Overview

No more pausing sessions to calculate prices or track shop inventory. Deploy a shop, set restocking rules, and let it run itself. Players shop anytime, from web or Discord, while you focus on the story.

What Are Shops?

Shops are virtual merchants that run themselves. Deploy “Grimjaw’s Forge” to your party, and it handles pricing, inventory, and transactions automatically. Players buy and sell on their own time while you focus on the story.

The Problem Shops Solve

Without ScryMarket:

• “Hold on, let me find my shop notes…”
• Opens calculator “15 gold times 1.5 markup equals 22.5 gold”
• “Did anyone write down what the shop had left?”
• 5 minutes later “Okay, where were we?”
• Or worse: the table rejects inventory tracking entirely and just handwaves all gear

With ScryMarket:

• Player opens shop, selects item, clicks buy
• Done in seconds
• Everyone sees updated inventory in real-time

Quick Start

Two Ways to Get a Shop

Path 1: Use Existing Design (Recommended)

• Browse the marketplace for a highly-rated design
• Deploy it to your party from the shop detail page
• Takes about 30 seconds

Path 2: Create Your Own

• Design a shop from scratch
• Add items and configure pricing
• Save and deploy
• Takes about 10 minutes first time

Deploy from Your Templates

Step 1: Open the Deploy Dialog

1. Navigate to your Party > Shops tab
2. Click the Deploy Shop button (visible to GMs only)
3. A dialog appears showing your own shop templates with a search bar

Step 2: Select and Customize

1. Choose a template from the list
2. Optionally override the shop name (e.g., “Grimjaw’s Forge at Waterdeep”)
3. Expand “Customize deployment” to set a shopkeeper name, location, and description
4. Click Deploy to Party

Step 3: Control Visibility

• New shops deploy revealed (visible to players) by default
• If you want to prepare inventory or pricing before players see the shop, hide it immediately after deploying
• When ready, reveal the shop to notify all party members

Buy Something

1. Browse Shops: Party page > Shops tab > Click on a shop
2. Select your character: The sidebar auto-selects your first character and container
3. Browse and Buy: Click an item to open the buy dialog, set quantity, confirm purchase
4. Done: Item lands in your character’s container, gold is deducted, everyone sees the update in real-time

The Reveal/Hide Mechanic

One of the most powerful shop features is controlling when your party can see them.

How It Works

State	Party Visibility	Use Case
Hidden	Invisible to all party members	Preparing inventory, adjusting prices
Revealed	Visible and usable by all party members	Ready for business

When you reveal a shop, all party members receive a notification that a new shop is available.

The GM sees dedicated controls in the shop hero area: an eye icon to toggle visibility, plus a banner when the shop is hidden with a Reveal button.

Example: Town Arrival

Before the session, deploy shops for all the merchants in town:

• “Grimjaw’s Forge at Riverdale” (blacksmith)
• “The Gilded Leaf at Riverdale” (apothecary)
• “Wanderer’s Rest at Riverdale” (general store)

Hide them all after deploying. During the session, when players ask “What shops are in this town?”, reveal all three at once. Players get notified and can browse immediately.

Always-Available Shopping

Once a shop is revealed, party members can use it anytime:

• Between sessions from their phone
• During the session from Discord
• At 3 AM when they suddenly remember they need rope

This means you can potentially eliminate shopping sessions entirely. Players handle routine purchases on their own time, freeing game time for adventure.

Understanding Shop Designs

Think of it like D&D monster stat blocks:

Concept	Description
Shop Design (template)	Like a Goblin stat block in the Monster Manual. Reusable blueprint. Share with the community. Edit without affecting deployed shops.
Deployed Shop (instance)	Like the actual goblin in your encounter. Specific to one party. Has its own inventory. Independent from the design.

Example: One Design, Multiple Shops

You create "Standard Blacksmith" design with 10 weapon types

Deploy to Campaign 1 as "Grimjaw's Forge at Waterdeep"
  - Players buy 3 swords
  - Now has 7 swords in stock

Deploy to Campaign 2 as "Ironheart Smithy at Neverwinter"
  - Players buy 5 swords
  - Now has 5 swords in stock

Edit your design to add shields:
  - Grimjaw's Forge: Still only has original swords
  - Ironheart Smithy: Still only has original swords
  - Future deployments: Will include shields

Each deployed shop is its own independent entity.

