We just finished Dragon Heist and the player characters have thousands of gold to spend. Not only do they have Trollskull Manor open for business as a tavern, but they're looking to buy a ship and invest in other businesses. There are rules for this in Dragon Heist and in the Dungeon Master's Guide, but I wanted to add a little risk and flavor. I want each business to feel a little different, but I don't want to slow down the game or shift the focus away from adventuring. So here's a few homebrew rules I've been working on to handle the month-to-month game of running a business in D&D. The thing I'm especially trying to go for is an elegant system that makes the monthly maintenance cost both a liability and an asset (as a limit to how much one can benefit from investing in the business).

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CKVxajZnEj6nYLm3easHOKRUgVBLaGSqQp9B834RGp4/edit?usp=sharing

Hm.  Interesting.  I like the "Risk" table, and the idea that occasionally some Weird Gorram Shit will happen to any operation run in the sort of world adventurers live in.  I'd have to look up the Running a Business rules again to speak with any kind of authority, but a one-to-one rate of GP to Investment payout seems a little much.  As I recall it's a d100 roll; letting someone drive that roll through the roof for a relatively minimal investment they're almost certainly going to recoup maybe goes against the idea of the system.

Nevertheless, nice work.  I always enjoy seeing good rules hacks, we need more of that in 5e homebrew, not just an infinite procession of half-baked spells or items.

This is a subject near and dear to my heart because my DM decided we would typically have weeks between combat encounters that we would spend in the vicinity of the home town.  We were told to pick a profession and he explained that we would be practicing our profession between adventures.  My character is a performer so my basic profession was clear and we came up with a table for the number of silver pieces, over and above living expenses at a comfortable lifestyle, I would earn each day, and then converted it to gold pieces per week.

But I had bigger dreams and floated the idea of establishing an import-export company.  He liked the idea but we found out there are many details to be ironed out.  The town has a magic over it that allows the town to enjoy perfect growing season weather year round.  Therefore, the town grows anything it wants and there is no off season.  I decided the first thing I could sell was fresh fruit to the towns, villages and hamlets nearby.  So I purchased a cart, a mule a harness and saddlebags, six barrels (the maximum space in my cart), six sacks, and enough apples, peaches, pears, etc. to fill my barrels.  I led my cart to the next town and doubled my money on the fruit, paid some expenses, and bought some local delicacies to attempt to trade back.  I was about flat after expenses on that trip.

I have made the trip four times now.  Each time I have tried something new on the return trip, but the fruit is good enough to guarantee me a good enough.  It appears the best commodity I can purchase at that other town is their local ale and stout.  So I expect to stabilize that run to trade in those two commodities.  I even bought a second mule and cart, and I hire an hireling to help.  I intend to hire a second hireling and let them run that "turn" for me automatically.  My DM may throw bandits at me eventually, I don't know.

Meanwhile I plan to take another cart to the next nearest town in a different direction.  I will repeat the same thing to determine the right pair of commodities to trade each week (or so).  I hope to develop a network of trading for a distance of many days travel from my home town.

I decided I will build a trading post in each town.  Then folks will know they can trade there in fresh fruit until it is sold out for the week.  I will also be able to ship my other goods to each of the trading posts to achieve better prices.  I plan to build a tavern in each town and begin a brewing enterprise.  I will trade for the best brews in each locality until I can build a brewery.  Once I have a brewery, I will be able to add my best lagers and meads to the menu of ales, stouts, porters and ciders I trade for elsewhere.

So I will have a large enterprise of trading caravans, trading posts and taverns throughout the region.  I have decided to create a company logo and a branding plan using the colors red, green and yellow.  My carts and barrels will be green with my company logo in yellow painted in a recognizable logo.  The wheels on my carts and wagons will be red spoked wheels.  I will have a green banner with a red border and my yellow logo embroidered in the center.  My typical company laborer will wear green pants and a red shirt.  More significant positions will be given a green and red tabard with the company logo embroidered on the left breast.  Top level agents will be provided a green hat with a red plume, a silk shirt of red, and well made boots.  These individuals will be required to have unusually high charisma and be very loyal to the company.  They will be well compensated and in charge of local affairs in each town.  Since I will have a tavern in each town, I could see these individuals typically being bards.  I imagine the bar maids would have a green dress, a red blouse and a yellow apron.  I might even extend the taverns into becoming taverns and inns.

Anyway, working out the details with my DM has become a chore for him, because there are so many details that have to be ironed out.  He doesn't care much about the details and likes the RP effort I am putting into it, but he really only wants to make sure I don't break the game by making more money with this enterprise than the rest of the party makes on adventures.  But unless there is banditry or some other external problem sucking off the profits, the enterprise is naturally going to earn an extraordinary amount of money.

However, the real point of the company is to provide a front for my spy network.  The information the party could get from this enterprise is worth more than the gold.

It's a fun idea, MusicScout. I get that D&D isn't a game about running businesses or networks or enterprises. It's a game about adventure, combat, exploration, social encounters, etc; but you have an interesting and fun idea that's perfectly reasonable for a character with extra money to pursue. Like you said, it's a chore with all the little details and it's potentially game breaking with the potential profits.

That's really why I put these rules together - to make player character owned businesses easy to run (not a chore) and to keep the rules from the DMG, which limits profits to 150gp per month. There's no way that 150gp per month is going to break the game.

I'd love it if you could try these rules out in your game and see what happens. My players are about to get their tavern and sailing ship operational. Let's see what happens...

M-J

We should discuss this offline.  I spent less than 250gp and could have earned 100gp / week far as long as I wanted based on the conditions my DM gave me.  Now the starting conditions of having a town able to produce fresh fruit year round when the adjoining towns could not was an obvious slam dunk for profit.  I believe with enough attempts I could find the magic commodity to bring back that would generate another 100gp per trip making my profit 200gp / week.  Then it might be a matter to determine how many wagon loads I could haul each direction before the stable supply limit was reached and I couldn't expand anymore.

I would like to work with you to flesh out your rules further.  We might be able to develop a better table of results.  At a glance, your table appears to support an unreasonable risk to get a business started.  However, with enough "outlets" the element of chance could be removed and a steady profit all but guaranteed.  But this could only come after a gargantuan investment.

Let's do this in pm and see what we can come up with.