Running a Business in D&D 5e: A Practical DM Guide

A tavern, workshop, or trading post gives adventurers a reason to care about a place between adventures. The useful questions are concrete: who keeps it open while they are away, what does it cost, and what decisions deserve table time?

This guide uses 2014 D&D 5e as its rules baseline. Its complete monthly accounting procedure is optional homebrew, with separate 2024 Bastion guidance. All example prices are campaign assumptions, not official property prices.

Quick answer: make the business a manageable campaign asset

Agree on ownership, establish ordinary income and expenses, name a manager, and resolve one meaningful business decision per downtime period. Turn an unusual dispute or opportunity into a scene only when the players want to engage with it.

A business can provide contacts, storage, employment, and a home even when its cash profit is modest. Ask which of those benefits interests the group before building an accounting system.

Choose the rules before setting prices

Approach	What it handles	What to decide
Practicing a profession	A character earning a living during downtime	What work is available and how much time they spend working
Published business downtime	An enterprise using the 2014 DMG’s Running a Business activity	Use that activity’s own maintenance and resolution procedure
A simple campaign ledger	A business with recurring costs and story decisions	Use the optional procedure below, with agreed numbers
An Acquisitions Incorporated franchise	Corporate adventuring and specialized franchise roles	Use that sourcebook’s franchise system
A 2024 Bastion	A character’s base and special facilities	Use the revised facility, order, and Bastion-turn rules

The 2014 Basic Rules let a working character support a modest lifestyle without paying its usual daily cost; certain employment or Performance proficiency can support more. That is a personal downtime benefit, not an automatic business-profit formula.

There is no standard 5e Profession or Craft skill. Use an appropriate ability check and an applicable skill or tool proficiency when an uncertain task requires one. Running a shop does not grant proficiency, and owning a smithy does not make a character proficient with smith’s tools. See ability checks for the underlying procedure.

Do not combine several systems’ income awards for the same work unless you deliberately decide how they interact. Choose one procedure for each enterprise and keep it consistent.

Before the session: define the business in six lines

Prepare	Questions to answer
Ownership	Purchased, rented, inherited, granted, or shared? Who can sell it?
Offer	What does it sell, to whom, and why do customers choose it?
Operator	Which named NPC or character handles daily decisions?
Money	Startup payment, normal revenue, recurring expenses, and reserve
Authority	Permits, guild membership, taxes, and limits on trade
Adventure connection	One supplier, customer, rival, or local problem

Describe the actual deal. A 300 gp lease deposit is not the same as buying a building for 300 gp. State whether renovations, furniture, stock, and licenses are included. Use gp, sp, and cp consistently.

For a new business, estimate startup costs from those individual needs and the local fiction. An abandoned inn may be cheap to acquire but expensive to repair. A small workshop in a prosperous district might have the opposite problem. There is no universal tavern purchase price or guaranteed payback period.

Decide how much attention the group wants

Offer a short choice: occasional story scenes, a five-minute downtime update, or a campaign centered on commerce. Establish who can spend shared funds and whether owners may withdraw profits individually.

If one character loves management and the others do not, handle routine choices between sessions and bring only shared decisions to the table. Employees should not become a weekly emergency that prevents the party from adventuring.

Optional homebrew: a simple monthly ledger

Use this only if the group wants predictable accounts with a little uncertainty. It replaces other profit procedures for this business.

1. Set a period: one in-world month. Record partial periods separately rather than resolving the same month twice.
2. Set normal gross revenue: money customers pay during an ordinary open month.
3. Set recurring expenses: stock, wages, rent, taxes, and maintenance. Include any manager’s wages here.
4. Resolve one event: choose an event from the fiction or roll on the table below.
5. Pay expenses and update the reserve: cash result = revenue − expenses + event adjustment − discretionary spending.
6. Make one owner decision: distribute profit, save it, invest, or respond to a problem.

Use the table only while the enterprise is staffed and capable of trading. If a fire closes the premises, resolve repairs and the closure first; do not also roll for ordinary sales. The event adjustment is the entire ordinary financial effect of that event for the period, including minor associated costs.

d6	Event	Net adjustment for this example system
1	A spoiled shipment must be replaced	−20 gp
2	Repairs interrupt service	−10 gp
3	Ordinary trade	0 gp
4	Ordinary trade	0 gp
5	A returning customer places a large order	+10 gp
6	A local celebration brings extra customers	+20 gp

These adjustments average zero: (−20 −10 +0 +0 +10 +20) ÷ 6 = 0. They create variation, not a hidden promise that every month is profitable. Scale the amounts when establishing a different business; do not change them afterward to force a desired result.

