Bazaar of the Bizarre: Difference between revisions

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* [[The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday]]: Another way for the ordinary to get their hands on extraordinary stuff, but the Little Shop is never a "destination" the way a Bazaar is. It's always stumbled across by the unsuspecting.

* [[Fantastic Nature Reserve]]: Secret hiding place for magical ''creatures''.

* [[Heroes R Us]]: A version of the Bazaar for good guys only.

* [[Heroes-R-Us]]: A version of the Bazaar for good guys only.

== Contrast with: ==

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* [[Museum of the Strange And Unusual]]: Similar to the [[Secret Government Warehouse]], but with less of an emphasis on secrecy. You can usually get into the Museum without too much trouble; the Warehouse, if you can even find it, tends to be defended by [[The Men in Black]].

* [[Kitsch Collection]]: Bazaars specialise in fantastic, exotic, and especially magical items. An assortment of ''odd'' items is a [[Kitsch Collection]]. It is not unheard of, however, for something truly extraordinary to be lurking incognito amidst the kitsch.

== Anime and Manga ==

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== Tabletop Games ==

* The Goblin Markets in ''[[Changeling: The Lost (Tabletop Game)|Changeling: The Lost]]''. Buy magic swords, second-hand skills, supernatural powers that [[Fell Off the Back of A Truck]], even slaves. All it's going to cost you is three whiskers from a housecat, a week of dreams, or your ability to cry...

** Quite possibly derived, at least in name, from the poem ''[[Goblin Market]]'' by Christina Rosetti, in which [[Half Human Hybrid|half-animal men]] sell tempting but poisonous fruit.

** Quite possibly derived, at least in name, from the poem ''[[Goblin Market]]'' by Christina Rosetti, in which [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-animal men]] sell tempting but poisonous fruit.

** Another iteration is found in the comic [[Courtney Crumrin and The Night Things (Comic Book)|Courtney Crumrin and The Night Things]].

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]''

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*** A more specific example is the shop of A'kin the Friendly Fiend. (exactly *how* friendly depends on the source) another is "Vrischka's Curiousity Shoppe" from ''[[Planescape Torment]]'' that sells such rare things as Deva's Tears, a Fiend's tongue, an ale-stein powered by one of the layers of hell, and [[Made From Real Girl Scouts|Baby Oil]].

*** Sigil has recently appeared in 4th Edition's ''Manual of the Planes'', thereby becoming part of the core D&D cosmology again.

** Merchant cities of ''[[Forgotten Realms]]''. Waterdeep isn't called "City of Splendors" for nothing, it's a major trade center where they don't bat an eye at weird stuff and minor magic items. The Old Xoblob Shop has anything adventurers can pick up in forgotten ruins, from random weapons to [[Treasure Map|treasure maps]] to weird curio like drow sculpture or lizard man boundary pole, and use an iron golem as candelabra/bouncer. Calimport actually has a bazaar in a [[Another Dimension|pocket dimension]] known as the Dark Bazaar. "Invitations" are given out by shadowy figures, and it's a [[The Neutral Zone|neutral ground]] for various fiends, celestials, monsters, and of course, people. Sshamath is a Drow [[The Magocracy|magocracy]] rumored to have ''anything'' for sale, up to lesser artifacts. They may well do at Dark Weavings Bazaar, and services to get a few absent things too; The Genie's Wish is mostly a [[Honest ~~Johns~~ Dealership|glittering version aimed at]] the visitors too clueless to get [[Be Careful What You Wish For|all implications of its name]].

** Merchant cities of ''[[Forgotten Realms]]''. Waterdeep isn't called "City of Splendors" for nothing, it's a major trade center where they don't bat an eye at weird stuff and minor magic items. The Old Xoblob Shop has anything adventurers can pick up in forgotten ruins, from random weapons to [[Treasure Map|treasure maps]] to weird curio like drow sculpture or lizard man boundary pole, and use an iron golem as candelabra/bouncer. Calimport actually has a bazaar in a [[Another Dimension|pocket dimension]] known as the Dark Bazaar. "Invitations" are given out by shadowy figures, and it's a [[The Neutral Zone|neutral ground]] for various fiends, celestials, monsters, and of course, people. Sshamath is a Drow [[The Magocracy|magocracy]] rumored to have ''anything'' for sale, up to lesser artifacts. They may well do at Dark Weavings Bazaar, and services to get a few absent things too; The Genie's Wish is mostly a [[Honest John's Dealership|glittering version aimed at]] the visitors too clueless to get [[Be Careful What You Wish For|all implications of its name]].

