TEXT: 1 
   
  
  i 
   
   
  Design: P. Daniel Johnson 
  Artwork Courtesy Of: 
  Rijksmuseum 
  Pixabay 
   
  Thanks to William Tian for his Word template, 
  which was inspirational in developing the layout 
  and appearance of this document. 
   
  Thanks to Christopher Dyer, whose excellent 
  book MAKING A LIVING IN THE MIDDLE AGES was 
  an invaluable reference and inspiration for this 
  supplement. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  A Going Concern, copyright © 2017 Paul Daniel 
  Johnson, all rights reserved
  I first published this rule supplement back in the 
  late summer of 2017. It was well-received, and 
  over the last year and a half, hundreds of 
  gamers have downloaded it. As time has 
  passed, I’ve flipped though this myself more 
  than a few times and lately I’d begun to think 
  that, although I’m very happy with the content 
  of the product, I was less pleased with the 
  appearance of it. 
  So, the goal of this revised document is to 
  improve the formatting and organisation of the 
  contents without changing many of the rule 
  mechanics. Because the changes are largely 
  cosmetic, I haven’t altered the product 
  numbering, nor have I renamed this “A Going 
  Concern Revised Edition” or some such. 
  One notable change I did make was to the 
  mechanics of calculating and applying goodwill. 
  First, I reduced the goodwill component of 
  purchasing an existing business from 20% to 
  10%. I also make goodwill a percentage-based 
  metric recalculated monthly. 
  Hopefully this redesign will make it easier for 
  readers to enjoy and reference these rules in 
  their games. 
   
  P. Daniel Johnson, Spring 2019 
  
  ii 
   
   
  Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 
  Overview ........................................................................................................... 4 
  Starting a Business ............................................................................................ 6 
  Investment ........................................................................................................ 9 
  Business Culture ................................................................................................ 13 
  The Risk Factor .................................................................................................. 16 
  Operating a Business ......................................................................................... 17 
  Random Events ................................................................................................. 21 
  Management Actions ........................................................................................ 24 
  Interest ............................................................................................................. 31 
  Goodwill ........................................................................................................... 31 
  Return on Investment ........................................................................................ 33 
  Monthly Performance ....................................................................................... 35 
  New Background – Family Business ................................................................... 38 
  Feudal and Capitalist Economies ........................................................................ 40 
  Magic ................................................................................................................ 41 
  Adventure Hooks ............................................................................................... 42 
  Business Examples ............................................................................................. 43 
  The Business Sheet ............................................................................................ 49
  
  1 
   
   
   
  The workshop smelled of sawdust and machine 
  oil. Kiln traced the parallel paths left by the 
  legs of the table he now hunched over through 
  the wood shavings that littered the floor from 
  where he had dragged it across the room. It 
  wasn’t a large workshop. During the day this 
  space was filled with craftsmen and labourers, 
  but at night it made for a decent meeting 
  space, even if the furniture needed to be 
  rearranged for it. The table top was the only 
  visible surface not piled with tools and half-
  finished bits of carpentry. 
  Across the table, the half-elf was studying a 
  parchment roll she held open with spread 
  fingers. He couldn’t read anything on it from 
  where he sat. There was some sort of diagram 
  surrounded by incomprehensible scratches. 
  Some kind of proprietary shorthand, so no one 
  else could read her work he guessed. 
  “Couldn’t you have just brought the originals?” 
  He asked. 
  The half-elf didn’t look up. After a moment she 
  distractedly muttered, “yes. And then they 
  would know they had been stolen. We would 
  have lost all chance of surprise.” 
  Kiln shrugged and resumed his inspection of 
  the room. The only other occupant was a 
  human lad, seated to Kiln’s right, arms crossed 
  and looking both bored and mildly 
  uncomfortable. There wasn’t truly enough 
  space for the boy between the table in front of 
  him and the workbench behind. There wasn’t 
  enough space for him anywhere, it seemed, 
  unless he was outside. Kiln watched as the 
  human worked his thick fingers under his 
  gorget to rub the raw flesh beneath. The lad 
  had outgrown another set of armour and they 
  couldn’t afford to keep replacing it. 
  He returned his eyes to the half-elf, Veneranda 
  was her name, who was now tapping one 
  finger on the diagram as though she’d just 
  noticed something new. Kiln knew better than 
  to interrupt with a question, so he waited. She 
  had been away longer than he’d hoped this 
  time. Most of the night was now gone, the 
  faintest ruddiness in the eastern sky showing 
  through the missing slats in the shutters 
  promising that morning wasn’t far off. But 
  she’d been successful, that was certain, though 
  she hadn’t said as much. When the half-elf had 
  slipped in through the back door, silent as a 
  bat in flight and without a word spoken, he’d 
  recognized the hint of a smile, more in the lines 
  around her eyes than the shape of her mouth. 
  Any indication of a smile was gone when she 
  finally looked up from the page. “It’s two. Each 
  is at least as big as what they have now, 
  maybe bigger.” 
  Kiln’s heart sunk. Dwarves weren’t known for 
  optimism, but this was worse than even he had 
  thought. “How…” he began to ask. 
  Veneranda anticipated his question. “The 
  construction sites were disguised to look 
  residential. They’ve been at this for a while 
  now. We don’t have much time.” 
  The lad wore a confused expression. He clearly 
  didn’t share his companions’ concern. “I don’t 
  see why we need to sneak around and spy on 
  them,” he said, “they have as much right to do 
  business as we do.” 
  The half-elf darted a sharp glare at the big 
  human, but Kiln raised a hand to stop any 
  
  2 
   
  rebuke. “Listen Rig, there’s hardly enough 
  logging in this area to support two workshops 
  as it is, and now it seems our competition is 
  building two more workshops on top of the 
  one they already run.” 
  The lad stared back at the dwarf and blinked. 
  Nothing in his expression showed he grasped 
  the implication of what Kiln was saying. 
  The dwarf thought for a second and then 
  asked, “how many workers do we keep 
  employed here, Rig?” 
  The boy’s eyes drifted towards the ceiling. 
  After a moment he replied, “a lot”. 
  “Right. And what would happen to them if our 
  competitors drove us out of business?” 
  The tactic worked. Rig’s eyes widened and his 
  mouth dropped open. “But the money they 
  earn here feeds their families, pays their rent,” 
  the human said softly, “they’d all be out of 
  work!” 
  More likely they would just go work for our 
  competitors, Kiln thought, but the lad doesn’t 
  need to be bothered with details. There was a 
  time he was reluctant to work with someone 
  with so many morals, but now he saw how 
  easily they could be manipulated and wished 
  he’d realized it decades ago. 
  The half-elf was already gliding out the back 
  door. “We’ll take the long way and come up 
  from the river bank in case there’s a watch. 
  Come on now, they might have guards,” she 
  said as she disappeared into the darkness. 
  “It won’t matter if they do,” Rig said slowly as 
  he stood up from the table, his chair 
  screeching against the floor as he shoved it 
  back. He reached down to where his maul 
  leaned against a workbench, hefting the 
  massive cudgel effortlessly. “You know 
  something, Kiln? It was a lot easier when we 
  used to make money fighting monsters and 
  such.” 
  The dwarf clapped Rig on a well-muscled arm 
  as he followed him out into the night air. “You 
  have the right of it, lad, but there are only so 
  many lost temples to plunder, so many evil 
  wizards to thwart. And a man has to make a 
  living.” 
  At the far end of the alley, Veneranda’s 
  shadow detached itself from a wall and led 
  them across a deserted street. The city 
  slumbered; the constables dozed at their posts. 
  The wet murmur of the river in the distance 
  grew louder. Not loud enough to drown the 
  noise of a pair of construction sites being 
  smashed into kindling, but they’d be quick 
  about it. A man needed to make a living after 
  all, and tonight was as good a night as any for 
  it. 
   
   
  What is a business? Technically, any endeavour 
  intended to generate a profit could be called a 
  business. From that perspective, a lone 
  musician busking on a street corner and the 
  pickpocket working his way through the passing 
  crowd are both “businesses”. Even a party of 
  adventurers making their way into a dungeon in 
  search of treasure is a business, of a sort. But 
  the rules contained herein are not intended to 
  reduce the fun of adventuring down to a few 
  abstractions, nor are they intended to reflect 
  temporary efforts on the part of one individual. 
  There is a term useful in describing a business: 
  A going concern. A going concern describes the 
  underlying assumption that a business is 
  financially viable – that it will continue to exist 
  
  3 
   
  and operate from month to month for an 
  extended, usually indefinite period of time. This 
  distinction is important because while a player 
  character may engage in a range of activities 
  designed to generate income, a business is an 
  independent entity that can (and does) operate 
  apart from the player characters who own it. 
  For the purpose of the rules contained here 
  then, we will define a business as a going 
  concern owned by, but with an existence 
  separate from, one or more of the player 
  characters. Importantly, this implies that the 
  business has relatively competent and 
  trustworthy employees ready and capable of 
  running things while the player characters are 
  off adventuring. 
  The DUNGEON MASTER’S GUIDE contains rules for 
  running a business during adventuring 
  downtime. For most players and 
  dungeon masters, those rules are 
  perfectly serviceable. They do have some 
  limitations, however. One of the most 
  noticeable of these is that the degree of 
  profit a business generates is calculated 
  without respect to the size of the 
  business. Another is that the player 
  character has only the most abstract 
  ability to influence the business’s 
  operations, which some players may find 
  unsatisfying.
  The optional rules laid out here expand on the 
  notion of player-owned businesses. Within 
  you’ll find information on different types of 
  businesses and how to invest in them, as well as 
  the varying degrees of risk they invite. A system 
  for determining market conditions, random 
  events and the impact of management 
  initiatives gives player characters a more hands-
  on approach to running a business. Other topics 
  include adventure hooks resulting from player-
  owned businesses and the impact of magic on 
  the economy of your Dungeons & Dragons 
  game. 
  
  4 
   
   
  The intent of these rules is to present players 
  with options for owning and operating a 
  business, balanced between the goal of 
  simulating the problems faced by real business 
  owners with the need to not bog down the 
  game with dreary complexities. 
  In order to accomplish this goal, business 
  operations and the results of those operations 
  are distilled to a few rule elements. Each is 
  detailed fully further on, but a brief overview is 
  presented here to familiarize the reader with 
  the principal concepts before launching into a 
  comprehensive discussion. 
  To begin, the nearly endless variety of different 
  businesses is distilled down to two concepts – 
  type and culture. This doesn’t limit player 
  creativity: They can absolutely still invent any 
  specific sort of business they would like, be it a 
  prosaic choice like a turnip farm or blacksmithy, 
  something a bit more atypical like a theatre 
  troupe or mercenary company, or something 
  truly unusual like a gorgon ranch or 
  interdimensional travel agency. But for the 
  purpose of owning a business in Dungeons & 
  Dragons, this complexity is reduced to a 
  selection of four business types and six cultures. 
  Having identified a business by its type and 
  culture, we then look at representing the fact 
  that some businesses have a higher chance of 
  extraordinary profits, while inviting the 
  possibility of extraordinary losses. This is 
  defined by the risk factor, which is simply a 
  number from 1 to 4 based on the inherent 
  riskiness of the business’s type. 
  The next concept is investment. In the real 
  world, accounting for a business is a lot of work. 
  There are assets and liabilities, revenues and 
  expenses and that’s just the beginning. All of 
  that detail is reduced in these rules to one 
  simple concept – investment. 
  A business’s investment is a single monetary 
  value, typically expressed in gold pieces, that 
  represents the basis for determining profits and 
  losses (discussed more below) and also acts as a 
  measure of the size of a business. This last point 
  is somewhat subjective: A 750-gold piece farm 
  may well be larger than a 500-gold piece farm, 
  but the higher value could be due to something 
  else, like a bigger barn or better access to fresh 
  water. All of this variability in the size, assets 
  and relative value of a business is captured by 
  its investment value. 
  
  5 
   
  The final set of concepts all have to do with 
  determining the results of running a business. In 
  other words, did the business generate a profit 
  or suffer a loss? At its most basic level, this is 
  determined by a simple formula: the value of 
  the investment multiplied by a percentage 
  representing the return on investment. Most of 
  the rules herein are involved with determining 
  what that return on investment (or ROI) 
  percentage is. 
  Briefly, the influences on ROI are these: 
  ➢ The market environment, broken down 
  into the individual elements of economic, 
  political, strife and competition, which 
  determine how favourable conditions are 
  to doing business; 
  ➢ Management actions, which range from 
  marketing initiatives to industrial 
  espionage and sabotage, give player 
  character business owners an opportunity 
  to directly lend a hand in their business’s 
  success; 
  ➢ Random events, sometimes fortuitous 
  and sometimes not, add an unexpected 
  element to the business cycle. 
  Beyond these principal drivers of return on 
  investment, profits can be further impacted by 
  interest costs if the business is carrying any 
  debt as well as a handful of other factors. These 
  returns are calculated on a monthly basis. 
  Now that the fundamentals of these rules have 
  been introduced, the remainder of this 
  supplement delves more fully into each 
  concept. 
   
