What’s changed in the second run of First Contact?
You’ve heard the news by now: First Contact: 2035, the 200-player all-day megagame about global crisis and alien arrival is returning to central London on 20 May!
We were pretty happy with the first run - after all, we had incredibly positive feedback from people who attended - but there’s still room for quite a few improvements. Here’s a taste of what’s changing.
The Briefings
It’s important to note that we’re not just running the same game over again. Quite apart from the fact that 200 new players or returnees in different roles will interpret the briefs and the rules very differently, we’ve updated briefings for teams across the board. You may think you know what Argentina are up to - but what if their goals have changed? We’ve added more conflict, more flashpoints, more territorial disputes and more art treasures to loot. Trust no-one!
The Scientists
While we felt that individual scientists worked well, we’ve decided to group them together in five teams of three as major scientific institutions. This will lead to a better experience for the whole game - you won’t have to join the queue to talk to an increasingly harried single guy who’s being asked to produce - and do the admin for - 15 separate orbital death ray projects.
The Rulebooks
Let’s face it, there were a lot of rules to read in the first run - especially if you had a map role. We’ve made a huge effort to cut out duplication, waffle and bloated rules, and the upshot is that everyone will now have a lot less to read. Military handbooks have been cut by more than 33%, while the other role handbooks are all 10 pages or fewer. That’s not to say we’ve lost any of the crunch - but you won’t have to worry about (for instance) 10 flavours of crisis impact token while you’re trying to keep the world from caving in!
The Economy
One thing we definitely got wrong was how much money to give you - the game was awash with cash, which made what were meant to be difficult budgeting decisions fairly trivial. We’ve rebalanced the economy to make it a little more challenging - US and Chinese aid packages are going to become much more desirable.
Other Stuff
It’s all change for voting at the United Nations - no more relying on crappy apps, and a much clearer process. Foreign Ministers will now have time to get there and hear the motions.
The competition to host the next Olympics has also hotted up. Now you need corporate sponsorship and real lobbying power.
As for the aliens, well
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Assemble the squad
That’s not it for changes - there are plenty of tweaks, surprises and improvements to quality of life. If that excites you, it’s time to get the gang back together.
First Contact: 2035 will run just once this year on 20 May in central London, and we’d love you to be a part of it. We automatically apply a discount of 10% for teams of four players - so mash the button below to buy your tickets now!