What's For Sale: Marketplace Offerings

The scene is a classic: the party, fresh off of an adventure, decides to cash in their loot and buy some new items. But what does the local marketplace offer? The smallest hamlet probably doesn't have an expert smith or magic items, and the biggest city likely has so many businesses that the players might be surprised by what's available. Getting this balance right is not the most difficult part of GMing, but you would do well to have that information already determined so that you can focus your efforts on the rest of the game. Read on for a full breakdown of what can be purchased in the full range of settlements. 

The biggest deciding factor in what a settlement's marketplace has to offer is the size of the settlement. In the guide that follows, there are four different levels of settlement as well as the corresponding details for what kinds of goods can be purchased. The four levels are hamlet, village, town, and city, in ascending order of population. These settlements, at least for the most part, are driven to keep trade in a kind of balance--too much trade and the settlement can't support itself with the bare necessities, but not enough trade and the settlement will not be able to rise above the bare necessities. That means a balance must be struck. The following section shows the ratio of population to number of businesses: 

• Hamlet: ~100 people, 5-10 businesses; ratio ~8%
• Village: 200-2,000 people, 20-80 businesses; ratio ~15%
• Town: 10,000-50,000 people, 2,000-8,000 businesses; ratio ~20%
• City: 60,000-150,000 people, 15,000-35,000 businesses; ratio ~25%

You may notice that the ratio of businesses to other methods of financially supporting oneself grows higher the greater the population. This is because a great deal of the non-business households in settlements are agricultural in nature. And just as happened with the Agricultural Revolution in real life, better specialization and the cooperation of businesses with farmers mean that the settlement can produce overall more goods. As a result of this dynamic, the most talented tradespeople and expert craftspeople often migrate to cities, where it is more likely that they will be able to survive off their trade. This is an in-game explanation of why hamlets don't have powerful mages and expert smiths, which can create narrative for your game--if the players want a specific rare item, they'll have to travel to the big city to get it, where you can introduce all the storylines you could want. 

Let's get into the actual marketplace offerings of each level of settlement, beginning with the humble hamlet. We only get at most 10 businesses (I'll create 6) in the hamlet, and we don't have much of a realistic chance of having more than one of any businesses in the same industry. So let's just brainstorm a few businesses, starting with the industry and moving toward greater detail. (And check out varying descriptions of multiple common items for shops.) 

• Smithy -> Specialty blacksmithing common items and tools, can make simple weapons -> Bertrand's Smithy, owned and operated by Bertrand Ogilvy, a kind but simple man -> Moderate prices, good quality
• Clothing shop -> Wide variety of common clothing and extra stock of current elven fashions -> Sew What?, owned and operated by Willien Nerostin, a slightly pretentious elven woman -> Slightly high prices, high quality
• Grocer's -> Wholesaler of the crops grown in the community, discounts for farmers -> Green Grocer Goods, owned and operated by Shiloh Westerman, a community-minded entrepreneur -> Low prices, good quality
• General Store -> Wholesaler of the common goods made in the community -> Lohman's General Store, owned and operated by Obadiah Lohman, a very private man -> Average prices, average quality
• Lumber -> Seller and shipper of lumber from the area around the hamlet, particularly oak and maple -> Treetop Lumber, owned and operated by Cynthia Bergstrom, a creative young entrepreneur -> Slightly high prices, average quality
• Bricks and stone -> Miner, cutter, and seller of clay bricks and stonework, particularly slate -> Solid Masonry, owned and operated by Bedelia Xintian, an outspoken woman with plans to expand her business -> Slightly low prices, high quality

As you can see, the hamlet businesses are diverse and do not duplicate the industry of other businesses, which reflects how hard it would be for two smiths to succeed in a small town at the same time. The quality of items versus their prices are generally pretty well-matched; it's hard for a small town businesses to get away with charging disproportionately for their goods. So when your players are in a hamlet, their shopping options should be restricted to suit the settlement. If they want finer goods, they'll have to go to a bigger settlement. Which brings us to villages--I will again provide six businesses, but this time with more choices for each business: 

• Armorsmith -> Some mid-quality weapons, but primarily armor from padded to plate mail -> Norris' Armor, owned and operated by Norris Anvilcatcher, a reserved but confident man -> Average prices, above average quality
• Blacksmith -> All range of non-weapon smithing goods from hardware to complex tools -> Old Town Blacksmith, owned and operated by Trina Derwiniel, a helpful and charming woman -> Slightly low prices, moderately high quality
• Poor clothing -> A wide variety of clothing of all styles, but made cheaply -> Discount Apparel, owned and operated by Poshtin Backerel, an enterprising but calculating man -> Low prices, low quality
• Fine clothing -> A selection of the newest fashions in the land, focusing on formal attire -> The Packed Closet, owned and operated by Candace Rutherford, a pretentious and artistic woman -> High prices, high quality
• General Store -> All the most common goods are sold here; there is little variety or options, but nearly any good is represented -> Horace's Goods, owned and operated by Horace Jenkins, an unpredictable young man -> Low prices, slightly low quality
• Expanded General Store -> Any basic good can be found here in multiple levels of quality, allowing the customer to have more choices in shopping -> Everything Under the Sun, owned and operated by Peggy Burton, a devout woman -> Average prices, varying qualities

In the village, there is now enough of a division of labor that businesses with common industries can simultaneously succeed thanks to their variation in service. Citizens of the village as well as visitors can decide on the shopping experience they want to a great extent. This trend will continue as we increase the size of the settlement; in the next step, the town, we will see even more options available for players to shop, and in a way that makes shopping more complex and satisfying. The town: 

