The Roswell Incident

RPG system: LARP
Participants: 11-13 players

By

Retford Moot B (2023), Retford Hotel, Retford, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom

Steve Hatherley

Description

In June 1948, Idaho pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a string of nine shiny unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds of 1,200 miles an hour. One week later, something crashed near Roswell, New Mexico (population 25,000). An experimental aircraft? A weather balloon? A secret military project? Or something else?

Two days later and Roswell has visitors. It is noon, July 3, 1948.
Citizens of Roswell

Mayor Weinrib: Roswell’s mayor
Sheriff Jackson: Roswell’s police chief
Doctor Blake: Vet, with a practice opposite the sheriff’s office
Turner: Cattle rancher living north of Roswell, originally from England
**Karns:*8 Mechanic and scrapyard owner
Finley: Roswell Courier reporter

Roswell Army Air Field

Major Marcel: US Army major.
Sgt. Baker: Major Marcel’s driver.
Dr. Friedmann: Shark Systems Inc scientist.

Visitors

Professor Kraushaar: Physicist at the University of New Mexico
Živojinović: Junior reporter for Albuquerque Chronicle
Agent Franz: FBI agent
Agent Deacon: Junior FBI agent

The Roswell Incident is set before All Flesh is Grass and uses some of the same characters. It is not necessary to sign up to All Flesh is Grass to play in The Roswell Incident (although I hope some of you do!).
Content Warnings
Concepts and Assumptions

Here are some of my concepts and assumptions for The Roswell Incident.

Equivalent cinema rating: U or PG.

Genre and tone: Dramatic, rather than an action movie or horror. Serious, but not solemn.

PvP: Some. The characters are pre-written and some of their personal agendas will come into conflict.

Secrets: Some characters have secrets, and the game uses contingency envelopes to reveal knowledge at key moments (to avoid excessive foreshadowing).

Body horror and gore: Mild. Some body horror referenced in the background. None during the game.

Verisimilitude: None—theatre of the mind only. (Although appropriate costuming welcome!)

Sexuality/sexual violence: None.

Characters: Pre-written with background consisting of past events and information about other characters, along with their objectives. Players will choose their own genders, pronouns and first names. They will play those characters as they choose. Character sheets are typically two pages long (600-800 words or so).

Puzzles: No explicit puzzles, but the characters are trying to work out what happened in Roswell and what they should do about it.

Played at