Exploration, investigation, and ferreting out the unknown are key themes of Emporium, with an additional focus on uptime activities through the Excursions mechanic. A key part of exploration and investigation is overcoming obstacles. You'll likely want to go somewhere difficult to get to, or poke your nose into something that someone doesn't want you to.

As such, the philosophy and mechanics underpinning the game, and the way that we adjudicate actions, are explained below. While they may seem quite detailed, they just represent a more formalised explanation of normal GMing practices, made transparent for your benefit.

Most importantly, we want actions to be fun. You will always get something out of an action, whether that's information, resources, power, contacts, or new perspectives on a part of the game. No matter what happens to your character, we want to make both success and failure engaging and entertaining.

• That success should be fun is obvious. It gives you the satisfaction of your plans going ahead perfectly, the material fruits of victory, discovering hidden secrets and lore, or your personal goals and schemes advanced. At the same time, we don't want to give you simple 'you succeed at doing this thing!' outcomes. Instead, successes will typically raise interesting new problems or opportunities for you, or provide you with information that you may wish to share with people in session.

• At the same time, 'defeat' always gets you something. It might get you new insights into the setting, highlight new avenues of inquiry, or allow your character to develop and transform into new and exotic shapes, with unusual spiritual damage or metaphysical capabilities that are fun to role-play. In some situations, 'failure' may open up new doors and lead to unexpected windfalls.

We aim to be generous in resolving your characters' exploits; we want to be fans of your characters and give them (and you!) the most satisfying arcs we can. In turn, we hope that players will feel able to be bold, to explore the setting and tell dramatic stories with other characters, to succeed and fail and be vulnerable. That's how the best stories are made - and how to get the most out of your game.

We envisage most PvE (player vs environment, player vs enemy) content to occur during Excursions - adventures exploring the dark depths of the Warehouses, or onto Aisle 437, where a particularly stubborn spill has become sentient and is resistant attempts to clean it up - although, depending on player action, PCs might encounter PvE content elsewhere. GMs will make it obvious when this is the case!

Most of the time, for routine actions, PCs can use their Attributes to interact with the world narratively. A Glory might use their flaming wings to soar up onto the rafters to see further and ask a GM what they can see. Such actions will be determined narratively, as fits the story, and shouldn't be a major obstacle.

To resolve more dramatic conflicts - where a lot more is at stake or where people want to do something ambitious - we will assess actions based on three criteria.

First, does a PC have appropriate Attributes and Quirks? Do you have particularly keen senses, or a hand-held motion tracker? Then you might be able to track the invisible cryptid lurking in the produce aisle.

Second, do they have a good plan? Laying out the cunning ideas and schemes you plan to use to persuade Store Security to let you past is likely to be much more effective than just saying 'I use my Charisma to convince the guard),

Third, how much are they putting on the line? The willingness to risk one's body, soul, or resources to achieve your goal is likely to bring about great success, albeit at a cost. In a desperate struggle in the depths of the warehouse, fighting concept-predators of extractive capitalism, someone willing to suffer serious injuries may be more successful than someone playing it safe but won't come out unscathed.

All of these are also applicable to turnsheets. An action employing appropriate resources, a good plan, and a willingness to open oneself up to risk is likely to be more successful.

Aaron107, an Implement, wants to break into a mystically sealed utility closet that they've uncovered in the Growth Sector. They note that the padlocked door has been daubed with a kind of looping, weird script that seems to fizz and crackle ominously - some sort of defence mechanism? Fortunately, they have a set of lockpicks instead of a head, and brought a small vial of Alkahest-brand Universal Solvent down with them (a good set of Attributes and Quirks). Taking it slowly and cautiously, to avoid setting the script off (they're not risking sacrificing much, the GM notes), they simultaneously begin to pick the lock with the Alkahest on hand to erase any sigils that begin to glow (a good plan). This will definitely get the door open, the GM decides, but it might expend most of the Alkahest and take time - Aaron won't have quite as much time to investigate if they'd been a bit riskier.

