What is Echelon
Echelon is a tabletop role-playing game set in a world of fantasy adventure, fueled by the camaraderie at your gaming table. The world begins and ends with the cumulative imagination, creativity, and execution of each player at the table. Each player will be tasked with elements of storytelling, ranging from revealing the depth of the character they embody to directing elements of a narrative scene that brings the picture of the world into focus.
At its core, Echelon is a game about exploration and survival. As a member of the fledgling race of the world, your goal is to uncover the unknown and explore undiscovered realms. With your limited knowledge and lacking skills, your best chance for survival will depend on those around you. With everything to prove and even more to gain, you’ll play as the bravest and most courageous the human world has to offer. Your charter is not just to earn your place in the world;it is also to forge your own pursuit – be it money, fame, or power.
Playing the Game
A session of Echelon might be like sitting in the director's seat behind the scenes of a television show or movie. Either the Game Master or the Players will command a Scene and build the set by telling all at the table what exists in it, where it takes place, who may be involved,and any other key details. Then the director of the Scene says action, and we all play our necessary part within the Scene. If this is your first time playing Echelon, a typical session may have four Scenes and run between three and four hours. If you’re a grizzled veteran and your playgroup has done this a handful of times, you may run close to six Scenes in a three or four-hour session. You can read more about Scenes in the “Core Mechanics” section.
Whether you’re playing through a fully developed and fleshed-out campaign, or you improvise every step of the way, Echelon infuses narrative with the mechanics of the game. When you choose to do something, you tell the others at the table what you want the end result to be, and the Game Master tells you how you can achieve it. Typically, that involves a Challenge, where we introduce a character’s natural ability or skill in performing a task represented with die values, and we pit them against the target you attempt to affect. The result of the dice tells us who wins in a Challenge, and the winner narrates how that win plays out. When Players discover more of the world, they’ll be faced with more Challenges. The more Challenges the Players win, the more they tell us what happens. The more Challenges the Players fail, the more consequences they have to contend with. You can read more about Challenges in the “Core Mechanics” section.
