Customers #AtoZchallenge #rpg #fantasy #prompt

My theme is a month of prompts and ideas for tabletop role-playing games or prompts for fantasy writers.

The characters have been created. The setting is in place. It's an object quest.
It is just an object quest, right?
The doors seal shut. The other customers and employees vanish. The lights turn dark purple. All communication is cut off. The windows are boarded up.
What's that sound? 👾

What the players need now isn't that object, it's something to protect themselves. Will they work together now? Try to feed each other to the monsters?

Everyone is trapped in the mythical "beyond" section. There are traps, monsters, whatever your imagination desires. The players only have what was declared at the start of the game, plus their cart (or whatever) items. Those are your weapons, armor, magic staffs, provisions, and mounts.

If a player takes an item out of their cart (or whatever) and allows it out of their sight or arm's length, it vanishes. Unattended shopping carts/ baskets vanish after five minutes. 🛒 Other players can take items from an unattended cart/ basket. Or another player could volunteer to watch a cart/ basket so it doesn't become unattended.

No one can leave the "beyond" section, except for the "retail workers." They can sneak off to the backroom. Once there, they can trade any one item from their cart for something in the backroom. (Fitting in a shopping cart is not a requirement for a "retail worker." So, hypothetically, they could trade a bath towel for a forklift.)

No one can return to the store selling floor without their sought object. Once out of the "beyond" section, everything on the main selling floor is in play. (Grab all the shower curtains for a net. Rip out the light fixtures to use as swords. Crank relaxing music on the sleep therapy machines.)

The "boss" will be in the store. Defeat the boss, scan the object, pay, get out. Can only one player win? Will the scanners work? Will any players who aren't "retail workers" know how to operate that scanner? (Thank goodness for self-checkout?) There is no communication with the outside world, so credit cards and phone payment isn't available. It's cash only! Which players had the foresight to list cash on their character sheet? Will it be enough money?

Getting outside means the players are no longer customers.