Just thought this would be an interesting topic for discussion. What do you make of the lack of a spatial element in this game? I'm less familiar with LOTR LCG (which I think has characters/enemies either at a single location or in a 'void'), but I have played a ton of and own all of Arkham Horror LCG.

Arkham uses double sided location cards to create a 'board' - which can be traversed by the players and enemies alike.

In Arkham, every scenario creates such a sense of place. And also characters and enemies have such a sense of movement. Some enemies are slow hulking creatures that slow you down. Other's grab you and pull you around. Others chase you around the map.

In Marvel EVERYONE (even the web swinging Spiderman and flying characters like Iron Man) just stands still, whacking each other until someone falls over. And other than a few lines of flavour text on a Scheme card, there's no real sense that you're in a lab, a military facility, downtown NY or anything. You're just...there.

I totally get that locations and a spatial element adds a ton of rules baggage (just look at Arkham: location connectivity, enemies engaging, threat areas, evading etc etc) and that the design team have clearly made a deliberate design choice to streamline the game, but I am concerned that without this, they lose a lot of 'thematic design space'.

I do generally trust FFG to be able to create lots of cool Villains/Scenarios with a lot of variety - but I'm not sure how they will capture a sense of movement/locations/spatiality

What do you think?

The scheme and/or side schemes are “locations” for me. And I use my imagination:)

In Arkham I do like the ‘board’ but at times felt a bit much, and like some scenarios force you to move to certain locations or force your movements altogether. I never felt like a sandbox type board were I can move we’re i want when I want. I mean if I wanna succeed at the scenario anyway.

Who knows we’re Marvel will go though eh? We only know what core set scenarios look like. Plus a peek at the first expansion

I've thought about this a bit. I love the Arkham Horror LCG. I own all of it and play it all the time. It feels like a truly cooperative dungeon crawl of sorts where the story really matters and where I'm taking on the role of a specific and distinct investigator. The location "map" and act/agenda decks go a long way towards enhancing this experience. By contrast, the LotR LVG just feels like a math exercise. I don't get the sense that I'm actually playing through a story at all. I also don't get the sense that I'm playing as specific heroes. The chosen heroes don't drive deck construction in the same way that your chosen investigator does in AH. I guess LotR doesn't feel like a dungeon crawl in card form at all for me.

My fear is that the Marvel LCG will be somewhere in between. I suspect I'll feel that I'm controlling a specific hero with a supporting deck, but that it'll feel more like a math exercise and less like a dungeon crawl. I'll give the core a shot, but I'm not super optimistic based on what I've seen so far.

I think not having locations on board gives freedom. They arent standing around. Captain Marvel punches Ultron halfway across the country could be a stroy example.

Superheros have less of a focus on where they are fighting. While in Arkham, the location has bery key roles in the story.

I think the story in Champions represents a wide variety of locations - it’s not simply ‘here’s Rhino, fight him!’ I.e. like a 3 page comic spread, it’s a more involved story where they tussle, the Villain gets away, the hero tracks them down for a later confrontation, but Peter Parker can’t spend all his time as Spider-Man - he has to pay rent, visit his Aunt, maybe deal with a random Hydra Bomb threat or an attack from the Vulture, etc, etc...

Its a comic arc, not one fight...

I think this makes sense for the theme. Arkham is a slow plodding investigation where you move from area to area discovering things or running away from things. Champions is a frenetic super hero battle. You are probably flying all around the city saving people, stopping crimes and trying to knock the villain out. they remove the spatial limitation exactly because the heroes are so mobile. I think if you had to move from location to location it would make this game feel slower and the characters slightly less heroic.

That said I agree that the schemes or side schemes are helpful in giving you a sense of location.

Also there's nothing saying they couldn't implement a mechanic like that later on if it was in service of the theme (like in one of the big boxes) where things are happening in different locations and the heroes are limited in how they move between the locations. Maybe an Earth and Space location or future and past location. Something that's not easily traversed by a jet speed Ironman or Captain Marvel flying through the air. I know in the comics Carol can reach supersonic speeds.

The locations are one of my favorite things about Arkham Horror but I really don't want anything that complex in Marvel Champions. Mostly because I think it would slow down the pace of the game too much.

I'd be happy with some kind of event deck that has locations that provide a bonus or penalty. Maybe cards in the villain deck that stay in play for a given number of turns.

But locations could get goofy when switching identities. One minute a She Hulk is trying to stop a bank robbery and the next she puts on a suit to take a break and check her savings account. After that she goes back to trying to stop the same robbery.