The Marvel Champions Designers Look Back at the Game’s First Five Years

As we continue to celebrate the 5-year anniversary of Marvel Champions: The Card Game, we asked the game’s design team to share some insights as we look back at half a decade of accomplishments. Read on to see what they have to share for this Marvel Champions 5-year retrospective!

Caleb Grace Looks Back

When word came down in 2018 that Fantasy Flight Games was going to make a cooperative Living Card Game based on Marvel comics, I lobbied hard to be a part of the design team. I had already spent the previous 8 years working on the studio’s first coop LCG and I’ve always been a huge Marvel fan, so it made sense to me. Thankfully, it made sense to those in charge too, and I was added to the team alongside Nate French and Michael Boggs.

I will never forget our first meeting as a team. Before we discussed any design ideas, we wrote a question on the white board: “What does Marvel mean to you?” Then, we took turns writing down our answers:

• Great characters.
• Epic stories.
• Fast-paced action.
• Feeling of empowerment.
• Irreverent humor.

From there, we made it our goal to create a game that incorporated each of these ideas in a meaningful way. Under Nate’s steady leadership, we combined “great characters” with “feeling of empowerment” by casting players in the role of their favorite hero. In our game, you wouldn’t merely control Spider-Man, you would be Spider-Man! And in addition to the spectacular Spider-Man, you would also embody Peter Parker and have to balance your superhero responsibilities with the obligations of your alter-ego.

That pivotal idea came from Michael Boggs. When he suggested that hero cards be double-sided with their alter-egos on the back, everything clicked into place. Iconic villains and their evil schemes created our “epic stories,” and each player’s turn brought “fast-paced action” to the table as their heroes thwarted those plans and launched powerful attacks of their own. And all throughout was a healthy dose of “irreverent humor” sprinkled across card titles and flavor text to keep the tone light even as the stakes grew higher.

The careful blending of these elements is what I believe has made Marvel Champions so popular with our fans and a such a fun game to develop. For years, my favorite part has been designing new hero kits because I love creating card abilities that bring the characters to life in a way that feels true to the comics and engaging in the game. I will never tire of hearing fans talk about how playing as their favorite hero helps them feel like that character.

But my favorite part of working on Marvel Champions has been seeing just how much our game means to people. Whether it’s the snappy gameplay, the feeling of empowerment, or the way we bring each character to life, players often feel compelled to share their love for Marvel Champions with me, and I truly appreciate it! I love hearing from parents who enjoy the game with their kids, or from friends and couples who talk about how it has brought them closer together. I have even received emails describing how the game helped them get through the global pandemic or more personal struggles, which is incredibly meaningful to me.

I never anticipated any of that. I just wanted to make a card game based on my favorite superheroes, and like so many of them, I got swept up in something that turned out to be much bigger. That’s because of all of you, our customers and fans who decided to join me, Nate, and Boggs on this adventure. It’s because of your excitement for each new product that I have had such an incredible time working on Marvel Champions, and for that I want to express my sincerest thanks! It has been a real privilege to serve as lead designer on such a beloved game for over 5 years, and now it’s time for me to pass the torch to a new team of designers who are excited to take you even further into the merry world of Marvel!

Most of you already know my good friend, Tony Fanchi. He joined the Champions team in 2021 and has already made incredible contributions to the line. His first campaign expansion, NeXt Evolution, is a fan-favorite, and his upcoming Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a whole box of goodies that I can’t wait for you to discover! I trust that everyone who has experienced Tony’s design work will feel good knowing that he is taking over as lead designer on the line.

He won’t be alone. Our steadfast producer, Molly Glover, has been with the game since its beginning and continues to ensure our customers get the highest quality products. Joining her and Tony are two more talented FFG veterans, but I will let the new team handle their own introductions. My job here is done, and I’m off to work on something different for FFG. But before I go, I want to leave you with one last tease.

Going back to the game’s beginning, I created a wish list of all the things I wanted to create for Marvel Champions. On my list were characters and stories so meaningful to me that I desperately hoped I would have the opportunity to design them myself. The X-Men were at the top of that list. Captain America, Apocalypse, the Infinity Gauntlet, and many more items were on that list too. They’re almost all in the game now. It’s been a long time coming, but when my final Marvel Champions product is announced, you will know the last item on my list.

Excelsior!

Tony Fanchi Looks Forward

When Caleb told me at one of our weekly lunches that he, Nate French, and Michael Boggs were tasked with designing a new cooperative living card game based on the Marvel Comics, it was easy to see how excited he was for the opportunity. One thing to know about Caleb is that his excitement is infectious, so by the end of our lunch, I was super pumped about the possibilities of this new game.

