Owning a business Options

[evilgoattea]

I have a player in a campaign I am going to start who wants to be a business owner. Would anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this or have a sourcebook they can point me in the direction of?

To be exact they want to have/run a brothel. I was thinking maybe he would have to purchase a seperate lifestyle for the business and or have to worry about paying up with the right people in order to operate.

Any suggestions?

[Teulisch]

huh. well, running a business is a bit different from running a brothel, as in most areas the latter is illegal. So, you want to consider which criminal organizations already provide services in that area, and their opinion of competition. It could be easier to take the 'made man' quality, and simply define your related hours spent per week as running said activity for them.

skill-wise, you going to need a fair amount of influence group skills, and a variety of knowledge skills.

[evilgoattea]

huh. well, running a business is a bit different from running a brothel, as in most areas the latter is illegal. So, you want to consider which criminal organizations already provide services in that area, and their opinion of competition. It could be easier to take the 'made man' quality, and simply define your related hours spent per week as running said activity for them.

skill-wise, you going to need a fair amount of influence group skills, and a variety of knowledge skills.

Yeah the Face of the group wants to do it. What knowledge skills would you suggest? Also where can I find the made man quality, what sourcebook?

[Catadmin]

I would say your character is definitely going to have to have a High Lifestyle, even if it isn't expressed as the normal description of High. If only because he's going to be pouring money into the biz in order to make money. Also, you're going to need to set up a Group Contact for the character in order to build the prostitutes up for NPCs.

Reputation would definitely be a key ingredient in this, and if your character wants to get anywhere, Charisma and knowledge - Business, knowledge - prostitution are also going to be needed.

Then you have to think of defenses. What is this character going to do if his employees get roughed up? How will the establishment be protected against raids (legal or illegal)?

Will this place be a hideout for runners? If so, that adds another layer of complexity to the issue.

Granted, most of the things I'm saying now are role-play issues rather than stats issues. But there's a cost for defenses and you should probably get a blue-print of the establishment from the player up front so later, if something happens, he can't "redesign" just to save himself from trouble.

[Caadium]

Yeah the Face of the group wants to do it. What knowledge skills would you suggest? Also where can I find the made man quality, what sourcebook?

Runner's Companion, Pg. 98

Of course, you could use that as a base and slightly modify it for the entire brothel. Instead of the group contact be to organized crime it is the prostitutes and such, instead of a discount on stolen goods something else minor, etc.

[Hagga]

SR4A - Shadowrun Four, Accountant Edition
Shadowrun: THe Corporation-ing.

Just give him the highest level of dayjob quality and be damn sure to impose the rules on how awkward it is and takes up his time. Make it a borderline profitable so that if he decides to spend less time there and hires someone to do it for him, his quality level goes down to the next level to pay for it all. Unless he's being distracted with 'random events' from the business on a regular basis and his life being made hard, he gets NOTHING. NOTHING.

[Karoline]

Just give him the highest level of dayjob quality

That was going to be my suggestion (it is in RC if you didn't know OP). He takes up X hours of time a week running the place, and he rakes in Y profit. You could consider increasing the profit some, because he actually owns the place he is working, but make sure to require either a separate lifestyle, or a bunch of extra expenses in his own lifestyle (with him living 'over the shop' as it were). Check out the advanced lifestyle rules in RC.

But the main thing is that you don't need to turn it into some huge economic simulator or something. He works some hours, he makes some money, he pays a lifestyle for the 'store space'. Dealings with the mob/buying off cops/dealing with hookers/etc is all considered taken care of as part of the work time and lifestyle payment (just like it is for buying a normal lifestyle). You can maybe throw in the occasional problem if you want/need a hook, but don't feel obliged to turn it a massive part of the game.

Of course if you and your players are really into it, you could make it a large part of the game.

Pimp, the Backhanding^tm
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Pimp, the Backhanding^tm
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

For the Win...

Keep the Faith

[last_of_the_grea...]

Actually, I suggest vetoing this idea.

In my experience this kind of thing tends to have the business owning character try to monopolize the game. So much time gets spent on his business stuff and if it doesn't then he feels cheated. The other players get upset because they never get to actually play their characters in anything other than the business.

Perhaps you have a player who's better at it and doesn't monopolize time and it could work. It's possible...but not my experience.

If he really wants it and wants it to be a successful business and he's basically an absentee owner then I suggest he take the Trust Fund positive quality, rename it "successful brothel owner" and relegate the business to fluff. Otherwise the Day Job negative quality will serve if he wants to be more hands on, as suggested by others above.

I strongly suggest speaking with this player ahead of time to make sure it doesn't get in the way of everyone else's good time.