By: Felix Hemström Trolin
First contact – Consequences – Unknown
Scenario format: Larp
Duration: 4 hours
Number of players: 10-12
Humanity has established radio contact with an unknown vessel in high orbit around Earth. You are part of the international contact team tasked with interpreting its fragmented transmissions and deciding how humanity should respond. All communication takes place through written messages passed across an uncertain channel. Symbols are distorted, meanings remain unstable, and every attempt at clarity may create new misunderstandings. Together, you must analyse the transmissions, test interpretations, decide what can safely be revealed, and shape the messages sent in humanity’s name. Yet the uncertainty does not end with the signal. Around the table sit people with different priorities, loyalties and ideas about what humanity’s interests require. As the exchange develops, you must determine who or what is speaking, what the vessel wants, what risks can be accepted, and what kind of answer Earth should send.
When the Cosmos Speaks 2: What Answers Back is a deliberation larp about first contact, uncertainty, responsibility, and speaking for humanity. It is a sequel to When the Cosmos Speaks: Deliberations at Norrvakten, but no previous knowledge of the first scenario is required.
About the authors
Felix is a Uppsala-based larp and freeform designer and an active improvisational theatre performer. He enjoys emotionally charged games about awe, relationships, and community. In everyday life he’s a pharmacist at Uppsala University, where he teaches pharmacotherapy, clinical pharmacy, and communication, weaving role-play into his teaching.