Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SenachFR 03-25-05, 02:39 PM	The characters in my group have bought an inn and I’m trying to come up with profit/loss guestimates for it. The inn is in the town of Dawngleam (pop 1,200) in eastern Cormyr. The inn has seating for about 50 people, 10 rooms with 2 beds, and a common room with 12 beds, and is somewhat upscale. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I can find general stuff on the cost of food drinks and lodging, but have no idea where to go from here. Thanks in advance.
BrianCritchley 03-25-05, 05:09 PM	well, that depends on how busy the route is, I'd assume 2 silver for the meals, 1 gold a nite for the common room, 2 for the "suites". assuming they pay people to run the place and don't do it themselves assume 1 SP a day for th e serving wenches, 3 SP for the cook, and 1 GP a day for the inn keeper (they'd be making most of their money through tips of course) so profit wise your looking at max maybe... 100 SP for the meals, 12 gold for the common room, and 20 gold for the "suites" thus your looking at a nightly intake of 33 gold and a nightly expense of 1.5 gold, not including repairs of damages, which of course any Inn has to deal with on occasion. needless to say we're not talking something that is gonna replace their adventuring income. P.S. I based these prices on the theory that a typical commoner makes 1 SP a day.
stryder98 03-25-05, 08:40 PM	33 gp sounds about right but thats assuming a full inn. i'd roll % to determine weekly or monthly occupancy rates with say 10 to 25% bonus or penalty for special events. e.g., war penalty, vip wedding bonus.
Thelandrach 03-25-05, 09:28 PM	Isn't the rule of thumb based off of your professional skill? Take 10 on the skill and cut the result in half; that's how much gold you make per week. So, if you have PS: Tavernkeeper at +2, you'd make 6 gp per week.
Borris 03-25-05, 09:46 PM	At some point in Neverwinter Nights, it's possible to become the owner of a small inn, which earns you 50 gp per tenday. Although costs are slightly different in that game, I'd say 5 gp per day is a pretty good estimate.
twad 03-25-05, 11:20 PM	1gp for the common room? its 10 days of work for a commoner you know..
BrianCritchley 03-25-05, 11:56 PM	1gp for the common room? its 10 days of work for a commoner you know.. 10 days for work for a commoner farmer, typically the travelers would be the oens with a wee bit more money who could afford that type of thing
The Darkone 03-26-05, 12:54 AM	If the inn's in the Forest Kingdom, your gonna have to consider just how much of the generated profits goes to taxes to the local lord, and to the royal tax collector. Also is there in other competion for the players inn within the town it's based. If it's not then the profits would probably be affected.
The Simbul 03-26-05, 01:02 AM	The actual profits from their time and energy would be virtually non-existant when compared to the money the characters can make spending their time and energy adventuring, which is the reason why 99.999% of all Innkeepers are NPC's.
Ssussunriyh 03-26-05, 01:27 AM	After paying the staff's wages and all the expenses of owning and operating the inn, you'd probably barely break even. If you do come out ahead, you'd have to stash that money away to pay for unforseen expenses down the road - like replacing the furniture after some rowdy customers start a tavern brawl and trash the place, or cleaning and fixing the building after a fire breaks out accidently.
Razz 03-26-05, 02:18 PM	Isn't the rule of thumb based off of your professional skill? Take 10 on the skill and cut the result in half; that's how much gold you make per week. So, if you have PS: Tavernkeeper at +2, you'd make 6 gp per week. The Profession skill is horribly screwed over. WotC needs to fix the Profession skill badly. I allow the Profession skill to be used as the Craft skill. You set a goal to how much money you want to make in your business, I set a DC and rolling the check allows me to determine how long it will take to acquire that money. Rolling Profession (innkeeper) check is moot. It doesn't take into account how many customers you receive, what they're buying, let's not forget what it is you're even selling, how much each room and other things are, how much you're spending on supplies, maintenance, taxes, etc. A check of 12 and making only 6 gp that entire week? Bleh. WotC needs to come out with a Book of Skills&Business or something, making up new rules for existing skills, rules for running a kingdom, an inn, a stronghold, whatever.
