by Jim Wallman
This game will be played in the Multifunctional Center Maldensteijn, Malden on the 1^st of April, 2023. It will also be played in the Multifunctional Center De Enk, Zwolle on the 3^rd of June 2023.

At the moment there is a waiting list for the game on 1^st April but there are still a lot of positions free for the game on 3^rd of June.

This game, Watch the Skies, has been played by many groups, universities, and schools all over the UK as well as the USA, Sweden, Singapore, Canada, The Netherlands and Australia. In this way, it created much general interest in playing megagames.

The game is set in the real world of the year 2025, just a few years from now and the conspiracy theories about the existence of aliens and UFOs are in fact true – though the people of the world do not know that yet. Players are grouped into teams, each team playing one of eight countries in the world, namely USA, UK, France, Russia, China, Japan, Brazil and India. There is one mysterious team of aliens who are not from this world.

As the Governments of the world, deciding when to admit publicly to the world that aliens are real will be an important question for you all to discuss right from the start.

You, as the players, represent important government leaders, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Diplomats, Generals and Scientists. You will, during the game, have to deal with real world crises such as wars and earthquakes but at the same time deal with an increasing UFO menace without creating world-wide panic and terror.

In the game you will be making deals and treaties with other teams – trying to increase the wealth of our country and possibly even getting into conflicts using your Armies, Navies and Special Agents. The game is all about how you interact with the other teams.

The important thing each team will be trying to do, will be to make sure their country is safe and secure and does well.

The game rules are not complicated and can be grasped very quickly, even if you're not familiar with board games. As Jim Wallman, the designer of the game, says:

“If you're not sure what to do – find someone on another team and talk to them – you never know, they may have information for you”.

As already indicated above, 8 countries namely USA, UK, France, Russia, China, Japan, Brazil and India will be played. Each team will have:

• A head of state (either a president or prime minister)
• A chief of defence
• A foreign minister
• A chief scientist

Who knows?

Two players will play the media/press (GNN, the Global Network News). We will provide you with a laptop, printer and paper, so that you can enter your news articles and distribute them.

There will be a team of control umpires:

• Game control
• Map control
• UN / Political control
• Science control
• Alien control
• At least 2 Player controls

The game will be played on Saturday, the 1^st of April, 2023 in Multifunctional Center Maldensteijn, Kerkplein 8 (not 8a: that is another building), 6581 AC Malden, The Netherlands. Maldensteijn is located in one of the corners of the central roundabout of Malden (or its 3^rd counting from the north and 2^nd from the south). If you are in front of Maldensteijn, you can find its main entrance at its right side.

If you come by car, try to park in the quarter next to the center or on one of the long stay parking places (On the Kerkplein itself, there are parking places marked with blue paint: these are for 3 hour stays only). If you come by public transport, take line 83 either from Nijmegen or from Gennep/Venlo and get off at the bus stop named Groesbeekseweg. You should be in front of Maldensteijn.

The game will also be played on Saturday, the 3^rd of June 2023 in Multifunctional Center De Enk, Enkstraat 67, 8012 VA Zwolle, The Netherlands. De Enk is located in the center of Zwolle. Three public parking places can be found near de Enk. It it also within walking distance of the Central Station Zwolle.

Because the costs to organise the game (rent of the facility and the printing costs of the game material) have risen, we were forced to increase the entrance fee for the games. The cost to participate in the game are €30,– for players. Umpires, however, participate for free. The rules of the game are quite self explaining. You will receive a small briefing during the day. Both venues will be open for players at 9.30 in the morning. The game will end around 17.00. The game will not stop for lunch.