Worldbuilding and Storytelling

There are one thousand ways to skin a cat. Any approach is perfect to use if it means you and the Players around you are having fun. While the Goal of Echelon is to tell great stories, your goal as a Player at the table should be to have fun. The section below is just a single set of tools to help you get there. The methods below details a single approach to creating worlds and the stories that come from them. This approach is specifically used in generating the world of Echelon and the Adventures that take place within them.

The worldbuilding and storytelling approach used within Echelon is built in two segments.

1. What happens before the session(s), referred to as Pregame.
2. What happens as we play in the session(s), referred to as Gameplay.

Pregame

The Pregame elements are considerations that should be determined before a session of Echelon starts. It could take the form of reading and understanding the elements of an adventure book, adapting a story that exists into one you want to tell, or a creation of your own. Whatever the story is, Pregame elements help you build the foundation for points of interaction that will take place during Gameplay.

An important note to remember is that though this section is started before the first session begins, it doesn’t truly end until the game ends. During Gameplay the Players at the table may make critical decisions that subvert,forgo or otherwise alter content developed in Pregame. For that reason, it’s important to keep this section high concept to allow fluid opportunities for multiple interpretations.

The Pregame worldbuilding and storytelling takes shape in:

1. Meta Lore
2. Campaign
3. Arcs
4. Episodes (also known as sessions)

Pregame elements are often not directly impacted by the mechanics of the game. The method which you find the most successful for world building and storytelling should be used in its place. Whatever your approach, Pregame should inform which of the game mechanics apply as the game moves through a session or multiple sessions.

Gameplay

Gameplay is the act of coming together to play Echelon. This section heavily relies on the mechanics of the game, and uses specific storytelling models that are leveraged by all Players to build a story together to fill in the color of the Pregame’s boundaries.

Gameplay, worldbuilding and storytelling take shape in:

1. Meta Lore
2. Episodes/Sessions
3. Scenes
4. Sequences
5. Frames

During Gameplay the Player Characters will have an opportunity to reveal and interact with the elements of Pregame that have been established. As Player Characters do so, they will be shaping specifics about those elements based on the consequences and outcomes of their interactions.

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