Long time fan of the series, finally posting because there doesn't seem to be any information on how to visually represent the characters/ environments/ villains during gameplay. I know it's not a distance-focused game like D&D, but for people like myself having a physical embodiment to enhance the storytelling would I think enhance the session experience. Any suggestions?
You could always draw a map, although it wouldn't have a scale per se. Just have it point out the different areas of the scene, and maybe move tokens from one area to another to represent actors moving around?
You're right though, the system is definitely more inclined towards theatre of the mind.
I believe there is a miniature version of the Sentinels of the Megaverse game (Tactical something iirc) that could provide some in setting minatures. I believe that it also comes with various environment maps or tiles to create small maps for the game.
Beyond this, the various Hero Clix miniatures that were popular years ago could add additional minatures, though you will have to deal with the fact that you won't have one specifically for any OCs. Additionally, there are many techniques you can use for miniature maps (usually involving dry or wet erase markers and a surface upon which to use them).
How you wish to represent enviroments and PCs will depend greatly on how much detail you want and how much you are willing to spend to do so. In the end, whatever works for your group is going to be the right answer.
If you have no appropriate minis or artists in your group, what I've done is create them using Hero Machine and just making standees out of them with folded paper with a nickel taped to the bottom. But yeah, it's mostly theater of the mind, and in some ways physically representing character position takes away narrative freedom. E.g., if someone wants to make a melee attack against two enemies, that's normally fine but might make no sense if their minis are far apart.
It’s Sentinel Tactics, and you can look through this list of stuff that’s available for sale to find minis and maps. You can also look at GTG’s store under expansions for minis and maps.
Yesterday's Chapter 4 ("How to GM") preview for backers talked about Locations in the Environment.
Like, if the Environment is Megalopolis, you can have distinct Locations within it (Freedom Plaza, City Hall, etc.) where you can assume that characters can act freely, but traveling between Locations could restrict what else you can do that turn. Usually this means that you can't Attack the turn you change Locations, but you could use the time that you're in-transit to Boost yourself or something. Fast heroes can be exceptions - Tachyon can run or Legacy can fly to new Locations fast enough to still act normally.
This also gives more detail on how things like the Principle of Speed can work. Tachyon can move freely to another Location after Overcoming. Heroes that can attack multiple targets with an Ability are probably going to be restricted to targets that are in the same Location. That sort of thing. It's still rather freeform, but this idea can give a little more structure to things.
To represent this you can just have index cards for each Location and put the cards for Minion groups near the relevant one to show who is where. You can go more detailed (maps, minis, etc.) if you want, obviously.