I'm extremely new to these forums (2nd post) so excuse the newb question. The guy that normally runs our games mentioned something that seemed odd to me, and when I questioned him about it he claims it's not a house rule, but an official one buried somewhere within the rulebooks somewhere.

Basically, I mentioned to him the entry from the FAQ that describes how one couldn't simply remain at and browse for an Elder Sign at the Curiositie Shoppe because you're technically supposed to shuffle the deck each time you draw from it, which includes shuffling of any cards that were discarded and slipped underneath the deck. He said, right, but the other thing that prevents hanging out at a shop all game is because when you encounter a space with a shop, you MUST buy something if you have the money for it. Let's say you have 3 bucks, and draw items and only one of them is $3 or cheaper. According to him you HAVE TO BUY that item, you can't just decide not to. When I asked him about what if the items you draw are all too expensive, he didn't have an answer. When I asked about how Tasks and Missions would then be treated, he still didn't have one.

Help anyone?

Drake Leonclaw said:

You do not shuffle the item decks every time you draw from them. You must be thinking of the Location decks.

As per the FAQ, if you can afford one of the three items you draw, you must purchase it. If you can't afford any of them, nothing happens. Tasks and missions are treated just like any other items. However I had a houserule for a while that if you drew a mission card, you got to draw an extra card since Missions were undesirable to us. It wasn't long before I just removed them completely. However tasks are easy enough and usually super cheap, if not free.

You're absolutely right, I just reread the sections relevant to this both in the main rulebook and the FAQ. I don't know where I got the shuffle thing from or how I missed the text saying you HAVE to buy something