BrianCritchley 03-26-05, 08:07 PM	The actual profits from their time and energy would be virtually non-existant when compared to the money the characters can make spending their time and energy adventuring, which is the reason why 99.999% of all Innkeepers are NPC's. right, as I noted, the profits they make aren't exactly steller and thats a fairly generious guess too
RogerWilco 03-27-05, 12:34 AM	I agree, having a 10gp/month surplus after all expenses would be high IMHO. More and another would set up shop and undercut your prices.
GothWulf 03-27-05, 11:33 AM	I totally agree...after all, the haul from ONE adventure lasting a tenday could easily outweigh what their inn will make in an entire year. However.....if they are looking for a "retirement plan" this is a decent option, since most adventurers go through the gold they get like it was water. You want to make sure that you get the maximum profits from your inn? You just have to hire 2 people.....someone with at least 5 ranks in Profession/Craft <whichever you use>:Brewing, and someone with at least that many ranks <though my preferance would be slightly higher> in Profession/Craft: Cooking. Keep the cost of your rooms down and your inn will get the reputation on having the best ale and food around at a resonable rate. Nothing exotic, but "good, wholesome food". Keeps the cost down and besides, most of your profits are going to be made in the common-room....not off of people that stay the night. if you can make it into a place where the common folk go every night to drink or eat, then you'll have GP coming out your ears <well, at least for an inn-keeper anyway> as well as a reputation that will spread, gaining you all the cutomers that are just "passing through" as well, thus increasing your revenues. After all, if you have everyone in town saying..."Master Blech at the Griffon Spit Inn has the best food and ale in town....AND they are pretty cheap for what you get..." do you think any adventuring party <who has gold to spare usualy> or merchant caravan is going to pass it up? Wulfe The actual profits from their time and energy would be virtually non-existant when compared to the money the characters can make spending their time and energy adventuring, which is the reason why 99.999% of all Innkeepers are NPC's.
Lordhojo 03-27-05, 04:28 PM	Well myself i've had players in 2nd edition run many a inn, and being recently converted to 3rd, its a bit of work to figure it all out. Essentially find all the npc prices in a book, if they don't exsist make one up. Land taxes is the biggest problem you're gona find, not to mention if its in cormyr ya gotta take into account the laws of the lands. It all snowballs from that point for how many ways you want to "paperwork" your pc's. As for the costs, your in is definetly upper class, in my opinion. If things inside are typically a gold and up per, you aint catering to the lowly commoners, as they have to pay taxes, feed families, get tools etc etc... Ya might need to create a formula for the cash making, just my 2 cents Lord Hojo
SenachFR 03-28-05, 03:14 PM	Thanks everyone for your thoughts and ideas! Yea, the group is still adventuring and making their money in that traditional way; the inn is just a home base. However, one of the characters is a born-again accountant and keeps coming up with all these details about the inn, and asking questions, and wants to make sure that it’s a good investment. I have come up with a tax formula that Cormyr is using for inns, all the wages for the employees, and the general “upkeep and supplies” cost for the inn, I just was having a lot of trouble coming up with how much, if any, profit it should make.
BrianCritchley 03-28-05, 08:47 PM	Thanks everyone for your thoughts and ideas! Yea, the group is still adventuring and making their money in that traditional way; the inn is just a home base. However, one of the characters is a born-again accountant and keeps coming up with all these details about the inn, and asking questions, and wants to make sure that it’s a good investment. I have come up with a tax formula that Cormyr is using for inns, all the wages for the employees, and the general “upkeep and supplies” cost for the inn, I just was having a lot of trouble coming up with how much, if any, profit it should make. just remind said PC that the name of the game is dungeons and dragons, not paper and ledgers