Business in D&D

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:18 am

So, my players have acquired, in order:

Arable Land, complete with habitating serf population
A small town known for it's Starmetal mines and the regular enough meteor showers which continue to provide the area with starmetal
A small flock of Firebreathing Megachickens (Huge Half Red Dragon Chickens)

They of course want to turn these towards their advantage, and I have no problem with this, I just need to get them to start doing the actual work to get their enterprises started. The Arable Land is relatively safe, though they will start getting invaders to repel and such, as it's on the border of the empire, and their reputation is "Hey, they have cool shit because they've gone off and done stuff." They just hired a new work crew for the mine (the previous inhabitants of the town who worked the mine were all killed by a mind flayer). They just wrangled the chickens tonight, and are going to transport them to their manor, where the arable land is, to ranch them free range.

So, I read the Running a Business stuff in Tome, and am putting together a list of what I can think of that they'll need, plus, given that they have a couple of risky businesses, I'll need to think up the challenges faced (goblin raiders and rocs?)

What else is there?

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:20 am

Off-topic:

What the fuck does starmetal actually do in D&D mechanics? The only place I've ever seen it--besides the old Conan cartoon--was in Order of the Stick.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:26 am

It's in CArc, basically it's adamantine that does an extra 1d6 to outsiders.

K · Post by K » Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:49 am

And it's green. It's basically whatever the green sword is made out of from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 7:58 am

Mmkay, thanks.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:34 pm

Wasn't there an entirely different kind of starmetal in Sandstorm? And I swear Forgotten Realms still had meteoric iron for a few things.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:52 pm

Let's also not forget that you essentially have a ready-made plot hook no matter what- since gribblies infesting the mines or a masked man molesting dragon-chickens cuts directly into their bottom lines, which then leads into some cross-dimensional conspiracy to erase cupcakes from the universe, it'll be pretty easy to come up with adventures that the PC's will probably go after, if that's your thing.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:03 pm

There's also a weird, but not terrible prestige class built around it.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Jul 20, 2012 9:50 pm

Re: Plot hooks- Oh, totally. The only problem is that I gave them a plot hook almost a month-in-game-time ago, and they still haven't gotten to it. They are seriously going to have a squirrel run up to them on the trail, carrying a message from the collective force that fueled this hook asking "What the fuck is taking you guys so long?"*
Of course, I also have something they need to look into for the Sidetrek that gave them Firebreathing Megachickens (which the paladin wants to sell the males of to the military, the jokes write themselves), since the megachickens were created by a Dragon who took a liking to Coyote and Crow in the "mix ALL the animist traditions!" gypsy elves stories.

Re: Starmetal- Yeah, there's red meteoric iron/normal iron/carbon/"other stuff" alloy in Sandstorm, FR has something called Star Metal which appears in a book I don't have, and there's star metal in CArc. Adamantine is also commonly called star metal because saying it's meteoric iron is popular with people working on their own D&D stuff. I took the latter approach, because, yes, Star Metal is in CArc with a whole prestige class attached to it, but I fucking ignore it because the prestige class is shit ("Hey! You're a spellcaster? Take this prestige class and turn into a shitty golem and only gain a caster level increase every other level! Non-spellcaster? Dip into a spellcasting class and take this prestige class! Oh! And be addicted to meteoric iron!"). The only reason I relented and said "sure it's the CArc Star Metal" is because the guy who fetishes spellcasters was going on and on about how it should be immensely fucking valuable 'because it's great in enchanting and there's that prestige class!' and on looking it up I said "no, it deals an extra d6 to outsiders, whoopdifuckingdo, it's god damned adamantine that burns outsiders like a flask of acid, shut the fuck up, you're not using a 140,000 lb meteorite to get into the wish economy." (or to build an entire fucking castle, like they want to do). The entire point behind the adventure was they wanted to make some money before going and trying to get ship to get to Skull Island, and I decided "Sure, I can use some of these ideas from the mind flayer thread." I'm beginning to understand the temptation to write a whole campaign setting with a bunch of completely made up words for shit, just so people don't go "OOH OOH I KNOW WHAT THAT IS YOU HAFTA LET US DO THIS CRAZY SHIT YOU NEVER INTENDED NOW BECAUSE IT'S IN THIS BOOK!!"

*it'll actually make sense since the spirit of a dead elven goddess impaled on the world tree contacted them through a piece of wood torn out of said tree that one of them is carrying. So, yeah, they are going to get a representative from Ratatosk soon.

Endovior · Post by **Endovior** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:14 am

One thing I'd note... and which is appropriate to mention, since your players seem to be getting a little crazy... just because you have a giant meteor does NOT mean you have an enormous amount of refined metal. Hell, it doesn't even mean you have an enormous amount of ore. Mostly, you have pretty much useless rock, some of which is ore, which can then be refined down into a particularly small amount of starmetal. You know, like that thing where they get their peasants toiling for weeks, and get a really tiny amount of starmetal, like so: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0188.html

Nonetheless, that's actually plenty, because starmetal is best used to alloy with regular steel, and not as the pure metal, as seen here: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0297.html

With exact stats, of course, depending on your own personal preferences; you seem to be looking at the Adamantine+ version, which is fairly valuable, anyway.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:21 am

Or you could have a Green Star Adept Storm Giant come by and claim it for his own.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:31 am

Well, the town is an actual mining town, so it's set up for that. Also I already gave them an 8' diam. chunk of star metal, after they used shatter stone to break off the rock, so what's done is done. It was meant to be adamantine but "OH HEY I WANT AN EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE MATERIAL BECAUSE 140,000 LBS OF ADAMANTINE ISN'T ENOUGH FOR ME!!!1!!!111111!" fuckhead went off and, well, I don't fucking give a shit about "+1d6 to outsiders."

