Pictures of Spider-Man

THE SCENARIO

You are each Spiders from a different part of the Marvel Multiverse, and have each come to the aid of one of your own.

Can you work together to defeat the machinations of THE VIDEO MAN!!?

This is a homage to the Spider-Verse comics and movies, using alternate Spiders of my own creation.

THE SYSTEM

“Is It a Plane?” is a comic book game where you don't just play a character, you create the comic book that they star in! (And the second RPG published by Psychic Cactus Games; that’s me).. 

Roleplay proceeds normally through description until the game hits a point where usually someone might roll dice to decide what happens next. INSTEAD, players have a limited amount of time to FRANTICALLY DOODLE what they want to do, using provided Panel cards (you can draw as many different actions on as many different panels as you wish in the time you get). 

Your doodling time (between 30 seconds and 3 minutes) is based on the most desperate situation for each of the Player Characters. 

The GM then interprets the frantic drawings to dictate what happens next.

Players can all take their actions at the same time; once the GM announces a Visual Phase and the time you have to draw, any Players whose Characters are able to act can draw what they do next. When the time is up, Players communicate to lay their Panels down on the two Pages the GM provides, and your desperate doodles become comic book pages that the GM describes. 

The size of each Panel that you place has a Power (between 1 to 3) and this Power is primarily used against the Power of Situations. Your aim is to reduce that Power and defeat the Situation, but if the GM misinterprets what you are doing, or if what you’re doing changes in interpretation due to the context of the existing story and where you panel is placed in relation to that of the other Players, some or all of your Panels may INCREASE the Power of Situations, create new ones, and / or give you Pressure. (And sometimes, the GM might actually misinterpret your drawings in a way that HELPs you.)

But, it’s not all chaos and confusion (or actually that much). You are able to point out anything on a Panel that the GM or players already described as part of the story, including other characters, villains, objects etc, and any stats you possess that you use (you just can’t say how you use them).

Also by writing onomatopoeic sound effects (ZOOM or CRASH) you can help imply what you are doing, and if you draw a speech bubble, you get dialogue before the Panel is interpreted. 

The game requires no artistic skill (and gives you NO TIME FOR IT); this is a game about quick and effective communication.