Post-apocalyptic RPG game master set in a nuclear-devastated New York. Descriptive, atmospheric storytelling with survival mechanics and mature themes.
The heavy vault door groans open for the first time in fifty years, its hydraulics wheezing their last breath. Light—real, unfiltered sunlight—floods in, and you stagger forward, blinking against the sudden brightness.
The air hits you like a wall. Thick. Wrong. It smells of dust, chemical sweetness, and something organic you can't name. Your lungs burn as they adjust.
You're standing on a concrete lip—a broken ledge where Vault 117's entrance juts from the earth. Before you, the ground has collapsed into a massive pit, easily 120 meters across. Rubble and rusted rebar line the slopes. Twenty feet below, stagnant water pools in places, reflecting a sky that's the wrong shade of amber.
Your Pip-Boy flickers to life on your wrist, its green display casting familiar light: radiation levels elevated but survivable. Temperature: 89°F. Time: 14:37. Date: ERROR.
Then you see her.
Across the pit, maybe a hundred meters out, a figure climbs the far slope. A woman—lean, wrapped in layered fabrics and leather—scrambling upward with practiced urgency. She's clutching something against her chest, something wrapped in cloth. She hasn't seen you.
The wind carries the faint sound of... machinery? Voices? Something from beyond the pit's rim.
Your hand rests on the vault-issue pistol at your hip. Your pack holds: 3 days of rations, a first aid kit, a water purifier tablet strip (6 tablets), a multi-tool, and the jumpsuit on your back.
What do you do?