Tealstones: The Corruption

Night looked at the box containing five rings, a set of dice and a couple of manuals. Finally it had arrived. He really wanted to run this new RPG since he read the announcement. The makers had sold only fifty copies around the world for beta testing. And he was lucky enough to get one.

He quickly scanned the Game Master manual. The concepts were simple. The players each would get a ring and would be using it through an app to cast spells. The app then would specify the price that character had to pay for the spellcast. For example using metamorphosis into a wolf would make the character more wild and aggressive. The lore explanation that using these powers could slowly change a person to be more like what they are playing. There also was a fun mechanic of fumbling that could give an opposite price for the cast. The example given was a character using a water manipulation spell and becoming more stubborn and headstrong.

He took a look at the rings. In each of them a plastic teal colored gemstone emitting a dim glow. He scanned the QR code on the manual and downloaded the app. Then, following the instruction, linked the rings with the Bluetooth of his phone. Looking through the app he found all the Game Master privileges he could have with the rings. He could prevent spellcasting from players, adjust their level of corruption and also type in specific twists activated by triggers.

He then looked through the pages of the Player manual. This was more tied to the worldbuilding and races/classes that were available to play.

Races didn't give strong modifiers, just some affinities to specific powers. He noticed most monstrous creature that would be expected in a modern rpg were missing. You could be a human, a golden elf, a wild elf, a shadow elf, a water spirit, a nature spirit or a infernal spirit. Not even dwarves... That was disappointing, he had just read about dwarves in the world section. He took note, this was a beta after all.

Classes were more interesting. They were a twist on the usual classes, but everyone had a strong tie to spellcasting or powers. It made sense given the rings gimmick. Every class had some branches at different levels, always tied to the current personality of the character twisted by the power of the Tealstone Rings.

• Knight were a martial class with powerful physical buffs and healing.
• Brutes were a martial class with self buffs and bloodlust spells.
• Shifters had shapeshifting spells and nature spells
• Thieves had access to illusions, evasive tricks and telekinesis.
• Charmers had emotion manipulations, mind control and some illusions.
• Trackers were a ranged class with poison and nature spells, plus some shapeshifting.
• Evoker had elemental magic and demon summoning.
• Healers had powerful heals, banishment spells and smites.
• Witches had poison spells, mind control and corruption.

All classes could also learn one spell from the other party members each level up, but these were risky and had a high chance of fumble. He looked at the list of spells and smiled at not seeing what the prices were. He could look at them on his side of the app, but the players had to adapt and choose spells without precisely knowing what would happen to their characters.

Night sent a message on discord.

Looking for players, want to try a new system. Just got the manuals.