Characters Running Shops? Any rules on this?

[Xaltar]

My latest campaign is going to be taking place in a large city, most likely Waterdeep. The characters will be established in business and careers that they settled in after short adventuring careers (10th level).

Now, my question is... Is there any good WotC source material, d20 supplements or Dragon articles that could help? What I'm really looking for is material on PCs running shops or businesses. I have some ideas, but I don't want to recreate anything.

Thanks!!!
Xaltar

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

What exactly are you looking for? You mention rules, but I cannot think of any place that has game rules for running a shop or business for d20. Maybe you could expalin a little bit further?

If you are looking for some detail on typical locations that could be found in a fantasy RPG town or city then I would recommend Atlas Games/Penumbra's "Seven Cities" It has drop in locations with details like maps and NPC's for:

Stables
Inn's
General Stores
schools
homes
jails
barracks
Halls
guilds
churches
opera houses

and much more

If you just want some NPC stats for typical shopkeepers, I'd reccomend "Everyone Else"

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=324&

"A book of statblocks for Innkeepers and Farmers may not make compelling reading, but with over 80 NPC professions and 320 stat blocks, Everyone Else is a valuable resource for game masters who are short on time and need to know the seneschal's Sense Motive modifier in a jiffy."

 

[The Sigil]

Hold tight...

A short treatment of things like that of which you speak will be found in the Enchiridion of Treasures and Objects d'Art - tentative release date at RPGNow.com is Dec 15, 2002 (less than two weeks - I gotta get on my writer - me - to finish!)

--The Sigil

 

[MerricB]

The abstract d20 way is as follows:

You need the skill Profession (shopkeeper) or suchlike.

May a roll every week, you make half the check in gold pieces.

Simple, huh?

Cheers!

 

[Xaltar]

Thanks for the info thus far!

As for more information, imagine a character has $50,000 gold to run a store. They would hopefully be able to invest that capital into some proffitable enterprise.

How many NPCs settle down and run an inn or tavern. Is it profitable? How much do they pay their staff, how much income would they get? Are there any rules for spicing this stuff up? Like make choices and adding random factors that could influence the future success of the business.

Maybe a PC opens an inn and decides to travel across the continent to find the best chefs available. How successful will they be?

How about if you run a magic shop? If you build it, will they come? I sort of think that there needs to be some sort of difference in product turnover on a +7 Gnomish Pick vs. a +1 Longsword.


I have some ideas myself, but I'm wondering if there is anything out there that I can use in existance. If not, then maybe that will motivate me to make something.


Thanks again!

 

[Xaltar]

Hey BigFreekinGoblinoid,

This doesn't look like it has the kind of details that I need for running the shops, but it sure does look useful for my campaign!


Rock on.

 

[MerricB]

More abstract methods of running a shop/inn/etc.:

The Stronghold Builder's Guide allows you to build more than just a castle - you could well build an inn, thieves' guild, etc. (In fact, in my campaign, one of the PCs is building a combination inn/thieves' guild)

By increasing the cost of the building, you can include "income sources", which return 1% of the total cost of the building per year per income source. Hmm... not very attractive? But you can take more than one income source...

Thus, an inn with 5 income sources and costing 100,000 gp, would net you a profit of 5,000 gp per year. The DM, of course, would probably have to okay the income sources. (Saying the inn's business is worth up to 3 income sources would be fine by me. )

Another interesting aspect is with the Landlord feat (in the SBG), which gives you a certain amount of 'virtual' money that you can only use to build the stronghold. Thus, if you build this inn entirely with money from Landlord, you have an income source for just the cost of a feat.

More than that is up to the DM's ingenuity, or a product I don't own yet. (The SBG abstracts it because, rightly so, D&D is about adventures, not running businesses).

Cheers!

 

[Broken Fang]

We had our party start a Donut Shop...had Hooters girls as serving wenches and a pastry chef. Bought a run down place and the PC's renovated it. It was pretty funny actually...we made special provisions for the local watch . Wish I could remember what we did to detemine profit/loss...sorry.

 

[Tonguez]

Heres how I'd do it (I'm at work so the numbers are wonky but hey)

Okay Joe the Brewer is hired to make a consignment of Ale for the Kings Fair

400 Gallons of Beer cost 15000 gp

Joe hires 10 staff to make the Beer and gives them 60 days (2 months) to do it

DC for Job = Income/Labour/Time
15000/10/60 = 25

So Joe makes a Craft: Brewery check vs DC 25 and if he succeeds he Income of 15000 gp from which he deducts cost*

(Cost = Raw Materials @ 60% Income value 9000gp, Labour 600 gp (1 gp/worker/day) Total 9600 leaving 5400gp Profit)

However if he fails I'd reduce Income by -5% per pip under the DC (so a cherck of 5 (ie DC - 20) means a 100% loss of Income and an angry King)

 

[Sir Edgar]

There's an old (1980's) Judges Guild module called "Rat on a Stick" that's really funny. It's a dungeon, but the players also run a stand selling rats on sticks to wandering monsters. The GM rolls to figure out how many and what kind of monsters come by and what kind of mood they're in. Occasionally, a monster will get mad, attack the vendor, and destroy the stand. Then you have to build a new one.

I know that's not what you're thinking of, but I thought it would be something worth mentioning.

What kind of a business are they planning to run?

Anyhow, D&D was primarily designed for adventures not shopkeeping. You'll have to design a whole bunch of charts for the number and kind of customers who will come in or just go with a flat rate of income.

The Stronghold Builder's Guidebook has some information as well as the Player's Handbook, but there is very little from what I know. I think you'll just have to wing it with your own numbers.