reason.

- Dr Doom - After years of everyone saying he should be the only 8-Stat with a negate, this guy just couldnt refuse to finally give it to him. Dr. Doom is a POWERHOUSE in this expansion. Love his art, plus a Negate, "Super Genius", and Expendable Ally. If these cards were a real expansion this would be my favorite OP character to put in a deck.

Storm: Fog Cover - Making Dr. Strange obsolete as the reserve character in Spawn-Wall decks? This card might be overpowered a little too much,  basically a master mold that also gives +1 defense, and can be played from reserve. Storm would also be a battlesite powerhouse with these cards she got in this set.

Captain America: Living Legend - No better choice for art on this one than Cap knocking out Hitler, gotta love it. lol.

Spider-Man: Looks like someone finally found a way to make spider-man a useful overpower character.

Bottom line, I fully support the work done on "OP3". This guy has done some great work. Thanks for posting this and bringing it to my attention, I never knew it existed. Looking forward to seeing more work by this guy.

[chuu]

Hey justa, my good PC is out of commission right now, when I fix it I'll churning out some more babe cards

[Tussin]

i ran across this via ebay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stxiqiVwC8Q

[OP GOD]

He has iron mans stats wrong.  He would be a beast the way he has him. Lol


OP GOD
M

[Tussin]

its actually from the deviant art i posted at the top