D&D 5E How did you lead Trollskull Manor or another bussines?

[delph]

Hi everyone,
As I'm going through Dragon Heist campaign I'm mannaging Trollskull Manor Tavern in my downtime. I'v got Durnans Guide to Tavernkeeping and my GM is using some rules from there.

Is anyone other who take it seriously and is work with it? And not only this campaign and bussines. I'd like read about your bussines in yours games. Are they just background, or active play?

My current situation is:
Tap room - low
Larder - low
Kitchen - low
Cellar - low
Lavatories - low
Guests rooms - low

Thats 7 points in Bussines valuation table and means "Cheap tavern"
And I hope I buy Beer Garden (or "Hot Wine and gingerbread Garden"- we play in winter)

 

[jasper]

At one time I did have an active play of a bar/inn. Was able to use plot hooks of low supplies to get pcs into adventures. Some of the Season 8 modules do have plot hooks you can swap from Yawning Portal to Trollskull. In fact Volo has recently started a Trollskull Manor Franchise in my Realms. None of the pcs who own Trollskull know this.

 

[Celebrim]

While most groups eschew a game of "Paychecks and Payrolls", managing a business can in the right circumstance add fun and drama to the game. I would note that the much admired Blades in the Dark system by default is about managing a (shady) business endeavor.

The main thing to keep in mind is that the amount of focus you have on the business as both the driver of play and a goal of play should be proportional to the number of players interested and involved in it. If the tavern is just your pet project, you should probably keep it on the sideline of play. If the whole group is enjoying being involved in the business, then it can be more central to what the group is doing.

Businesses are good proactive play as far as most GMs are concerned. Anything that gives a GM hooks into the setting is usually a good thing. You having a business gives a reason for you to interact with NPCs, gives a location for events to happen in, means you have something you value and will want to protect, and means you have some goal that can propel you to act. All of that is a good thing. Employees become reoccuring minor NPCs which you will often become protective of and which are a ready source of henchmen, and that is a good thing. In short, by all means go with the business as a part of play provided its not obviously annoying other members of the group and considered a distraction from "the fun" by them.

 

[Maestrino]

I'm running an Acq Inc campaign right now - the business-running rules are good, and it has good guidelines for turning the day-to-day operations over to your "subemployees", so you're not spending every session ordering your ale casks and replacement silverware. You can have the players take control of the "staff" if you have some kind of event, like "the PCs are away, but the tavern gets robbed by a crew of Zhents. You're now running Jimmy the Cook, you have a +7 to attacks with your spatula. Go."

 

[Sacrosanct]

In one of my current campaigns I'm playing in, what we did was one of the farmers we rescued from scarecrows, we established a priority relationship for providing food to us. I'm also playing a wizard, so in my down time I'm using a combination of unseen servant, mage hand, and mending to keep the tavern in good repair. In this particular tavern, we also managed to get a friendly rapport with the ghost of the old owner, so we named some drinks after his favorite things, and the bard performs stories enhanced by his ghostly shenanigans.

 

[Eltab]

3e Power of Faerun has a chapter on running a business and tying it into the PCs' adventures.
As noted above, though, players who aren't interested in paperwork will be bored to tears waiting for you to work through this, if you do it at the table.

I read through Acq Inc but could not get past the 'used car salesman' atmosphere. The downtime rules to run / improve a franchise might / might not be helpful after you dig through that level of distraction.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I've currently got something running, but I can't call it a business yet.

We had a magic apocalypse on Earth, and my character decided that he was going to open a bar. As a Fey Pact Warlock he had learned that there were other races and beings coming to Earth now, and when bringing people together, there are three universal things. Food, Spirits, and Music. Combine this with us essentially running a small town of survivors, and I've got a lot going on.

However, I can't call it a business, because I can't turn a profit yet. None of us have money, so everything is being done for free. I'm feeding the town of now 500 people, they are building me a bigger and nicer bar. I'm trying to get an economy running, but since we are swapping over to gp it is hard to get enough liquid capital to get the gears turning.

(There are two reasons for us to switch to gp, the first is meta. The DM doesn't want to deal with converting gp into something else for our game. So, I came up with a second. The magic world which smashed into ours and wrecked it uses gp as a currency. We need to deal with them, not the other way around, so we need to use their currency)

But, my poor little repurposed ihop will soon be a proper Bruidean bar, big enough to seat a thousand with a stage, dance floor, and all sorts of ridiculousness planned for the future.

 

[Maestrino]

To the OP, as an example, by the AcqInc rules, Trollskull Manor as a tavern would have a base operational cost of 120gp per month.

At Tier 1 (levels 1-4) that includes a majordomo, one "trained" staff member, and two grunts. (Call it a business manager, a barkeep, a waiter and a cook.)

You can run one franchise task at a time, so say your business manager is busy all month running a new marketing campaign, and it's a brilliant success, so your operating costs are reduced by 25% for the next two months.

At the end of the month, you roll a d100 and get a 26. Ouch. But your barkeep, waiter, and cook each spent all 30 days working in the tavern. That's 90 work-days, so add 90 to the 26. Also, add the number of days the PCs spent in the tavern helping run the place. Anything over a total of 91 is a great month, so your operating costs are reduced by 150% for that month.

So total, you have a 175% reduction in baseline costs, which means your profit for the month is 75% of the baseline monthly costs, or 90gp. So the tavern made 90gp that month.

If you have a particularly bad month, or you forget to have anyone minding the shop, you lose money.

 

[delph]

We don't care about precious numbers of staff. We have just Office manager and stuff for 24 hours running. We have Guest rooms so we need to be able serve them from morning to deep night.
After yesterday game - we are nicely going. This tenday was average in income (by rolls). But we are still growing. I buy "winter garden" to sell hot vine, tea, hot meal cakes, ... and in cellar is unfolded destilary machine we take from one drug nest of Zentarim gang. and have enough money to buy something more. Maybe upgrade tap room will come early.

 

[Jd Smith1]

My players love investments, but what they do is buy into businesses run by NPCs; that way they don't have to bother with the nuts and bolts.

I added a page to our website to track things:

Investments | Dark Age | Obsidian Portal

Tobias: 30% investment into the jewelry, gem stone, and artwork co-op. Ermig's Herbal Plantation: Skurngarr 12 shares. Syn 75 shares, Job 10, Nissa 50. Current

darkage.obsidianportal.com