So he's in Sandpoint, and wants to set up a shop there and sell weapons between adventures. I'm really at loss on how to this, though I got some ideas. I want to know if you guys got any experience at that.
-How much would a small house cost to set up his shop?
-How to handle how many of his products will be bought or not? I mean, the "market fluctuations".
Etc.
Thanks a lot in advace ^_^
Sandpoint already has one arms merchant (Savah's Armory); how many more do they need for a small town (not counting Texas)? I'd encourage him to get a job at Savah's instead and use Profession checks to see how much money he earns by the week. Barring that, he can craft weapons via the standard rules and sell them to Savah's. If he wants his own shop I'd look into the Korvosa book. I believe that it had rules for purchasing homes of various sizes in various districts and would be a good place to start.
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So he's in Sandpoint, and wants to set up a shop there and sell weapons between adventures. I'm really at loss on how to this, though I got some ideas. I want to know if you guys got any experience at that.
-How much would a small house cost to set up his shop?
-How to handle how many of his products will be bought or not? I mean, the "market fluctuations".Etc.
Thanks a lot in advace ^_^
Costs are trivial once you are like level 3-4, and this kind of idea could be a great exercice in fictional management/marketing. This is evidently pure armchair theorycrafting, but always a lot of fun to set up a shop.
We once had the group possessing a bar close to a Mage's Guild, which also served as the backdoor for a thieves guild. We killed the previous esclavagists running the place and took on the bar for ourselves. Depending on our decisions ("do we allow prostitution in the bar ?", "do we create a VIP square ?", "what are the reasonable amounts of money we can give to get "protection" from local thugs ?", "do we create a square for opium consumption ?", "do we want to buy the house close to it to get bigger ?") and actions over the world, the shop worked alone and gave us money each month.Basically, find a way for him to craft weapons that he will sell in a place of his choice with commands from consumers (maybe issued magically through a message spell), then allow him later a NPC apprentice to teach him the work, and as he will gain levels, make the shop grow. It will give him more money as part of his wealth, and make HIS weapons special since they will have a true masterwork/magical reputation ! Don't forget that failing to issue commands or to craft some specific weapons could cost him reputation and thus, lots of money. Or it could open for interesting quests about special materials or issuing a command whatever the cost.
Just check with the player how his loot from adventuring will be affected. If he gains money, put a bit less things for him into treasures. There is no true rule about it, just make sure he gains money without overshadowing any companion, and without him feeling like there is never anything cool for him in treasures.
Then, in a future campaign in the same universe, have him at some time get a true masterwork weapon, something described as a deadly piece of art, with his previous name encased in it. His player eyes will shine like never before ! :D
Unless this is a solo campaign and/or the other players have a hand in the shop, I'd probably just meta-game my way out of it. At some point it becomes a simple matter of "don't split the party"...
I agree that the other players need to be onboard with this plan, if you're going to devote real-game time to it. If this enterprise is limited strictly to the PC, then you should probably deal with outside of the regular game (perhaps via email.)
One thing you might consider is incorporating Golarian's calendar into your game. With the changing of the seasons comes weather and natural "down-time." It might be fun to set up different things for each player to do during the off-season, so to speak. You wouldn't need to devote much time to it, say 2-3 hours of game time every 2-3 sessions. If nothing else, it might give the other players time to hunt down hard to find items or have existing items upgraded.
I the DMG II for 3.5 has rules for starting and maintaining a business. But Sandpoint is rather small Ringtail has a pretty good and easy to fit in idea,