  
  6 
   
   
  Whether a player character starts a business by 
  building one up from scratch or by purchasing 
  an existing concern, the most important thing 
  to remember is that owning a business is a 
  financial investment, and the reason to own 
  one – in almost all cases – is to generate a 
  return on that investment. The concepts of 
  investment and return on investment are 
  expanded upon in greater detail further on (see 
  Return on Investment, page 33), but first it’s 
  worth examining the different types of business 
  a player character can invest in. 
  Types of Businesses 
  Most fantasy campaigns are modelled to a 
  greater or lesser extent on a medieval time 
  period. That assumption is carried through 
  these rules. This assumption simplifies things, 
  because a medieval economy is significantly 
  simpler than a modern one. Having said that, 
  even a medieval economy is still complex, with 
  a dizzying array of raw material inputs, goods 
  manufactured, and services provided. 
  In order to meaningfully categorize the huge 
  number of different types of businesses, they 
  are organized into four groups: resource, 
  manufacturing, resale, and service. 
  Resource 
  Any business that concerns itself with acquiring 
  the basic raw material inputs to the economy is 
  a resource business. Mining operations produce 
  stone, metal, gemstones, and salt. Agricultural 
  endeavours produce meat and vegetable crops 
  as well as hides, wool, tallow, bone, flax, cotton, 
  and silk. Fisheries gather resources from lakes 
  and the sea, while forestry operations produce 
  wood. This is by no means an exhaustive list, 
  but it does begin to illustrate the diverse range 
  of materials a medieval economy makes use of. 
  The assets of resource-type businesses are 
  varied, but typically are focused on ownership 
  of (or at least the rights to make use of) 
  relatively large amounts of land. They also 
  usually need heavy tools and equipment like 
  ploughs, mining carts, and saws.  
  Manufacturing 
  A massive variety of goods are manufactured 
  from the raw materials generated by resource-
  type businesses. Most of these goods are also 
  further manufactured into other goods, many 
  of which are further manufactured into yet 
  other goods, and so on. Although it would be 
  impossible to fully list all the sorts of 
  manufacturing businesses that can exist in a 
  medieval economy, it can be helpful to work 
  backwards from a particular type of finished 
  good, envisioning all of the manufacturing steps 
  required to produce that item. 
  Using a common item of clothing, a wool shirt, 
  as an example, the manufacturing steps are 
  these: First, the raw wool supplied by the 
  rancher (a resource business) needs to be 
  sorted by length and quality of fibre. Then the 
  wool is washed, usually with solutions of lye or 
  urine, and worked or beaten to further clean 
  and untangle the wool. Next the wool may be 
  dyed before being greased with fat or oil to 
  prepare it for combing and carding, where the 
  fibres are more fully separated and 
  straightened. After combing, the wool is spun 
  into yarn using a drop spindle or spinning 
  wheel. Once the wool yarn is complete, 
  
  7 
   
  weavers take over and use a loom to weave the 
  yarn into wool cloth. The wool cloth is not yet 
  ready to be used for clothing, though; first it 
  needs to be further washed through a process 
  known as “fulling” where the wool cloth is 
  strengthened and thickened either by manually 
  stepping on it or by beating it with wooden 
  hammers while soaking the cloth, again using 
  lye or urine. Water-powered fulling mills may 
  also be employed to partly automate this 
  process. Once the cloth dries, it must be 
  sheared and napped to remove any roughness 
  from stray bits of fibre. Lastly, the cloth may be 
  pressed and further dyed before it is complete. 
  The finished wool cloth is then cut and sewn by 
  a tailor into a finished wool shirt, possibly with 
  the addition of wood, metal, or bone buttons. 
  Many other processes would intersect with 
  those described above, as the various tools and 
  other products used to make the wool all have 
  manufacturing processes of their own. 
  The above is a rather detailed view of the 
  manufacturing process of wool clothing, but it 
  serves to illustrate how many different 
  businesses can be involved in manufacturing 
  even a common item like a shirt. Between the 
  sheep rancher who produces raw wool and the 
  tailor who sells an article of clothing are as 
  many as a half dozen other businesses critical to 
  the process. If you’re inclined to start a 
  manufacturing business, it’s worthwhile to 
  research how things were made in the middle 
  ages to gain a deeper insight into what sort of 
  opportunities there are. 
  Manufacturing businesses typically comprise 
  one or more buildings that serve as workshops 
  or mills. These contain all of the tools needed 
  by the business, which can be anything from 
  tiny sewing needles to massive smelting 
  furnaces. 
  
  8 
   
  Resale 
  The line between manufacturing and resale is 
  defined by whether or not the business made 
  the goods it is selling. Many manufacturing 
  businesses, from blacksmiths to tailors, sell the 
  products they make. A resale business is 
  different: Resale businesses purchase goods 
  from another business and then sell them again 
  at a higher price, making their profits on the 
  difference between what they paid and what 
  they were able to sell for. Most resale 
  operations are known as merchants or traders. 
  It’s tempting to think of resale as the final step 
  in the supply chain: Materials flow from those 
  who gather resources to those who 
  manufacture goods and finally to those who sell 
  the finished products. This is not always true, 
  however. Many merchants provide an 
  important logistical role, moving goods through 
  the supply chain. Using the prior example of 
  wool cloth, a merchant likely collects bundles of 
  raw wool from sheep ranchers and farmers, 
  then resells it to the workshops who produce 
  wool cloth. Merchants step in again to buy the 
  cloth bolts in bulk, often transporting them 
  great distances over land and sea to be sold 
  again in distant markets. 
  Other merchants and traders are less involved 
  in the transport of goods and focus instead on 
  operating shops or market stalls. These resellers 
  earn their profits by offering the convenience of 
  goods for sale at a single point. It’s much easier 
  to purchase fruits from a fruit stall at the 
  market, for example, than to hike about from 
  orchard to orchard searching for the fruits you 
  like. 
  What assets are owned by a resale business is 
  dependent on whether the focus of the 
  business is distribution over large distances or 
  operation of a store that serves a local clientele. 
  In the former case, assets typically comprise 
  one or more warehouses along with vehicles: A 
  single mule-drawn cart, a fleet of ships or 
  something in between. In the latter case, the 
  retail outlet can range from a market stall to a 
  large trading post. 
  Service 
  Service businesses tend to be less focused on 
  assets and material goods than other business 
  types are. Instead, they specialize in offering 
  labour of various skill levels. 
  The value of labour follows the same laws of 
  supply and demand as the rest of the economy, 
  meaning that when workers are in short supply 
  even unskilled labour can be valuable, and 
  skilled labour even more so. Successful service-
  oriented businesses capitalize on this by 
  providing specialized services where they are 
  most in demand. 
  Examples of service business are inns and 
  hostels, messengers, cartage, security, stables, 
  animal training, brothels, colleges and 
  universities, guilds, theatres, and mercenaries, 
  just to name a handful of possibilities. 
  Remember that the rules laid out here are 
  intended to reflect ongoing businesses where 
  an investment has been made and a return is 
  expected. The income of individual service 
  providers such as the lone mercenary, bounty 
  hunter, or thespian is better gauged by the 
  lifestyle expense rules given in the PLAYER’S 
  HANDBOOK, or by the dungeon master’s own 
  determination if the task forms a part of an 
  adventure. 
  The assets of service businesses tend to 
  comprise those tools specific to the individual 
  labourer’s occupation. A craftsperson requires 
  the tools of her trade, where a mercenary 
  requires armour and weaponry.
  
  9 
   
   
  Where a business’s type indicates the nature of 
  its operations, a business’s investment is an 
  indicator of its value. It is an amount of money 
  that represents the sum of the worth of the 
  business’s assets, including land, buildings, 
  vehicles, tools, equipment, and inventory. In 
  short, the investment is a representative 
  measure of everything that gives the business 
  the ability to operate and generate revenue, 
  and thus – with a little luck – produce a return 
  on that investment. 
  One important point to remember is that 
  investment encompasses a going concern’s 
  entire ability to generate a return. Flipping 
  through the pages of the PLAYER’S HANDBOOK, 
  one would be forgiven for noting that the price 
  of a longship is 10,000 gold, and from that 
  assuming the investment needed to start up a 
  shipping company with a longship is also 10,000 
  gold. Remember though that the ship requires a 
  crew to man it, food and supplies for the crew, 
  cargo to sell, working capital for docking fees 
  and bribes, and so on. 
   
  Table 1: Investment Examples 
  Investment 
  Resource 
  Manufacturing 
  Resale 
  Service 
  100 gp 
  Share of a small farm 
  Outdoor one-man 
  smithy 
  Market stall with small 
  inventory of local goods 
  Small rat-catching 
  service 
  500 gp 
  Salt mine suitable for 
  supplying a town or 
  small city 
  Modest workshop 
  Several mule-drawn 
  carts with drivers and 
  cargo 
  Travelling theatre 
  troupe 
  2,500 gp 
  Local forestry and 
  lumber operation 
  Foundry or similar mid-
  sized workshop 
  Small to mid-sized shop 
  with basic inventory 
  Well-equipped stable 
  10,000 gp 
  Large farm with 
  abundant fresh water 
  and pasture land 
  Simple mill, water- or 
  wind-powered 
   
  Larger trading post with 
  diverse inventory 
  Guildhall capable of 
  serving a good-sized 
  city 
  100,000 gp 
  Mid-sized gold mine 
   
  Complex water-
  powered mill such as a 
  fulling mill 
  Pair of longships, with 
  crews and trade goods 
  Large inn with kitchen 
  and stables 
  500,000 gp 
  Rich gemstone mine 
  Large shipyard 
  Trio of large galleys, 
  crewed and loaded with 
  goods 
  Small mercenary army 
  
  10 
   
  Because of this, the gross investment value of a 
  business is almost always significantly more 
  than the direct cost of its major assets. 
  This is true whether the assets are ships, 
  wagons, buildings of some sort, mines, quarries, 
  or perhaps even a forest or some other source 
  of raw materials. Whatever the obvious 
  elements of the business are, be sure that there 
  are always many other necessary parts included 
  in the gross investment value. 
  While investment is an abstract concept, it does 
  give some guidance as to the likely relative size 
  and characteristics of a business. The 
  businesses listed in table 1 are merely 
  examples. Virtually any size investment can be 
  suitable to any type of business. Certainly, some 
  may take a bit more effort to explain. A farm 
  worth 100,000 gold would need to be vast and 
  amazingly fertile. A gold mine worth only 50 
  gold might be just a small panning operation in 
  a promising creek. 
  One final point on the topic of investment is 
  that a single investment can, in some 
  circumstances, comprise several businesses at 
  once. This option is best employed when one or 
  more owners invest in several similar 
  businesses located near one another. For 
  example, if a player character owns a dozen 
  farms surrounding a single town, it makes sense 
  to treat that as one large investment rather 
  than twelve small ones. If the businesses are 
  significantly different from each other, for 
  instance if a player character owns a farm, a 
  blacksmith, and a cooperage (a workshop that 
  manufactures barrels) all in the same town, it 
  would be best to treat that as three separate 
  investments. Similarly, if a player character 
  owns a dozen farms all a fair distance away 
  from one another, it too would be preferable to 
  treat those as separate investments. 
  Shared investments 
  A business need not be owned by a single 
  person. An inherited business could have more 
  than one heir; a new business could be started 
  by several partners pooling their resources; an 
  existing business could accept a new investor to 
  help fund an expansion. In any event that a 
  business has multiple owners, use the rules 
  provided in this supplement to account for the 
  entire business as a whole, single investment 
  exactly as if there was a single owner. When 
  monthly profit or loss is calculated, special rules 
  apply to divide the results among the owners 
  (see Profit and Loss Considerations for Shared 
  Investments and Business Combinations, page 
  37). 
  Business Combinations 
  Not all businesses fit neatly into one of the four 
  business types listed above. Consider the typical 
  inn with a dining room or bar attached. The inn 
  would be considered a service, while a dining 
  room would be manufacturing, and a bar would 
  
