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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