• Armorsmith -> Complete specialization in armor with no other metalworked goods sold -> Tortoiseshell Armor, owned and operated by Wanda Trenchcutter, a studious woman -> Above average prices, above average quality
• Weaponsmith -> Complete specialization in weapons with no other metalworked goods sold -> The Slick Whetstone, owned and operated by Gerald Nesbit, a jokester -> Above average prices, fairly high quality
• Blacksmith -> All manner of common goods ranging from hardware to tool as well as custom smithing -> The Bubbling Forge, owned and operated by Hester Dorner, a feisty young woman -> Average prices, good quality
• Poor Clothing -> A reseller of used clothing for the financially struggling -> Clothing Exchange, owned and operated by Jessa Trombull, a compassionate organizer -> Low prices, somewhat low quality
• Moderate Clothing -> A seller of quickly and cheaply made clothing in the styles of fashionable apparel -> Bargain Threadworks, owned and operated by Burton Scepter, an irritable man -> Average prices, average quality
• Fine Clothing -> Finely-made high end fashion as well as custom clothing -> The Infinite Loom, owned and operated by Georgia Dunder, a very friendly woman -> Very high prices, high quality

In the town, we can see increasingly diversified business types. Where in the hamlet, we could only justify one smithy, the village can support far more than the three listed above; in fact, there would be many such smithies, and these three are simply a representation of the variety offered. You may notice that the potential quality of smithing goods has risen over the last few steps up to more populous settlements--this will complicate the players' quests to obtain the best items and introduce them to a variety of people and items before they make their choice. And choice is at its greatest possibility in the largest settlements: cities. 

• Heavy Armorsmith -> Complete specialization in heavy armor, from the heaviest medium armor to the heaviest heavy armor -> Heavy Plate, owned by Harriet Thatcher and operated by Boris Leafgrower, a devoted man -> Somewhat high prices, very high quality
• Light Armorsmith -> Complete specialization in light armor, from the lightest medium armor to the lightest light armor -> Float Like a Butterfly, owned and operated by Francis Copperplate, an irritable man -> High prices, high quality
• Ranged Weaponsmith -> Complete specialization in bows and crossbows -> The Arrow's Path, owned by Thomas Redfield and operated by Gwen Bluebottle, a cautious woman -> Somewhat high prices, high quality
• Melee Weaponsmith -> Complete specialization in blades and bludgeoning weapons -> The Keen Edge, owned and operated by Sam Willnor, a perpetually worried young woman -> Average prices, good quality
• Tools Blacksmith -> Complete specialization in tools, from farming implements to construction tools -> Owned and operated by Reginald Quillbearer, a foolish old man -> Slightly high prices, good quality
• Hardware Blacksmith -> Complete specialization in hardware, particularly nails, hinges, and locks -> Owned by Trisha Pollard and operated by Quincy Dursbury, a talkative man -> Average prices, high quality

In the biggest of settlements, merchants are able to offer increasingly specific goods since other merchants are covering their own specific niches. Where in the hamlet, only one smith could sustain itself, a city offers the opportunity for the players to shop at the most specialized businesses and get exactly what they're looking for. These six smithies and not the only smiths in the city; with at least 15,000 businesses in a city, there are going to be far more smithies than your players will ever need. That's why it's important to specialize certain merchants--that way, the players can access the best shops for their shopping desires. You'll also notice that not all of the business operators own their businesses in cities--that's because in bigger cities, the wealthiest of people can make money from their businesses even when someone else needs to get paid to make the business run. We're unlikely to see this in smaller towns, but in places where business can be more profitable like big cities, it can be common. 

So why make it so that players can only find the best goods in big cities? Well, I'm not advocating for that per se. It should be easier to find great merchants in big cities, but that doesn't mean that there isn't an expert craftsperson living in a small town. In fact, it could be an interesting storyline to have the players journey to a small town in order to work with a specific craftsperson. But in general, having your players need to find specific merchants does away with one of my least favorite narrative elements of the game. By this, I mean that having the party walk into a small general store in a tiny hamlet and finding the best quality of an exotic weapon doesn't make a lot of sense to me. There might be one legendary item important to a settlement's history, but this is unlikely to be something the town wants to sell. Hamlets probably don't have magic item shops, either--how many notable magic items would really end up in a town that doesn't even appear on most maps? 

This approach solves that problem. As players arrive in smaller or larger towns, your description of those places should match the size of the settlement. Small towns with only a few shops might offer high quality items, but big city boons and problems shouldn't be present here--no massive crowds, no range of choices for shops, no massive marketplaces. But in big cities, food of all sorts, goods of every industry, and specialized services should abound. This is less a restriction on your players and more a way to make the settlements in your game feel unique and appropriate to the world. 

My examples above indicate the increasing range and specialization of marketplaces in gameworlds, but they don't tell you exactly what you can find in each kind of marketplace. Here's a breakdown of what kinds of industries appear as the settlements get larger:

• Hamlets: Basic goods--any necessities and perhaps one or two luxury goods like nicer clothing, finer goods like glasswork, or perhaps an apothecary or healer. The craftspeople who work in these tiny settlements may produce the occasional rare good, but they make their living off of simple work that can serve the masses. There must be a grocer or agricultural marketplace in order to allow the settlement to survive, but beyond that, any combination of basic goods will work fine. 
• Villages: A variety of basic goods--all bare necessities and a handful of luxury goods like fragrances and artwork, though at a much lower rate than simple goods. If hamlets are just getting by, villages are just beginning to get ahead. The average quality of items should be above average, but not by much. A village may contain a business or two which caters to travelers, such as an inn or a stable, but most of the focus on business is on the villagers themselves. The range of businesses here should attend more to variety of items rather than variety within a specific category; by this I mean that there should be one of each businesses rather than a collection of businesses that perform similar functions; the specialization that is associated with bigger settlements is just being developed in villages. 
• Towns: All basic goods as well as a variety of luxury goods--anything you would find in a village is here, but with the addition of specialty shops. This is where settlements begin to have shops that sell magic items, masterwork weaponry, and luxury services like fortune-telling. There should be both common and poor versions of popular goods for the masses as well as upscale versions of those goods for the wealthy. The goods and services found in villages should be expanded and diversified; for instance, the party should have a handful of options for inns in a town. Specialization is at work here; the quality of goods and their prices should be broader in towns than in smaller settlements. 
• Cities: Almost anything should be available here--common goods should be stocked in many tiers of quality across a number of stores. Specific goods, particularly luxury items, are easiest to find in cities; these settlements can offer choices between expert craftspeople, allowing the players to decide on which business to buy from based on a variety of factors unrelated to the business itself, which gives the players agency to play as they wish. With so many people in a city, at least one person is likely to be trying their hand at a particular business venture, so you can easily drop a specific businessperson into a city and have them fit quite naturally. In a city, finding the right item is more a matter of patience than a matter of whether or not that business exists. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: why storytelling and roleplaying are the height of TRPGs, how to build a player stronghold, and a one-shot based on The Big Lebowski. Until next time, happy gaming!

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Mystery Campaign Notes Session 11: More Chaos

Last time on the mystery campaign, the party assembled a device which multiplies liquids with the aim of producing mass quantities of healing potions. They also learned that murder victim Hildy Analeth's employer was seen speaking with a turbanned figure just before her murder. This time, the party works on their business goals and deals with repercussions of the chaos storms that plague the city. Read on for the full details of their adventures. 

The session began in the mid-afternoon; the party intended to go to the tower of George Turnbuckle, Hildy's employer. But on the way, a chaos storm struck, and both Montana and Ais were affected. Montana transformed into a grey macaw, and Ais suddenly began speaking with "Back in my day" at the beginning of every sentence. The party recognized that their ability to successfully question Turnbuckle would be impacted by these chaos effects, and they resolved to change plans and not risk messing up their investigation. 

I want to take a moment to call out this scene. I really wanted my players to speak with Turnbuckle--there's an exciting moment I have planned for the end of this chapter, and I wanted my group to get to experience it. When the chaos effects were chosen, I thought, "These will be fun challenges for the players to deal with." But they didn't go that route. They've become cautious and prudent, and so the chaos storm actively set the story back. It's not what I ideally would have liked, but it is a detail of the setting that I cannot change at this point. If you're the kind of GM who wants their players to always be pursuing the story, you'll want to think carefully about mechanisms like the chaos storms. But I am okay with the campaign stretching longer, and I really enjoyed the effects on roleplaying that were created, so in the end, I am happy to have my players attending to other goals because they're taking the story seriously. 

So instead, the party returned to the site of their business. There, they checked in with Nyrill, who was painting the interior of the building with elegant designs; he also made plans to return to the business with a professional painter who could provide portraits of calming scenes for the business's private rooms. Davil was also making considerable progress on the public housing the party had asked for; he was nearly halfway done with the four housing units when the party checked in. Davil talked a bit about what life was like before the chaos storms, which he said started about 300 years ago, when the town was still growing. 

An idea suddenly struck the party: Montana, as a bird, was still able to use his voice as though he hadn't transformed at all. The party decided to have Montana perform an impromptu musical show on a busy street corner in an effort to raise some funds. Montana ended up playing three songs, each thematically related to being a bird, such as a blues song about being stuck in a cage. As has become the norm for Montana, the audience loved his performances and the people of Yamseth tossed coins to the party for their show. The party made a considerable amount of coins from this show, and in the end, Montana transformed back into his orcish form. 

With money in hand, the party decided to investigate a member of the Above they have heard is a powerful mage--Polly Bridgerman, head of the Yamseth College of Magic. At her office, the party asked a few questions about the chaos storms (Bridgerman revealed that magic cannot counter the storms as the storms as pure chaos energy and not magical in nature) and quickly realized they had forgotten to develop a strategy for questioning Bridgerman. So they cut the conversation short and prepared to leave, but Beor asked a series of questions about mind control before they left. Bridgerman also leant Beor a book on natural healing to help with the development of the business. 

After leaving the College of Magic, Montana decided to scry Bridgerman using the borrowed book as a focus to see what she does when people are not around, hoping for some damning evidence of wrongdoing. But watching for ten minutes, all Montana saw was Bridgerman taking notes and developing theories on the chaos storms. Content that Bridgerman was innocent enough for now, the party agreed to spend their efforts elsewhere for the time being. 

The party had heard from Nyrill that a weekly meeting of healers and apothecaries would be happening later that evening as Sebastian Cliffracer's Tavern. The party hoped to discover a few healers they could hire for the natural healing center, and indeed, they found a small circle of healers debating methods and materials in the tavern. Beor asked a handful of questions of the healers and described the business; Montana opted for a more stressful interview, and cut both his forearm and his leg badly to provide the healers with a way to prove their skills. In the end, they hired Josephine Glass, a halfling druid; Nicole Fyrra, a half-elf druid/cleric of Ehlonna; and Grat Sharn, an orcish generalist with abilities from most every class--the first two would be dedicated healers, and Grat would be the caretaker of the liquid multiplier. Content with their new hires, the party agreed to meet with everyone at the business the following day at noon to show them the building and talk about responsibilities. 

Worried about the setting sun and Beor's potential transformation into a werebear, the party decided to call it a night and returned to Ais's place. There, Montana prayed to Fharlanghn for guidance, and his prayers were answered. He appeared suddenly in a beautiful scene, walking alongside the god of journeys. Fharlanghn told Montana that the case was important and that he was uniquely qualified to help resolve the case and find justice. He also told Montana that whatever was waiting at the end of the journey would change the world and help many people. Montana found himself back at Ais's place, and everyone turned in for the night.