  11 
   
  probably be resale. Another common example 
  is a resource business that also performs some 
  basic manufacturing processes, such as a mine 
  that also smelts ore into useable metals or a 
  forestry operation that also mills tree trunks 
  into lumber. In these cases, there are three 
  options available. 
  The first option is to divide the business into 
  smaller businesses of different types. This works 
  best for larger investments where the individual 
  pieces are worth at least several thousand gold 
  on their own. A large inn could represent a 
  25,000-gold investment, but if that investment 
  includes a dining room and bar, it might make 
  sense to treat it as three businesses, perhaps a 
  12,000-gold inn, 8,000-gold dining room, and 
  5,000-gold bar. Using this option, each business 
  would be accounted for separately even though 
  they are physically attached. 
  The second option is to treat the business as a 
  single entity and simply choose the business 
  type that most closely reflects the business’s 
  operations. If the business is a mine with a 
  smelting operation attached, it might be 
  reasonable to declare that the mine is the larger 
  and more significant part of the business, and 
  hence the entire operation should be simply 
  treated as a resource business without worrying 
  about the relatively small manufacturing 
  component. 
  The third and final option is to characterize the 
  business as being of mixed type, such as 
  resource/manufacturing or 
  service/manufacturing/resale. This works best 
  in situations where a business is roughly equal 
  parts the different types and cannot be easily 
  subdivided and accounted for separately 
  because the components are too intertwined. 
  The best way to judge whether business 
  components are not suitable to be accounted 
  for as separate businesses is to imagine what 
  would happen if one of them went bankrupt. If 
  the bar in an inn went bankrupt, the inn could 
  likely continue to operate. On the other hand, if 
  a mine went bankrupt could the attached 
  smelting operation continue? Likely not if the 
  smelter’s entire input was from a mine that no 
  longer functions. Using this option, the risk 
  factor of the business becomes the average of 
  each of the types included (see The Risk Factor, 
  page 16).  
  Buying a Business 
  Purchasing all or part of an existing operation is 
  quick and easy, but there is a premium to pay 
  for this convenience. The current owners will 
  expect to be compensated not just for the value 
  of the business’s assets, but also for the 
  earnings potential the business has 
  demonstrated. See the discussion of goodwill 
  on page 31 for more on this concept, but in the 
  meantime it’s enough to know that the 
  purchase price of an existing business is equal 
  to the value of the gross investment plus 10%. 
  (This calculation is more complex for player 
  
  12 
   
  characters selling a business (see page 31 
  again), but when purchasing an investment 
  from a non-player character, a simple 10% 
  mark-up is used). 
  This 10% premium is not reflected in the gross 
  investment value of the business once it has 
  been purchased. For example, purchasing an 
  existing business with an investment value of 
  2,000 gold pieces would cost 2,200 gold pieces, 
  but the gross investment value of the business 
  is 2,000 gold, not 2,200 gold. 
  Starting from Scratch 
  An advantage to buying into an existing 
  concern, or fully purchasing one outright, is that 
  it avoids the complication of needing to 
  construct the business from scratch. In many 
  cases, building from scratch might not be 
  possible to avoid, particularly if the business is 
  of an unusual nature or located somewhere one 
  wouldn’t normally find a business operating. 
  The general assumption is that construction 
  proceeds at a pace of 150 gold pieces worth of 
  investment per day. At this rate, a 1,000-gold 
  piece investment would take 7 days to 
  complete. It is possible to increase the speed of 
  construction. This requires the use of an 
  expansion management action (see 
  Management Actions, page 24). This is the only 
  time a management action can be used prior to 
  the business beginning actual operations. 
  Realistically speaking, there are many other 
  considerations beyond construction when 
  starting a business. Staff need to be hired and 
  trained; inventory and tools need to be 
  purchased. For many businesses, there is also a 
  lengthy operational process to conduct in order 
  to make goods saleable. Consider a tannery, 
  where animal hides may need to be soaked in 
  tanning pits for a year or more before being 
  ready to be used in leather goods. Other 
  examples include almost anything in the 
  agricultural industry: Raising animals and 
  growing crops takes anywhere from a season to 
  a number of years – you can’t just build a 
  farmhouse and a barn and expect to take your 
  products to sell at the market the next day. 
  Because of the staggering variety of businesses, 
  no set assumptions on start-up time are set 
  beyond the basic assumptions on construction 
  time given above. It is within the dungeon 
  master’s purview to rule that additional time 
  must be spent on business operations before 
  revenue starts coming in; however, for the sake 
  of abstraction this additional time can normally 
  be ignored. It can be assumed, for example, 
  that a new business acquires saleable inventory 
  wholesale to start its sales process prior to its 
  own inventory being ready. Or perhaps the 
  business engages in other, shorter term 
  activities outside of its normal operations to 
  help kick off its revenue streams. In any event, 
  the process of starting a business should be 
  handled in the spirit of the game: Fun and 
  rewarding, not burdensome and punishing. 
  
  13 
   
   
  Not every tavern is run the same way. Nor 
  every blacksmith, guildhall, copper mine, or any 
  other sort of business. To help simulate this, 
  each business has a culture which provides an 
  ability or other benefit not enjoyed by 
  businesses with different cultures. When 
  starting a business, select one of the following 
  cultures. If purchasing an existing business, the 
  DM can choose what culture the business has, if 
  any. Table 2 summarizes the different cultures 
  available and their benefit, if any. 
  Table 2: Business Cultures 
  Culture 
  Benefit 
  Criminal 
  Sabotage action 
  Cut-throat 
  Espionage action 
  Front 
  Disguise advantage 
  Innovative 
  Invention action 
  None 
  No benefit 
  Traditional 
  Interest discount 
  Trendy 
  Marketing advantage 
  Criminal 
  Some businesses are ethical, some are 
  unethical, and some are simply criminal. A 
  criminal culture will break any law in order to 
  defraud a customer, undermine a competitor, 
  or otherwise break the rules in their own 
  favour. In most societies, such a business would 
  quickly find itself at best with no customers and 
  at worst on the receiving end of the local justice 
  system. In a less lawful society, however, a 
  criminal culture may be the norm and caveat 
  emptor the general rule. 
  A business with a criminal culture has access to 
  the sabotage management action (see 
  Management Actions, page 24).  
  Cut-throat 
  For some businesses, morality is of little 
  concern when profits are at stake. This is known 
  as having a cut-throat culture. Customers are 
  not always comfortable patronizing businesses 
  that wantonly display a lack of ethics, so most 
  cut-throat cultures try to present themselves as 
  being traditional or some other culture to help 
  obfuscate their shadier dealings. 
  Cut-throat cultures gain access to the 
  espionage management action (see 
  Management Actions, page 24). 
  Front 
  One of the few examples of a business for 
  which the primary goal is not profit, a front is 
  intended to conceal some other activity behind 
  a mask of routine commerce. This could be an 
  underground political resistance movement, a 
  temple to an outlawed religion, a devil-
  worshipping conspiracy, or any other 
  organisation that needs to keep its existence a 
  secret. 
  Due to their lack of focus on actually running a 
  successful business, fronts gain no special 
  
  14 
   
  abilities or benefits related specifically to 
  business; however, any employees of the front 
  gain advantage on stealth rolls made to disguise 
  their true activities as mundane operations of 
  the business. 
  Innovative 
  In many ways the opposite of traditional is the 
  innovative culture. A business with an 
  innovative culture values progress and finding 
  new and better ways to do things, whether it’s 
  a manufacturing process or a sales technique. 
  Having an innovative culture gives a business 
  access to the invention management action 
  (see Management Actions, page 24). 
  None 
  It’s entirely possible for a business to have no 
  culture at all. Having no culture imparts no 
  particular benefit, however. In practice, the 
  only businesses that operate without a culture 
  are those that are in the process of changing 
  their culture. 
  
  15 
   
  Traditional 
  The most common culture in most campaigns, 
  traditional cultures value how business is done 
  and who it is done with over profits. A business 
  that has been handed down from generation to 
  generation is likely to have a traditional culture, 
  but even newer businesses can be traditional-
  minded. 
  Because they are generally seen as low-risk, 
  traditional businesses pay only half normal 
  interest costs (see Interest, page 31). 
  Trendy 
  When trade caravans and merchant vessels 
  travel to distant lands, they inevitably carry with 
  them goods and ideas that become popular for 
  the simple reason of their novelty. Businesses 
  with a trendy culture latch onto these novelties 
  in order to profit from them. The difference 
  between trendy and innovative is that trends 
  aren’t about doing anything better, they’re just 
  about doing things differently. And once that 
  difference becomes ordinary, the trendy 
  business just goes out and find a new trend. 
  A trendy business gives its investors advantage 
  when they take the marketing action (see 
  Management Actions, page 24).
  Changing Culture 
  It has been said that it takes years to build a 
  reputation and only seconds to destroy it. For 
  the purpose of these rules, business culture can 
  be changed in three months. (If your campaign 
  world doesn’t use ‘months’, substitute a similar 
  length of time appropriate to the world you’re 
  playing in). This represents the space of time 
  required for the change of direction from 
  management to be adopted by the business’s 
  employees and, if applicable, recognized by the 
  business’s customers. 
  Once the decision has been made to change a 
  business’s culture, the existing culture is 
  immediately removed. While the business has 
  no culture, it loses access to any abilities or 
  benefits it received from its former culture. For 
  three months the business operates with no 
  culture. On the fourth month the business 
  adopts its new culture and gains access to 
  whatever ability or benefit that culture imparts. 
   
  
  16 
   
   
  Not every business venture is a profitable one, 
  and even successful businesses have bad 
  months. It takes someone with an 
  entrepreneurial spirit to be willing to risk the 
  perils of investment. Even among 
  entrepreneurs there are varying appetites for 
  risk, though. While the potential for loss exists 
  in all businesses, some types of business are 
  inherently riskier – trading the potential for 
  great losses for the chance at great profit. The 
  metric for this potential is called the risk factor. 
  It functions as a coefficient, magnifying the 
  profits or losses for riskier businesses. 
  Resale businesses have the highest risk factor. 
  This is because they carry significant inventory 
  that they have to purchase. If that inventory is 
  lost at sea, stolen by bandits, spoils due to age, 
  or simply needs to be sold at a loss, the 
  investment suffers; however, resale businesses 
  also have a chance for large profits if they find 
  buyers willing to pay a premium for goods in 
  short supply. 
  Manufacturing operations are less risky, as their 
  inventories tend to be relatively smaller and 
  aren’t transported as often or as far. Resource 
  operations are less risky still, and service 
  businesses the least risky because they have 
  little inventory and low expenses in general. At 
  the same time, labour rarely sells for a 
  premium, and so service businesses have a 
  smaller chance to produce large returns.
  Table 3 summarizes the risk factors for different 
  business types. 
  Table 3: Risk Factors 
  Business Type 
  Risk Factor 
  Service 
  x1 
  Resource 
  x2 
  Manufacturing 
  x3 
  Resale 
  x4 
   
  For businesses with a mixed type, the risk factor 
  should be averaged among the types included. 
  The resulting risk factor should then be rounded 
  up to the nearest whole number. A service/ 
  manufacturing business would have a risk factor 
  of (1 + 3) ÷ 2, or 2. A service/ manufacturing/ 
  resale business would have a risk factor of (1 + 3 
  + 4) ÷ 3, which rounds up to 3. 
  Risk factor is used when calculating a business’s 
  return on investment (see page 16). 
  
