Anyone know of rules for running a tavern or inn?

[Tcheb]

Easiser than you think...

In almost every campaign I've run, sooner or later the PCs want to start a business. Since I've decided that running a business isn't what DnD is about, I've got these simple rules.

The PCs decides how much cash they want to invest in a business (after the GM decides what the minimum amount is to start it up). Then every month they roll a d10, and check the following table:

0 or below -50% to investment
1 -30%
2-4 -10%
5-7 No change
8-9 +10%
10 +20%
11 and higher +40%

These rules aren't very friendly, because I don't want my games to be about bookkeeping. However, I will allow the PCs to go on adventures to better their monthly rolls. For example, they run a bar, and have heard that the beer in so-and-so town is far better. Well, I tell them that they'll get a +1 to their business roll if they were serving that beer. So, off they go on an adventure to get the beer, somehow...
Or a band of orcs in the area is scaring off customers, giving them a -1 to the roll. Time to go hunt some orc.

Or, they can just leave the whole thing to it's own devices to gain or lose money while they're off saving the world.

 

[Lawrence of Arabica]

Columbia Games has a twelve-page article on "Inns and Innkeeping". It was written for Harn but should apply to most game worlds. Doesn't cover financial issues though.

One thing I learned recently is that, in the real world innkeepers in some places did some brokering on the side. It's easy to imagine how that happened. E.g., Joe the trader says "Mr. Innkeeper, my boat's about to sail back home but Jim the merchant still hasn't arrived. He was supposed to buy this sack of spices. Can you keep it til he arrives? I'll collect the money when I'm back next year and give you a cut".

 

[bloodymage]

Re: Easiser than you think...

In almost every campaign I've run, sooner or later the PCs want to start a business. Since I've decided that running a business isn't what DnD is about, I've got these simple rules.

The PCs decides how much cash they want to invest in a business (after the GM decides what the minimum amount is to start it up). Then every month they roll a d10, and check the following table:

0 or below -50% to investment
1 -30%
2-4 -10%
5-7 No change
8-9 +10%
10 +20%
11 and higher +40%

These rules aren't very friendly, because I don't want my games to be about bookkeeping. However, I will allow the PCs to go on adventures to better their monthly rolls. For example, they run a bar, and have heard that the beer in so-and-so town is far better. Well, I tell them that they'll get a +1 to their business roll if they were serving that beer. So, off they go on an adventure to get the beer, somehow...
Or a band of orcs in the area is scaring off customers, giving them a -1 to the roll. Time to go hunt some orc.

Or, they can just leave the whole thing to it's own devices to gain or lose money while they're off saving the world.

I was going to suggest something similar but without the table. Opposed d20 rolls. The difference in the modified (you decide) rolls divided in half (it is a d20) is the percentage of the original investment gained or lost for that year. If you want to keep a monthly profit/loss ratio, express the same number in silver and tally the monthly figures for a yearly result. Can't get much simpler than that (except maybe by using a d10 or d%, but this is d203e after all!).

 

[Vaxalon]

Strangely enough, the Stronghold Builders Guidebook has all the rules you need for this.

Buy yourself a kitchen, a dining hall, and add in the "income source" enhancement and you've pretty much got it. The more expensive it is, the more money it makes, pure and simple.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Here's my two cents:

Don't worry about big details unless it's to become a big part of your campaign. I've heard that the restaurant business has very slim margins, so I've arbitrarily decided that a 3% profit margin is average for the food portion of the tavern. How many seats do you have? Most restaurants have two seatings per evening. Let's assume ten tables, four chairs each. You don't sit someone in every chair every day. So thats a MAXIMUM of 80 dinner customers per evening, let's assume 2/3 capacity to begin (or about 53 customers, that can go up with good profession: Innkeeper rolls, or the notoriety of the party). A good meal in the PHB costs 5 sp. That's 264 sp per evening, if you assume a 3% profit, that's a mere 8 sp profit per night, or about 250 gp per year (assuming you're open 6 nights a week). Not gonna get filthy rich that way, my friend.

Drinks are where you get rich. The margins on drinks are pretty damn good. Lets call it 25%, figuring your including wages, etc in on that. I'd say an average customer drinks 3 drinks a night. A mug of ale is 4 cp. Those 53 customers drink 6.4 gp worth of ale a night! Over a year, that's almost 2,000 gp worth of ale, assuming a profit margin of 25%, thats 500 gp. That's not shabby for a middle-class innkeeper.

That's a profit of around 750gp for our hypothetical innkeeper. It won't keep an adventurer away from any dragon hoards, and it won't fund his magic item purchases. Add a few die rolls to allow some fluctuations in profits and losses, and you have a very quick and dirty system.

You could get more involved, or figure out the wages versus costs, but I think it is just as valid to simply throw a few numbers at the wall and see if they stick in a manner remotely resembling reality. It's important to remember how rich adventurers are in comparison to "normal folk" in a D&D game. I'd compare them to professional athletes, making far more money that any normal person.

I've used essentially this system (with a little more detail) for a PC's gambling hall/tavern for a few years now, and it seems to work well. I set up an Excel spreadsheet to handle things like taxes, and wages, and seasonal variations in business. I have him roll a Merchant check every month, with successes resulting in him packing the place closer to capacity, hence making more money.

 

[Vaxalon]

A standard inn in the SBG costs 13,050 but it *costs* 21gp in upkeep, per month.

If you add an income source (so that it's not losing money!) it costs 14,355 gp and makes 144gp per year.

Clearly, this isn't something you'd get into as an investment. Of course, if you're living there you're getting free room and board, so that ups things a little. Still, it's not the kind of thing you'd get into as an investment.

If you just went with the basic tavern, just drinks, no food, costing 900gp, add 90 for the income source, it generates a measly 10gp per year.

 

[Tonguez]

I use the following formula to determine a DC. It allows the PC (and DM) to make a Profit forcast for a time period and then decide on the labour and resource input their going to make to achieve their goal thus

Profit/Labour/Costs = DC
eg a Profit of 1000gp is set and PC hires 5 workers and invests 10 gp worth of stock the DC in then 20 (1000/5/10 = 20)

D20 check (Profession:Innkeeper) vs DC 20

every pip over the DC adds 25gp to the profit forcast every pip under the forcast results in a 50gp loss

 

[elrichwizard]

Speaking from a finance career of close to 20 years, I'de say the Kid approach using a profit margin is the closest to reality. Unless it is a startup or in trouble, most business only vary a few percentage points from the average profit margin for there industry. You can also use sales to arive at a purchase price. It veries from industry to industry (depending on risk and profit margin), but you can set the profit required investment at 5-10 years net income. So our inn above earning 750gp per year, would cost 3,750 to 7,500 to buy.

 

[Vaxalon]

You're all assuming modern market forces at work. A DnD economy is going to have other considerations that modern economies might not.

Price controls, either from guilds or government

Indentured labor

Official monopolies

 

[jasper]

You're all assuming modern market forces at work. A DnD economy is going to have other considerations that modern economies might not.

Price controls, either from guilds or government

Indentured labor

Official monopolies

except for indentured labor both of these are still present today.
So only baron budwieser can own and run chain of beer halls.
price controls gee some of guilds had laws which require how much your staff did. Also the us has price controls on sugar and other products.
official monopolies , um electric companies, water companies.