Watch The Skies

Watch the Skies is the seminal megagame of alien first contact. Players are national leaders facing the crisis created by the unknown arrivals, or aliens arriving at the planet with strange UFOs and inscrutable motivations. While the game models the global military situation and scientific progress, its core focus is humanity’s response to the unknown, and how existing human tensions are exacerbated or overruled in moments of crisis.

You’ve probably already seen it, but Shut Up and Sit Down did an excellent video-journal of the first ever run of Watch the Skies, and you can read about one of the later runs in an article from an actual real newspaper (account required but no paywall)
If you're running the game for more experienced players, you might want to consider modifying the alien brief, since some of the tension of the game comes from uncertainty about the aliens' goals. It's hard to balance a bespoke alien team, so you may well want to look at the options in the alien scenario pack provided on the Stone Paper Scissors website for £19.99
20-40 players (including 2 Press)
Has run tens of times - design is very robust
Most of the roles are very accessible - aliens best given to players willing to role-play
Runs with 5-7 facilitators. Mix of mechanical and narrative roles. Mostly quite approachable roles, suitable for newer facilitators
Game license and materials available for £39.99 at time of writing
Around 350 cards
One 6ft x 4ft main map
Around 150 foam board tokens
Total cost (before venue) approx £150-£200

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