Echoes of Elsewhere

Echoes of Elsewhere is a journey through the subconscious. Together, players will try to put together the clues that lead to the identity of the Echo haunting them before it’s too late.

Design Goals

Target Audience

Ages 16+
Casual
Players who enjoy Mysterium, Ouija, and Oracle.

Create a lasting experiences beyond the game.

Create assets with natural and high quality materials.

Challenges

Believability

Solution: Through art direction and the use of natural materials we strive to create a game that feels like an artifact the players have uncovered.

Unique Non-competitive Gameplay

Solution: It was exceedingly important to remove any system or mechanic that felt too “gamey” as upholding the experience’s verisimilitude is our goal. In order to keep the experience compelling we looked to the systems of Ouija and Tarot to create a unique experience.

How To Perform The Ritual

Setup

The Casters shuffle the Echo deck and the Omen deck.

Without looking they deal one Echo to each of the four Spirit locations face down.

The rune stones are placed into the casting bag and at least one bone is chosen by each Caster.

Then they shuffle the Moon Coins and place one face down in each moon phase location next to the top Rite of Banishing Omen. The left Moon Coin holds the identity of The Vision and the right holds the identity of the true Echo attempting to enter our world.

Finally, to begin The Ritual, three face up Omens are dealt to the Vision location at the bottom of the board.

Casting

The casters pass around the casting bag and each grab a rune stone from it without looking.

Casters then hold their rune stone and bone in one hand and hold it over The Casting Circle. Together they drop their rune stones and bones and then interpret which omen is represented in the casting.

When players have decided which Omen the casting is pointing to they place it in the first of the three Omen locations in the Rite of Banishing and then continue casting until three Omens have been chosen.

Ending The Ritual

Once all three Omens have been selected for the Rite of Banishing casters must trust their intuition and select which Echo is attempting to pass into our realm before revealing the Moon Coin. If they have chosen successfully the Rite of Banishing is successful and the Echo is sent back to Elsewhere. If the Caster’s intuition has led them astray the Echo has been invited into our world.