Emporium

video transcript

Back on your homeplane, you receive the following notice…

You have reached the front of the queue! Do you wish to proceed?

At last, the aeons long wait is over, and your turn has come to step foot inside Emporium.

Welcome to Emporium! We have what you're looking for.

Hello, and thank you for shopping at Emporium! We hope you will enjoy browsing the wiki to uncover the strange yet reassuringly consumerist world that the GM team have created for you to explore, and urge you to consider submitting a character creation form by 12 noon on Sunday 1st August if you like what you see. Any questions or concerns can be emailed to the Emporium GM team.

Emporium is a game about an infinite supermarket called Emporium, which caters to a range of god-like Entities from diverse planes of reality. However powerful and alien in nature these may be on their homeplanes, all Entities manifest within the store as three-dimensional beings who relate to each other as fellow shoppers and employees. Emporium primarily offers Entities a choice of one of three ways to manifest: as a winged Glory, a primordial Chimera or an object-headed Implement.

The game aims to contrast the everyday with the extraordinary as all manner of Entities flock together in the ineffable pursuit of their groceries. All player characters will enter the store at the start of the first session either as a customer or as a newly hired employee, and remain within it until the end of the game.

Whether players choose to explore the baffling product ranges on sale at Emporium, delve into the maze-like warehouses and forbidden back offices to uncover the secrets of the store, or engage in the political manoeuvring and uncanny goings-on under the surface, we assure you that Emporium has what you're looking for.

Emporium is a text-based game of three parts:

• Uptime, in which players roleplay their characters’ interactions and describe their actions over Discord text channels in real time. This will include the opportunity to participate in short, GM-moderated adventures.
• Downtime, which includes
  • Emails, using the game's email system, in which players may continue to communicate after uptime has ended until an hour before the turnsheet deadline. This may be used for last minute planning before writing turnsheets, as well as any other communication or roleplay players wish to engage in. Players are asked to not use any other means for IC communication during downtime, as GMs are able to read all emails sent via this system. This is important for the running of the game.
  • Turnsheets, in which players submit a summary of what they plan to achieve during downtime to the wiki. This will be read by the GM team who will provide a response before the next session. This response may be either in written form, or include physical and/or digital media elements on an opt-in basis.

• If you have never used Discord before, we suggest reading Discord Basics
• For specifics on our use of Discord for uptime, see Uptime on Discord
• For details on Turnsheets, see Downtime, Emails and Turnsheets

An important first thing to note if you're a new player: You don't need to read this entire website!

There's a lot of material here, and you certainly don't need to know all of it to start playing. Read only what interests you and what's relevant to a character you might like to play - you will find a guide to sections of the website and what they tell you below.

As GMs, we would be delighted to have any new players on board, and would like to reassure you that being new should be no barrier to participation! You are always more than welcome to email the GM Team with any questions or concerns you may have, and we are certain that older players will also be happy to provide any guidance once Emporium is underway. We hope you enjoy!

Pages under 'Overview' in the sidebar offer quick access to out-of-character information.

• If you are short for time or would like a quick overview of the game premise, themes, setting, and dates, we have written a 500 word long TL;DR which was published prior to the wiki release and can be found here.
• If you are unsure of any of the words used on this wiki, you can consult the glossary
• For a better grasp of our vision for the game, the tone we intend to set, and the key themes of the game, please see Style and Tone

Pages under 'Setting' in the sidebar feature more flavourful, descriptive text and are designed to tell you more about the world that Emporium takes place in. A good place to start would be…

• Emporium, to find out about the in-game store and how your character may relate to it
  • Shopping Level, Understore, and The Warehouses for maps and descriptions of areas within the store that you could visit in-game
• Entities, for more on Entities are in this setting, and how they manifest within the store

Pages under 'Playing the Game' in the sidebar feature rules text and are designed explain how to use the mechanics within the game.

• If you are wondering whether you would prefer to start the game as an employee or a customer, we suggest reading the Playing a Customer and Playing an Employee pages
• If you want to get straight to submitting a character, Character Creation offers a crash course on creating your character, with links to the pages that elaborate on any mechanics you will need to consider at this stage