** The 3rd edition ''Tome of Magic'' had Fark's Road, a bazaar hidden by shadow magic where shadowcasters, illusionists, and odd critters traded cross-planar goods. Since it wasn't tied to any particular city and was hidden by an illusion, it could pop up [[~~Schrodingers~~ Gun|anywhere the GM wanted it to]], even in established settings.

** The 3rd edition ''Tome of Magic'' had Fark's Road, a bazaar hidden by shadow magic where shadowcasters, illusionists, and odd critters traded cross-planar goods. Since it wasn't tied to any particular city and was hidden by an illusion, it could pop up [[Schrodinger's Gun|anywhere the GM wanted it to]], even in established settings.

* ''[[Don't Rest Your Head]]'' offers the Bizarre Bazaar, where dreams and memories, as well as other oddities can be exchanged for goods and services. Strangely, while those at the Bazaar tend to be at truce, the gathering is illegal, and therefore subject to raids by the terrifying Officer Tock. Worse, it only occurs at 13 o'clock, when the Mad City is at its most deadly.

* [[Rifts]] has a whole world book about the Splynn Dimensional Market. Where both the merchants and customers tend to be demons, aliens, and dimensional travelers. With all the bizarre goods and services one would expect from such beings.

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** Especially the Locke Market, which is a kind of sub-market. It's as if someone transplanted Morocco into inner-city London.

* The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th-Anniversary_Stadium 10th-Anniversary Stadium] in Warsaw was, well, a stadium converted into a huge market, dealing in pirated software and clothes and practically everything else. It got to the point where people were just going there for a walk or to eat the best Vietnamese food in the city, and allegedly, foreign tourists were having guided tours of it. It was recently closed, though. On a smaller note, if a bazaar in Poland attracts "[[Useful Notes/Russia|the Ruskies]]" (in general people from the former USSR), it automatically gains this kind of reputation, and not without a reason -- you can jokingly ask if they've got a Geiger counter and they reply that you need to wait a week or two.

* For a more mundane and narrow-interest version, the Comic Market (usually shortened Comiket). Things you won't ever see in the official [[Anime]] and [[Manga]], you can get here... Caveat emptor: [[~~Sturgeons~~ Law]] is in full effect. There are many similar events in Japan.

* For a more mundane and narrow-interest version, the Comic Market (usually shortened Comiket). Things you won't ever see in the official [[Anime]] and [[Manga]], you can get here... Caveat emptor: [[Sturgeon's Law]] is in full effect. There are many similar events in Japan.

* Most Triumphant Real-Life example: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlDMEvqjSVQ The Sonora Witchcraft Market in Mexico City.]

* Sugnei Road Thieves' Market, in Singapore. On a good day you can find anything from really old money, to old typewriters and rotary-dial phones, to hard-to-find toys and plushes (albeit in terrible, unmint condition usually), to bootlegs of every imaginable kind, to military and school uniforms (though it's actually illegal to resell the former here in Singapore, but most people in there don't care it seems), to Communist China memorabilia, to old computers, to brand-new Apple MacBooks and Samsung Galaxy Tabs (no kidding), to broken computer parts, to almost-obviously stolen bicycles (the local newspapers touched on this once), to watches, to amulets of every kind imaginable... the list goes on and on. Probably about the only thing you can't find are anything that might explode (since we have draconian laws on that), and food. Many of the things here are usually old unwanted items that rag-and-bone men have collected from all over the island. Occasionally you might find someone's pet bird having been brought along (this troper has seen someone's pet African Grey parrot, and another one had a pet Javan Mynah), but these are not for sale... usually.