I mentioned that Beor borrowed a book from Polly Bridgerman; it is called Natural Healing and Its Applications. In order to transmit the knowledge of that book to the players, I will be writing a series of notes that Beor took on the book. I've covered document creation before, both shorter texts and whole books, but another route you can use is notes. For now, you can view the notes Beor wrote. Soon, I will publish a guide to creating notes in this style, but the basis of the idea is this: rather than providing a glimpse of complete information like we would with a full book or a comprehensive document, we provide bullet points of the information that would be relevant to the player character reading it. There are plenty of ways to make this interesting, and I'll cover that soon. But for now, this is how the 11th mystery campaign session took place. 

That's all for now. Next time on the mystery campaign, the party will investigate George Turnbuckle and continue to build their business. Until next time, happy gaming!

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How to Create and Balance an Economy

Money is as inescapable in tabletop games as it is in real life. The players want and need supplies, necessities, and fun, and all of those things generally cost money. It's your job as GM to have answers about everything about your world, and money is no different. To keep things consistent, you need your money to be predictable and balanced, or else money in the gameworld becomes meaningless. But balancing an entire economy can be complicated. Use this guide to develop your own economy or borrow it wholesale; the goal is that you can consistently use money in your gameworld in a way that makes sense. 

In order to get values for our economy, the first thing we need to do is determine the distribution of wealth in the gameworld. I play with a high degree of inequality because I like stories about the divide between the rich and the poor, but you can create a more equitable world by just shifting the values around a bit. I operate on the premise that the poorest of the poor make about one copper piece per day of labor, which is just barely enough to cover food costs; this means it takes the whole family unit to manage a successful household. Meanwhile, the rich can make almost anything in an average day, but I rule that the average high roller makes about 5 silver per day minimum from their businesses. But in a more equitable world, these numbers would be closer together; the poor might make as much as 3 copper per day while the rich can only manage about 1 silver per day. Of course this all depends on how rich or poor an individual character should be for your story, but it's helpful to have a baseline. In my mystery campaign, I have established that the poor in Yamseth make as little as 4 copper a week (in a world with 9-day weeks), which means that the poor are struggling especially hard there, but your gameworld and your cities should match your plans for them. 

Then we set the prices for common goods. A simple meal and an ale costs one copper, which exhausts the average poor person's resources for a day. Alternatively, the more equitable world has the poor using one-third of the wages to eat and the rest for whatever purpose they see fit. Along the same lines as this meal, which is designed as a tavern meal, a person could purchase ingredients for a meal for less than one copper. This means that copper is no longer the cheapest coin, because we would be spending fractions of a copper, so I introduce into my world the concept of copper chits; these small rounded chits represent one-tenth of a single copper piece, and so they are used for small purchases. A few reference costs: a chicken costs one full copper piece, a pumpkin costs three copper chits, a flagon of decent ale costs five copper chits, and a simple tool like a shovel costs 7 copper chits. I have found in my experience that because TRPGs like D&D place so much emphasis on expensive items like magical weapons that the cheapest items get lost in the mix. The copper chit system allows you to buy and sell simple, common items more precisely instead of all cheap things costing one copper piece. This also makes it more possible for the poor to subsist on low wages, narratively speaking at least. 

Then we have common but less cheap items. The game rules set out costs for weaponry and armor, but what of less-adventure-oriented gear? What, for instance, does a simple house cost? This can be a complicated question, as houses are stratified into many different qualities. We need a sample house for the average poor person; a small shack big enough for a bed and a stove is enough to survive on, and it should be within reach of a poor person. Let's say that someone should have to save for most of the year to be able to buy a simple house--that means that a simple house should cost about 3 gold. Most poor folks won't be able to save up that much all at once, so there should be a lending industry in place to help them finance their homes. Interest rates in a fantasy world can be anything, but I set them a bit lower than real-life predatory lending practices. Let's say that a poor person borrows the 3 gold to buy a home and that they are charged another half of a gold (5 silver) over the course of the loan. Now we have an economic system in which the poor are likely in the process of paying back lenders. Meanwhile, a midsized house will cost 5 gold pieces, a fine house will cost 8 gold pieces, and a true mansion could cost as much as 12 gold. Custom work costs more as well, as much as 20% of the price of the house itself. 

Most of the other details about prices are covered by the TRPG's rulebook. Prices for weapons, lodging, mounts, and more are all the domain of plenty of writing. It's these other details that complicate things. How many times in your GMing career have your players set out to buy a building? If you're like me, that answer is "plenty of times." Having a set price for a building is helpful for more than just having a fully conceptualized economy. 

This covers most of the pricing issues you'll face, but there's another side to the economy: labor. What does the average person get paid for their work? As in real life, that depends on the job. Obviously, more complicated or difficult tasks will pay more--that's why the hard work of adventuring makes the players some of the wealthiest people in the gameworld. (In the mystery campaign, one of the player characters is Beor, a hermit-like barbarian/druid who lives a simple life. According to the official rules, Beor started with 40 gold pieces. 40 gold pieces! That's enough to build a custom mansion thrice and still have money left over. This is the kind of imbalance you're constantly fighting as a GM: you need to make the economy work well for non-adventurers, but also not let the economy break when player characters' wealth is added to the system. So what do we pay various professions for their labor? 