Pricing System

Markup and Buyback

Every shop has two pricing modifiers that control the economy:

Modifier	What It Means	Example
Markup	How much above base price players pay to buy items	+50% means a 50gp sword costs 75gp
Buyback	What percentage of base value players receive when selling	50% means a 50gp sword sells for 25gp

These are displayed in the Management tab as percentages. Under the hood, modifiers are stored as multipliers (1.5x for +50% markup, 0.5x for 50% buyback).

Common Pricing Models

Model	Markup	Buyback	Use Case
Fair Trade	0% (base price)	100%	Quest rewards, faction merchants
Standard Merchant	+50%	50%	Most shops, balanced economy
Remote Location	+100%	25%	Desert outpost, mountain village
Wealthy Collector	+80%	75%	Pays well for specific items

Adjusting Prices After Deployment

You can change a deployed shop’s modifiers anytime via the Management tab > Pricing > Edit. The pricing dialog lets you toggle between using the template defaults or setting custom overrides. Use this for:

Haggling: Player rolls well on persuasion? Lower the markup from +50% to +30% for that shop.

Quest Rewards: Merchant offers better prices after players save their caravan? Set markup to 0% permanently.

Economic Events: Famine hits the region? Raise food prices by increasing the markup.

Discounts

Shops support a discount rate (percentage off all prices). When active, the shop displays a discount badge both on the shop card in the listing and in the shop hero area (e.g., “25% off”). Discounts apply on top of the buy and sell modifiers.

Price Shopping Strategy

Compare shops to maximize your gold:

Shop	Buy Price	Sell Price
Grimjaw’s Forge (Standard)	75gp	25gp
The Golden Anvil (Collector)	100gp	37.5gp

Strategy: Buy from Grimjaw (cheaper), sell to Golden Anvil (pays more).

Restocking

Shops can automatically replenish their inventory on a schedule, and GMs can trigger manual restocks at any time.

Auto-Restock Schedule

Each shop template can define a default restock interval as a number of days:

Setting	Behavior
Empty (no value)	No automatic restocking (limited stock)
1–365 days	Full restock on the specified interval

For example, setting a restock interval of 7 restocks inventory weekly. Setting it to 1 restocks daily.

Instance Overrides

A deployed shop can override the template’s restock schedule. Open the Management tab > Restock > Edit to toggle “Custom restock schedule” and enter a different number of days (or set to 0 to disable auto-restock for that specific shop).

Per-Item Overrides

Individual items within a deployed shop can also override the shop’s restock schedule:

Shop default: 7-day restock

Longsword: Uses shop default (weekly)
Healing Potion: 1-day restock (high demand consumable)
Legendary Sword: 0 = never restocks (one of a kind)

This lets you create shops with mostly standard inventory but special unique items that do not come back once sold. Edit per-item restock settings by clicking an item in the Management tab’s inventory list.

Manual Restock

GMs can trigger an immediate restock at any time using the restock button in the shop hero area (the rotating arrow icon). This restocks all items back to their original quantities regardless of the auto-restock schedule.

Restock Quantities

When an item restocks, it returns to its original quantity. If a shop started with 10 longswords and players bought 7, after restock it has 10 again.

Shop Till and Starting Gold

Shops have their own currency inventory (the “till”). When players sell items, the shop pays from its till.

Starting Gold

When creating a shop design, you can set the Starting Gold amount. This is the initial currency placed in the shop’s till when deployed. A small village shop might start with 100gp, while a wealthy merchant starts with 5,000gp.

Making Change

If a player sells a 15gp item and the shop only has gold pieces, they get 15gp. If the shop has silver, it might pay 14gp and 10sp. The shop uses whatever currency it has available.

Limited vs Unlimited Funds

• Limited funds: Shop can run out of gold. Players cannot sell if the till is empty.
• Unlimited funds: Shop always has money. Simpler but less realistic. Enable via the “Unlimited Funds” toggle when creating the shop design.

