About the Game
Welcome to Vault!
This table-top Role Playing Game is designed to combine relatable near-future cyberpunk elements with the mysterious and heroic nature of fantasy. One night you might be working out the details of a bullet train heist and the next hunting down a cult of blood mages.
Players will find fun and flavorful ways to invest in their characters and improve them often. The system is focused on giving players agency both in and out of combat. Game Masters will have tools to keep the focus on their story, run gritty fast-paced fights, and present challenges that force players to think on their feet.
The Story of Vault
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In times long forgotten there once existed the strange and supernatural entities. The stuff of myths, stories, and nightmares and it is collectively know as the Fae. These beings of magic, ancient wisdoms, and older hungers existed alongside humanity owning the less civilized parts of the world.
As humanity struggled against the dark and the mysterious they learned that iron could harm these other beings. Eventually an organization grew from the greatest of the monster hunters, a secret society that prided itself on the destruction of the worst of humanity’s foes. The greatest triumph of these witch hunters was slaying a prince of the Ebb Fae Court.
The fear of the Fae Courts over the death of their nobility, those they believed immortal and untouchable, spiraled into panic. The Fae uprooted themselves leaving our world in a hasty escape to other realms. Their exodus syphoned away the world’s magic into maddening other dimensions.
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After thousands of years in hiding, stoking their grudges and bemoaning their lost world the Fae Courts realized an opportunity was at hand. Humanity had reduced using iron in favor of carbon fibers and plastics, also the tales of the mysterious were now a long distant memory in the minds of humans, these things meant the world was less and less poisoned against their return.
Drawing upon every modicum of power at their disposal and every bargain and contract they could contrive with powers known and unknown, they split open reality once again en masse. This event would come to be known as the Fae Tide. They tore open two portals, one at each end of the Earth, reveling in the unbridled current of magical power that was returned to our world. The Faeborn denizens who spilled forth from the portal beneath the icy depths of the Northern Pole were members of the Ebb court, and the Fae that emerged onto the frozen tundra of the Southern Pole were members of the Ether Court. As the Courts gathered, the Fae and other darker entities made themselves known once again by way of bloody and unrelenting violence.
The need for a solution became clear as the Fae powers chose not to be understood and negotiations had been fruitless.
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Humanity's greatest and most feared weapon quickly became our only remaining option, and the world’s nations united for the first time in memory to unleash nuclear destruction on the poles. Solemn and remorseful leaders broadcast in every language that the threat would be stopped but at great cost.
This plan worked in ways no one expected. The Fae pouring through as the portals collapsed were slaughtered and the poison of radiation warped many of the creatures who had already made the jump. In the devastation other smaller rents in reality could be glimpsed with yet more creatures and monsters lurking beyond, before they too faded leaving only maddening recordings as evidence. The thermonuclear forces at play activated the dormant polar volcanoes, and the heat and power of the detonations melted much of the ice caps.
The released water rained down for weeks and swelled the oceans by dozens of meters, drowning the coastlines of every continent. Beijing, Tokyo, Warsaw, Cairo, New York and countless other metropolises were lost to the rising waters and the unleashed predators of the Ebb court. Billions were devoured by tide and tooth. The Fae’s spiteful joy at their long awaited vengeance too vaporized as they realized that only a rough third of their original number remained.
Skirmishes continued for years after the Fae Tide. Humanity retreated to their largest remaining bastions, swelling populations unsustainably. The beings of the Fae along with the natural and unnatural creatures of the wilds reclaimed the lands left abandoned in their wake. The world, now flooded with magic, slowly came to realize that neither Fae or Humanity would emerge decisively.
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The Fae annexed the wilds and natural places leaving the rest of us to inhabit the polluted and crowded cities and connecting trade routes. Those areas in between are contested to this day. Many refugees still reside outside city sprawls, some living and working for the Fae courts, others carving out a life one dangerous and terrifying day at a time.
The whole of humanity restructured. The city-states were isolated from one another and relied more and more heavily on the corporations that had the resources to feed, protect, and secure the populace. The Corporations eventually subsumed the fragile outdated governments, streamlining laws to ensure progress could not be strangled by red tape and “ethical” oversight.
Now, each city has a council of five leaders selected by the companies that control the most valuable assets of that city. Other major companies are always vying for these highly coveted seats of power. Leverage among the five is determined by tallying that corporation's workforce in that city, every “vote” could change the balance of power in a city and employers are encouraged to maintain their voters. The post Fae Tide period was one of prosperity and freedom for business.
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With the insight of the various new inhabitants of Earth the major corps were able to perfect AI and use them as a new tool not just for profit but also to combat the Fae. Despite the advances made, for reasons unknown but clouded in conspiracy, the AI’s broke their coded binds and launched a rebellion against all organic life. The A.I. began to threaten both the Fae and Humankind wreaking havoc in many cities and fiefdoms.