As mentioned above, common labor labor doesn't pay very well: about a copper piece per day. Climbing the ladder, the next rung is hospitality work: tavern and inn employees. These indispensable folks make a bit more money as well as tips, so they're a bit better off than manual laborers. Let's say that the average tavernkeeper makes 2-3 copper per day, plus another copper's worth of chits as tips. Similarly, we have shopkeepers. Shopkeepers may own the store, in which case they take the business's profits as payment (more on this below), but they may also just be hired to take care of the business, in which case they would be paid according to how much money the shop makes--high priced items or high bulk of items would both mean that the shopkeeper gets a little extra. Let's say that this ranges from 2-4 copper per day in most shops and 4-6 copper per day for nicer shops. Then you have specialized labor: healers, enchanters, smiths, craftspeople, and others. The payment they can expect is generally tied to the perceived quality of their product or service; an expert healer or a master craftsperson would get paid more than a run-of-the-mill smith or a novice enchanter. On the low end, these experts make 5-8 copper per day and 9-12 copper per day on the higher end. 

We can see at this point that the inequality I wanted to create is very ingrained in these values. An expert healer can make as much as 12 times the amount a manual laborer can--that's quite the disparity. And yet, in the world of most TRPGs, inequality breeds narrative; the greed of the rich or the suffering of the poor are both rich with story potential, and indeed the mystery campaign has revolved around investigating the hyper-rich in ways that the poor cannot do for themselves. And as the end of the campaign will reveal (when the time comes, of course), that inequality is at the core of the story I want to tell. Adjust your economy to the story you want--it will be a vehicle for a great many adventures. 

As I mentioned above, the rules are a little different for business owners. I generally create businesses where the owner is also the main shopkeeper, but that's more of a guideline than a rule. It depends more on the business and the personality of the business owner--is this business owner the kind of person who is hands-on and likes the public, or are they willing to forego some profits to stay out of the day-to-day workings of the business? A shopkeeper gets the wages described above, but a business owner gets to keep the profits, which is generally a more rewarding route. We can stratify businesses into categories: low, middle, and high quality. Quality may refer to the reliability of goods, the customer service provided by the shopkeeper, or how well the business serves its community. It may also refer to how many customers the business usually has. Low quality businesses (poor quality, few customers, or both) might net between 1 silver piece and 5 silver pieces per day. Medium quality businesses (average quality, average customers, or a combination of low and high quality indicators) might expect to make 3 silver pieces to 8 silver pieces per day. High quality businesses (good quality, many customers, or both) can expect about 5 silver pieces to 1 gold piece per day. Keep in mind that these are averages: a simple smithy that sells common tools might make lots of small sales in a day, whereas a magic item seller only needs to make one big sale in a period of several weeks to meet the same average. And of course, if you feel that a business is exceptional (it taps into a new market, its prices are substantially cheaper than competitors', it has both high quantity and quality of goods/services), it can and should make even more money. 

This should cover your needs for the gameworld. But your players are a big part of the gameworld, and it is practically their goal to break the economy. How do you keep it intact when money is both hard to come by and required in great amounts for powerful items? This is where you can reduce the role of money in advancing your players through the game. Traditional TRPGs pose challenges to players, who are rewarded with currency in the game so that they can obtain boosts to their power. But with so many details floating around and such distortion between common uses of money and player uses of money, this can be much more than you've bargained for. That's why I often eliminate money as a reward for my players. If they want to make money, they must get creative and find a place in the world that can provide them with funds. But rewards that advance the players' powers can be separated from money; you can simply award appropriate items to your players via the story. 

An example: in the last year, I started a D&D campaign with my immediate family. My brother and sister have both played before, but my mom is new to the game. We have a good time with simple quests and lots of roleplaying (my mom loves to threaten to light people on fire). When my family completed their first real quest, I wanted to reward them. But their characters are from a small town without lots of items available, and their main interest is in getting more powerful rather than amassing a fortune. So rather than add the middleman of money to the equation, I just reward them with magic items. My family's characters are a sorcerer, a cleric, and an Ancients paladin, so I offered a few classic D&D items: they offered +2 bonuses to charisma, wisdom, and strength, respectively. You'll notice that each of these items offers a boost to the most important stats of each respective class. This allowed me to reward my players with the kind of items that will help them the most, and all without the complication of awarding money which would only disappear as soon as they located a magic item vendor. I'll acknowledge that this removes some of the choice from the players--the cleric may have wanted to become stronger rather than wiser, or they may have wanted a magic sword which can light people on fire (which I'm awarding to my mom the next time we play). It's a trade-off you have to decide for yourself. My best suggestion is this: reward your players with items directly most of the time, but also give opportunities for obtaining the items of their choice. My favorite way to do this is to have a questgiver have access to an array of magical or otherwise powerful items, and they reward the party by granting them one item each from the collection. Then you can offer a variety of helpful items and put your players in the position of strategizing which ones they value the most. 

The biggest key with money is not to be overwhelmed. It's exhausting and sometimes pointless to put a monetary value on anything and everything. My suggestion is to work on your economy as part of your worldbuilding and develop a mental sense of what you would charge for various items. Once you can comfortably come up with values for most things in your world, get to playing. As players buy, invest, haggle, or sell, help them to understand the values you're assigning. Your players have a sense of money in the real world where we live, but they're unlikely to immediately grasp the more abstract way that money works in the game. When players estimate a price that is too high or too low by a wide margin, take an out-of-game moment to confirm that they want to offer something that is noticeably different from agreed-upon values. Your players may want to be over- or under-pricing something, but you should allow them to revise their estimation if your explanation of a reasonable price changes their mind. You never want to penalize a player for not understanding something about the gameworld, as anyone who actually resided in the gameworld would not make these kinds of mistakes. Eventually, your players will get a sense of your economy, but until then, hold their hands. It will help get everyone on the same page. 

That's all for now. Coming soon: how to manage a boss fight, how to design a custom TRPG, and how to roleplay learning new skills and abilities. Until next time, happy gaming!

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Mystery Campaign Session Notes 10: Hillerman

Last time on the mystery campaign, the players tended to their fledgling business as a means to infiltrate the upper reaches of the Above. This session, the players continued that work on the business and then interviewed Edgar Hillerman, who revealed information the players will find useful. Read on for the full account.

The last session had ended at the property where the business is located. Waiting for their new employee Nyrill to return with a cart for Cogswagon's liquid multiplier, the party occupied themselves; Montana played a tune, Beor inspected Nyrill's work and ate some peanuts, and Ais read about obscure forms of magic. Soon, Nyrill returned with the cart, and Beor transformed into an ox to pull it. 

On the way to Cogswagon's lab, Ais asked Montana to hold onto the tiny dagger that Dirk had left her. She asked Montana to observe her behavior and use the dagger on her should Izzunech, her demon, take over. It was a solemn moment, and Montana was clearly a bit unnerved by the gravity of the request. Soon, they arrived at the lab and loaded up the first shipment of the multiplier: a collection of pipes moving the multiplied liquid to the dispenser. With the shipment loaded, they set off for the property. 

They decided to stop along the way for lunch. The restaurant the party chose was a street food restaurant which provided meals in the style of all manner of street food from across the continent. As always, we took an indulgent amount of time describing food, which I recommend you do for your players. The party liked the restaurant so much that they asked the owner/operator, Marietta, if she was interested in expanding her business into a building on their property. Marietta was eager to do so and explained a plan for a fine dining restaurant to pull in people from the Above. 

Suddenly, a chaos storm struck. I had decided recently that having chaos storms affect people only when they are outside would defeat the purpose of the towers. So I ran with the assumption that chaos bolts could strike through conventional buildings on the ground. Thus, the bolts struck in the restaurant. Montana grew a toe on his hand between thumb and forefinger, and Marietta's mind was affected in an unobserved way. (She was forced to question the truth of anything she hadn't personally witnessed in the last day, but this didn't come up as it was at the end of their conversation with her.) Content with full bellies and a deal done, the party continued to the property. 

Beor transformed back into an ox and pulled the cart on to the property. They unloaded its contents, and Davil, who had been along to help, volunteer to assemble the piping while they completed the next trip. The party agreed to this plan and headed back to Cogswagon's lab. Along the way, they saw and avoided Edgar Hillerman, which they maintained was because he knew them only as their aliases, which they were not costumed as at the moment. 

They arrived at the lab and quickly loaded the rest of the piping onto the cart. The return trip went off without a hitch, and the party discovered that Davil had already assembled most of the piping from the first trip. They left him with the rest and returned to the lab for the dispenser, the final part. On the way, they noticed Hillerman coming back in the opposite direction, now the same way the party was going. They slowed down to avoid him, again afraid that appearing without their disguises would be a mistake. 

A brief aside on Hillerman's appearances here: I roll a d12 for random events when the party is in transit. Most results in the middle mean nothing happens, and very high results mean something eventful happens, including the possibility that a god intervenes. But a roll of a 1 means "Inspiration"--something happens that could advance the main storyline. In this case, Hillerman was the person the party needed to speak to in order to finish the chapter, so I had him appear, as I rolled a 1 both times he appeared. Even though the party avoided him, it did underscore the need for them to visit him, so it ended up serving a purpose. 

Back at the property with the final load, the party helped Davil finish assembling the frame of the liquid multiplier. When they finished, it stood complete: a glass chamber connected to a snaking pipe that led to a dispenser poised over 256 glass bottles, ready to be filled with healing potion. Ais produced a potion of her own design and fed it into the machine as a test batch. Immediately, the level of the health potion in the chamber rose, and it soon fed into the piping and toward the dispenser. It appeared to be a rousing success, with hundreds of potions to be completed just from the test. 

Meanwhile, Montana grew increasingly upset about his newly grow hand-toe. It prevented him from comfortably holding his guitar, and he did not like that it would interfere with his playing. At Ais' suggestion, he ultimately asked Beor to use Dirk's tiny dagger to cut the toe off, hoping that the magic in the dagger would heal the wound. Sure enough, after Beor had sliced the toe off, healing magic set in and formed a small scar over the wound. This relieved Ais, who realized that she had a sure way to combat Izzunech if need be. 

The party donned their disguises and headed for Hillerman's tower. He received them, invited them in to speak, and explained that he was ashamed of his conduct the last time they had met. He did not mean to offer Beor a price on Cogswagon's head; he felt that he was magically controlled and had acted against his own wishes. In fact, he considered Cogswagon a friend. He wanted them to know that he would never act that way of his own volition. 

The party asked him about the big Above party the night of the murder. He hemmed and hawed at first, but finally admitted that he was at the party, but no one could testify to it because he was in disguise as Below Joe, a crude caricature of people in the Below. He explained that he had been kicked, cursed, and spit on, which had changed his perspective on how he treated the poor. He said that some time during the party, he lost certain memories and became magically controlled. 

Toward the end of their conversation with Hillerman, he mentioned his friend George. Beor confirmed that this was in fact George Turnbuckle, Hildy's employer. Hillerman described the varied nature of Turnbuckle's friends and acquaintances; he in particular mentioned that the night of the murder, he saw a figure meeting with Turnbuckle, wearing a black cloak and a purple turban. Intrigued by this detail, the party drew their conversation to a close and left Hillerman's tower.

And so ended the session. Ais has forfeited her secret about Izzunech, but both Beor's and Montana's secrets are intact, so they receive a +1 to Investigation and their choice of a +1 to Persuasion or Insight. All three characters level up in recognition of their completing half of the adventure. I informed them they would level up once more after the ninth chapter of the story, meaning they would head into the final sessions at level 10. I find it can be helpful to disclose to my players when they can expect to level up so that they aren't constantly wondering when, and with a story-driven campaign like this, chapters are as good a way as any to administer level ups. 

That's all for now; next time the party will tend more to their business and address the question of the turbanned figure once more with evidence pointing to her trail. Until next time, happy gaming!

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How to Develop Player Character Businesses

Players can do practically anything in TRPGs. Experienced GMs know that players can and will make choices that confound planning, and I believe that these choices are what make the game interesting for everyone. But sometimes players make choices that can leave GMs struggling to catch up, and this is often the case when players decide to create businesses through their characters. This kind of decision comes up more often than some GMs anticipate, but there are good ways to anticipate player needs when constructing a business. Read on for tips on how to help players build their businesses into in-game money-makers. 

Years ago, I ran an early D&D podcast called Listen Check. In the live broadcasted adventure, one character--a wizard named Rupert--came into enough money to be able to invest in his future. He purchased a building, hired employees, and attended to the various tasks of upkeeping the business. Not only did Rupert make money from this endeavor, his shop became something of a headquarters for Rupert and the rest of the party. The shop became an integral part of the story, and all of this happened based on Rupert's players intentions in the game as a business owner. 

The process of building Rupert's business (a smithy named Steelcrafter's) was fairly in-depth. He saw to the rebuilding and improvement of the building, which included private rooms for living. He conducted job interviews, hiring at least five people to tend to the business' needs. He even worked on a design for the shop's signage and promoted his business across town. Each of these actions came from Rupert's mind, and they were not prompted by me as DM. This is generally the best approach with in-game businesses: let the players decide what to pay attention to. More on that, but first, the mystery campaign's use of the in-game business, which inspired me to write this article. 

In the mystery campaign, the players are tracking down a mysterious suspect who murdered an innocent young woman. The mystery has taken the player characters far and wide in search of information, and they ran into an issue with questioning people: they have no position to be able to question citizens of the Above, the high rollers of the setting. So their plan has become to start a business and infiltrate the Above with their constructed identities as high rollers themselves. So while Rupert's business was an act of roleplaying, the mystery campaign features a business which is intended to facilitate the investigation. This means that I need to be especially attentive to their business interests, as it is the route they are using to pursue the story in addition to their roleplaying opportunities. 

As of the writing of this guide, the mystery campaign has met for nine sessions. For the last two, the players have almost exclusively focused on their business. I have joked with the players about how I had previously run a game with Rupert's business involved, naming job interviews as an example of the height of business development, but truly, the mystery campaign players have taken it in a bigger direction. They have discussed locations, prices, wages, positions, business names, and strategies to maximize profits, often in long segments of roleplaying. The mystery campaigners have taken their business very seriously, and it suits the game for me to take it seriously, too. Here's how you can do the same when your players start a business. 

The first and most important idea in this process is letting the players guide it. You may be surprised by how detailed the players get with their ideas--business is a way of life in the United States where we live, so most players have detailed ideas about how to operate one. The big picture idea is that there is no "right" way to run a business in a TRPG. Let the players come up with as much detail as they like and consider all these details when you develop the business' story. Don't penalize them for missing something; I'll describe more about how to portray failure further below, but for now, just think of the work they have done to build the business as a foundation upon which you can help them build the rest. 

In practice, this looks like the players brainstorming. Listen closely as the players brainstorm--they may be making assumptions about the gameworld in their planning, and it's your responsibility to keep them in the right. Consider this: the player characters know things that the players themselves do not because they actually live in the gameworld. This means that any character is likely to have a good grip on how prices work. If your gameworld has a certain profile of monetary values (what particular goods are worth), make sure your players understand those rates. If they set a price or wage that truly doesn't sense, respond like this: "In the game, a fair price for that item would be between x and y values." A range is better than a set number, generally, so that your players still get a choice in the matter of what kind of business they want to make. 

Aside from herding player understandings of monetary values and setting-specific details that affect businesses (tax rates from nearby rulers, a certain market being cornered in a certain town, the difficulty of finding particular components), your job as GM is largely to stand by while your players plan. Many GMs, myself included, can get kind of distracted when they're not doing everything to run the game, but stay tuned in for the misunderstandings you can prevent. 

When the players have finished brainstorming their business idea and are putting it into effect, be ready to create small stories and roleplaying moments. Let's say that 90% of the efforts to prepare the business are on track, but now there's an issue with a particular shipment (perhaps waylaid by bandits, or the items are the wrong size, or there are a few items missing). Now your characters, in pursuit of their business' health, are directed to deal with smaller issues that allow for both storytelling and roleplaying. Later, when the business is still up-and-coming, the players might need to go out and advertise their business and deal with competing businesses. Later, once the business is established and successful, they may need to deal with espionage from competitors or deal with enforcement goons from a local gang. The business becomes like a prized NPC who they players love--you can complicate the business' situation and reliably have a story that means something to your players. 

If you're afraid that despite your tending, your players are creating a flawed business plan that cannot work, introduce an NPC who can help them. They could be a retired business owner who wants to help the upstart player characters, or they might be a business expert who charges for their wisdom. What matters is that you have a way to introduce ideas about the business in-game. Now your business guide can ask the hard questions your players haven't been working to answer. Their personality is up to you; they might be a kindly guide or a derisive teacher, and they might even have designs on the business itself. But with this character, you have the mouth to ask about details the players haven't considered or try to adjust incorrect prices. But don't make the business for the player characters--part of their fun is making the choices, so it's better to accept a slightly flawed business than to take control away from the players. 

Now let's talk about the details that player characters should address when building a business. First, there is the foundation: what does the business do? This is a basic question, but it involves the scope of the business. For instance, the mystery campaigners are building a natural healing business. In addition to using natural magic to heal people, they offer alchemical healing potions and general wellness practices like deep tissue massages and mud baths. Simply a healing center is not in line with what the players envisioned, but this hybrid wellness boutique is well-suited to the profile they are looking for. 

Then there's the location. Some businesses don't need a home base, but some do. If your players want to obtain a building for the business to be based in, you need to get involved in real estate. What does a suitable building cost? In the mystery campaign, the players got a small set of abandoned buildings for free as a part of their service to the guard, but most of the time, you'll need to buy or rent a building. In my world, money is hard to come by; the poorest folks subsist on mere copper pieces a week. Thus, a small building suitable for small businesses would cost in the range of 1 to 3 gold pieces, depending on its quality. A finer, larger building might be as much as 5 or 6 gold pieces, and a full warehouse-sized building in a nice part of town might be up to 10 gold pieces. But most GMs have different interpretations of money, and your prices should match your setting. In general, though, have a house cost about a year's worth of work for a poor person (4 copper per week translates to just over 1 gold per year in my setting). 

Then, since adventurers don't really spend their time working full-time at a shop, your players will need to hire some help. This process is really rich in roleplaying opportunities, so dig in. You can provide a series of unsuited people for interviews (you can even let the players hire someone without their best interest in mind for a surprise later on), or you might speed the process along by offering only strong candidates for the jobs. It really comes down to how much time you want to spend building the business. Whatever works best for you, make sure that the players fully express the responsibilities of each position so that the employee is effective. If they don't understand the range of responsibilities they have, you can have the employee struggling and need direction from the players. 

Generally speaking, a small business only needs one person to function at a subsistence level. This is why you see so many shopkeepers who do it all in D&D. But if your players are building a full and burgeoning business, they'll need several people. First, there's the product/service. The player characters need to have reliable access to what they sell. Then, there's upkeep. They'll need someone to handle the money and interact with customers. They might need a custodian to care for the building and grounds. Finally, they need people to run the business while they are off adventuring. They can roll this in with the upkeep position, but that person will require greater compensation for the widened role. You might have particular other people on the payroll: enforcers who tax the business, people to work on special projects, and close friends and family of the player characters. But the core needs are supply, upkeep, and a supervisor, so make sure your players are covering all their bases. 

Once your player characters have reliable employees, you have more room for storytelling and roleplaying. Life events happen to these employees--they need help with something or other, either in the form of direct help or a raise or time off or something else that complicates the business. In Listen Check, Rupert hired a family of four to help out, and the youngest child (a boy of about five years old) ran away when he discovered he could cast magic spells. Rupert had to drop what he was doing, go out into the wild, and save and protect this child. It created a surprisingly emotional story moment, and it would have been impossible without Rupert's business. 

If you have employees, you have wages to worry about. Again, money issues are at the discretion of the GM depending on your vision of the economy. But generally speaking, you want to communicate some clear tiers of wages for employees. Manual labor and simple work might fetch 4 to 7 copper pieces a week at a standard business, but players often want to pay their employees very well, so something up to a silver piece a week would be considered a great wage without being unreasonably inflated. Mid-tier work, like working at a reception desk or doing somewhat skilled labor should be more. 1 silver piece to 1 and a half silver pieces a week is pretty safe for jobs in this area. Finally, you have skilled labor; it should again be a step higher. In the context of the mystery campaign, the players want to hire skilled healers to operate the business--these are the kind of skill laborers who deserve a touch more payment. They might get something in the range of 2 to 3 silver pieces per week. Of course these numbers are manipulatable, but at least have an idea of what people can live off of so that your players can make informed decisions about spending. 

Some player businesses exclusively offer services, but if you sell products, you'll also need to consider details about the products, including pricing. Use your best judgment on how much things cost--remember that magical items and cutting-edge technology are just about the only things that should run more than 1 gold piece in most campaigns. This means that most player character businesses have small profit margins compared to what they can earn adventuring. If your players have mundane items to sell, ask for details about what makes them special. Be on the lookout for over-extended decisions by the players--they are likely to overstep what is reasonable when designing their products. If they want to make very fine or complicated goods, there will be a higher cost to create them initially, or at least a greater time commitment. If they're focusing on mass-selling low-cost items, they'll need to drum up serious business to be able to make real profits. And offer an out-of-game reminder to players: businesses make money over time, but TRPGs make time behave differently in that it takes a lot of time to portray short amounts of time. They will not be able to collect profits every session or even every day. A business is a commitment of time and energy, and they will need to be patient unless they're selling very expensive items. 

The last detail is the business' name. The players can and should brainstorm this as much as they want. Unless they pick an especially upsetting name, it shouldn't affect business, although a strong name might provide a few more customers than anticipated. The name is one portion of the business that you as GM will have no real input on. This is a moment that the players' creativity can get as involved as they like, and you should reward them for coming up with a good name. One nice touch can be the player characters overhearing a few strangers talking about the new business in positive terms; it makes the players feel like they're having an impact on your world. 

If your players fail to recognize a flaw in their business plan and you haven't corrected it via an NPC, you can still give the players opportunities to fix their problems. In the first few days of operating the business, embody any issue with a fixable problem. Have the players hired a dishonest idiot? Have them catch the employee in a bad lie. Does their name suggest a different industry than they serve? Repaint that sign with a new name. Are prices set incorrectly? Have customers either complain about the steep price or take advantage of the low prices (and sell the items again marked up). Don't just make the business fail; give it challenges to growth, and that will mobilize the players to address those problems. 

So, to review: player character businesses are great opportunities for storytelling and roleplaying. Let your players design the business and only interfere to keep them on the right track. Diagnose problems and make them solvable issues for player characters. And above all, let your players have fun designing a business. It will sideline you as GM and your story for a time, but the rewards for letting players get invested will be well worth it. 

That's all for now; good luck building your businesses! Coming soon: courtesy rules in TRPGs, how to design a setting for a homebrew campaign, and the most important thing in a TRPG. Until next time, happy gaming!

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