How to Run a Business in Your Game Setting

How to Run a Business in Your Game Setting

Sometimes being an adventurer doesn't pay all the bills. You need to replenish your rations, possibly buy new armor or equipment maybe a dragon ate your horse last time out. You have to make money somehow, whether it be paper notes, silver coins, or gold bars. Some decide the only thing they can do is go out and risk their lives one more time, hoping to retire. Others well, they settle down for a while to make some money without brandishing a sword.

Many player characters spend a small portion of the campaign trying to make money bargaining, negotiating, or selling anything from information to services to goods. These situations can be settled readily with a quick roll. But a character can hone their skills and try to make some real money over the long run. In a long-term campaign, the player character might actually take on a complete business, which means they have to worry about taxes, business rivals, shipping costs, and a number of other situations that require more time and effort for both the players and the Gamemaster per game session.

Running a Business is a supplement designed for playing with traditional sword and sorcery campaign settings, but the information provided herein can be used to set up character-run businesses in nearly every setting in every era. The focus will be on early medieval- to early Victorian-era business practices; however, some things never change and many traditions carry on into modern times and into the future.