Somewhere behind four layers of reality (the public story, the government story, the classified story and the story that does not
officially exist) something is sealed. Everyone at the table wants something from it. Nobody is who they seem.
This manual teaches the whole game. Read the first six chapters to play; the rest is there when you want it.
Parts marked LOCKED come straight from James's original UFO-SKIF rules (December 2025) and do not change.
MODULE parts add flavour and can be left out for a first game. LATER parts are planned, not built.
Note for this build: the screen version now follows the base rules in this manual, including the SCIF room and private computer trades. Module ideas and future features remain marked below. Click an illustrated card or place to open its full-size painting.
1
The storywhat this game is about
An object came down. Pieces of it were taken. Three of those pieces were hidden so well that nobody at the table has
ever seen them. Everyone else is chasing something: money, order, the truth, contact, control.
You play one person in that world: a journalist, a pilot, an official, an agent. Everyone can see the person you seem to be.
Nobody can see the side you really serve. You move through the places where the story lives (Roswell, the Pentagon, Area 51, a
podcast studio at 2 a.m.) gathering what your side needs, while trying to work out which three pieces were hidden.
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD · SUBJ: THE NAME
A SCIF (said “skiff”) is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility: the sealed room where secrets are read.
A skiff is a small craft. In 1947 the pilot Kenneth Arnold said the objects he saw moved “like a saucer if you skip it across water.”
And said out loud, SCIF-i is sci-fi. The name holds the whole game: the room, the craft, the story.
PUBLIC REALITY
GOVERNMENT
CLASSIFIED
UNACKNOWLEDGED
THE CORE
The four veils. The deeper you go, the less anyone admits exists.
2
Who you area face everyone sees, a side nobody sees
Your secret agenda LOCKED
At the start you are dealt one agenda face down. It is your real side, and it tells you exactly what to collect: a mix of
resource cards. Agendas never change with the number of players.
Notice the fights built in: Leverage is wanted by three agendas. The Cover-Up and the Whistleblower both need it,
one to bury the story and one to break it.
SECRET AGENDA
Cover-Up Agent
3 Suppression + 3 Leverage
SECRET AGENDA
Military
4 Power + 2 Suppression
SECRET AGENDA
Corporate Contractor
4 Leverage + 2 Power
SECRET AGENDA
Conduit
3 Integration + 3 Bio-Genetics + 3 artifact cards
SECRET AGENDA
Hybrid Sympathizer
4 Bio-Genetics + 2 Exposure
SECRET AGENDA
Whistleblower
3 Exposure + 3 Leverage
Your character
After you see your agenda, you choose one of two characters. This is the face everyone sees. It sets where you start and gives
you one small ability. Choose a face that hides your agenda, or one that helps it.
JOURNALIST · DOGGED
Nora Vance
Starts in Public. Your interviews keep asking until two players have shown you a card.
Starts in Classified. You may move twice in one turn.
ENGINEER · CURIOUS
Tess Okafor
Starts in Classified. You may take any cutout inward, not only the aligned one.
AGENT · UNREADABLE
Mr. Gray
Starts in Classified. Anyone who investigates you sees only one card.
3
The boardfour veils, twelve places, each with a reason to go
Every place gives something. Look at your agenda, find the places that give what you need, and go there.
VEIL
PLACE
GIVES
Public
Roswell, 1947
Suppression (where the first cover story began)
Podcast studio
Exposure
Mount Shasta
Bio-Genetics · and a portal straight down to Telos
Government
Hearing room
Leverage
Pentagon UAP office
Suppression
The SCIF
no resource: a sealed room for private deals (chapter 8)
Classified
Area 51
Power
Skinwalker Ranch
Bio-Genetics
Nimitz carrier deck
Integration
Unacknowledged
Hangar 18
Artifact cards: the only places they are found
Telos, beneath Shasta
Far side of the Moon
Explore the twelve places from the game panel to view these paintings and plan a legal move.
PLACE
Roswell, 1947
Public ? Suppression
PLACE
Podcast studio
Public ? Exposure
PLACE
Mount Shasta
Public ? Bio-Genetics; portal to Telos
PLACE
Hearing room
Government ? Leverage
PLACE
Pentagon UAP office
Government ? Suppression
PLACE
The SCIF
Government ? clearance and private deals
PLACE
Area 51
Classified ? Power
PLACE
Skinwalker Ranch
Classified ? Bio-Genetics
PLACE
Nimitz carrier deck
Classified ? Integration
PLACE
Hangar 18
Unacknowledged ? artifacts
PLACE
Telos, beneath Shasta
Unacknowledged ? artifacts
PLACE
Far side of the Moon
Unacknowledged ? artifacts
Moving and clearance
You may move to any place on your own veil, or one veil outward. Moving inward needs clearance for that veil, and you must
go through a cutout: a doorway in the veil. The veils turn every round, so each cutout leads to a different place each round.
Everyone may enter the Government veil (hearings are public). The Classified and Unacknowledged veils need clearance: your character may start with it, and taking your turn in The SCIF reads you in, one veil deeper each time.
THE ESOTERIC PATH
Mount Shasta's portal
From Mount Shasta you may go straight down to Telos in the deepest veil, whatever your clearance. The legend says a hidden city lies inside the mountain.
ENCOUNTERS
Something is reported
Each round an encounter appears at a place. Go there to witness it (chapter 4, Events).
4
The cards85 cards in the base game
Resources · 36 cards LOCKED
Six kinds, six of each. They are what agendas collect. You take them from places on the board.
Six parts, three copies each: Power Core · Neural Interface · Hybrid DNA · Dimensional Key · Quantum Communicator · Biologic Sample.
Before the game, all three copies of three parts are sealed away unseen. That is the hidden artifact. The other nine cards wait in
the deepest places. Every one you see tells you a part that is not hidden.
ARTIFACT
Power Core
Three copies; this part may be sealed.
ARTIFACT
Neural Interface
Three copies; this part may be sealed.
ARTIFACT
Hybrid DNA
Three copies; this part may be sealed.
ARTIFACT
Dimensional Key
Three copies; this part may be sealed.
ARTIFACT
Quantum Communicator
Three copies; this part may be sealed.
ARTIFACT
Biologic Sample
Three copies; this part may be sealed.
Action cards · 14 cards LOCKEDEFFECTS DRAFTED
ACTION ×4
Dead Drop
Give a player one card; take one of theirs at random; they then discard one.
ACTION ×2
Investigate
Look at two random cards in a player's hand.
ACTION ×2
Leak
A player reveals one random card of their hand to everyone.
ACTION ×2
Block
Keep it in your hand: it cancels the next action aimed at you.
ACTION ×2
Burn Evidence
Remove the top two discards from the game for good.
ACTION ×2
Shuffle
Shuffle the discards back into the deck; draw one.
Events · 8 cards: the encounters LOCKEDEFFECTS DRAFTED
At the start of each round one event is turned over: something is reported at a place. Whoever goes there and takes their turn there
witnesses it. Encounters are ranked on the astronomer J. Allen Hynek's scale: CE1 seen · CE2 traces · CE3 beings · CE4 abduction · CE5 contact.
CE1
Lights in the sky
Witness: draw two cards.
CE2
Cattle mutilation
Witness: take one Bio-Genetics from any place.
CE4
Greys
Witness: look at one sealed artifact part for a moment… or lose your next turn (roll).
CE3
Nordics
Witness: everyone shows you one card; they warn, they do not take.
CE2
Bigfoot
Witness: take one card from any Classified place.
CE5
Mantis beings
Witness: look at one card waiting in the deepest veil.
CE3
Reptilians
Witness: swap one random card with a random player.