  17 
   
   
  All businesses are assumed to be in continuous 
  operation, with the consideration that shops 
  are only open for normal business hours, that 
  caravans set up camp for the night and so forth. 
  The concept of a going concern is that other 
  than for normal interruptions, a business is an 
  enduring operation, one that functions 
  independently of the player character or player 
  characters who own it. 
  While businesses operate continuously, 
  generating revenue and incurring expenses on 
  an ongoing basis, the results of business activity 
  are accounted for using a monthly cycle. 
  The Monthly Business Cycle 
  Every business has an operating cycle. This cycle 
  comprises all the activity and time needed to 
  gather materials, prepare those materials for 
  sale, conduct the sales process and begin again. 
  The specifics vary from one business to another. 
  For resource businesses, the procurement of 
  materials occupies most of the cycle, where 
  preparation for sale and sales processes are 
  generally simple and quick. In resale businesses 
  the opposite is true, with the process of selling 
  goods being their principal effort. The time it 
  takes to cycle through these operations also 
  varies. A bakery could conduct all of its 
  manufacturing and sales in a single day, starting 
  each day fresh with zero inventory. An iron 
  mine might spend many days building up an 
  inventory of ore, only selling once massive 
  quantities have been accumulated. 
  To smooth out these differences and allow for 
  uniformity in determining business results, a 
  month is used as the common denomination of 
  time to meaningfully aggregate profits or losses. 
  Every month that the business is in operation, a 
  combination of market environment, 
  management actions and random events 
  determines the relative success of the business 
  in that month. 
  Every month, a business owner will generally do 
  the following: 
  ➢ Determine the market environment; 
  ➢ Check for random events; 
  ➢ Declare and resolve any management 
  actions; 
  ➢ Calculate all the impacts to the 
  business’s ROI; 
  ➢ Determine the closing gross 
  investment; 
  ➢ Calculate the net profit or loss. 
  These steps are given a detailed treatment 
  starting on page 33. The specific timing during 
  the month as to when the business owner 
  completes these tasks is left somewhat open. 
  Generally, it’s best to determine random events 
  early in the month so that corrective 
  management actions can be planned, if 
  necessary. That’s not to say that all random 
  events occur on the first of the month. Once the 
  occurrences of the month are known, it can all 
  be considered when developing a descriptive 
  narrative that helps give life to the mechanics 
  given here (see page 20 for more thoughts on 
  narratives for business activity). 
  Market Environment 
  One of the sad truths of running a business is 
  that many factors that greatly influence the 
  business’s success are completely outside of the 
  owner’s control. To simulate this, for every 
  
  18 
   
  Table 4: Market Environment 
  3d6 Roll 
  Condition 
  ROI Impact 
  Roll Modifier 
  16 or higher 
  Propitious 
  +3% 
  +4 
  13 - 15 
  Favourable 
  +1% 
  +2 
  9 - 12 
  Neutral 
  none 
  none 
  6 – 8 
  Unfavourable 
  -1% 
  -2 
  5 or lower 
  Adverse 
  -3% 
  -4 
  month a business operates four aspects of the 
  market environment are randomly determined 
  with a 3d6 die roll. These aspects of the 
  environment are economic, political, strife and 
  competition. 
  Consult Table 4 to determine the condition of 
  each market aspect for the month. 
  Market conditions normally change slowly. It 
  would be unusual for the economy to be 
  terrible one month, outstanding the next, and 
  back to terrible the month after. The roll 
  modifier column is used to simulate this. This 
  modifier doesn’t affect the current month’s roll, 
  instead it is used to modify the following 
  month’s determination of market conditions. 
  For example, if the economic market condition 
  is propitious in one month, the next month’s 
  check for the economic market condition is 
  made with a +4 bonus. 
  It should be noted that these market conditions 
  are determined independently for every 
  business, even businesses that are located close 
  to each other. At first that might seem odd. One 
  could expect these conditions to be ubiquitous, 
  that a shop on Maple Street wouldn’t be 
  experiencing a booming economy while a shop 
  on Beech Avenue suffers in a recession. The 
  reason each business rolls market environment 
  independently is that the conditions are meant 
  to reflect the market relative to that specific 
  business, not relative to the market as a whole. 
  It’s possible, for example, for the iron 
  horseshoe industry to be booming while the 
  linen tablecloths industry stagnates. More 
  detail is provided for each aspect of the market 
  environment below. 
  Economic 
  If currency is the life’s blood of the economy, 
  this market condition determines the heart 
  rate. The economic condition reflects how 
  much available money people have to spend 
  and how optimistic they are that they can 
  afford to spend it, rather than saving it for some 
  unforeseen need. It also measures how much 
  wealth is flowing into a local economy, whether 
  from trade surpluses as merchant caravans roll 
  into the area, nobles lavishly spending, or 
  
  19 
   
  adventurers enjoying the sudden wealth that 
  occupation sometimes bestows. 
  Political 
  Governmental policy can have a dramatic effect 
  on business. The two most obvious examples 
  are taxes and trade tariffs, which can directly 
  impact the bottom line of all businesses. The 
  political climate goes beyond these examples, 
  though. Governments often intervene in culture 
  and commerce with sumptuary laws, property 
  use restrictions, asset seizures under martial 
  law or eminent domain laws, trade embargoes, 
  and a vast number of other possibilities. 
  Strife 
  Nothing puts more of a sudden damper on 
  commerce than a condition so dangerous 
  people refuse to engage in commerce out of 
  fear for their own safety. Strife is a catch-all 
  market condition for such events as wars, 
  extreme weather, riots, rampant crime, or any 
  condition that can likely be considered 
  imminently dangerous. 
  It’s important to keep in mind how different 
  situations relate to a given business, however. A 
  war is likely to dampen trade and reduce 
  harvests, but the weapon and armour smiths 
  suddenly see their profits increase enormously. 
  Monsoon season might flood the local mine, 
  but the roadside inns do a roaring trade with 
  people desperate to get off the muddy roads 
  and into a warm bed.  
  Competition 
  If there are profits to be had, one business will 
  rarely be left alone to take them all for itself. 
  Inevitably, other entrepreneurs step in with 
  ventures of their own and a competitive 
  environment results. This is great for the 
  consumer, as competition tends to increase 
  selection and quality while driving down prices, 
  but it’s not so great for the business owner 
  watching someone steal his customers. 
  
  20 
   
  Developing a Narrative for 
  Market Conditions 
  From a strictly mechanical perspective, it isn’t 
  necessary to describe the market conditions a 
  business is experiencing any further than the 
  propitious-through-adverse scale given in the 
  market condition chart. From a role-playing 
  perspective however, and to integrate the 
  business more fully into the ongoing events of 
  the campaign, it can be advantageous to build a 
  narrative. 
  Once the market conditions for a month have 
  been rolled, imagine them relative to the 
  operations of the business. All conditions are 
  relative, so a propitious condition can mean 
  something very different for different 
  businesses. Consider the following example: 
  A copper mine operates in the hills a few miles 
  from a mid-size town. In a given month, the 
  mine’s economic condition is favourable, 
  political is propitious, strife is unfavourable, and 
  competition is adverse. One possible narrative 
  for this is that commerce in town is strong and 
  demand for copper is good, aided by the fact 
  that the local baron has eliminated taxes and 
  tariffs on metal production in order to stimulate 
  the industry. So far, it’s looking like a good 
  month. Unfortunately, bandit raids have been 
  delaying shipments of ore to the smelter in 
  town. Also, the baron’s incentives seem to be 
  working too well as a rival mine just started 
  operating not far away. 
  In the next month, the economic situation is 
  unchanged at favourable. The political situation 
  drops to neutral while strife drops to adverse 
  and competition improves to unfavourable. The 
  demand for copper is as strong as ever, but it 
  seems the baron had been losing too much 
  revenue and has reinstituted normal taxes and 
  tariffs. The adverse strife condition indicates 
  that those bandit raids have gotten a lot worse, 
  seriously hindering access to the smelter. That 
  rival mine seems to be struggling as well… could 
  it be that the bandits are in their employ? 
  See Adventure Hooks on page 42 for more ideas 
  on tying business ownership to the player 
  characters’ adventures. 
   
  Adding Percentages 
  Throughout these rules, many possible 
  adjustments to return on investment are given. 
  This is typically shown as a plus or minus to a 
  percentage, such as +2% or -1%. These 
  adjustments are intended to be incremental or 
  decremental to the whole integer value of the 
  percentage they modify, not literal percentage-
  based adjustments. 
  For example, a base ROI of 10% that is adjusted 
  by +2% is properly calculated as 12%, not as 
  10.02%. Similarly, an ROI of 15% modified by a -
  1% ROI impact becomes 14%, not 14.99%. 
   
   
   
  
  21 
   
   
  Unexpected occurrences can have a significant 
  impact on a business’s performance, for good 
  or for ill. Every month that a business is 
  operating, roll 1d6. If the result is a 6, a random 
  event has occurred. Roll 2d6 and consult table 5 
  to see which specific event. 
  Table 5: Random Events 
  2d6 Roll 
  Random Event 
  2-3 
  Devaluation 
  4-5 
  Malfunction 
  6 
  Cancelled contract 
  7 
  Theft 
  8 
  Illness 
  9-10 
  Fair 
  11-12 
  Appreciation 
   
  Details on each event’s impact on the business 
  are given below.  
  Devaluation 
  The assets of the business have decreased in 
  value. This might be due to changes in land 
  value, increasing cost of replacing tools and 
  equipment, obsolescence of the business’s 
  products or services, or some other cause. 
  Whatever the reason, the business is now 
  worth less than it was previously. Roll 2d6 and 
  decrease the gross business investment by that 
  percentage. For example, on a roll of 8, a 1,000-
  gold investment would become a 920-gold 
  investment. This change takes place prior to 
  calculating return on investment for the month. 
  Malfunction 
  Something has gone wrong with one of the 
  business’s critical assets. Most likely this is a 
  piece of equipment, a tool, or possibly a 
  building structure, but whatever broke is going 
  to cost the business money until it can be 
  repaired or replaced. A Malfunction reduces the 
  return on investment of the business by 5%. 
  This loss persists every month thereafter. If this 
  event is rolled again, the return on investment 
  adjustment is added again, making the return 
  on investment adjustment a net negative 10%. 
  This continues if further malfunction events 
  occur, with no limit to how large the negative 
  adjustment to the business’s returns can 
  become. Successful completion of the 
  maintenance management action removes 
  these adjustments (see Management Actions, 
  page 24). 
  Cancelled contract 
  The business has lost a major customer, either 
  due to a formal cancellation of a contract or 
  some other loss of a prior business relationship. 
  This reduces the return on investment of the 
  business by 5%. This loss persists every month 
  thereafter. If this event is rolled again, the 
  return on investment adjustment is added 
  again, making the return on investment 
  adjustment a net negative 10%. This continues 
  if further cancelled contracts events occur, with 
  
  22 
   
  no limit to how large the negative adjustment 
  to the business’s returns can become. 
  Successful completion of the negotiation 
  management action removes these adjustments 
  (see Management Actions, page 24). 
  Theft 
  The business has fallen victim to thieves. All 
  businesses must eventually deal with the 
  shoplifters, fraudsters, and robbers who make a 
  living taking what belongs to others, but this 
  theft was significant enough to visibly reduce 
  the concern’s profits for the month. Return on 
  investment is decreased by 5% for this month 
  only. 
  Illness 
  A contagious sickness has spread among the 
  employees of the business. It probably isn’t 
  fatal, but it does reduce the capabilities of the 
  workers to the bare minimum. No management 
  actions may be performed by the business in 
  the month where an illness event occurs. In the 
  event a management action was already in 
  progress, it ends without taking effect. 
  Fair 
  Fairs attract merchants, artisans, and most 
  importantly customers from a wide area. Any 
  business in the area when a fair takes place can 
  be sure to benefit from the increased activity, 
  as the festive atmosphere and exotic goods 
  entice buyers and loosen purse strings. A fair 
  increases the economic market condition by 
  two grades, to a maximum of propitious, in the 
  current month only (although the +4 roll 
  modifier to the next month’s economic market 
  condition likely extends the benefit of a fair 
  beyond the current month). 
  
  23 
   
  Appreciation 
  This event is identical to devaluation, except 
  that circumstances have conspired to increase 
  the invested value of the business rather than 
  decrease it. The reasons for this are similar to 
  those listed for devaluation, simply with the 
  effect of being beneficial rather than harmful to 
  the business’s value. Roll 2d6 and increase the 
  gross business investment by that percentage. 
  On a roll of 11, for example, a business with a 
  gross investment value of 1,000 gold would 
  become a 1,110-gold piece business. This 
  change takes place prior to calculating return 
  on investment for the month.
   
  Discounts and Personal Use 
  When the player characters run their own 
  business, the temptation will often exist to make 
  personal use of the assets and merchandise. A 
  weapon shop offers an inviting inventory of 
  goods for adventurers, for instance. An inn is a 
  welcoming place to eat and rest for free. A 
  mercenary outfit could provide hired swords to 
  aid an adventuring party in their battles. 
  As a general rule, any use player characters 
  make of businesses they own should be at the 
  standard rates and prices as given in the PLAYER’S 
  HANDBOOK and other supplements. It might seem 
  strange that a character who owns a business 
  can’t get a discount on its products, but there is 
  a good reason for this. 
  The most important idea to consider regarding 
  discounts is that the goods and services a 
  business offers are not without cost to that 
  business. Inventory costs money to stock, and 
  employees providing services expect to be paid. 
  Because of this, any free services or discounted 
  goods would represent a direct diminishment of 
  the business’s profits for that month. In other 
  words, the players could take liberties with the 
  products of their businesses, but the cost of such 
  use would need to be subtracted from the gross 
  profits of the business at month end anyhow, 
  meaning that the net impact would be no 
  savings at all. In a situation where the business 
  has multiple owners this is even more serious as 
  it would essentially mean the player character 
  was stealing from his partners. 
  To avoid this complexity and the resulting 
  negative implications, the rule therefore is that 
  player characters pay for goods and services just 
  like everyone else, irrespective of the 
  investments they own. 
   
