howtobuy [Emporium]

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======Purchasing Items======

>When you have inevitably found exactly the item you were looking for, you’ll need to arrange payment for it before it’s truly yours. Simply take the item to the checkouts where our patented scanning and analysis technology will work out the right price for //you//. 

When you want to buy an item, please email the GM team (or message your GM during session) and we will get back to you with a price (see below). If this is done before 23:59 BST on the Wednesday after session, we will respond before the turnsheet deadline. You may then make the purchase in downtime and have the item immediately for use in that turnsheet. Otherwise, please note the purchase request on your turnsheet (under Minor Actions) and you will get a response with your turnsheet. You may then make the purchase during the following session.

Please note that your character must physically have possession of the item for purchase before you make a purchase request. If you know what you are looking for but haven’t found it yet, you could arrange an [[excursions|Excursion]] in order to find it, or search for it using your downtime action.

====Barter====

The majority of customer purchases are made using the Emporium barter system. Once your desired product has been scanned, the Emporium barter analysis technology will also scan your homeplane in order to determine the best cost for a fair trade. This is subjective and will be based on the relative value or importance of things in that homeplane, but to give some examples, 
this could be things such as: the largest mountain range; half the stars in the sky; colour; or two hundred thousand tons of obsidian. If you would prefer to trade parts of yourself to Emporium instead, that could also be negotiated!

These prices may seem high, but remember, these high-value purchases are for items which do the things that god-like Entities can't do (and, on an OC level, for items with mechanical benefit or a high narrative importance). As a customer at Emporium you have, or have been given, authority to make trades like this. However, whether or not such exchanges represent value for your homeplane, or for you, is a matter of perspective. We do not expect player characters to be making more than about one significant purchase per turn, and likely fewer than that.

If you need time to think about your purchase, the item will be held securely for you until you make a decision. As soon as you have agreed to the trade, the item is yours! You can either keep it with you in Emporium or opt for it to be hand-delivered direct to your homeplane. Meanwhile, Emporium representatives will be dispatched immediately to extract the designated payment. They will do so with as small an effect on the metaphysics and timeline of your homeplane as possible. This doesn't mean that the trade will be without consequences, of course -- only that the extraction itself will be minimally disruptive.

====SoulCoin====

Alternatively, you may find yourself in possession of some [[souls#soulcoin|SoulCoin]], Emporium’s in-store currency. Most commonly, this will happen if you are an employee here and have received your wages. Employees get paid one SoulCoin for each Season successfully spent working for Emporium. It is also possible to start the game with one SoulCoin by taking the relevant [[quirks|Quirk]]. The base value of SoulCoin is tailored to suit the value of items in-store: most relevant items cost between one and three SoulCoin each.

It is not possible to purchase SoulCoin directly with the barter system, but the price of an item may be given in both SoulCoin and a barter offer, so an equivalent exchange rate can be inferred. Like the barter system itself, this is subjective and based on the relative value of things in different homeplanes, but to give some standard examples: the largest mountain range might be a single SoulCoin; half the stars in the sky could be two; while colour itself might be three SoulCoins.

SoulCoin is a "hard currency": it will be tracked by the GMs, so please be sure to carefully **note any and all trades** with other players on your turnsheets!
====Souls====

For lower-value items such as snacks and small souvenirs, Emporium will accept payment directly in [[souls]]. Items of little to no mechanical or narrative value((This applies to quantity as well as quality. A single bottle of water is trivial; a million bottles of water is not.)) may be trivially bought with souls (check with the GMs if you are unsure!). The value of small numbers of souls is below the abstraction layer and will not be tracked by the GMs.