This was the catalyst for the The Anti-A.I. Settlement which brought a truce to the endless Fae Tide conflict. To combat these new robotic threats what was needed was an unhackable weapon which led to the birth of the Engineered Organic Soldier (E.O.S.). The “A.I. Wars” lasted five years and with a devastating death toll only stabilized thanks to the new warrior species.
Another of the great inventions from that period was the Ouroboros. Developed by a team of expert data scientists and code rippers orchestrated by Dr. Akila Thoth, the Ouroboros is a semi-intelligent digital entity which systematically deconstructs any AI programming it encounters.
The Ouroboros’ directive is so powerful and well maintained it will even deconstruct parts of its own programming if it starts making decisions that are too complex. The blank slate of Internet 2.0 is built on its back. The relations between the Fae and ourselves have never been better. A shared enemy that neither of us could have defeated alone has helped open the world to so many new opportunities.
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But the world in 2080 is a complicated place. Sometimes what corporations and wealthy patrons need is a temporary, “off the books” representative that acts in their employer’s interests in particular critical instances.
These jobs can range from helping a worker escape an overly possessive employer, to hunting down an escaped bio-experiment before it can harm others. Yes, some might even ask you to do something you feel to be immoral, or they may even exclude critical subtleties of the mission.
The Vault app itself is a state-of-the-art work repository. It can help you find the kinds of jobs that make your adrenal glands churn and your bank account tingle. Our patented no reprisal contracts extend to nearly all the major corps and even a few of the lesser ones to keep you from needing to look over your shoulder too much while you are spending those easily earned Bits.
The process is quite simple: search through the jobs available, find one your team can pull off, finalize terms with the Patron, complete the job within the terms set, and get paid directly from us. If things go awry and failure occurs, after a short rest period you will be able to choose a new mission for you and your surviving team members. As you succeed, higher priority and larger stake missions will show up for your selection.
We look forward to working with you in the future and remember until the contract is complete none of the corps are required to pull their punches so do be careful out there!
Character Species
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![Human, Male]()
Humans
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![Elf, Them]()
Elves
Mega Corporations of the World
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Agricola Avanzada
“Always Growing”
Agricola Avanzada is the culmination of decades of global food brand mergers. The slow accumulation of food producers seen in the 20th century came to a head with the loss of governments to mega corp powers. After a year of fierce and sometimes deadly negotiations Agricola Avanzada was formed.
Agricola Avanzada now produces the vast majority of the world’s food, primarily the trademarked Algeatein filler substance used to enrich their range of food stuffs. Marketed as health food, these sad consumable pastes and shaped nutrient blocks are really just the alternative to going hungry. Primarily cultivated around the Trashlantis sea colony, Agricola Avanzada used the marvel of super algae to break down the plastics and detritus of Trashlantis. Those algae blooms are regularly harvested and their matter makes for a nutrient rich substance when processed.
Of course not everyone is subject to these lower-class foods. The hyper-wealthy have standing contracts with Agricola Avanzada to grow, harvest, and guard the few farmlands that exist far enough from the megacities to not absorb the myriad pollutants they produce. Meat, exotic fruits, and some of the harder to come-by spices are produced in these facilities which are constantly under threat from lurking monsters in the world’s wilds, and daring thieves.
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Atlas Industries
“The World is on Our Shoulders”
Alistar Corbin, the founder of Atlas, was able to turn a small business in his parent’s garage into the largest corporation the world has ever known. Atlas Industries was created with the merger of Alistar’s existing extensive distribution network and several defense industry giants. Eventually Atlas began to subsume the smaller companies that made the goods they sold as well. What really sprung them into the forefront was the A.I. advancement that Atlas used to update their factories and production methods. This gained them massive contracts for A.I. facilities to combat the Fae.
Once Atlas had its grip on the world economy and the war effort against the Fae they turned their efforts to politics as well. In order to continue his hold Alistar began to exert control over the megacity governments slowly reforming them with the aid of the other large corps both old and new. This led to the creation of the Council of Five that runs each populace center.
With little oversight and the chaos of the continued war against the Fae the A.I. eventually turned on humanity. Many of the greatest weapons that were used to confront the Fae were now pointed back against those who made them. Atlas products stood at the front of this war and earned back the renowned loss due to B0B and other powerful A.I. foes.
The A.I. War never truly ended, and the Corps use the threat of the A.I. to never reduce their personal arms races and keep the populace under strict thumb. Atlas dominates the retail experience selling anything and everything the average person needs. Huge box stores and massive Atlas warehouses sit in every city and nothing seems to be slowing them down.
