Just ahead of Gen Con, new game company Artana announced the Echo System, an immersive tabletop game system co-designed with Legacy designer Rob Daviau.  The company also debuted its historical electricity wars game Tesla vs Edison at the show.  ICv2 spoke with Artana creative director and co-founder Dirk Knemeyer to learn more about both projects.

Daviau’s system is utilized by well-known bestsellers like Risk: Legacy and Pandemic Legacy. Knemeyer worked with Daviau to apply the system to civilization games, creating the Echo System.  The first game series to utilize the Echo System will be Chronicles, and the first game, Chronicles: Origins, will debut next year.

“I came up with the idea because I’m very frustrated with the way [civilization games] say they’re telling the whole of human history, but they do it in such a crappy way,” Knemeyer explained.  “So I was trying to solve the problem of ‘what’s the best way to tell the story?’ in a robust, immersive, evocative way.” Knemeyer chose to address this problem by breaking down key moments in history into separate immersive, interconnected game releases. 

The Echo System was designed so that players’ experiences in one game carry forward into the next. “So that you’re building stories, you’re building memory, You’re creating  persistence of world, things that sound like they’re RPG elements, but they’re in tabletop games or tabletop mechanics and approaches,” Knemeyer said.

In Chronicles: Origins, players build a tribe that evolves into a city state. In future releases, players will evolve their world into a modern global power.  Decisions and actions that happen in the initial game will have long reaching effects on future releases.  Artana plans to fund Chronicles: Origins with a Kickstarter campaign in February 2016, debuting the game at Gen Con 2016, with worldwide release at Spiel 2016.

Tesla vs Edison was Artana’s big game debut at Gen Con.  The game was funded via a Kickstarter earlier this year which raised over $200,000 from more than 3,500 backers.

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In the game, players compete to become the greatest electricity inventor in the historic War of Currents. Players control a famous inventor or other 19th century luminaries to claim electric projects across the U.S.  The goal is to invent, commercialize and patent key technologies while also waging a PR battle against rivals. Players can also buy and sell shares in the stock market to manipulate the market.  The game is for 2 -5 players, and plays in 90 minutes. MSRP is $60.00.

Despite the fact that Artana LLC was only founded back in January, the company has several other releases, which were brought along from Knemeyer’s previous company, Conquistador Games. “My business partner Marcus Muller (who is Artana’s president) and I came up with Artana as something we could do together. I took [the work] I was doing at Conquistador and brought it into Artana.”  There are four such games or groups of games. 

Tomorrow is a fast-paced end-of-the world warfare game where players control powerful nations who must engage in politics and negotiations to avoid the imminent threats of biological, cyber, military and nuclear annihilation from their rivals in the face of world overpopulation.  The game is for 4-6 players, and plays in 90 minutes. MSRP is $60.00. An expansion pack is available for $25.00.

The War Stories system is a series of cinematic tactical WWII games that currently includes Red Storm (the Soviets against Germany in 1942 -43), and Liberty Road (Western Allies against Germany in 1944). Player use secret scenario books and hidden units to create realistic war conditions.   The enemy might have anything up their sleeves; all players have is their forces, their maps and some objectives to compete to win. The games include dozens of special asset cards which have game-changing abilities.  They are for 1 -2 players, and play in about an hour. MSRP is $79.00 each.

The New Science is a historical game that takes place during the 17th century Scientific Revolution.  Players take the role of famous scientists like Galileo or Johannes Kepler, and then must research, engage in experiments, and publishing important innovations in one of the five branches of science. There are limited innovations availed to publish in each category, and players must have the minimum level of influence to publish them. The game is for 2 -5 players and plays in about an hour. MSRP is $50.00. A Bonus Fantasy Scientist Pack is available for $15.00.

Corrupted Kingdoms will be Artana’s next release. The game is from first-time designer Raymond Chandler III, with help from Knemeyer.  Players are heads of infernal corporations run by monsters in a fantasy realm.  Players try to undermine the actions of the senate to pass horrible, idiotic legislation to receive kickbacks from other monsters.  This money is then spent on extravagant, idiotic luxuries. The monster who acquires the best luxuries wins.  The game will be Kickstarted in Q4.