Shop Tabs

Each deployed shop has up to three tabs, visible in the shop hero area:

Shop Tab

The main shopping interface. On desktop, this is a two-column layout:

• Left column (Sell Panel): Select your character and container, view your gold and encumbrance, browse your inventory to sell items to the shop
• Right column (Buy Panel): Browse the shop’s wares split into Rare Finds and Common Goods, search and sort items, click to open the buy dialog

On mobile, these become “Buy” and “Sell” sub-tabs.

Activity Tab

A transaction history for the shop showing all purchases, sales, restocks, and visibility changes in a timeline feed. Visible to all party members.

Management Tab (GM Only)

Only visible to the party GM when they have management permissions. Contains:

• Quick Stats: Item count, total value, available funds, restock interval
• Pricing section: Current markup and buyback rates with an Edit button to open the pricing dialog
• Restock section: Current restock schedule with an Edit button to open the restock dialog
• Inventory editor: Full item list with inline quantity editing, remove buttons, and an “Add Item” button that opens the item picker. Click any item to open a per-item settings dialog for identification status, base value, and custom restock schedules
• Danger Zone: Delete button (GM only) to permanently remove the shop and all its inventory from the party

Print Cards

GMs can print the shop’s entire inventory as physical item cards. Click the printer icon in the shop hero area to generate a printable card sheet for all items in the shop. This is useful for handing out physical cards at the table when players purchase items.

You can also print cards from the marketplace shop detail page using the “Print All as Cards” button.

Who Can Do What

All users have access to all features. The difference is context:

Action	Who Can Do It
Create shop designs	Any user
Share designs in marketplace	Any user
Deploy shops to a party	Party GM
Reveal/hide shops	Party GM or managers
Edit deployed shop settings	Party GM or managers
Restock shops	Party GM or managers
Delete deployed shops	Party GM only
Buy from revealed shops	Any party member
Sell to revealed shops	Any party member

This means you can be running your own campaign as GM while also playing in someone else’s game as a player.

Tips

Before the Campaign

1. Deploy shops for your starting town
2. Hide them while you adjust inventory and pricing
3. Reveal them during session 0 or when players arrive

Preparing for Sessions

1. Deploy any new shops players might encounter
2. Adjust existing shop inventories via the Management tab
3. Reveal shops as players discover them

Advanced Techniques

Regional Economy: Different towns have different shops with different modifiers. Coastal towns sell fish cheap; desert towns charge premium.

Traveling Merchant: Deploy a shop that “appears” when you reveal it and “leaves” when you hide it.

Seasonal Stock: Adjust shop inventory manually via the Management tab to reflect seasonal availability or special events.

Discount Events: Set a discount rate on a shop to simulate a sale or special event pricing.

For All Players

• Shop between sessions: Do not waste game time buying rope
• Move currency to an accessible container for easy transactions
• Compare prices: Check multiple shops for best deals

Common Questions

Can anyone create shop designs? Yes! All users can create shop designs and share them in the marketplace. Within a party, only the GM can deploy shops. GMs and managers can manage, restock, and toggle visibility. Only the GM can delete deployed shops.

Do shops persist between sessions? Yes. Deployed shops stay in your party until the GM deletes them. Inventory, prices, and gold balance all persist.

What happens if a shop runs out of gold? Players cannot sell items until the shop gets more gold (from purchases or manually adding currency). Alternatively, enable unlimited funds when creating the shop design.

Can I return items I purchased? No formal returns. You can sell items back to shops, but you will get the buyback price (usually much lower than you paid).

Do changes sync in real-time? Yes. Price changes, inventory updates, and transactions sync instantly. All party members see changes immediately.

Do shops deploy visible or hidden? Shops deploy revealed (visible) by default. If you want to set up a shop before players see it, hide it immediately after deploying.

Ready to Deploy?

Browse community-created shop designs, deploy in seconds, and give your party 24/7 shopping access.

What’s Next?

• Discord Bot Guide - Manage shops from Discord
• Currency - How gold and transactions work
• Inventory Guide - Deep dive into inventory management
• Marketplace - Finding quality shop designs