    
  
  24 
   
   
  A business owned by a player character 
  operates whether she is around or not by virtue 
  of the fact that it is an independent going 
  concern. The advantage to the player character 
  actually being around to run the business 
  instead of letting the employees take care of 
  everything is that a player character is capable 
  of taking management actions to help boost 
  the profitability of the business. 
  Possible management actions are listed on table 
  6. 
  Taking a management action requires the 
  owner to make an ability check. The specific 
  ability for each management action is listed on 
  table 6. The base DC for all management actions 
  is 30. Every day (minimum of 8 hours) spent on 
  the action reduces the DC by 1, to a minimum 
  DC of 5. The ability check is always made after 
  the time has been invested, never before or 
  during. 
   
  Table 6: Management Actions 
  Management Action 
  Ability 
  Effect 
  Contract labour 
  Special 
  Substitute management action ability score 
  Espionage 
  Wisdom 
  Improves competitive environment 
  Expansion 
  Intelligence 
  Build a new or expand an existing business 
  Invention 
  Intelligence 
  Improves investment value 
  Maintenance 
  Intelligence 
  Reduces malfunctions 
  Marketing 
  Charisma 
  Improves ROI 
  Negotiation 
  Charisma 
  Reduces cancelled contracts 
  Sabotage 
  Wisdom 
  Improves competitive environment 
  Training 
  Wisdom 
  Grants advantage on management actions 
  
  25 
   
  A business can only attempt one management 
  action at a time. If the business has more than 
  one owner, one of the owners can use the help 
  action to give the player character attempting 
  the management action advantage on her roll; 
  however, the helper must spend the same or a 
  greater amount of time on the management 
  action as the player character making the roll. 
  Attempting management actions or helping 
  another attempt a management action is 
  restricted to player characters who own at least 
  10% of the business’s total investment. 
  Time invested in management actions can carry 
  over from month to month; that is, a player 
  character could spend the last 5 days of a 
  month working on a management action, then 
  continue spending another 10 days in the next 
  month in order to make the management 
  action check with a DC of 15. The time spent on 
  management actions must be contiguous – if 
  any day passes without the management action 
  being worked on, the management action 
  ability check must be made at that point or else 
  the count of days spent on the action starts 
  over. The result of the management action 
  always effects the month in which the 
  management action is completed. 
  Under some circumstances, the dungeon 
  master may increase or decrease this DC. For 
  example, if a business attempts the same 
  management action month after month, the 
  dungeon master could rule that such repeated 
  attempts have a diminishing effectiveness and 
  increase the DC to compensate, or simply 
  disallow the action. 
  Refer to table 7 to gauge the results of the 
  management action.  
  Table 7: Management Action Checks 
  Ability Check 
  Result 
  Exceed DC by 5 or 
  more 
  Outstanding success 
  Meet or exceed DC 
  Success 
  Fail to meet DC 
  Failure 
  Fail by 5 or more 
  Catastrophic failure 
  The descriptions of the different kinds of 
  management actions below detail the specific 
  outcomes for each type of result. 
  Contract Labour 
  The contract labour action allows an investor to 
  bring in a skilled worker to perform 
  management actions on her behalf. This worker 
  acts like a consultant, working alongside the 
  business owner, providing guidance in areas the 
  owner lacks expertise. 
  
  26 
   
  In order to take the contract labour action, 
  select any other management action for the 
  consultant to perform (assuming the action is 
  allowed by the business’s culture). That action 
  is carried out as normal, with the owner 
  choosing how many days to spend on the action 
  and an ability check being made to determine 
  the success or failure of the attempt. The 
  difference is that with the contract labour 
  action, the ability check is made using the 
  consultant’s ability score instead of the 
  owner’s. This ability score is assumed to be 16 
  (for a +3 bonus on the ability check). Since the 
  owner is considered to be helping the 
  consultant, the check is also made with 
  advantage. 
  The only drawback to using the contract labour 
  action is cost: For every day the consultant 
  works on the requested management action, 
  the business must pay 3 gold pieces. This cost is 
  paid at the end of the action, in the month the 
  ability check is made, irrespective of the 
  outcome of the check. The total cost is 
  subtracted from the month’s profit (or added to 
  the month’s loss). 
  Example: A flour mill is in need of maintenance, 
  but the owner of the mill, Thurg the Thick, has 
  doubts about his odds of successfully carrying 
  out an Intelligence-based maintenance action. 
  Thurg instead takes the contract labour action, 
  requesting the hired consultant to oversee the 
  maintenance. He hires the consultant for 15 
  days. When the management action check is 
  made, it is against DC 15 using the consultant’s 
  Intelligence of 16, with advantage. The mill’s 
  return on investment for the month will be 
  reduced by the 45-gold consultant’s fee (15 
  days times 3 gold per day). 
  If 3 gold pieces per day is too steep a price, a 
  consultant can be hired for 2 gold per day, but 
  his ability score is only 14 for the purpose of 
  management actions. At 1 gold per day, a 
  consultant with an ability score of 12 can be 
  hired. 
  Espionage 
  Most people think of spies as the agents of 
  military or governmental organisations, but 
  industrial espionage has existed for almost as 
  long. Spying on competitors can have a number 
  of benefits, including learning of marketing or 
  expansion plans, discovering the identity of 
  backers or silent partners, and uncovering 
  secret recipes, manufacturing techniques, trade 
  routes, and customer lists. Because of the 
  ethical implications of spying, only a business 
  with a cut-throat culture may conduct an 
  espionage management action. 
  A successful espionage action improves the 
  competition market condition by one grade 
  (unfavourable becomes neutral, neutral 
  becomes favourable, and so forth). An 
  outstanding success increases the competition 
  market condition by two grades. On a failed 
  check there is no impact, but on a catastrophic 
  failure the information gathered is misleading 
  and the competition market condition worsens 
  by two grades. This effect lasts only a single 
  month (although the bonus or penalty to the 
  subsequent month’s market environment rolls 
  can prolong the benefits or penalties associated 
  with attempting espionage). Note that the best 
  possible market condition is propitious and the 
  worst possible is adverse, irrespective of the 
  outcome of an espionage action. 
  Espionage actions are resolved using a Wisdom 
  ability check. 
  Expansion 
  Most successful businesses will eventually want 
  to grow. Such growth is represented by an 
  increase in the total invested value of that 
  
  27 
   
  business. Added investment requires the 
  oversight and expenditure of funds of the 
  owner. The base amount of investment that can 
  be added to a business is equal to 150 gold 
  pieces per day. This represents the time needed 
  for new construction as well as all related 
  activity like training new staff, acquiring new 
  land, expanding inventory, and so forth. 
  While time must be spent on the expansion 
  action in order to grow an investment at the 
  150-gold base rate, no ability check is required. 
  It is possible to expand more rapidly by making 
  an Intelligence check. On a successful check, the 
  rate of expansion increases to 400 gold per day. 
  With an outstanding success, the expansion 
  rate increases to 1,000 gold per day. This 
  reflects the player character’s ability to oversee 
  larger and more complex construction 
  processes. 
  If an expansion check is failed, the investment 
  rate slows to 100 gold per day. If the result is a 
  catastrophic failure, the project has been so 
  mismanaged that the rate of investment drops 
  to zero – no progress has been made. 
  This management action can also be used in the 
  construction of a new business (see Starting 
  from Scratch, page 12). Keep in mind that there 
  is no inherent minimum or maximum number 
  of days this action can be attempted over, so it 
  might be advantageous to break up the action 
  over a number of separate attempts to 
  minimize the risk of losing significant time to a 
  catastrophic failure. 
  As previously mentioned, expansion 
  management action checks are made using 
  Intelligence. 
  
  28 
   
  Invention 
  By today’s standards, where products are 
  obsolete within months and new advancements 
  are announced daily, the rate of progress in a 
  medieval economy would seem astonishingly 
  slow. Still, technology does march on at a 
  measured pace and businesses that focus on 
  improving their products and processes can 
  benefit greatly. Only a business with an 
  innovative culture can attempt an invention 
  management action. 
  When a business owner attempts an invention 
  action, she makes an Intelligence ability check. 
  If the result is a success, a meaningful 
  advancement has been made, improving the 
  business in a measurable way. This is simulated 
  by increasing the size of the business’s gross 
  investment by 2%. Should the result be an 
  outstanding success, the increase is instead 4%. 
  For example, a 1,000-gold piece investment 
  value would become a 1,020-gold investment 
  on a successful invention action, or 1,040 gold 
  pieces on an outstanding success. 
  On a failed invention check, no change to the 
  business’s investment value occurs; however, 
  on a catastrophic failure the invested value of 
  the business instead decreases by 4% as a 
  promising development turns out to actually 
  leave the concern worse off than it was doing 
  things the old way. 
  These changes to the investment value of the 
  business are applied prior to calculating the 
  return on investment for the month, so they 
  have an immediate effect on profits or losses. 
  As mentioned above, invention management 
  action checks are made using Intelligence.  
  Maintenance 
  All businesses must put some effort into 
  keeping their assets in working condition. Retail 
  outlets try to keep the shop presentable for 
  customers; workshops keep the tools in 
  working order, and so on. While a certain 
  ambient level of care and attention to an 
  investment’s assets is expected as part of 
  routine operations, the maintenance 
  management action involves a more directed 
  and strenuous effort to keep the business 
  functioning at peak efficiency, over and above 
  what the staff are able to organize without 
  direct input from the owner. 
  The effects of one or more malfunction random 
  events that have already occurred are removed 
  by a successful maintenance action; otherwise 
  this action negates the next malfunction 
  random event that occurs. An outstanding 
  success has the same effects, but also 
  negates one additional malfunction random 
  event in the future. 
  A failed maintenance attempt has no effect 
  – any future malfunction event occurs as 
  normal and any current effects of 
  malfunction events continue. A catastrophic 
  failure indicates a maintenance action so 
  poorly conducted it immediately results in a 
  malfunction event occurring (see under 
  Random Events, page 21). 
  
  29 
   
  Maintenance management action checks are 
  made using Intelligence. 
  Marketing 
  Marketing involves attempts to establish or 
  improve a business’s relationship with its 
  customers. This often takes the form of 
  advertising for new customers or socializing 
  with existing customers. 
  A successful marketing action directly improves 
  the business’s return on investment by +2% in 
  the month the action is completed. An 
  outstanding success instead increases the 
  return on investment by +4%. 
  If a marketing attempt results in a failure, no 
  ROI change takes place. Unfortunately, if a 
  catastrophic failure occurs the marketing effort 
  was so botched it results in a -4% change to that 
  month’s return on investment. 
  All marketing management action checks are 
  made using Charisma. 
  Negotiation 
  This action reflects the efforts of a business to 
  set the best possible terms in its customer 
  relations. This might be formal contract 
  negotiations, re-establishing business relations 
  with former clients, or simply haggling over 
  prices. 
  If a business is suffering the effects of one or 
  more cancelled contract random events, a 
  successful negotiation action negates those 
  effects; otherwise it negates the next cancelled 
  contract random event that occurs. An 
  outstanding success has the same effect, but 
  also negates one additional cancelled contract 
  random event in the future. 
  A failed negotiation attempt has no effect – any 
  future cancelled contract event is not negated, 
  and any current effects of a cancelled contract 
  event continue uninterrupted. A catastrophic 
  failure indicates a negotiation attempt so inept 
  it immediately results in a cancelled contract 
  event occurring (see under Random Events, 
  page 21). 
  Negotiation management action checks are 
  made using Charisma.  
  Sabotage 
  Unethical and illegal, sabotage can also be very 
  effective. This action is only available to those 
  businesses that have a criminal culture. The 
  effects of sabotage have much in common with 
  espionage – both involve directly undermining 
  competitors. Where espionage is subtle, 
  however, sabotage is anything but, instead 
  attempting to directly harm competing 
  businesses by damaging or destroying their 
  assets. 
  A successful sabotage action improves the 
  competition market condition by one grade 
  (unfavourable becomes neutral, neutral 
  becomes favourable and so forth). An 
  
  30 
   
  outstanding success increases the competition 
  market condition by three grades. 
  On a failed check the competition market 
  condition is unchanged, but the political 
  environment worsens by one grade. On a 
  catastrophic failure, the political market 
  condition worsens by three grades. This reflects 
  the impact of fines and other sanctions, possibly 
  including prison terms for employees, brought 
  by local authorities in response to the 
  business’s illegal activities. Note that the best 
  possible market condition is propitious and the 
  worst possible is adverse, irrespective of the 
  outcome of a sabotage action. 
  Sabotage actions are resolved using a Wisdom 
  ability check. 
   
  Training 
  Time invested in developing the skills of 
  employees is rarely wasted, as a skilled 
  workforce is capable of handling all 
  eventualities better than an amateurish one. A 
  successful training management action gives 
  the business advantage on the next 
  management action attempted after the 
  training is complete. An outstanding success 
  instead gives advantage on the next 3 
  management actions attempted.  
  A failed training action has no negative 
  repercussions, but a catastrophic failure means 
  the staff are so confused by what the owner 
  attempted to teach them the business gets 
  disadvantage on its next management action 
  after the training is complete. 
  Training management actions are resolved 
  using Wisdom as the relevant ability. 
  
