Was hoping to get a little more in depth on how running a business works. The DMG is a little lacking for details. 1- the gp earned is the same regardless of the size of business 2- there seems to be no way to influence the %dice roll to if it is successful or not by using skills/spells. I had an idea of using skills/spells to ensure a merchant based character would be successful in business. I know many think that this is a waste of time and not fun but I see several role playing advantages to owning a business * a hide out for the group * a information gathering tool *easy way to make contacts * Someone wants to be Dalton from Roadhouse j/k *utility for selling goods acquired by adventuring *reknown * easy adventure hook for the DM. ( you hear rumor/ random group attacks your business/ employee goes missing ect...)
So yeah any more specifics would be nice. Such as cost of building a shop/tavern in say Waterdeep's slums vs 5000gp for a trading post. any ideas to change the income stream or influence the % roll ect.
There are a number of documents on the DMs Guild that give options for this. Check there if you want. Here is my personal rule set for it.
When running the business as downtime add +1 to the running a business roll for every GP spent promoting or investing in the business up to +30.
Additionally, I allow players to make upgrades to the business. For example one of my players is running a tavern and he just invested 1,000 gold in the business by expanding the kitchen and offering a wider variety of foods. Any upgrade must be of significance and beneficial to the business (while nice, a new anvil will not help a tavern as much as it would a blacksmith), every 100 gold spent on the cost of upgrades becomes a +1 bonus to the business roll. This bonus remains as long as the owner uses his downtime to run the business. Every workweek not spent running his business degrades this bonus by 1, as the owner is not overseeing his business and wear and tear damages the upgrade, this stops when the upgrade bonus reaches 0.
Just as with promoting and investing this upgrade bonus is capped at +30 however the two stack. So with his 1,000 gold investment and 30 gold spent during the week promoting the business my player will make his business roll with +40 meaning even if he rolls a 1 the business covers its own maintenance cost. As the player upgrades other parts of the tavern (costing 2,000 gold) and continues to promote the business he will make the roll with +60, meaning even if the player rolls a 1 the business will cover its own maintenance cost and earn an average profit of 20 gold (or 1d6x5 gold for those of you who like to roll). At this point, the player may very well be spending more time as a tavern keep/owner than an adventurer. If this hasn't forced him into retirement, or the game is focused on running a tavern there is a third path to be explored.
Once a business (in this case a tavern) is fully upgraded and fully promoted you would think that there is not much more to be done. Yet the actions of the owner, their friends, and their staff can all come into play. This is only suitable in games where the focus of the roleplaying is the running of a business. When role-playing track actions that are beneficial to the business (buying rounds on the house, blessing merchandise, holding tournaments) and actions detrimental to the business (bar fights, selling cheap/shoddy goods), at the end of a workweek if the number of beneficial actions is larger than the number of detrimental actions make a roll on the business table with advantage. If the number of detrimental actions are larger than the number of beneficial actions roll with disadvantage. If the number of beneficial actions is larger than the number of detrimental actions by five or more double all profit earned on the business roll, if the number of detrimental actions is larger than the number of beneficial actions by five or more half all profit earned on the business roll. This ruleset should only be used if the players have already maxed out their upgrades and promotions and only if running the business is the focus of the game.
So our dedicated tavern owner has spent 3,000 gold expanding the kitchen, hiring in house musicians, purchasing expensive fixtures and adding private dining/drinking areas for a +30 to his business roll. He has spent 30 gold hiring barkers to sing the praises of his tavern and spread flyers throughout the town for another +30. Finally, he holds weekly events, a brewers competition, dice tournaments, has up-and-coming musicians come and perform, and donates leftover produce and food to the local church to help feed the needy. At the end of the workweek, he rolls 1d100+60 with advantage and doubles the total profit he receives. If he rolls a 40 or better he is on average looking to clear more than 160 gold for a single workweek.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links. https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole @BonusRole
Looking for name for a Bow shop and Fletchery. My PC is also a sorcerer. Should I hire a wizard to make magical bows and arrows or have my PC pick arcane rituals at my next ASI?
Was hoping to get a little more in depth on how running a business works. The DMG is a little lacking for details. 1- the gp earned is the same regardless of the size of business 2- there seems to be no way to influence the %dice roll to if it is successful or not by using skills/spells. I had an idea of using skills/spells to ensure a merchant based character would be successful in business. I know many think that this is a waste of time and not fun but I see several role playing advantages to owning a business * a hide out for the group * a information gathering tool *easy way to make contacts * Someone wants to be Dalton from Roadhouse j/k *utility for selling goods acquired by adventuring *reknown * easy adventure hook for the DM. ( you hear rumor/ random group attacks your business/ employee goes missing ect...)