Unerring Gravity Towards the Asymptote, a Glory, ends the session with Store Security breathing down her neck. They've found that she's been building a tunnel out of the store to allow her desperate allies outside to skip the queue, and a confrontation is inevitable. She doesn't know where or how Security is planning to attack her (other than that they're on her tail) (that is - she hasn't got a good plan), and, despite being the Glory of hyper-dense physical matter, she can't think of any way she could use her Attributes to fight (she can't bring her Attributes or quirks to bear). This is important, though - she needs to get her allies in here, so they can obtain the items they require to save their worlds - and so she'll sacrifice anything to let her friends in here (she's willing to sacrifice a lot for her cause ), tearing out parts of her neutronium soul and hurling them like darts; tremendously powerful, even if she's not a fighter. The GM, assessing her turnsheet, judges that Unerring will probably fend off this attack - but the yawning rents in her spiritual body might lead strange entities to shadow her, drawn by the scent of starblood.

In short - if you're looking at going on an adventure, overcoming some sort of obstacle, or throwing down with a rival in PvE, either in uptime or downtime, you're much more likely to be successful with

* appropriate Attributes, Quirks or items * a good plan * the willingness to sacrifice something (harm to your body, material resources, or soul). The more you risk, the more reward you'll get, but one way or another, it will cost you something.

While PvP is nothing new to most roleplayers, we want to ensure that all players approach it in the right spirit to create a narratively satisfying, OC fun, generally positive game experience.

Direct player vs player conflict is not a core theme of this game. Emporium is a big place - an infinite place - and disagreements between shoppers are often played out subtly through ritual, gossip, and political skulduggery behind the scenes of the store. Even so, sometimes player characters confront each other head to head - scuffling to get the last special edition figurine in the New Year sales, trying to stop each others' apocalyptic rituals (or carry their own out), or simply rejoicing in the raw strength of their powerful, transcendent form.

Direct confrontation between player-controlled entities is an uncommon, meaningful, occurrence; you're unlikely to get into this sort of PvP on a regular basis, but when it happens, it will be significant.

As such, PvP uses a slightly adapted version of the PvE mechanics.

If you want to engage in PvP in uptime, contact a GM using the '@' functionality, identifying who you are trying to engage in PvP.

A list of Safety Calls can be found here.

If both players are OK engaging in PvP, they should both come up with a brief 1-2 sentence plan, hidden in Discord's Spoiler Text function, detailing what Attributes and Quirks they are bringing to bear, what their plan is, and how much they are willing to sacrifice). The GM will then adjudicate the outcome, noting any injuries each PC may suffer; players are welcome to add any flair or narrate any stylish action as part of this.

By the essential nature of PvP action, there will usually be a 'winner' and a 'loser' - that's just how things go! We ask that though players may portray characters as sanctimoniously or bitterly as they want while in character (and in fact encourage it!), all players are gracious about the victories and defeats of their characters in equal measure when out of character.

As discussed above, we will work to ensure that PvP is interesting and fun. Even if PvP action results in mechanical losses, with characters experiencing great loss or suffering, we hope that their players will take these outcomes gracefully out of character.

Remember, it is the character that won or lost, not the player.

Pthalo Sunset, a Chimera somewhere between a spider and a regal mountain lion, has finally had it up to here with Deborah Assayer, a clock-headed Implement. Deborah has - with the aid of a renegade faction of chronomantically gifted Store employees - been turning back time in the seasonal decorations section, amassing vast quantities of her preferred autumnal harvest goods and preventing Sunset from stocking Winter and New Year selections. Enough is enough, zie decides and prepares a counter-ritual to stop Deborah. Sunset player @s a GM, and Deborah's player readily agrees to this - should be fun!

Sunset's not a natural ritualist (zie doesn't have a great plan about how to do this). Still, zir majestic horns, fractally patterned coat, and a handbag full of powerful artefacts borrowed from Management give zir a fair amount of metaphysical oomph that zie will use to shatter Deborah's ritual (a convincing set of Attributes). Zie also has claws, teeth, and envenomed spinnerets, if it comes to fisticuffs, and zir job depends on making sure people don't metaphysically disrupt the store (zie knows zie will sustain an injury in this clash, but trusts in zir ability to take a blow). Sunset's player explains how zie will barrel through the defenders, striking fast and hard, in an attempt to drive off Deborah - but doesn't want to do her serious damage.

Deborah is a relatively slight figure, whose flesh has become raggedy and translucent following a violent encounter with some Coo-Coos in the Warehouses earlier; as such, she doesn't have many Attributes to use, save for her clock head that she's using to coordinate the renegade employees. She's been working on this plan for a while, however, and between the powerful defences she's set up, and her training of the employees, she's well prepared - a very good plan. At the same time, she's mostly got what she wants, in the form of pumpkins, spiced drinks, and freshly-canned goods - she doesn't want to risk too much. As such, Deborah's player says she will keep going with her chronomancy, trying to fend off Sunset, but if it looks like zie's breaking through, slowly back off with her ill-gotten spoils.

Looking at the two plans, the GM decides that Sunset's 'just run in there and power through' approach probably does overwhelm Deborah's outer magical defences, enough to disrupt the ritual, but not without cost - a horn gets snapped off in the tussle, leaving a jagged stump in its place. By contrast, Deborah's more conservative approach sees her retreat from the approaching Chimera, but in good order; her greatly reduced entourage cover her withdrawal from the ritual site with a diminished but not inconsiderable of her out-of-time goods. Both players add some flair - Deborah's player describes how she retreats, sidestepping between the gear-teeth of her collapsing ritual with an engineer's precision, while Sunset's player describes how the Chimera collapses in the middle of the deserted ritual circle, smoking and bleeding a little, and mutters to zirself about how zie deserves a raise for this one.

Whether radiant Glories, majestic Chimerae, or devoted Implements, player characters are divine Entities made of fire, exotic matter, and raw will. This makes them unlikely to die and resilient beyond mortal limits. They are not indestructible, though, and - whether through ill-advised metaphysical dabbling, exposure to terrifying or unknown dangers in the warehouses, or scuffles with other Entities - can become injured, or even have their manifestation destroyed - “die”.

If an Entity becomes physically or spiritually injured, this is represented by a change in the Entity's Secondary Attributes. At the end of session, by email shortly afterwards, or at the start of session in the case of injuries during downtime, a GM will contact you with at least two options for a new Attribute reflecting the damage taken; you may pick one of these, and replace any of your existing Attributes with your choice. While such injuries may suggest some downsides, they will typically imply advantages or capabilities as well. They can be creatively deployed in uptime and downtime just like any original Attribute. In line with our philosophy of encouraging fun character arcs full of mystery, discovery, and exploration, we intend for character injury and recovery to be a source of character growth and development in its own right, as Entities' bodies and souls develop and change.

Rarely, certain mythic weapons, techniques, or materials may be able to annihilate an Entity's in-store manifestation, effectively removing them from play. What this means to each Entity may be very different. To some, it's a major inconvenience as they are booted back to the end of the queue; to others, death is real.

A neutron star, compressed and shaped down into a discus; the sap of a plant from the depths of the Growth Sector, watered with slander and curses; a mythic conjunction of prophecies and stellar conjunctions, custom-tooled in the more abstract depths of the Warehouses. Such artisanal, made-to-order tools must be crafted specifically with a target in mind. They may require Excursions or turnsheet actions to obtain - though few are likely to discuss how to do this openly…

Enacting such preparation is an obvious, flashy procedure that is impossible to keep secret. Expect them to be announced in the News, or on the Store tannoy, or to be dramatically declared to your face. If you are vulnerable or in someone's crosshairs, you'll know well in advance and have the opportunity to do something about it. NPCs are more than capable of doing this, too; while none take deicide lightly, antagonising powerful enemies may have deadly results - unless you get them first.