Yaarel
🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage
Running a business is a great hook for adventures.The moment they can gain level advancement from running in-game businesses is the moment I-as-DM run screaming for the hills.
I have no problem with this; but then I have no problem with so-called 'murderhobo' play in general.
I dont have businesses currently, but my friends who play 1e (!) sometimes have ongoing businesses.
Ships with necessary products (either resources or player business products to other lands) sometimes get hit by pirate ships and so on, and the players need to do something about it. When there is a living campaign, and high level characters are still around, the new characters can be their descendants growing up in the fortresses, keeps, wizard schools, and other business endeavors. They carry on the family business.
The playtest Bastion is flirting with this in world kind of play. It needs to integrate better with how the economy works as presented in the Players Handbook. Such as buying and running a store ("storehouse") at levels 1 thru 4, even without the Bastion perks. It is the right idea.