  31 
   
   
  Under certain circumstances, a business may 
  choose to (or be forced to) take on debt. This is 
  most often the result of unprofitable 
  operations, where business costs need to be 
  covered by short term loans (see Debt, page 
  35). Under a capitalist economy, debt can also 
  be used to purchase an investment (see Feudal 
  and Capitalist Economies, page 40). 
  Any time a business begins a month with a debt 
  balance, interest expense must be calculated. 
  This expense reduces the net return on 
  investment of the business in that month. To 
  calculate interest expense, multiply total debt 
  at the month’s beginning by 20% and divide by 
  12, rounding down to the nearest copper piece.
   
  In modern parlance, goodwill is the intangible 
  value of a business over and above the direct 
  value of its assets less its liabilities. The reason a 
  business is typically worth more than the sum 
  of its balance sheet is that when a business has 
  a proven ability to generate a favourable return, 
  that profitability is factored into the business’s 
  value. Note that this is for purpose of the 
  business’s selling value, not its investment value 
  used for monthly return on investment 
  calculations. 
  All businesses begin with a goodwill value of 
  10%. Every month take the business’s 
  calculated ROI (see Return on Investment, page 
  33) and subtract the business’s current goodwill 
  from it. Use ROI, not risk-weighted ROI. Divide 
  the result by 24 and round down to a single 
  decimal place. That result is added to the prior 
  goodwill to determine the revised goodwill. 
  Since this is done every month the business 
  operates, the business’s goodwill value is 
  always fluctuating based on its profitability 
  from month to month. 
  For example, if a business with a goodwill value 
  of 14% experiences an ROI of 18% in a 
  particular month, the recalculation of goodwill 
  would be: 
  ( [18% − 14%] ÷ 24 ) + 14% = 14.2% 
  If the business had experienced an ROI lower 
  than its current goodwill, its recalculated 
  goodwill would decrease. For instance, if a 
  business with a goodwill value of 14% 
  experiences an ROI of 6%, the recalculation of 
  goodwill would be: 
  ( [6% − 14%] ÷ 24 ) + 14% = 13.7% 
  
  32 
   
  Goodwill is principally used in instances of 
  divestiture (see page 36). 
  Modifying Rate Percentages for Different 
  Calendars 
  Throughout these rules, percentage rates are 
  used for the calculation of return on investment 
  and interest expense. These rates are presented 
  in all cases as annual rates. (This is why 
  calculations for interest expense and ROI require 
  you to divide by 12 – it reduces the annual 
  amount down to a monthly amount). Annual 
  rates are used because they’re easily 
  understood: In the real world, if you’re given a 
  percentage rate it will almost invariably be an 
  annual rate. 
  This works well in real life, and it works well in a 
  Dungeons & Dragons campaign set in the 
  Forgotten Realms. In Faerûn, the year is also 365 
  days, divided into 12 months roughly analogous 
  to a real calendar (for purposes of accounting 
  for a business in the Forgotten Realms, ignore 
  any special calendar days that fall in between 
  months). 
  However, if your campaign takes place in a 
  setting with a different sort of calendar, these 
  assumptions may not work as well. A different 
  setting could, for example, have a year that’s 
  only 200 days long, divided into five months of 
  40 days each. Or it might not have months at all. 
  A world with no moon, for instance, would likely 
  have the year divided into seasons or some 
  other grouping of days rather than a period 
  roughly analogous to the phases of the moon. 
  In cases where a campaign uses an unusual 
  calendar, a little bit of math is needed to 
  translate the rates provided in these rules into 
  percentages useable in another setting. 
  Fundamental to this math is a simple concept – 
  the percentages given herein are meant to 
  represent 365 days of business activity, more or 
  less. In order to translate them to another time 
  frame, simply divide the rate by 365 and multiply 
  it by whatever new period you desire. 
  For example, the world of Zurris has a smaller 
  orbit than Earth. Its year is only 310 days long. 
  Lacking a moon, the people of Zurris have never 
  considered the concept of a month. Instead, 
  they divide the year into the four seasons, each 
  being 77 days long, with an extra day at mid-
  summer and mid-winter. The Zurran calendar 
  divides these seasons into 11 weeks of 7 days 
  each. For this example, many of the concepts 
  used in these rules would not work properly. The 
  basic concept of annual rates needs to be 
  adjusted, as does the idea of accounting for 
  business operations on a monthly basis. 
  To correct the annual percentage rates, use the 
  rate of a single day as the basis. In this example, 
  if the ROI was determined to be 14%, we could 
  restate that as a daily rate of 0.0384% (14% ÷ 
  365). Multiply that by the number of days in a 
  Zurran year gives us a Zurran year equivalent 
  rate of about 11.9% (0.0384% x 310). (If you’re 
  comfortable doing so, you could do this in one 
  step by multiplying 14% by 310/365). 
  We would use this conversion method when 
  calculating ROI and interest expense, and we 
  would also likely divide the year into something 
  other than 12 periods, since the Zurran calendar 
  doesn’t work that way. We could have 4 periods, 
  corresponding to the seasons, 44 periods, 
  corresponding to the weeks, or something in 
  between. Whatever period you choose, 
  substitute the number of periods in a year for 12 
  when calculating ROI or interest. For instance, if 
  accounting for business on Zurris seasonally, you 
  would convert the percentage rates as outlined 
  above and divide the result by 4 to determine 
  the result for a single season. 
  For the purpose of calculating goodwill, use the 
  number of periods in a year multiplied by 2 in 
  place of 24 in the goodwill calculation formula. 
   
  
  33 
   
   
  At the end of every month a business operates, 
  the owner (or owners) must calculate the 
  return on investment. If the business has more 
  than one owner, any owner who is a player 
  character performs this calculation on behalf of 
  all owners. Multiple player character owners 
  can decide among themselves who will 
  calculate returns for the month.  
  Step 1: Base Return on 
  Investment 
  Base ROI is assumed to be 10% for all 
  businesses. This is due to a simple fact: No one 
  wants to invest in a business likely to generate 
  a poor return, or worse yet to operate at a loss. 
  Because of this, all business ventures are 
  presumed to be capable of generating a modest 
  yet healthy return of 10% on their investment, 
  subject to considerable variability as outlined in 
  these rules. Note that the interest rate is an 
  annual one – hence when calculating profit or 
  loss for the month, the result is divided by 12. 
  Step 2: Market Environment 
  Roll for the four elements of market 
  environment: economic, political, strife and 
  competition, as outlined on page 17. Remember 
  that these market conditions may be altered by 
  random events or management actions, which 
  are covered in steps 3 and 4. 
  Step 3: Random Events 
  Determine if a random event occurs, and if so, 
  follow the instructions for the specific event as 
  given on page 21. 
  Step 4: Management Actions 
  For any management actions concluding this 
  month, resolve their outcome as described 
  beginning on page 24. 
  Step 5: Finalize Market 
  Environment 
  Revisit the market conditions determined in 
  step 2 and modify them if necessary, based on 
  the outcomes of steps 3 and 4. 
  Step 6: Finalize Investment 
  Determine the final gross value of the 
  business’s investment. Remember that this is 
  the gross investment representing all 
  ownership, not just the ownership portion of 
  the player character calculating the ROI. 
  Random events and management actions can 
  
  34 
   
  also modify the investment, so consider those 
  as well if applicable. 
  Step 7: Finalize Return on 
  Investment 
  Sum the base ROI given in step 1 with the ROI 
  impacts of the finalized market environment 
  determined in step 5. Also, add any other ROI 
  adjustments per the effects of random events 
  and management actions, if applicable. 
  Step 8: Apply Risk Factor 
  Multiply the finalized ROI determined in step 7 
  by the business’s risk factor to determine the 
  risk-weighted return on investment. 
  Step 9: Determine Gross Return 
  Multiply the risk-weighted ROI from step 8, 
  positive or negative, by the finalized gross 
  investment total determined in step 6. Divide 
  the result by 12 and round down to the nearest 
  copper piece to determine gross return on 
  investment. 
  Step 10: Calculate Interest 
  If the business carried any debt at the start of 
  the month, calculate the interest expense as 
  described on page 31. 
  Step 11: Determine Net Return 
  Reduce gross return by the amount of interest 
  expense, as well as the amount of any other 
  adjustments such as contract labour costs. This 
  final amount is the business’s net return for the 
  month. 
  Step 12: Determine Monthly 
  Performance 
  Dependant on the net return, the monthly 
  performance can be profit, reinvestment, debt, 
  shrinkage, divestiture, or bankruptcy. See 
  Monthly Performance on page 35 for a 
  description of these results. 
  Step 13: Update Business Sheet 
  The business sheet needs to be updated with 
  the current state of the business after every 
  month end (see the business sheet sample on 
  page 49). This is important as the results from 
  one month directly influence the next month 
  when it comes to rolling for market 
  environment, and various other factors such as 
  debt, goodwill, and management actions should 
  be tracked as well. 
  
  35 
   
   
  Once the results of business for the month are 
  known, it becomes necessary to take stock of 
  the situation and make a judgement of the best 
  path forward. Ideally, the business is successful, 
  and operations will continue, but this isn’t 
  always the case. The monthly performance of a 
  business is defined as one of the concepts 
  expanded on below: profit, reinvestment, debt, 
  shrinkage, divestiture, or bankruptcy. 
  Profit 
  If business operations proceed as they should 
  and the market conditions aren’t overly 
  unfavourable, any business should be able to 
  realize a profit. Profit is the default result of 
  monthly operations – it’s the reason people 
  start businesses in the first place. If the return 
  on investment in a month is anything greater 
  than zero, and interest and other costs don’t 
  exceed gross returns, the monthly performance 
  is profit. In this situation, the owner would 
  pocket the profits for herself (or have them held 
  for her until she returns) and continue business 
  as usual in the next month. 
  When a business has more than a single owner, 
  the profits need to be split among the owner 
  group (see Profit and Loss Considerations for 
  Shared Investments and Business 
  Combinations, page 37). 
  Reinvestment 
  When revenues are less than expenses, the 
  result is a loss; if ROI is negative, this is what has 
  happened. Hopefully this doesn’t happen often, 
  but when it does the bills still need to be paid if 
  business is going to continue. Reinvestment is 
  often the best option in this case. This 
  represents the owner or owners stepping in 
  with additional funds to ensure the business 
  stays viable. 
  The amount of reinvestment needed is equal to 
  the amount of the loss the business sustained in 
  the month. If the net return for the month is a 
  loss of 50 gold pieces, a 50-gold piece 
  reinvestment is needed to keep the business 
  running. Despite the name, it should be noted 
  that reinvestment does not in any way change 
  the gross investment value of the company – 
  instead is stops that investment value from 
  decreasing. 
  If the business has multiple owners, the cost of 
  reinvestment should be split among them (see 
  Profit and Loss Considerations for Shared 
  Investments and Business Combinations, page 
  37). 
  One final consideration for reinvestment is the 
  availability of funds. If the owner lacks the cash 
  needed to pay for the reinvestment, this option 
  is unavailable. Similarly, if the owner is absent 
  (perhaps off on an adventure somewhere), she 
  may not be able to contribute the funds needed 
  to make this a viable option. 
  Debt 
  When funds for reinvestment aren’t available, 
  the next best option may be to borrow funds on 
  a short-term basis. Money lenders in a medieval 
  economy tend to charge very high rates of 
  interest by modern standards – but incurring 
  some interest expense is often better than 
  losing all or part of an investment. 
  