CE1
Lenticular cloud
A false alarm over Shasta: nothing happens.
Noise · 9 cards: the fakes LOCKED
Holograms, weather balloons, deepfakes, a pie tin on a string. They do nothing but clog your hand; play one just to get rid of it.
They exist so nobody can count the deck perfectly.
FAKE
Noise
Shared artwork for the nine false leads. Play one to clear it from your hand.
FIELD NOTE · 85 = 36 resources + 18 artifacts + 14 actions + 8 events + 9 noise. These counts are locked and never change with
the number of players. (James: “Dynamic scaling killed the game.”)
5
Your turndraw · move · take · play · tidy
STEP
WHAT YOU DO
0 · Check
If your agenda is complete, reveal it and win. Or, instead of the whole turn, name the hidden artifact (chapter 6).
1 · DrawLOCKED
Draw one card from the deck.
2 · Move
Click a place: same veil, one veil out, or inward through a cutout if you have clearance. Or stay.
3 · Take
Take one card from where you stand (its resource, or an artifact card in the deepest veil). Or interview instead: name three artifact parts, and the next player holding one of them must show you that card.
4 · PlayLOCKED
Play one card: lay a resource or artifact face down in front of you (it now counts for your agenda), or use an action, or throw away a noise card.
5 · TidyLOCKED
Discard down to 7 cards in hand. Play passes clockwise.
On screen: your draw is automatic. Plan your move, take or interview, and card play, then press END TURN to carry them out. The panel reports cards gained, cards laid down, clearance changes and newly ruled-out artifact parts. Encounter reports stay open until dismissed; View location / plan a move opens the place and its legal move option.
An example turn
1
You are Mr. Gray. Secretly, the Cover-Up: you need 3 Suppression and 3 Leverage. You have 2 and 1.
2
The Pentagon UAP office gives Suppression. You move there from Area 51, one veil out.
3
You take a Suppression card and lay it in front of you. 3 of 3. Buried.
4
Next turn: Leverage. Nora Vance has been seen at the Hearing room… a Dead Drop with her might do it.
6
How to wintwo roads, one risk
ROAD ONE LOCKED
Complete your agenda
When the cards laid in front of you complete your agenda's mix, you win immediately. The game also checks at the start of your turn.
ROAD TWO LOCKED
Name the hidden artifact
Instead of your turn, name the three sealed parts. Right: you win at once. Wrong: you are out, and your agenda is revealed.
If everyone else is out, the last player standing wins.
7
Working out the artifactevery card you see is a clue
Six parts; three are sealed. Every artifact card you see (taken, shown in an interview, investigated, leaked) proves its part is
not sealed. Cross it off in your notebook. When only three parts are left uncrossed, those are the hidden artifact.
Real analysts call this Analysis of Competing Hypotheses: list every possible answer, then let each piece of
evidence knock some out. The notebook in the game works the same way.
The notebook’s crossed-out parts are ones whose cards you have observed. Uncrossed parts remain possible; a ★ marks a direct glimpse of a sealed part during the Greys encounter. How you learned records the round and turn in which a newly observed card ruled out a part. It records your observations, without exposing another player’s hidden hand.
Be careful with what you hear. A card shown in a Dead Drop or a Leak is real. A rumour is not a card.
8
The SCIFthe sealed room
PRIVATE ROOM
Inside the SCIF
Open THE SCIF ? ROOM in the game panel. A preview does not move your character.
The SCIF sits in the Government veil. It gives no card. Instead, when you take there you are read in: your clearance goes one veil deeper. It also gives privacy. When two players are in the SCIF at the same time,
either may offer the other a trade: any cards, any number, agreed openly between the two of them and hidden from everyone else.
In the computer game, open THE SCIF · ROOM in the side panel. Enter by completing a legal move, then offer cards from your hand and request a named card (or several copies). A computer agrees only when the offer helps its collection or knowledge. Offers happen on your turn, do not spend it, and never reveal the other hand or agenda. Both sides must exchange at least one card. Full negotiated human trades remain for pass-and-play or online play.
