The Roswell Incident

The Roswell Incident is a 1940s murder mystery game with an alien theme for 10 to 13 guests. Download the free introductory file.

The Roswell Incident is a thrilling evening of intrigue, double-dealing, and mysterious goings-on in 1947 Roswell! Your guests will be in the middle of the action, and it will be up to them to wheel and deal to get what they want. Will they achieve their goals, keep their secrets hidden, and survive The Roswell Incident?

"A great game, with interesting plots, believable characters with great motivations, cool investigations, and some fun twists. I love how The Roswell Incident plays with real incidents and gives its own spin on them. This game will be fun and easy to run for new players but will also appeal to more experienced players who love to get their teeth stuck into roleplay. Highly recommended!"
Elina, United Kingdom

 

See stories and pictures from The Roswell Incident.

Click here to read the Roswell Courier.

In June 1947, an Idaho pilot 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, 1947.

Welcome to The Roswell Incident, where we discover what really happened in Roswell. Why did the US Army and FBI arrive in Roswell? What happened on the Turner ranch? What did crash outside Roswell?

The Roswell Incident lasts for about three hours and is suited to an evening. It is often played over a meal – a finger buffet if possible, to allow guests to circulate and talk in private.

 

Includes rules for combat.

Characters are ungendered.

The free introductory pdf file contains an introduction to the game and a cast list of all the characters.

Cast of characters

Citizens of Roswell

• Mayor Weinrib: Roswell's mayor
• Sheriff Jackson: Roswell's police chief
• Dr. Blake: Vet, with a practice opposite the sheriff's office
• Turner: Cattle rancher living north of Roswell, originally from England
• Karns: Chain-smoking mechanic and junkyard owner
• Finley: Roswell Courier reporter

Roswell Army Air Field

• Major Collins: US Army major
• Sgt. Baker: Major Collins' driver
• Dr. Fowler: Shark Systems Inc scientist

Visitors

• Prof. Kraushaar: Physicist at the University of New Mexico
• Zivojinovič: Junior reporter for Albuquerque Chronicle
• Agent Franz: FBI agent
• Agent Deacon: Junior FBI agent

The Roswell Incident is for 10 to 13 guests. The characters are all ungendered, so they can be played by any mix of guests as required.

You also need one hosts, to organize the party and ensure everything runs smoothly.

How Freeform Games murder mystery games work

The Roswell Incident is unlike other murder mystery games. Although the game has a mysterious death, each character has several goals they must try to accomplish. While they may want to solve the mystery, The Roswell Incident contains plenty of other plots and secrets to keep everyone busy. The Roswell Incident isn't scripted, and lets the players decide how to achieve their goals and thwart their enemies.

On the evening of the game the guests are met by the organizer and welcomed to the small New Mexico town of Roswell.

They then receive their detailed backgrounds – including dark secrets, objectives and money. The fun then begins as they form alliances, blackmail each other, steal items and maybe even try to murder one another! Along the way they may uncover some of the mysteries of The Roswell Incident. Why did the US Army and FBI arrive in Roswell? What happened on the Turner ranch? What did crash outside Roswell?

Finally, the game concludes and everyone finds out how they did, and what secrets everyone else was concealing.

Recommended for ages 12+

We recommend The Roswell Incident for those aged 12+ as it is family-friendly and contains no adult themes.

Extra characters

Sometimes you have too many guests and need more characters. The Roswell Incident comes with free extra characters (written by us or previous hosts) that are included in the download when you purchase the game.

• Deputy Werner – Roswell's deputy sheriff (Any)
  (by Freeform Games)

Please note that we haven't always tested these – and they may not tie in exactly with our games.

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Cast Iron Guarantee

We offer a Cast Iron Guarantee on all our murder mystery games. If you're not completely satisfied with Murder at Sea then please let us know within 30 days and we will refund you. See our full terms and conditions, and our refund policy.

Trouble downloading? If you have trouble downloading the game files, please first check your spam folder. If you still can't find the download email, contact us with the name of the game and the email address you used to purchase it, and we'll resend it.