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My players want to buy an Inn.
- Thread starter White Wizard
- Start date
malcolypse
First Post
make sure they are the first tavern to offer Dragon Ssip, the Adventurer's Energy Drink, and they'll make more money than they can make some poor hireling carry.
Psychotic Jim
First Post
If you play Pathfinder or a version of 3.X, the game mastery guide has a number of resources that might be relevant to you. A number of the NPC statblocks represent a number of fun NPC archetypes that could represent employees, customers, or competition. Likely relevant archetypes might include the three city watch npcs (p. 260-261), the pick-pocket and street thug (p. 264-265), the entertainer npcs (p. 272-273), the merchants (p. 284-285), the "road" npcs (. 290-291), the sailor npcs (p. 294-295), the street npcs (p. 300-301), and of course the tavern staff (p. 302-303) and villagers (p. 308-309). You may also find the urban and tavern tool boxes handy too.
IIRC, in the first adventure of Paizo's Second Darkness campaign, they had an adventure where you got involved in running a casino in Riddleport and had a number of... "interesting" games. You might find some inspiration in that if your tavern is a bit on the seedy side. The adventure also included some ideas on Profession checks for running the casino and what the players could do to assist (you might extend these loose guidelines to running an inn?).
Here’s some of my own ideas:
-What does the competition think of the new upstarts? If things get nasty, could sabotage be put on the table?
-This one's a bit more specific and relevant for likely only a single plot hook or two. If the tavern uses rye bread, there's a possibility for an Ergot infestation. Basically, ergot is a hallucinogenic fungus that is an active ingredient in LSD. Some people think it was what was responsible for the delusions that inspired the Salem witch trials. You could have a similar setup here, with an outbreak of ergot poisonings that are blamed on "supernatural sources". Perhaps people start thinking the inn is cursed, and it's up to the PCs to get to the bottom of this. The infestation may be accidental or a deliberate action as a result of above.
IIRC, in the first adventure of Paizo's Second Darkness campaign, they had an adventure where you got involved in running a casino in Riddleport and had a number of... "interesting" games. You might find some inspiration in that if your tavern is a bit on the seedy side. The adventure also included some ideas on Profession checks for running the casino and what the players could do to assist (you might extend these loose guidelines to running an inn?).
Here’s some of my own ideas:
-What does the competition think of the new upstarts? If things get nasty, could sabotage be put on the table?
-This one's a bit more specific and relevant for likely only a single plot hook or two. If the tavern uses rye bread, there's a possibility for an Ergot infestation. Basically, ergot is a hallucinogenic fungus that is an active ingredient in LSD. Some people think it was what was responsible for the delusions that inspired the Salem witch trials. You could have a similar setup here, with an outbreak of ergot poisonings that are blamed on "supernatural sources". Perhaps people start thinking the inn is cursed, and it's up to the PCs to get to the bottom of this. The infestation may be accidental or a deliberate action as a result of above.
Cor_Malek
First Post
There is a lot of great examples of inn-connected quests in mxyzplk's story hour Reavers on the Seas of Fate (starting from post 4). The campaign is based on a number of published products, so it should be easy to reuse.
And it's fun to read
And it's fun to read
A fun plot to have roll into town is...prohibition.
Have a new priest take over the primary local religion whose sect preaches on the evils of alcohol. Spreading influence into town council and the upper echelons of society. Laws get passed outlawing alcohol consumption in the town and region.
As tavern owners, the PCs may get wind of it before hand and have time to oppose the priests influence, or may be ignorant and find out when the town guard burst in to take axes to their kegs.
The priest is Lawful Good. Most parties are going to have a hard time opposing him. Since the Law of the Land is now directly opposed to their business, they will definately be having an interesting few sessions.
Have a new priest take over the primary local religion whose sect preaches on the evils of alcohol. Spreading influence into town council and the upper echelons of society. Laws get passed outlawing alcohol consumption in the town and region.
As tavern owners, the PCs may get wind of it before hand and have time to oppose the priests influence, or may be ignorant and find out when the town guard burst in to take axes to their kegs.
The priest is Lawful Good. Most parties are going to have a hard time opposing him. Since the Law of the Land is now directly opposed to their business, they will definately be having an interesting few sessions.
CarlZog
Explorer
I second this. The old "campaign-starting-in -the-tavern" trope takes on a new twist when the PCs are the inn-keeps. What will happen when word gets around that they are the new owners?
Gilladian
Adventurer
Until they discover that everyone who drinks more than three drinks of the stuff comes back as a ghoul (insert nasty undead of your favorite flavor) after they die...
..and then it's time for THE GHOULBUSTERS.
Desdichado
Hero
I'd suggest that the PC's hire a manager. Whip up an NPC who's got Profession (Bartender) (or whatever equivalent in your system; or just wing it) and have him do the day to day. I'd expect the PCs to pull a modest profit unless something exceptional happens. That way they don't even need to do anything to run the inn; it can just be their base of operations while they continue to adventure.
At which point the manager that they hired can come to them for help. Exceptionally unruly patrons. Visiting nobility. Local mafia-like group tries to horn in and demand protection money, or make it their base of operations, or something.
Keep the bookeeping down and the adventure possibilities up, and you should do OK.
At which point the manager that they hired can come to them for help. Exceptionally unruly patrons. Visiting nobility. Local mafia-like group tries to horn in and demand protection money, or make it their base of operations, or something.
Keep the bookeeping down and the adventure possibilities up, and you should do OK.
On book keeping, I have a simple system: d10 roll but first the players have to do some figuring baased on the inns type. This is salary of employees, cost of food, and cost of upkeep (taxes, candles, mugs, chairs, etc). Once you have this done just roll. It can be adjusted as you see fit. Note, this is just the day-to-day running of the inn.
So, your players figure the inn cost 20 sp a day to run, 140 a week. You roll as you see fit, for each day or by week or month. So, you roll the dice, get a 7 and the profit is 14 sp for that period (week). I know, you are saying that is not much but that is the running of an inn and not all that it does, you now have rooms to rent. For every head in the bed, that is profit! General rule of thumb, 80% of all your beds will be in use! So, an inn with a common room with singles is making most of their money from that! You can see the DMG for prices a night.
Okay, now lets go a bit to the red light. Beds per hour! Talk about profits!
1 = -10% profit
2 = -5% profit
3 = -2% profit
4 = break even
5 = +2% profit
6 = +5% profit
7 = +10% profit
8 = +12% profit
9 = +15% profit
10 = +20% profit
2 = -5% profit
3 = -2% profit
4 = break even
5 = +2% profit
6 = +5% profit
7 = +10% profit
8 = +12% profit
9 = +15% profit
10 = +20% profit
So, your players figure the inn cost 20 sp a day to run, 140 a week. You roll as you see fit, for each day or by week or month. So, you roll the dice, get a 7 and the profit is 14 sp for that period (week). I know, you are saying that is not much but that is the running of an inn and not all that it does, you now have rooms to rent. For every head in the bed, that is profit! General rule of thumb, 80% of all your beds will be in use! So, an inn with a common room with singles is making most of their money from that! You can see the DMG for prices a night.
Okay, now lets go a bit to the red light. Beds per hour! Talk about profits!
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