A group 4 teenagers entered the shop. They were all in their senior years in high school. Abel, Fred, Simon and Marcia were looking for something to do over the next few weeks and happened across the magic shop advertising games. For a short overview of our protagonists:
Abel: 18 years old, 1,75m, brash, forward, but a good guy
Fred: 17 years old, 1,68m, shy and nerd-ish
Simon: 18 years old, 1,82m, black, reserved and thoughtful. Wears glasses
Marcia: 18 years old, 1,69m, tomboy, but secretly likes cute things
"What can I do for you young lads?" the old man said from behind his counter. "Can I interest you in this game?" he asked while offering the Game of Change board game.
"Board game? Oldschool. But we are looking for something more modern, portable maybe." Abel said for the group
"Hmm, yes yes. I think I have something for you in the back. Feel free to look around" the geezer murmured and vanished into a backroom.
"The dude's weirding me out", "Me too" came from both Fred and Marcia, who didn't step into the shop. "Relax, if he actually has some cool gadgets, it'll be awesome. These all look like antiques, but there's gotta be some hidden gems." Abel tried to quell the fears of the others.
"Maybe this is all magic" chimed in Simon as he poked around some of the shelves stocked with what looked like wands and crystal balls.
"Stop touching that, if you break it, you probably gotta pay for it" warned Fred as he saw Simon rubbing a one of the balls.
"Ah, those don't work by rubbing. That's what you do to the lamps over in aisle 3." The Old Man had returned and startled the group a little. "Here I think I have something you will enjoy, it's certainly more 'portable' than the boardgame version, but it still follows the same principle. And it's just 10$."
"8 and we'll take it" Able tried to haggle.
"Okay, deal, young mister"
So the group returned to their usual meetup place, which was Fred's basement, with their new acquisition. After getting some snacks and drinks from Fred's mom, they decided to open the box. Inside was just a pamphlet and 4 bracelets in red, green, blue and yellow.
Abel snatched the piece of paper and read it quickly. The rest examined the bracelets.
They were relatively indistinct, except for the large gem at the top. Well, what looked like a gem, if it weren't for the fact that they are so big they wouldn't sell for less than 10$. With that kind of price tag they were way more likely glass or some kind of plastic. At least that's what the group rationalized.
When Abel was done reading he summarized the contents for the others:
"Okay, it says we each need to put one of those armbands on and press the 'gem' at the same time. That's supposed to start the game. It also has a warning that the game can't be stopped while in progress, but we wouldn't even have to be together to continue playing. Oh, it also says that it's magic, but I guess that's just flavor text."
"Or it iiiis" Simon did a spooky voice.
Everybody grabbed their favorite color, which surprisingly worked out nicely without overlap. Abel got yellow, Fred got blue, Simon got green and Marcia got red.
"Ready? On the count of 3"
"3,2,1..."
Shrk, pop.
The first sound was the bracelets shrinking on their wrists to fit perfectly, the second was the sound the tops made as they were all pressed together. Suddenly a laser light burst out from all of their armbands and coalesced in their center. Right there a text projection appeared in a way that all of them could read it.
"Welcome to the Game of Change: Portable.
Each of you has their game piece around the wrist and by pressing the button you have agreed to participate until the end.
The game will explain itself as you play and discovery is always part of the experience.
Prove your teamwork to beat the game and receive a grand reward.
Have fun and good luck."
With that the center projection vanished when they were all done reading. Shortly after everybody was treated to a display of their own that projected over their armbands.
It simply said: "Choose your deck" and displayed a large scrollable list of what could be guessed were the decknames.
"Okay Simon, I guess this really is magic." Fred acknowledged.
"Or very very elaborate technology." Abel added.
"Whatever it is, I can't get it off again." Marcia said as she tried pushing the bracelet off.
"I guess we'll have to play it until the end" Simon said, grinning smugly, because he was right even though it was a joke.