If a played scene already resolves that month’s event, use its agreed financial outcome instead of rolling another event. A successful negotiation may prevent a specific loss; it does not automatically produce unlimited extra revenue.

Use checks for particular decisions

An Intelligence (Investigation) check might identify suspicious invoices; a Charisma (Persuasion) check might resolve an uncertain request for extended payment. Set the stakes and relevant consequences first. A routine purchase at an agreed price needs no check.

Avoid rolling once per customer or letting every party member repeat an identical attempt. Use the social encounter guide when a supplier or official has a meaningful decision to make.

Worked example: reopening the Lantern and Oar

The party leases a riverside tavern. These are original example terms for a small local business, not official economic values.

Ledger item	Agreed amount
Lease deposit and basic furnishings	300 gp once
Repairs before opening	100 gp once
Starting cash reserve	100 gp
Normal monthly gross revenue	180 gp
Stock and supplies	60 gp/month
Staff, including manager	50 gp/month
Rent	30 gp/month
Taxes and maintenance	10 gp/month
Total recurring expenses	150 gp/month
Ordinary monthly profit	30 gp

The group commits 500 gp initially: 400 gp spent and 100 gp kept as cash. Revenue is 180 gp, but only 30 gp remains after ordinary expenses. Keep those figures separate.

In the first month, the event roll is 1: replace a spoiled shipment for a net 20 gp loss. The month produces 180 − 150 − 20 = 10 gp profit. The reserve rises from 100 to 110 gp if the owners withdraw nothing.

The manager, Irena, offers a choice for next month: continue with the unreliable supplier or pay a 15 gp one-time setup fee to buy from the mill upstream. Changing suppliers removes that specific spoilage problem from future events; the business can still face other setbacks. The party can investigate the supplier as an adventure lead without being forced to solve the whole problem immediately.

Show the effect of an upgrade

Suppose the party buys an oven for 80 gp. You agree before purchase that it adds 20 gp monthly revenue and 8 gp monthly operating cost. Net ordinary profit rises by 12 gp per month. The simple payback is 80 ÷ 12, about 6.7 months, assuming uninterrupted trade and unchanged costs.

That estimate is a planning calculation, not a guarantee or a general D&D rule. Record the upgrade once. If the same kitchen later becomes a Bastion facility, decide which benefits replace this arrangement.

Employees, absence, and authority

Give the manager a goal, one useful competence, and a spending limit. Irena can spend up to 10 gp from reserves on urgent repairs but must seek approval for a new lease or borrowing money.

Specify how messages reach the party and what happens if they cannot answer. A competent manager can keep ordinary trade running; absence should not automatically mean failure. If nobody is operating the business, decide whether it closes, hires temporary staff, or runs at reduced capacity, and state which costs continue.

Employees are people with agreed duties. Wages do not purchase unquestioning loyalty, automatic adventuring service, or a character’s proficiency bonus. Resolve dangerous requests through their motives and the situation.

Complications that produce decisions

Event	Useful choice	Avoid
A competitor undercuts prices	Change product, service, or customer base	Automatically destroying the business
A guild challenges the license	Present records, negotiate terms, or appeal	Inventing a retroactive fee with no warning
A storm damages the roof	Spend reserves, close part of the building, or seek help	Charging for the same damage in multiple procedures
A fence offers stolen goods	Refuse, investigate, report, or knowingly accept the risk	Treating the legal consequences as unknowable
A festival creates demand	Spend on stock and staff before the event	Giving unlimited profit for one high roll

Tie major events to things the owners can learn and influence. A business is a useful adventure connection when helping it opens choices, not when it repeatedly cancels the party’s plans.

Acquisitions Incorporated is a separate campaign option

Acquisitions Incorporated supplies a specific franchise framework, character roles, and corporate-adventure material. Choose it when the group wants that style of campaign. Do not treat its franchise benefits as universal rules for every bakery or inn.

2014 businesses and 2024 Bastions

The 2024 Bastion system supports character bases with special facilities and orders. Bastion turns typically occur every seven in-world days. A business can be part of a base’s story, but a rented tavern does not automatically gain a particular special facility’s benefits.

Use the published requirements and orders for any actual Bastion facility. Keep its output separate from a homebrew ledger, or agree on a single combined model. Do not grant the same goods or income twice because two descriptions refer to the same operation.

At the table: the five-minute business update

• State the time period and who operated the business.
• Show revenue, expenses, event adjustment, and current reserves.
• Present one meaningful decision, with its price and consequences.
• Resolve any uncertain action once, then record the new agreement.
• Return to the adventure unless the group wants a full scene.

A useful business note fits on one page: owners, manager, permissions, monthly figures, reserve, outstanding commitments, and the next decision.