# How to Play

# Rituals of Exchange

*Echoes in the Wind* is a game played through **fragments**—short entries that may be letters, recordings, visions, maps, or memories. These are exchanged between two players in **turns**, with each turn called an **Echo Cycle**.

One player creates a fragment. The other receives it, sits with it, and replies. This continues until the story comes to a natural or dramatic end.

# Structure of Play

Each player takes on a role:

- **The Sender** creates the current fragment.
- **The Receiver** reads/listens and then responds with the next fragment.

You will alternate these roles throughout play.

Each fragment must:

- Be grounded in the world of Duskara (you'll define where and when).
- Reference or respond to the previous fragment, directly or obliquely.
- **Change something**: Add to the map, alter a truth, shift the relationship, or modify a memory.

The **Receiver** may also introduce **a new question**—a mystery, a contradiction, a symbol. The story builds through layers of partial understanding.

# The Fragment Can Take Any Form

- A letter scratched into a shrine wall
- An audio recording buried in a wind archive
- A diagram sketched on stormglass
- A psychic vision felt during meditation
- A torn page from a ritual journal
- A half-heard lullaby echoing in a flooded ruin
- Map annotations marking lost places
- Ritual instructions with missing steps

# Ways to Play

**Live / In-Person**  
Take turns writing entries and reading them aloud, or exchange physical notes/artifacts. Expect 2-4 hours for a complete story.

**Asynchronous**  
Send voice memos, emails, letters, or images across days or weeks. Let time pass. Let the wind breathe. Perfect for long-distance play.

**Mixed Media**  
Use photos, sketches, sound, handwriting. The more personal the fragments, the more real the memory feels.

This is not a competitive game. There are no secrets, only layers. You are not playing to win. You are playing to remember.