D&D 5E Using the Acquisitions Inc book

[pukunui]

I fully believe that the Acquisition Incorporated Franchise rules and the Headquarters concept from Waterdeep Heist plus Ravinica's Renown section should be combined together when it comes to creating a damn fine Home Base for the party. So even if you don't like Acquisition's artwork/Penny Arcade Crossover aspects, you can still mine its crunch and use it in meaningful ways.

Absolutely! The tavern you get in Dragon Heist comes with a poltergeist. Tavern is an option for AI headquarters, and ghost is an option for the NPC majordomo who will run it for you. And I'm sure you could line up the renown system with the franchise rank system as well.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Nope, running a fantasy business wouldn't appeal to my players. If they acquired a tavern they would give it away and more onto the next place where evil needed it's butt kicked.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

I've not picked up the book yet just due to not having much spare money, and it being too low on my priorities compared to other stuff. I'm a fan of AI at least for listening and had considered adding in the characters as NPCs to be another faction in a dragon heist game vying for the gold, but given my players all have elaborate backstories and that there are already over 100 named cast members in my game already I ultimately opted against it.

 

[Weiley31]

The tavern you get in Dragon Heist comes with a poltergeist. Tavern is an option for AI headquarters, and ghost is an option for the NPC majordomo who will run it for you.

So what your telling me, is I can pull a New Ducktales and have a Ghost Butler cleaning the place up and watching over things while I adventure!?

Sign me up!!!

 

[pukunui]

I have a practical question about the book, specifically the Franchise Advancement table.

There's a column on the table titled "New Staff". At each rank, it lists numbers of different types of staff (skilled hirelings, crew, etc).

What I am unsure about is whether the numbers in the "New Staff" column are cumulative totals or additional.

At rank 1, it says "Majordomo, 2 untrained hirelings, 1 skilled hireling". Clearly that's what you get to start off with.
At rank 2, it says "4 untrained hirelings, 1 skilled hireling, 10 crew". Obviously the crew are new, since you didn't get them at rank 1, but is that an additional skilled hireling or the same one from rank 1, and are you getting four more untrained hirelings (for a total of 6) or are you just getting two more (for a total of 4)?
And so on.

An argument for them being additional is that majordomo isn't listed at every rank. You're only supposed to ever have one of those. So if we read the column as being that is what you get at each rank, then at rank 2, you'd have 1 majordomo, 2 skilled hirelings, 6 untrained hirelings, and 10 crew.

Is that how people are reading it?

 

[cbwjm]

I have a practical question about the book, specifically the Franchise Advancement table.

There's a column on the table titled "New Staff". At each rank, it lists numbers of different types of staff (skilled hirelings, crew, etc).

What I am unsure about is whether the numbers in the "New Staff" column are cumulative totals or additional.

At rank 1, it says "Majordomo, 2 untrained hirelings, 1 skilled hireling". Clearly that's what you get to start off with.
At rank 2, it says "4 untrained hirelings, 1 skilled hireling, 10 crew". Obviously the crew are new, since you didn't get them at rank 1, but is that an additional skilled hireling or the same one from rank 1, and are you getting four more untrained hirelings (for a total of 6) or are you just getting two more (for a total of 4)?
And so on.

An argument for them being additional is that majordomo isn't listed at every rank. You're only supposed to ever have one of those. So if we read the column as being that is what you get at each rank, then at rank 2, you'd have 1 majordomo, 2 skilled hirelings, 6 untrained hirelings, and 10 crew.

Is that how people are reading it?

I read it as being additional. The column title is New Staff so to me that reads as each rank they receive additional new staff and, as you point out, the major domo is only listed in rank 1.

 

[cbwjm]

Looking back through this book, and at the growing your franchise chapter especially, this reminds me a lot of 2e when you'd hit name level and gain a bunch of followers, kind of has that old school feel for me though back then you'd receive soldiers, thieves, and apprentices.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

The more I ponder this, the more I think it's a great idea for a campaign. My suggestion is that the Flaming Fists should not be the only competition. What about the Merchant Princes in Nyanzaru? Maybe the royals in Kir Sabal could become a rival faction. Or even yuan-ti cultists. Chult is so rich with vivid characters and locations that I think you should try to elevate as many of them as you can.

 

[pukunui]

The more I ponder this, the more I think it's a great idea for a campaign. My suggestion is that the Flaming Fists should not be the only competition. What about the Merchant Princes in Nyanzaru? Maybe the royals in Kir Sabal could become a rival faction. Or even yuan-ti cultists. Chult is so rich with vivid characters and locations that I think you should try to elevate as many of them as you can.

Yes, I do want to make the yuan-ti a thorn in the PCs' sides prior to their going to Omu. With the royals and maybe the merchant princes, I might leave them open-ended -- they could be rivals or allies depending on what the PCs do. The merchant princes are probably more inclined to be rivals, as they'll see the PCs as encroaching on their turf.

 

[pukunui]

At rank 3, your franchise headquarters gains an "arcane feature". One of the suggested options is "ever-changing ship". One of its features is changing the appearance of creatures on board as though they were affected by the seeming spell ... now, where else have I seen that? Oh, that's right, a certain trio of ships that appear in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist!