GRUBSTAKE: A Post Apocalyptic Pawn Shop

A post-apocalyptic shopkeeper simulator with no menus, no fixed prices, and no second chances. People come to your counter with what they scavenged that week: a rifle with no rounds, four cans without labels, a watch that somehow still runs. They tell you what they need, and what they think is a fair number of it. Nothing here has a price, so that number is the only one you get, and plenty of them are lying about it. THE COUNTER A man sets what he's scavenged on the counter to get clean water. There's some scrap metal in the pile: a scope, a handful of rounds, something with copper still in it. Four bottles at least, by any honest count. He asks for two. So why give him four? Nobody in this town checks your work. The clean water behind you is all the clean water there is, and he is not going to argue, and he is not going to know. Hand him the two he asked for and he thanks you for them. Hand him four and you are four bottles poorer over a scope that may sit in your shop until the day you die. Nothing on the screen will tell you which of those you did. THE SHELVES Everything you own sits on the shelves behind the counter, where you put it. You built those shelves yourself out of the scrap that couldn't be traded, hammering together raw timber and rusted metal to fit the room. Where they stand, how you craft them, and what goes on which level is entirely yours to decide, and you will be living with the layout you choose. There is no list. No search tab, no number telling you what is left. You turn around and you look at it. A farmer needs a spark plug for his generator. You had one. You are almost certain you had one, down on the low shelf with the engine parts, off something a scavenger stripped in the spring. That was a lot of trades ago and the shelf does not look the way it did. So you walk down it and check, and he is at the counter watching you check. There is no way to look it up. You either know what you have, or you find out in front of him. THE BENCH Nobody is making anything new. If somebody needs a part, it comes out of something that is already broken, and the bench in the back is where you get it out. Nobody has asked for a radio in a month. There is copper in it though, and a magnet, and two screws the right size for the scope you have had sitting there since spring. Take it apart and you have four things people ask for instead of one thing nobody does. Take it apart and you do not have a radio anymore, and there is nowhere to get another one except for waiting for someone else to loot and sell. Every part you gain is a whole thing you no longer have. THE TERMINAL Sometimes what somebody puts on the counter is a key. A place they could not get into, or could not get out of, and they are selling you what is left of the trip. You are not going out there yourself. You put the job out on the terminal and wait for somebody who will. Whoever answers says the job will take four days and there will be things to kill. That means food for four days and enough rounds to matter, and all of it comes off your shelves before he leaves, whether he comes back or not. Send him short and he comes back empty. Send him heavy and whatever he brings home cost more than it was worth. He may also be padding the list, and the only way to learn that is to have sent him before. Nobody gives you the odds. You pack what he asked for, or you do not, and he walks out the door. Everybody who comes through that door is on their way somewhere. Somebody is walking to a place four days out. Somebody is going home to a generator that will not start. You are the place they stop on the way, and you will still be here when the next one comes in. KEY MECHANICS & HIGHLIGHTS - No UI Menus or Lists: Turn around and inspect your stock physically. You either know what you have on your shelves or you find out in front of the customer. - Craft & Organize Your Own Shelves: Build, arrange, and expand your shelf structures from salvaged scrap. Decide where every single item sits and live with your layout. - Barter & Deception: Customers suggest trades based on their own desperation. Short-change them or offer fair value, no screen or UI will tell you if you made the right call. - Irreversible Workbench Salvage: Break down rare functional goods into vital raw components. Every part you gain is a whole object you no longer possess. - Blind Scavenger Contracting: Send travelers out on dangerous expeditions using your own supplies. Balance their demands against your stock without ever knowing the exact odds.