NOTE · Inside a SCIF, people with clearance read material they could never take outside. In the game, a deal in the SCIF is
the one moment two hidden agendas can quietly help each other.
The research deska separate playable investigation
Open Case 01 ? The Light Over the Test Range ? from the main screen or the SCIF room. Allow about ten minutes. This is a separate investigation; it does not spend board turns or change your cards.
Read four starting dossiers. Pin details to compare them.
Follow leads to recover source chains, clock metadata, a safety log, and a full witness interview.
Reorder the timeline by event or record date.
Assess four claims and choose what to release. The ending reviews your reasoning against the evidence you collected.
Progress and private notes save on this browser when storage is available. Return to investigate other leads or revise your assessment. All incident records, people and programs in the case are fictional. The separate reading room links to genuine historical documents and research, with context about what each establishes.
9
Modulesadd once the base game feels easy
Voices MODULE ? EARLIER DRAFT
These illustrated voices are retained from the earlier draft; they are not cards in the current base deck.
People you can call on, each with a personality that tells you how far to trust them.
The Careful Official
One card from Government; never a fake.
The True Believer
Two cards from Public, noise and all.
The Retired Insider
One sound card from Classified.
The Cleared Contractor
One card from the deepest veil, for a price.
The Grifter
Sells a fake to another player.
The Skeptic
Exposes one noise card someone is holding.
The Witness
Tells the same true story every time.
The Analyst
Checks two cards for you.
Deception MODULE
These illustrated deception cards are retained from the earlier draft. They are not included in the current base deck; the effects below describe that earlier module.
Cover Story
Plant a noise card in a place's pile.
Stage a Sighting
Turn over a fake encounter where you stand.
Weather Balloon
Explain the current encounter away; nobody witnesses it.
Cloak
Nobody can act on you until your next turn.
Advanced artifacts LOCKED · OPTIONAL
From James's rules: an artifact laid in front of you may count as a resource if its tag fits your agenda (Energy, Info, Quantum, Bio,
Dimensional), two if it matches the hidden artifact's tags; each costs an extra discard. Slots: 2 players 1, 3–4 players 2, 5 players no limit.
THE TAG-TO-RESOURCE MAP IS STILL TO BE DECIDED
Time travel and portalsLATER
Some places will become portals: the pyramids, the inside of a craft, a bio lab, Area 51 in 1955. Going through does not leave the game;
it changes the present: bury a resource in the past so it turns up today, plant a clue, shift what a place gives.
✧
Veils of Consciousnessa switchable mode · choose it on the "Who do you seem to be?" screen
Every veil can be crossed two ways. Clearance is granted by institutions. Awareness is earned, and nobody can give it to you. Every veil has its own hook, and only noticing sets you free.
The seven veils
#
VEIL
WHO MAY ENTER
1
Public reality
everyone
2
Government
everyone (hearings are public)
3
Classified
clearance, or awareness 3
4
Unacknowledged
clearance, or awareness 4 (or the Shasta portal)
5
The Core
awareness 5 only, from the Unacknowledged. No rank opens it.
6
The Watchers
beyond play: they send the encounters down
7
The One
beyond play: all veils shed
On the board, veils 1–4 are numbered, the Core is the shell of light inside the Unacknowledged, the Watchers are the ring of watching points within it, and the One is the light at the centre. Your panel shows the ladder and where you stand.
Awareness ✧ 0 to 5
HOW IT RISES
HOW FAR
Be still: instead of Take or Interview
up to 2 anywhere · 3 on Mount Shasta · 5 in Telos, beneath it
Witness an encounter (+1 each time)
up to its CE level: a CE3 can lift you to 3, a CE5 to 5. The lenticular cloud is a false alarm and teaches nothing.