  36 
   
   
  Debt can also be used in combination with 
  reinvestment or shrinkage. If monthly losses 
  totalled 20 gold pieces, for instance, the owner 
  could pay 10 out of pocket and take on 10 gold 
  pieces of debt to cover the remainder. 
  In general, debt is assumed to always be 
  available. There is a limit to the amount money 
  lenders are willing to extend, however, before 
  the risk of the loan becomes too great: No 
  business may carry debt in excess of its gross 
  investment value.  
  Shrinkage 
  If reinvestment and debt are not available, or 
  not desirable, the next option is shrinkage. This 
  reflects the business being forced to pay its 
  costs by selling off assets, shrinking the 
  workforce, bartering with its own inventory, or 
  some other means of keeping the business 
  afloat by trading part of itself away. Using this 
  option, the gross investment of the business 
  decreases by the amount of the month’s losses. 
  Divestiture 
  Divestiture is a fancy word for selling a business, 
  or part of a business. An owner may sell for 
  many reasons, such as to free up funds for 
  some other venture or to stop the bleeding if 
  ongoing losses are becoming unsustainable. 
  Using this option, the owner sells off as much of 
  the investment as she chooses, using the 
  proceeds to pay the business’s losses. It’s worth 
  noting that divestiture can occur even if the 
  business is profitable – you can sell your 
  business any time you choose. 
  The basic assumption is that an investment sells 
  for its own investment value. Selling a 500-gold 
  piece business, or a 500-gold piece portion of a 
  larger business, should net you 500 gold pieces. 
  The amount gained is reduced by the amount of 
  any debt the business is carrying (assuming the 
  debt is divested along with the business – if the 
  business is only partially divested and retains all 
  of its debt, the proceeds need not be reduced). 
  The divestiture amount also needs to be 
  adjusted by the business’s current goodwill (see 
  page 31 for detail on goodwill). Take the 
  goodwill percentage, multiply it by the amount 
  of investment being divested, and that amount 
  (positive or negative) is added to the total 
  proceeds of divestment. 
  For example, a 1,200-gold investment with 150 
  gold worth of debt and a 13% goodwill would 
  calculate its selling value as: 
  1,200 − 150 + (1,200 × 13%) = 1,206 𝑔𝑜𝑙𝑑 
  Bankruptcy 
  The final option, should all else fail, is to simply 
  walk away. Using the bankruptcy option, the 
  gross investment value of the business falls to 
  zero and it ceases to exist. 
  For business combinations, generally no special 
  provisions need be made for bankruptcy. If a 
  single enterprise is being accounted for as 
  separate businesses, for instance an inn with a 
  dining room and bar, it’s entirely possible for 
  one of the businesses to be profiting while the 
  others are not. It’s even possible for one or 
  more parts of the business to go bankrupt 
  independently – the inn in question may have 
  had to close down its rooms and kitchen due to 
  lack of business, but the bar is still going strong. 
  
  37 
   
  Profit and Loss Considerations 
  for Shared Investments and 
  Business Combinations 
  In any case where a business has multiple 
  owners, there are only two changes to be made 
  in applying these rules. First, any profit from the 
  business is shared among the owners 
  proportional to each owner’s share of the total 
  investment. For example, a business with a total 
  investment of 4,000 gold is owned by three 
  player characters: One has a 2,000-gold piece 
  investment and the others have 1,000 gold 
  invested each. In a particular month, that 
  business generates a profit of 50 gold pieces. 
  The player character with 2,000 gold invested 
  would keep 25 of the 50 gold. The other two 
  would keep 12 gold and 5 silver each. 
  Second, any loss incurred by the business must 
  also be shared. When a shared investment 
  suffers losses, the choice of reinvestment, debt, 
  shrinkage, divestiture, or bankruptcy must be 
  mutually agreed upon by all owners. In the case 
  of reinvestment, each owner contributes 
  according to her investment portion, exactly as 
  is outlined above for the sharing of profits. In 
  the case of shrinkage, each owner’s investment 
  shrinks proportional to their ownership. In the 
  case of divestiture, the proportion of proceeds 
  and reduction in investment applied to each 
  owner is similarly calculated relative to his or 
  her share of the total investment. 
   
  
  38 
   
   
  You were born or adopted into a family that 
  owned a small business. From a young age you 
  worked alongside your parents, learning to run 
  the business and always understanding that 
  once you reached adulthood it would become 
  your responsibility. 
  Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion 
  Tool Proficiencies: Either vehicles (land) or 
  vehicles (water), one of your choice 
  Equipment: The deed to your business, a set of 
  common clothes, and a belt pouch containing 
  10 gp 
  Feature: Investment Heir 
  As the heir to your family’s business, you begin 
  the game with an investment valued at 100 gold 
  pieces. This could be an entire business, albeit a 
  modest one, or it could be a share of a larger 
  concern. This starting investment can be in any 
  type of business. Work with your DM to 
  determine the appropriate sort of investment 
  for the campaign. 
  Suggested Characteristics 
  How your experiences have helped shape your 
  outlook depends greatly on what sort of 
  business you grew up in. Formative years spent 
  in the depths of a salt mine produces a very 
  different outlook than those spent behind the 
  counter of a jewellery shop. One common 
  characteristic of anyone growing up in a family 
  business is a keen understanding of the 
  importance of profit. 
  d8 Personality Trait 
  1 
  My manner of speaking makes it seem as 
  though I’m always trying to sell 
  something. 
  2 
  Adventuring is just another sort of 
  business, and I know how to manage a 
  business. 
  3 
  I trust a firm handshake more than a 
  fancy contract. 
  4 
  I’m often embarrassed that I inherited my 
  business instead of starting it myself. 
  5 
  I have a lifetime of experience in what I 
  do, and I take great offense when 
  someone questions my judgement on 
  business matters. 
  6 
  No one can bargain a deal better than 
  me. 
  7 
  I assume everyone wants to hear stories 
  of the big sales I’ve made or famous 
  customers I’ve served. 
  8 
  I treat everyone like a potential customer, 
  no matter how unlikely the 
  circumstances. 
   
   
   
  
  39 
   
  d6 Ideal 
  1 
  Community. My business is an anchor 
  upon which the lives and well-being of 
  many depend. (Good) 
  2 
  Tradition. What we do and how we do it 
  defines our culture, and thus ourselves. 
  (Lawful) 
  3 
  Innovation. It doesn’t matter what 
  you’re doing, there’s always a better way 
  to do it. (Chaotic) 
  4 
  Profit. At the end of the day, I’m only in 
  this for the money. (Evil) 
  5 
  Aspiration. One day, I want to own a 
  business so large it’s known all over the 
  world. (Any) 
  6 
  Industry. A hard day’s work is its own 
  reward. (Lawful) 
   
  d6 Bond 
  1 
  I will take revenge on the thugs who 
  robbed my business. 
  2 
  One day I will sell my business and use 
  the money to do something truly 
  worthwhile. 
  3 
  To me, my business is like a sacred 
  temple, to be defended at all cost. 
  4 
  I had a prior business that failed – and 
  the money lenders are still after me to 
  pay the debts. 
  5 
  My employees depend on the wages I 
  pay to provide for their families; if my 
  business fails, I fail them. 
  6 
  My parents entrusted their life’s work to 
  me, and I refuse to disappoint them. 
   
  d6 Flaw 
  1 
  My inheritance is shared with my siblings 
  and I would gladly betray them to take it 
  all for myself. 
  2 
  I value profit more than the well-being of 
  my employees. 
  3 
  To keep my business afloat I made a deal 
  with some criminals. 
  4 
  I resent my parents for forcing me to be 
  part of their business instead of allowing 
  me to follow my own dreams. 
  5 
  I assume everyone is trying to cheat me. 
  6 
  My employees don’t love me, but they 
  do fear me, and I like it that way. 
  
  40 
   
   
  The preceding rules all assume an economy 
  roughly based on the historical feudal 
  economies of the real world. A basic description 
  of this sort of economy is that land is owned by 
  the ruling class (the nobility for example). 
  Common people are given the right to live and 
  work on the land in exchange for service they 
  provide to their local noble. In addition to their 
  right to live and work the land, the commoners 
  are also granted military protection by their 
  noble lord or lady. 
  For modern readers, who likely live in a 
  capitalist economy where land can be privately 
  owned, much of the feudal economy would 
  seem rather alien. This is no doubt why the 
  settings of most Dungeons & Dragons games, 
  while ostensibly mimicking the medieval 
  period’s economics, owe considerably more to 
  contemporary economic 
  sensibilities. 
  One of the key differences 
  between feudal and capitalist 
  economies is the use of debt. 
  In feudal economies money 
  lending exists, but generally 
  only in relatively small 
  amounts, for relatively short 
  periods of time and for 
  relatively high rates of 
  interest. The notion of 
  borrowing significant sums in 
  order to build a house or 
  start a business is not part of 
  a feudal world. 
  In order to simulate a 
  capitalist economy, a few 
  alterations need to be made 
  to the above rules regarding debt: First, it is 
  permissible to borrow money and use it to 
  invest in an existing business or to construct a 
  new business. This initial debt cannot exceed 
  50% of the total investment being made, 
  although the total debt can subsequently 
  increase up to the total value of the gross 
  investment if needed to cover losses (see the 
  rules for debt on page 35).  
  Employing debt to start a business obviously 
  adds somewhat to the challenge of generating a 
  net profit, as the business incurs interest 
  expenses immediately. However, this is offset 
  somewhat by interest rates being generally 
  lower in a capitalist economy. When calculating 
  monthly interest expense, use a rate of 10% 
  instead of 20% to reflect this. 
  
  41 
   
   
  The subject of magic hasn’t intruded in the 
  preceding rules for two reasons. The first is that 
  the amount of magic present in a campaign 
  varies substantially. Thus, the extent to which 
  magic influences the economy and the practice 
  of running a business also varies from campaign 
  to campaign. The second is that there are 
  simply so many different ways the presence of 
  magic can impact business, it’s effectively 
  impossible to anticipate all the possibilities. 
  Many spells have the potential to alter the 
  normal course of commerce. Even if only 
  cantrips are considered, there are spells such as 
  friends and mending which can respectively 
  swing the outcome of a contract negotiation in 
  favour of the spellcaster and render the efforts 
  of a small army of artisans irrelevant. 
  Higher level spells magnify these effects: Charm 
  person, detect thoughts, fabricate and a 
  plethora of other still more powerful spells can 
  alter many of the basic assumptions that make 
  an economy work. How can one expect to sell 
  something for a profit when she can be 
  magically compelled to just give it away? How 
  can one expect to earn a living by building 
  things when someone else can cause them to 
  magically appear with the wave of a hand? For 
  that matter, what good does it do to hold 
  inventory for sale when spells like invisibility 
  and dimension door make property rights 
  nothing more than a philosophical concept? 
  These issues are presented as questions 
  because the answers are not given here. Every 
  dungeon master needs to decide for herself the 
  prevalence of magic in her world and what its 
  effects are. Perhaps magic is rare enough that 
  the economy marches on indistinguishable from 
  a world without magic. Or perhaps it’s so 
  ubiquitous that every business owner must be 
  an accomplished spellcaster, with arcane 
  constructs and summoned fiends standing 
  sentry over every transaction, or else risk 
  almost immediate bankruptcy. Most campaigns 
  will fall somewhere between the two extremes 
  – just remember that the more magic there is in 
  a setting, the more businesses must be ready to 
  incorporate it into their operations and be 
  prepared to defend against it. 
  A further consideration is the existence of 
  magic items and the possibility of procuring or 
  even manufacturing them for resale. The official 
  rulebooks provide some guidelines as to the 
  time and resources needed to construct magic 
  items, as well as the potential value to sell 
  them. For the purpose of operating a business 
  using these rules, there should be no need to 
  treat a concern dealing in magical items 
  differently than any other business. 
  Depending on whether the magic items are 
  purchased for resale or manufactured from 
  scratch, the business would be either resale- or 
  manufacturing-type. Beyond that, all the rules 
  contained herein pertain equally well to a 
  magical business as to a mundane one. Bear in 
  mind that while enchanted items may sell for a 
  premium, so too would they cost a considerable 
  amount to buy or make, hence the return on 
  investment concepts presented in these rules 
  can be used without adjustment. 
    
  
  42 
   
   
  Owning and operating a business should help 
  integrate the player characters into the 
  campaign setting. At a minimum, the business 
  becomes a home base for the party – 
  somewhere to pass time constructively and 
  hopefully earn some money while waiting for 
  the next adventure. It also provides player 
  characters with something meaningful to do 
  with all that treasure they find. 
  Ideally, it can be much more than this. Owning a 
  business allows for natural adventure hooks. 
  This concept is strongly tied to the narrative you 
  construct to explain the results of monthly 
  business operations (see Developing a Narrative 
  for Market Conditions, page 20). With a 
  minimum of coaxing, a story should begin to 
  emerge that can lead to new adventures in an 
  organic and unexpected way. 
  Remember also that although there are 
  limitations on the sort of management actions a 
  business can take, whether due to time 
  constraints in a month or to culture restrictions, 
  there’s nothing saying an adventuring party 
  can’t take it upon themselves to influence the 
  market environment through their own 
  ingenuity. 
  Table 8 lists a number of possible business-
  related adventure hooks, which can be rolled 
  for randomly or used for inspiration. 
   