I was designing board games for Fantasy Flight Games at the time, but as soon as Caleb offered me the chance to try out the new card game, I jumped at it. I had playtested many of Caleb’s past designs, but getting in on the ground floor with a brand-new game for an awesome franchise was an exciting new experience.

By the time I started playtesting the core set, the game’s design was very close to where it is today, and I could already tell it was going to be a hit. The gameplay was so smooth and approachable, and it really captured the feeling of being your hero, from the 15 hero-specific cards to the ability to change between your hero and alter-ego.

I expected Spider-Man to be my favorite, having collected many of his comics during my teenaged years, but I quickly fell in love with Captain Marvel. I didn’t know much about her other than what I had seen in the movies, but she was so powerful in the game and nothing felt more satisfying than setting off a 10-damage Energy Channel. My first deck-build for the game was simply cramming as many cards with energy resources on them as I could into an aggression Captain Marvel deck. There weren’t many cards to choose from back then, but it was still effective.

I continued to playtest with Caleb and Michael until the COVID lockdowns of 2020 hit. I was fortunate enough to snag a beta copy of The Galaxy’s Most Wanted before the lockdowns and played a few times through that campaign on a card table in my home office. After that, I mostly lost track of what was going on in the world of Marvel Champions, only reading about new products when they were announced on the FFG website. I still loved the game and played it frequently, but only with released content.

Then, in 2021, Michael decided to leave the studio. Nate had been promoted to his new position of Executive Game Designer, and so was no longer directly involved in the development of new content for Marvel Champions. With only Caleb left to design for the game, I was invited to join the Marvel Champions design team, and I jumped at the opportunity. Working with my good friend Caleb on a game I loved was a dream come true!

I was fortunate to get to work with Michael on designing MojoMania and the NeXt Evolution wave before travel restrictions eased enough for him to finally make his planned relocation. Michael was a great help in getting me up to speed with the design process for a living card game, which is significantly different from what I was used to as a board game designer. It was a pleasure co-designing those products with him, and I am very proud of the result.

And for the past three years, I have had the honor and privilege of working with Caleb on numerous Marvel Champions products, many of which have yet to be announced. Caleb is such a creative and dedicated designer. His depth of knowledge of Marvel comics is only exceeded by his passion for capturing them in the game. I have learned a lot from him in more than a decade as his playtester and fellow designer, and I am so glad that I will still be able to tap into his well of knowledge as I take over leading Marvel Champions into the future.

And that future is a bright one for Marvel Champions! Not only do we have Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and its accompanying wave on the way, to be followed by Caleb’s fantastic swan song to the game line, but we have two experienced game designers joining the Marvel Champions team in Aaron Haltom and Frank Brooks, to whom you will be introduced below. Their addition to the team will enable us to bring you even more great content for Marvel Champions in the future. We can’t wait for you to see what we have in store!

Introducing Aaron Haltom

I have been obsessed with Marvel comics, particularly the X-Men, from a very young age. A lot of my fondest memories growing up were my dad taking me to comic book shops, attending gaming conventions, and playing card games at the kitchen table. Marvel Champions encapsulates all of that for me. It’s a project that is both modern and supremely nostalgic. I enjoyed being in the room at the time and getting to overhear some of Caleb, Michael, and Nate’s design discussions about the game. I learned about their design process and took a lot of their principles to heart, but the thing that struck me most was that you could tell that they were having genuine fun in the process, and that joyous energy is the secret ingredient that gives Marvel Champions its spark.

Despite being busy working on two other game lines at the time, I was also eager to work on Marvel Champions in any capacity I could, so I volunteered to playtest for the game and to help them out with some design work. I primarily worked on initial designs for Rocket Racoon, Groot, War Machine, Valkyrie, and Ebony Maw. Then I got pulled off the line to work on other projects that needed help. For the last few years, I’ve been a player of Marvel Champions just like the rest of you. But with Caleb passing the torch and moving on to another line, I was happy to jump back in and help Tony and Frank. We’re working on some very exciting stuff, and I can’t wait to share it with you all!

Introducing Frank Brooks

Hi, I'm Frank Brooks. I have been at FFG for 11 years. I started in the miniatures department, moved over to board games, and now I am working on Marvel Champions. Although I didn't grow up reading comics, I read my first runs around the time of the Netflix Defenders shows and have quickly become a big fan. On the team, I'm often the one who says something like, "Oh, I think I've read an issue where that guy showed up." I like adding fun, obscure references (where applicable). Although nothing I have designed has been announced yet, I am excited for you to see what I've come up with in the future!

Marvel Champions has been going strong for five years now, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. The design team still has loads of ideas to tap into, and we’re all so excited to unveil what they’ve been cooking up. As we turn the page on a new chapter for the game, look forward to many more heroic adventures with Marvel Champions to come!