So yeah any more specifics would be nice. Such as cost of building a shop/tavern in say Waterdeep's slums vs 5000gp for a trading post. any ideas to change the income stream or influence the % roll ect.
There are a number of documents on the DMs Guild that give options for this. Check there if you want. Here is my personal rule set for it.
When running the business as downtime add +1 to the running a business roll for every GP spent promoting or investing in the business up to +30.
Additionally, I allow players to make upgrades to the business. For example one of my players is running a tavern and he just invested 1,000 gold in the business by expanding the kitchen and offering a wider variety of foods. Any upgrade must be of significance and beneficial to the business (while nice, a new anvil will not help a tavern as much as it would a blacksmith), every 100 gold spent on the cost of upgrades becomes a +1 bonus to the business roll. This bonus remains as long as the owner uses his downtime to run the business. Every workweek not spent running his business degrades this bonus by 1, as the owner is not overseeing his business and wear and tear damages the upgrade, this stops when the upgrade bonus reaches 0.
Just as with promoting and investing this upgrade bonus is capped at +30 however the two stack. So with his 1,000 gold investment and 30 gold spent during the week promoting the business my player will make his business roll with +40 meaning even if he rolls a 1 the business covers its own maintenance cost. As the player upgrades other parts of the tavern (costing 2,000 gold) and continues to promote the business he will make the roll with +60, meaning even if the player rolls a 1 the business will cover its own maintenance cost and earn an average profit of 20 gold (or 1d6x5 gold for those of you who like to roll). At this point, the player may very well be spending more time as a tavern keep/owner than an adventurer. If this hasn't forced him into retirement, or the game is focused on running a tavern there is a third path to be explored.
Once a business (in this case a tavern) is fully upgraded and fully promoted you would think that there is not much more to be done. Yet the actions of the owner, their friends, and their staff can all come into play. This is only suitable in games where the focus of the roleplaying is the running of a business. When role-playing track actions that are beneficial to the business (buying rounds on the house, blessing merchandise, holding tournaments) and actions detrimental to the business (bar fights, selling cheap/shoddy goods), at the end of a workweek if the number of beneficial actions is larger than the number of detrimental actions make a roll on the business table with advantage. If the number of detrimental actions are larger than the number of beneficial actions roll with disadvantage. If the number of beneficial actions is larger than the number of detrimental actions by five or more double all profit earned on the business roll, if the number of detrimental actions is larger than the number of beneficial actions by five or more half all profit earned on the business roll. This ruleset should only be used if the players have already maxed out their upgrades and promotions and only if running the business is the focus of the game.
So our dedicated tavern owner has spent 3,000 gold expanding the kitchen, hiring in house musicians, purchasing expensive fixtures and adding private dining/drinking areas for a +30 to his business roll. He has spent 30 gold hiring barkers to sing the praises of his tavern and spread flyers throughout the town for another +30. Finally, he holds weekly events, a brewers competition, dice tournaments, has up-and-coming musicians come and perform, and donates leftover produce and food to the local church to help feed the needy. At the end of the workweek, he rolls 1d100+60 with advantage and doubles the total profit he receives. If he rolls a 40 or better he is on average looking to clear more than 160 gold for a single workweek.
GM of The Bonus Role - We are playing a 5E game set in my homebrew world of Audra check us out Sunday's at 10 AM CST and follow us at the following social media links.
https://www.twitch.tv/thebonusrole
@BonusRole
good stuff. Thanks.
Volo just paid us with a haunted building.
I need to asses the waterdeep borough's market. i was expecting gold as a payment. i received a curse building...lol
I am thinking brothel.
Xanther's Guide has some tables about that. In the Downtime Revisited section they have a table for Work.
You roll a skill check, and have a 10% chance of complications.
Trollskull can be beautiful. Dont kill the ghost.
Poltergeist, actually.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Thanks, everyone. Gonna have some fun with it.
Spoilers!
Looking for name for a Bow shop and Fletchery. My PC is also a sorcerer. Should I hire a wizard to make magical bows and arrows or have my PC pick arcane rituals at my next ASI?
https://t.co/n4HdGqsxIW
Nobody checked out Acquisitions Incorporated? A vast amount of rules for business that you can scroll through…