The Experiencer starts at 1; everyone else at 0. Your pawn glows brighter as your awareness grows.
The seer's descent: be still on Mount Shasta to 3, take the portal down to Telos, be still there to 5, then step through the inner door into the Core. Every step costs turns, and every crossing invites a hook.
The inner door and the Core
Awareness 3 opens Classified and awareness 4 the Unacknowledged, through the turning cutout like anyone else. These moves are marked ✧, and the board lights the crossing.
In the Core, Take means looking into the light: you glimpse one sealed part you have not seen (★ in your notebook). Nobody stays in the light: leaving the Core returns you to the Unacknowledged with awareness 4.
Disclosure: the Leak
When you play Leak in this mode, two things follow from how disclosure really works:
Information becomes influence
You take one Leverage card from any place that still has one. The leaked cards are now known to everyone: the secret is spent.
Security costs your voice
If you hold clearance Classified or higher, you lose one level. An insider who speaks is cut off.
Seeing deeper
Standing in Classified or deeper, your Investigate sees one more card.
Hooks
Each player starts with two hook cards from a deck of ten (two of each). An encounter that raises your awareness draws another (three at most). Everyone can see how many you hold.
HOOK
VALUE IT CAPTURES
PLAYED WHEN A RIVAL…
IF IT CATCHES THEM
Crowd
influence
enters Public reality
They reveal one random card of their hand to everyone, at once.
Order
security
enters Government
Next turn they cannot move inward. Order holds you back.
Control
power
enters Classified
Next turn they cannot move, and cannot give or trade a card away (no Dead Drop, no SCIF trade). Control makes you hold on.
Pride
information
enters the Unacknowledged
Next turn they must name the sealed artifact, or lose the turn.
Bliss
consciousness
enters the Core
They lose their next turn.
Each veil is thick with one value, and each hook is the capture of that value: the crowd at the surface, the official line in government, the hunger for control in the programs, the pride of knowing in the unacknowledged, the light itself at the Core.
After a player crosses, the others (in turn order) may play the matching hook. One hook per crossing. A line of light joins hooker and hooked on the board.
Notice it: the hooked player may spend 1 awareness and walk free, and they keep the hook to use on someone else. Noticing costs you height: the same awareness is your inner door.
FIELD NOTE · Rank buys clearance, not sight. A player who climbed by papers alone has nothing to notice with. A player who climbed by awareness must decide, every time, whether freedom is worth a step of the way in.
10
Playing with people2 to 5 players
Against the computer: you play one seat, computer players take the rest.
LATERPass and play: one screen; a curtain hides your hand between turns.
LATEROnline: each player sees only their own hand, agenda and notebook, and the SCIF becomes truly private.
At a real table the game works with printed cards: the board, 85 cards, six agenda cards, eight character cards.
11
The Lessonafter the game
When the game ends, everything is turned over: every agenda, every character's true side, the three sealed parts, and the trail of
who did what. Everyone sees the whole structure they were inside, and how little of it any one person could see.
The point of the game: real hidden structures work like this. Nobody holds the whole picture. Incentives explain more
than secrets do. And the people who seem closest to the truth are not always on its side.
12
Words to knowthe language of the subject
SCIF
Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility: a sealed room for classified material. Said “skiff.”
UAP
Unidentified anomalous phenomena: today's official word for UFOs.
Clearance
How deep you are allowed to see. In real life also: need to know.
Special access program
A compartment so restricted that even most cleared people do not know it exists.
Glomar
“We can neither confirm nor deny.”
Dead drop
Passing something secretly without meeting.
CE1 to CE5
Close encounters, after J. Allen Hynek: seen, traces, beings; later additions abduction and contact.
Mimicry
Something that looks like an encounter but is not: a cloud, a balloon, a hoax.
Places, beings and cases in this game come from the lore and history of ufology. They are shown as reports, claims
and legends. The game never tells you what is true; that is the point.
