Maat Mons
2021-07-19, 10:59 PM
I posted in the Simple Answers thread a while back. But I guess this isn't a simple question after all. Using the rules for running a business in DMGII, how in the world do you get numbers for running a business out of a cart?
For any low-resource business, you can run it out of a wagon with just yourself and 2 horses. The wagon and horses cost 500 gp, and you get a -2 penalty on the profit check for not having a permanent building. So far so good.
Additionally, starting a business requires an outlay of money depending on your location and whether the business is categorized as low, medium, or high capitol. Now the fact that wagons are inherently mobile structures starts to become an issue. I mean, do I just pay to start the business in the cheapest location, then hitch up my wagon and move elsewhere?
And you get a bonus on your profit checks based on your location. Which sort of makes sense until you realize that it just motivates you to stay parked in a metropolis. When in reality, the whole point of a mobile business is that you're always moving into new areas that are thirsty for your business. Once sales start to taper off, you move on to a new location. You don't go back to places you've already been until there's been time for some unfulfilled need to build up.
So, what, do I just ignore location? Treat it as an abstract startup cost and an abstract bonus to profitability? So I pay X in startup cost, and get Y bonus on my checks, no matter where I happen to be at the time?
Then there's upgrade cost. Upgrades are friggin' ludicrous because they give a permanent +1d4 to profitability checks each time you buy one. And the bonuses from multiple different upgrades stacks, since the bonuses are untyped. Obviously, you want to upgrade as often as you're allowed, which is once per quarter.
Or maybe "upgrades" are, all together, considered just a single source for bonus stacking. In which case, you just keep upgrading until you roll a 4. Then you never upgrade again, because there is no longer any possible benefit.
I don't believe I got an answer in the Simple RAW thread about that one either.
But if reinvesting in your business always has benefits, and you never get to the point where there's no way to improve, you should really just budget the costs of perpetual reinvestment out of your profits.
Maximum reinvestment means spending an amount every year equal to the starting capitol costs of your business. So for a shop in a metropolis, 32,000 gp per year of your profits you'll spend on improving your business. Since each point of your profit check result accounts for 50 gp per month with a shop, and there are 12 months in the year, each +1 to your check is getting you 600 gp per year. Which means spending 32,000 gp per year is like having a -53 to your check.
In contrast, if you open the shop in the wilderness, you take a -10 to your profit checks from the location. The -10 means you're making 500 gp less each month, or 6,000 gp per year. But your annual cost of attaining maximum growth goes down to 2,000 gp per year, a savings of 30,000 gp per year. And reinvesting in the wilderness business increases profits by the same amount as the more expensive reinvestment in the business in the metropolis.
And that's why you always see merchants setting up their shops in random dungeons. It counts as wilderness, and the net profitability is the best there.
No, I kid. The real maximum of net profitability for shops is in rural areas.
Wilderness: -13.3
Rural: -10.6
Town: -13.3
City: -24.7
Metropolis: -49.3
So, if I get to just pick a location category for my mobile business, why would I ever not pick rural? It's clearly the best choice from a long-term growth perspective.
So when my business consist of a fleet of stores-on-wheels, all linked by Planar Ring Gate to my self-created central-hub demiplane, the whole multi-planar, 4-dimensional structure with windows into multiple locations on the prime material counts as being where?
For any low-resource business, you can run it out of a wagon with just yourself and 2 horses. The wagon and horses cost 500 gp, and you get a -2 penalty on the profit check for not having a permanent building. So far so good.
Additionally, starting a business requires an outlay of money depending on your location and whether the business is categorized as low, medium, or high capitol. Now the fact that wagons are inherently mobile structures starts to become an issue. I mean, do I just pay to start the business in the cheapest location, then hitch up my wagon and move elsewhere?
And you get a bonus on your profit checks based on your location. Which sort of makes sense until you realize that it just motivates you to stay parked in a metropolis. When in reality, the whole point of a mobile business is that you're always moving into new areas that are thirsty for your business. Once sales start to taper off, you move on to a new location. You don't go back to places you've already been until there's been time for some unfulfilled need to build up.
So, what, do I just ignore location? Treat it as an abstract startup cost and an abstract bonus to profitability? So I pay X in startup cost, and get Y bonus on my checks, no matter where I happen to be at the time?
Then there's upgrade cost. Upgrades are friggin' ludicrous because they give a permanent +1d4 to profitability checks each time you buy one. And the bonuses from multiple different upgrades stacks, since the bonuses are untyped. Obviously, you want to upgrade as often as you're allowed, which is once per quarter.
Or maybe "upgrades" are, all together, considered just a single source for bonus stacking. In which case, you just keep upgrading until you roll a 4. Then you never upgrade again, because there is no longer any possible benefit.
I don't believe I got an answer in the Simple RAW thread about that one either.
But if reinvesting in your business always has benefits, and you never get to the point where there's no way to improve, you should really just budget the costs of perpetual reinvestment out of your profits.
Maximum reinvestment means spending an amount every year equal to the starting capitol costs of your business. So for a shop in a metropolis, 32,000 gp per year of your profits you'll spend on improving your business. Since each point of your profit check result accounts for 50 gp per month with a shop, and there are 12 months in the year, each +1 to your check is getting you 600 gp per year. Which means spending 32,000 gp per year is like having a -53 to your check.
In contrast, if you open the shop in the wilderness, you take a -10 to your profit checks from the location. The -10 means you're making 500 gp less each month, or 6,000 gp per year. But your annual cost of attaining maximum growth goes down to 2,000 gp per year, a savings of 30,000 gp per year. And reinvesting in the wilderness business increases profits by the same amount as the more expensive reinvestment in the business in the metropolis.
And that's why you always see merchants setting up their shops in random dungeons. It counts as wilderness, and the net profitability is the best there.
No, I kid. The real maximum of net profitability for shops is in rural areas.
Wilderness: -13.3
Rural: -10.6
Town: -13.3
City: -24.7
Metropolis: -49.3
So, if I get to just pick a location category for my mobile business, why would I ever not pick rural? It's clearly the best choice from a long-term growth perspective.
So when my business consist of a fleet of stores-on-wheels, all linked by Planar Ring Gate to my self-created central-hub demiplane, the whole multi-planar, 4-dimensional structure with windows into multiple locations on the prime material counts as being where?