Honestly, they're level 8, and are heading for the wish economy, so a shit ton of gold isn't a huge deal

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:33 am

Infestation of rust monsters?

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 5:48 am

fectin wrote:There's also a weird, but not terrible prestige class built around it.

Josh_Kablack wrote:
Green Star Adept

If you take this class as a wizard you're nuts and you should just have learned Iron Body instead. However, if you take it as a multiclass who only took 1 level of wizard, you're only sub-optimal, doing notably better than you would be by alternating wizard and non wizard base class levels, but not as good as you'd do with an intelligent class progression.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:49 am

140,000 pounds of adamantine is pretty disappointing for purposes of making a castle out of. It's about 148 cubic feet. Assuming you went for 3 inch walls and 8 foot ceilings, you could make a room that was 10' by 10'. That's really more of a shed than a castle, but it's still using up 88% of your material.

Tungsten Carbide (essentially what adamantine is) is pretty heavy stuff, and a pound of it just doesn't go very far.

-Username17

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:36 am

Yeah, I keep pointing that out when they talk about using the meteor (which they keep selling bits of) to build their castle. It's a fucking 8' diameter sphere, I have no clue why they keep thinking that's enough to build a castle. Seriously, they need to get it through their heads that they need a wand of Major Creation or something.

Zaranthan · Post by **Zaranthan** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:04 pm

Maybe they're still thinking of the OotS Starmetal. A 100:1 ratio alloy would be enough to make a decent sized fort out of, if you only did the exterior walls.

That said, if they're pawning it here and there, it would be hilarious to let them dream and then when they finally make up their damn minds, point out how much they've sold and there's no longer enough to build a castle out of.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:15 pm

Maybe they intend to have starmetal rebar within stone shaped walls for extra structural strength, heh.

Incidentally, I calculate an 8' diameter sphere to be about 268 cubic feet.

Now if you want a starmetal plating over your structure so at least it looks shiny and impressive, that's more doable. Say 1/10th an inch for 32,170 sq ft. of coverage. Not enough for a castle, but perhaps the walls of a modest hall (40x40x20) or entirely covering a spire (50' diameter, 60' tall cylinder plus a little conical cap for another 10' in height).

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:12 pm

Yeah, star metal leaf is possible.
But honestly, they're getting to the point where they can just magic it up. They could bind an Efreet and say "We want a star metal castle" and get one. It'd probably be really uncomfortable if any of them became outsiders.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:24 am

If I was really dead set on making the cover of Doom Fortress Monthly I'd just incorporate the star metal into a pair of portcullises for the gatehouse. Everyone gets to see how extravagant you are on the way in and it still has a thin veneer of practicality that says "Why, yes, I am classy but I also take care of business."

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:03 am

See, if I were dead set on making the cover of Doom Fortress Monthly (totally now a thing in my game that the players will discover when they start hitting planar markets), I'd use the star metal for portcullises on my fortress bored into a spine on the shell of the Tarrasque.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:24 am

Prak_Anima wrote:See, if I were dead set on making the cover of Doom Fortress Monthly (totally now a thing in my game that the players will discover when they start hitting planar markets), I'd use the star metal for portcullises on my fortress bored into a spine on the shell of the Tarrasque.

Except the Tarrasque isn't that big, is it?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:41 am

Huh, guess not. Well, magic can fix that, carve a door way, make it the entrance for a Magnificent Mansion.

npc310 · Post by **npc310** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:56 pm

Challenges, alright. Is there an opportunity for some mafia-type plot elements nearby? They could offer "protection" to the PCs in exchange for a small percentage of their profits. Can you say shakedown?

Additionally, these goons could be bringing in "entertainment" for the mining work crew to spend their hard-earned coppers on. Everything from games of chance to girls to liquor and drugs. At a minimum this could interfere with productivity. At worst, these mafioso could end up "owning" the PCs new work crew, giving them more leverage in the shakedown attempt (see above).

Maybe these mafioso are really the stooges of a nearby lord who has made his fortune in the metals market. With their new find, the PCs may be upsetting the delicate balance and costing this guy a steady income of profits.

Unionize the PCs work crew, cutting into their profits. Put some muscle in there to terrorize the miners, seeking to chase them off and thereby indirectly bullying the PCs to sell their claim for nickles on the dollar. These are all variations on the shakedown theme, sort of.

The PCs -- through hard work, careful planning, and basic entrepreneurship -- build for themselves a successful enterprise. It doesn't have to be on the scale of Microsoft. In a world where the average daily wage is measured in silver pieces, even if the PCs revenue is as small as 3-5 gold pieces a day, there will be someone who wants a piece of that. Someone who sees an opportunity to make a quick score, even if it is as small as stealing all the miner's picks from the work site and selling them to the local blacksmith for a fraction of their value. There will also be someone who sees an opportunity to attach themselves to the income stream and slowly and steadily suckle just a little bit every day. Figure out who these people are, and insert them into the world.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:01 pm

npc310 wrote:Maybe these mafioso are really the stooges of a nearby lord who has made his fortune in the metals market. With their new find, the PCs may be upsetting the delicate balance and costing this guy a steady income of profits.

It's not a new find, they cleared a mind flayer out of a mining town after the mind flayer had killed everyone, so they just assumed control and brought in new miners, the town already mined star metal.