   
   
   
  Table 8: Adventure Hooks 
  d10 Adventure Hook 
  1 
  Once prolific resources of a mine, forest 
  or other such site have mysteriously 
  become scarce 
  2 
  Shipments to or from the business are 
  being targeted by bandits, and it’s far 
  too frequent to be random 
  3 
  Unscrupulous competitors are plotting 
  against the company; their plans include 
  sabotage and worse 
  4 
  Customers of the business have been 
  disappearing and the authorities 
  suspect the owner 
  5 
  A new noble family has assumed control 
  of the area, and the business is at risk of 
  being outlawed 
  6 
  Odd weather has been hampering 
  operations, and the portents say it isn’t 
  natural 
  7 
  A protection racket has moved into the 
  area and threatened the business – pay 
  up or else 
  8 
  War is brewing: Will it be good for 
  business or a catastrophe? 
  9 
  Steep tariffs are cutting into profits and 
  smugglers are offering their services to 
  avoid the onerous levies, but is it worth 
  the risk? 
  10 
  A new client is offering a rich contract, 
  but whoever wins it needs to complete 
  a series of bizarre and potentially 
  dangerous tasks 
  
  43 
   
   
  In order to illustrate the rules presented above, 
  two businesses are exemplified here. The first is 
  relatively straightforward – a smallish service 
  business. The second is a more complex 
  combination business with several owners. Both 
  businesses are described over the course of one 
  or more months of operation to demonstrate 
  the use of random events and management 
  actions. 
  Business Example 1: The 
  Emblazoned Escutcheon 
  Warrior and explorer Adalbern Vigdis honed his 
  skills as a soldier-for-hire before joining a 
  freelance adventuring party. Some time has 
  passed and, with a heavy purse and an eye 
  towards the future, Adalbern is looking to invest 
  some of his earnings. The only sort of business 
  the warrior really knows is soldiering, so he 
  decides to start up a small mercenary company 
  called The Emblazoned Escutcheon. 
  Adalbern’s player, Agnes, confers with her 
  dungeon master and they both agree that a 
  mercenary company is properly classified as a 
  service-type business. The risk factor is x1. 
  Being a proponent of new strategies and 
  equipment styles, Adalbern decides that an 
  innovative culture suits his business best. 
  Goodwill begins at the base 10%. 
  The last piece needed to set the business up is 
  to decide on the initial investment. In this case, 
  Adalbern decides to invest 5,000 gold pieces. At 
  the default construction speed, he needs to 
  wait 34 days before the business is up and 
  running. (Note that this “construction” time 
  also includes the time needed to recruit 
  employees, assemble equipment and supplies, 
  and so forth). 
  While waiting for the construction to complete, 
  Agnes elects to spend some time adding more 
  description to the business, giving it a real 
  identity and presence in the campaign. Again, 
  conferring with the DM, Agnes decides that a 
  5,000-gold investment is sufficient to build a 
  small barracks with an adjoining training yard, a 
  good selection of basic arms, armour, and other 
  needed supplies, with enough left over for the 
  working capital needed to finance the first 
  month’s payroll and other expenses. The 
  company employs about 30 hired mercenaries 
  (the specific number isn’t important, but 30 
  sounds reasonable). 
  Since Adalbern has been adventuring in and 
  around Daggerford, that will be the location of 
  the barracks. This mercenary company offers 
  security services as well as occasional military 
  work in border skirmishes and other 
  engagements around the central Sword Coast. 
  For the first month of operations, Adalbern 
  sticks close to Daggerford so he can be available 
  for management actions. Agnes begins by 
  
  44 
   
  rolling for market conditions and checks for 
  random events. 
  For market environment, there are no roll 
  modifiers as this is the first month of operating. 
  Agnes rolls 3d6 for each condition, getting 14 
  for economic (favourable, +1% ROI), 9 for 
  political (neutral), 10 for strife (neutral) and 13 
  for competition (favourable, +1% ROI). A 1d6 
  roll for random events comes up 4, no random 
  event this month. So far, so good. 
  Since Adalbern is spending downtime in the 
  area, he decides to try a management action. As 
  this is an innovative business, it seems natural 
  to try the invention action. The base DC is 30, 
  but since the warrior has nothing else going on, 
  he decides to spend 25 days on the action, 
  reducing the DC to the minimum of 5. Agnes 
  makes her Intelligence ability check, rolling an 
  11. Since she exceeded the DC by 5 or more, 
  this is an outstanding success and the gross 
  investment of Adalbern’s business increases by 
  4%. 
  At the end of the first month, the return on 
  investment calculation looks like this: 
   
  Note that the gross investment is 5,200 gold 
  rather than 5,000 gold because the invention 
  management action increased it by 4%. 
  Adalbern pockets 52 gold pieces in profits after 
  one month of operation – not too shabby. 
  Agnes can now update the Emblazoned 
  Escutcheon’s goodwill value. Using the current 
  goodwill of 10% (starting goodwill for a new 
  business) and the month’s ROI of 12%, the 
  revised goodwill is calculated as 10.1%. 
  At this point Agnes and her DM have the choice 
  of moving on to the next month or spending 
  some time building a narrative for the month’s 
  activity. The market conditions aren’t unusual 
  enough to be suggestive of any real drama, but 
  
  45 
   
  it might be interesting to consider what that 
  invention action represents. Perhaps Adalbern 
  spent those 25 days showing his newly-hired 
  mercenaries some of the unorthodox 
  techniques he learned as an adventurer, or 
  perhaps the old warrior has a few tricks to make 
  armour fit better. There are many possibilities, 
  but whatever Agnes decides on should 
  reasonably explain why her little mercenary 
  company is just a bit more valuable now than it 
  was at the beginning of the month.  
  Business Example 2: The Orc’s 
  Fork Tavern and Flophouse 
  Adventuring parties are known for frequenting 
  establishments that more genteel company 
  would avoid. The Orc’s Fork Tavern and 
  Flophouse is one such place. Despite its 
  decrepit appearance and evil reputation, the 
  place holds a certain fascination for the 
  opportunistic sell-sword trio of Ruaidri, Colman, 
  and Donnchad. When the prior owner offered 
  to sell The Orc’s Fork for 7,425 gold (6,750 gold 
  investment value plus 10% goodwill premium), 
  the three split the cost and became joint 
  proprietors. 
  The Fork, as it’s commonly known, offers rooms 
  for rent and a kitchen which serves hot meals 
  and lukewarm ales from its location amidst the 
  wharves of Luskan. The trio’s players, Marcello, 
  Kalila, and Asher, meet with their dungeon 
  master to discuss the type and culture of the 
  business. Offering rooms for rent signifies a 
  service business, but serving meals and drinks is 
  closer to resale or manufacturing. There is the 
  option of splitting the concern up into two or 
  more separate investments, but since all activity 
  takes place in a single building, it makes more 
  sense to keep it a single investment. The 
  dungeon master decides the Fork is a mixed 
  service/manufacturing/resale business, with an 
  averaged risk factor of 3. 
  Since it’s an existing business, the DM chooses 
  its culture, which based on reputation he 
  decides is cut-throat. The player characters 
  could choose to change the culture, but for now 
  cut-throat suits them so they leave it alone 
  (taking a rather expansive view of what 
  constitutes heroic role-playing). The gross 
  investment is equal to the purchase value of 
  6,750 gold, which excludes the goodwill 
  premium. Each of the three owners individually 
  holds a 2,250-gold piece share of the total 
  business. 
  Adventure calls, so the sell-swords leave the 
  Fork in the hands of its staff and promptly leave 
  town. At the end of the month, the players elect 
  Kalila to roll for the business’s activity. 
  Rolling for market environment, she gets 17 for 
  economic (propitious, +3% ROI!), 9 for political 
  (neutral), 7 for strife (unfavourable, -1% ROI), 
  and 12 for competition (neutral). Since this 
  business was already operating, the dungeon 
  master could have ruled that existing market 
  
  46 
   
  conditions warranted adjustments to the 
  market environment rolls but chose not to. 
  Kalila then rolls for random events and the 
  result is a 6 – a random event has occurred. She 
  rolls 2d6 and gets a 4: A malfunction has 
  occurred. This is going to hurt the return on 
  investment, unfortunately.  
  For the first month of operations, the return on 
  investment looks like this: 
   
  The business is profiting, and the owners would 
  split the profit three ways (it won’t divide 
  evenly, but hopefully Ruaidri, Colman, and 
  Donnchad can come to a friendly agreement on 
  who keeps the extra few coppers). It’s worth 
  noting that the money doesn’t magically appear 
  in their purses – the business would hold on to 
  it until they make a trip back to town to pick up 
  their earnings. 
  Goodwill can be recalculated using the 7% ROI: 
  ( [7% − 10%] ÷ 24 ) + 10% = 9.9% 
  With the malfunction, the owners are worried 
  their new business is falling apart in their 
  absence, so they make their way back to Luskan 
  with enough time left to spend 12 days 
  performing the maintenance management 
  action before the end of the second month. 
  The DC for the Intelligence ability check is 18 
  (30 less the 12 days spent). Colman is the 
  smartest of the three owners (or so he says), so 
  he makes the ability check with assistance from 
  Donnchad to give him advantage on the roll. 
  With his Intelligence modifier of -2 (“smartest” 
  is a relative term, after all), Colman’s result is an 
  11. Unfortunately, this is bad enough that the 
  result is a catastrophic failure and the business 
  endures yet another malfunction. 
  For the second month’s operations, Kalila 
  makes the remaining rolls. She rolls 10 for the 
  economic condition, with a +4 adjustment for 
  the prior propitious state makes it a 14 
  (favourable, +1% ROI), 8 for political 
  (unfavourable, -1% ROI), 6 for strife, with a -2 
  adjustment makes it a 4 (adverse, -3% ROI), and 
  11 for competition (neutral). The market 
  environment is getting worse, particularly the 
  strife condition. 
  Rolling for random events, Kalila gets another 6, 
  then a 5 on her 2d6 roll to see which event 
  occurs – yet another malfunction! 
   
   
  
  47 
   
  The second month’s ROI calculation looks like 
  this: 
   
  Having already spent their prior month’s 
  earnings, the sell-swords decide to incur debt to 
  cover this month’s losses, hoping to pay it off 
  with future profits. They note the 135-gold debt 
  balance on their business sheet, but interest 
  expense is calculated based on opening debt, 
  not closing, so there is no interest expense this 
  month. 
  Goodwill continues to drop with the second 
  month’s results: 
  ( [−8% − 9.9%] ÷ 24 ) + 9.9% = 9.2% 
  Not wanting to repeat last month’s 
  maintenance fiasco, the owners decide to bring 
  in a contractor to help. They decide to hire a 
  consultant with a cost of 2 gp/day for 20 days. 
  The maintenance action’s ability check is made 
  with the consultant’s +2 modifier, with 
  advantage, against a DC of 10. Marcello makes 
  the roll, rolling a 14 with the modifier included. 
  Not an outstanding success, but enough to 
  remove the existing three malfunctions. 
  Marcello opts to continue the rolling in month 
  three. For the market environment, he rolls 10 
  for economic (+2 adjustment makes it a 12 – 
  neutral), 9 for political (-2 adjustment drops it 
  to 7 – unfavourable, -1% ROI), 12 for strife (-4 
  adjustment makes it an 8 – unfavourable, -1% 
  ROI) and 11 for competition (neutral). His roll 
  for random events comes up a 2, no random 
  event this month. 
  For the third month’s ROI, the calculation looks 
  like this: 
   
  
  48 
   
  The 40-gold piece contractor cost ate into the 
  profits, as did the interest expense on the debt 
  balance, but at least the business is back to 
  being profitable. 
  Goodwill doesn’t improve, but the third 
  month’s ROI is high enough that it doesn’t 
  worsen either: 
  ( [8% − 9.2%] ÷ 24 ) + 9.2% = 9.2% 
  At this point, the trio decide that life as business 
  owners isn’t for them, and so they sell the Fork. 
  (In other words, they divest the entire 
  investment). 
  To calculate the sales value, they start with the 
  gross investment of 6,750 gold pieces. From 
  that they subtract debt of 135 gold. Lastly, they 
  determine the goodwill adjustment: 9.2% x 
  6,750 gives a goodwill adjustment of 621 gold. 
  The total sales value is 7,236 gold pieces. Since 
  the three are equal owners, each would pocket 
  2,412 gold from the proceeds of the sale. 
  Throughout the three months of business 
  operations, more flavour could be added to the 
  events if the players and their dungeon master 
  wish. What specifically caused those 
  malfunctions? Was it a faulty stove, a leaky 
  roof, a cockroach infestation? The strife 
  condition was also detrimental – was that due 
  to calm weather keeping ships out to sea and 
  their crews away from the Fork’s tap house, or 
  some other cause? These sorts of narrative 
  additions aren’t strictly necessary, but do use 
  them if they’re fun or if they lead to unexpected 
  drama and adventure. 
  
  49 
   
   
  
  iii 
   
   
  A Going Concern ©2017 Paul Daniel Johnson. 
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  15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, LLC. System Reference 
  Document 5.1 Copyright 2016, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, 
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/DMsGuild/Grumpy Dog - A Going Concern.pdf