A group of people is locked in a room underground.
There are no windows and only a TV screen to show the rules of the game along a timer ticking down.
On the northern wall of the room lay one door and the only exit, while in the middle of the room would be a stand holding a syringe in a glass case.
The rules goes as follows :
1.Everyone in this room have been poisoned, and everyone has a knife.
2. Everyone is allowed to use said knife as they please, with the exception of harming the game equipment.
3. You are allowed to move around as you please.
4.The goal of each player is to survive one hour before the door opens.
5. In the glass box lays the only antidote in sight.
But there is multiple ways for everyone to live.
For one you could be patient and wait.
The rules state that you have been poisoned, but nobody knows with what.
If it was truly a deadly poison, people would be dying in 10 minutes or less.
Plus the goal is to survive for one hour, meaning even if the poison is deadly, it is surviable for at least one hour.
Everyone can live if they can overthrow their desperation with common sense.
Secondly the rules state that there's only one cure in sight, so most likely there are other antidotes hidden in the room or even on someone's person.
If this is the case, all the players would have to do is find the antidotes and wait for an hour to pass by peacefully.
This death game could be used as an introduction for your story's game system and can play out in multiple ways, as not all people can see the obvious loopholes, or convince everyone to not go killing for the only cure in sight.
It can introduce your main character's POV as well as make him be seen as either a coward, a genius or plain insane depending on what the main character decides to do.