This is an ongoing attempt to work up a special stronghold type for Venturers, who really deserve one.
A lot of this right now is a braindump, and there’s still a lot of work to do with the math to make sure that this stronghold type compares favorably with the default Hideout type.
Let me know how things strike you.
So, as a start, this:
http://autarch.co/forums/general-discussion/expanded-merchant-ships-caravans-table
will allow you to calculate average monthly profits for any given market class for any given distance. That’s in a relatively raw state, and I’m going to work on entabulating it as a range of options, rather than as a raw calculation.
It’s an interesting equation that follows a curve with a vertex at the first “shipping interval” mark, but isn’t a parabola or anything regular. I’m gonna make a half-assed attempt to find an equation to describe it…but I ain’t hopeful.
At 9th level, Venturers may establish a Company.
Venturers must first build an Office to begin regular trade in a market.
To establish an Office in a market, you start by building offices and warehousing to the values below:
Market Class…Minimum Facilities Value…Trade Volume (Stone)
Class VI…300…240
Class VI…700…600
Class IV…2500…2000
Class III…7000…6000
Class III…16000…13500
Class I…48000…40000
This is based off of Alex’s post here: http://autarch.co/forums/ask-autarchs/venturer-questions?page=1#comment-19402
The offices are worth the Minimum Wealth from that table (as ostentation equates to success and success equates to trust and trust equates to business), and the remainder of the facilities value is the warehousing:
Market Class…Warehousing Value…Warehousing Cu Ft
Class VI…5…150
Class VI…13…375
Class IV…42…1250
Class III…125…3750
Class III…281…8437
Class I…833…25000
Trade Volume In Stone is based on double the minimum cargo from that table, representing in/out movement of trade. I’ve calculated (and this is subject to change) that the volume of the “average common cargo load” is about 50 cu. ft.
The warehousing costs are based on the cost for the wooden cottage. A venturer may expand her trade volume by spending 4 GP for every 100 stone of additional trade she’d like to support, to expand her warehousing.
To begin trade, the venturer then invests in a caravan type. Once complete, that caravan begins trade from the current market to whichever remote market the Venturer wishes, gaining an average monthly profit as calculated above. Note that all trade is calculated at the levels of the smallest market in the route.
The venturer must hire (most likely another venturer) to do this trade on her behalf.
Each month, the hireling or follower rolls a Hear Noise check, modified by the inverse of the market class:
Market Class…Hear Noise Modifier
Class VI…-1
Class V…-2
Class IV…-3
Class III…-4
Class III…-5
Class I…-6
On a successful check, the trade route gains the calculated monthly profit. (perhaps Bargaining proficiency adds some percentage?)
If the check fails by 14 or more, or is a natural 1, things Go Awry.
Going Awry: TODO, but once I’ve entabulated/enformulated the trade route profits, I’ll have a 2d6 roll determine What Happened.
That will be things like:
All hands and cargo lost
Caravan attacked, cargo lost, pay ransom for half the crew
Bribes required, reduce profit by %%
Inclement weather, warfare, other slowdown, reduce profit by %%
Market crash, reduce profit by %%
Lucked out, increase profit by %%
and I’ll set it up so that you can either roll this stuff, or I’ll precalculate everything like was done for the default Hijink income table.
Monthly Upkeep - the Venturer pays both upkeep for her offices and for her caravans; 0.5% of the value of each per month (the ships, wagons, etc.)
Staff (TODO) - For a given market size, the Venturer must hire a number of trade managers and assorted professionals to manage the business. These will be Professionals (as the proficiency).
MONOPOLY
A Monopoly is established when a Venturer is trading from two markets that have an Office of her company in.
The efficiencies gained allow the monthly profits of the shipping route to increase by (10% or more, TODO). In addition, an established monopoly gives a +1 on trade route rolls to avoid something Going Awry.
COMPETITION (possibly, TODO)
Unlike other criminal guilds, corporations often have established competition. When investing in a new route (by buying a ship or wagon train and crewing it up) the venturer or hireling must succeed on a reaction roll to first establish the route, which represents making deals and signing contracts with local merchants to move their wares.
This will work much like the Change In Management rules under Hijinks. The purpose of this is to generate conflict, essentially, as a very successful Venturer taking NPC’s business suddenly having the occassional assassination attempt (Judge’s discretion) sounds like a Good Time.
UNDER THE TABLE DEALS (possibly, TODO)
Depending on how the math works out on the trading, I may allow the Venturer to still do Stealing, Smuggling, other maybe one other Hijink as a supplement.
LIMITS
Alex has posted theoretical trade limits elsewhere that I’ll take into account, though I’d be surprised if it comes into play.
GETTING STARTED
At this iteration, the only established rules are building an Office and buying the caravan. To start:
- Decide which markets you wish to serve.
- Choose the most profitable caravan type to serve those markets.
- Build an Office and the caravan
- Profit