Part of the Income rules.

The Business background represents a commercial enterprise of some sort. Businesses come with ratings 1 to 5, which are fundamentally different from one another. Businesses do not normally grow from one category to another, but this might happen through mergers or in exceptional circumstances.

In general, businesses require management from the Kindred as well as an agent or agents to manage. In return, businesses provide influence in the region, and, if the economic conditions are right, a profit.

Please mark your business on the Setting wiki mark with the Business schema.

• Small Business

A small business is a local enterprise generally centered around one or two people, though it often employs a hand full of support staff. Businesses of this size are generally more of a hobby project for Kindred rather than any serious source of income (lower clans exempt).

To own a small business, you can either purchase an existing business or start your own. A business costs roughly one hundred pounds, but prices may vary widely depending on the details. To run a small business, you assign a single agent, who in turn may hire some supporting staff, depending on the business.

Benefit Points: 1/2

Income: 10 pounds x number of successes (DC 7)

Examples: smithy, personal farm, hat store, fishing boat, etc.

•• Business

A business employs specialized people who each perform different sub-tasks of a greater product provided. A business generally employs several dozen people, up to about fifty.

A business is too big to be purchased directly in most cases, and requires some form of financing so it cannot be bought using pounds directly. You are otherwise generally free to control a business as you see fit.

Benefit Points: 1

Income: 20 pounds x number of successes (DC 7) x economic factor

Examples: department store, sweatshop, regular ship

••• Large Business

A large business is big enough to require middle management as the main agent does not know all employees. Employs about a hundred people.

A large business requires financing to be acquired and requires at least a second investor, be it a direct owner or an organization or club that helps to establish and maintain the business. As such, you always share at least part of your control of a large business with another party

Benefit Points: 3

Income: 40 pounds x number of successes (DC 7) x economic factor

Examples: textile factory, power plant, large steamships

•••• Corporation

A corporation with either multiple locations or locations large enough they function as local landmarks. Employs several hundred up to a thousand people.

A large corporation can only be formed by the merger of multiple ••• large businesses, plus extensive financing. It has a board of directors that holds ultimate control which you may be part of. Businesses of this size shape the local economy.

Benefit Points: 6

Income: 70 pounds x number of successes (DC 8) x economic factor

Examples: iron works, local railroad, merchant fleets,

••••• International Corporation

An international corporation big enough that most people have heard of it, employing several thousand people or otherwise being a major influence on the national economy. Corporations this size are usually outside the domain of kindred, though it is possible to be part of.

An international corporation can only be formed by the merger of several •••• Corporations, or by direct fiat of the government of a large nation. They have multi-tiered boards of directors of which you are one part. Businesses like this shape the economy of countries and their leaders rub elbows with high ranking politicians.

Benefit Points: 10

Income: 100 pounds x number of successes (DC 9) x economic factor

Examples: East India Company, Union Pacific Railroad, Bank of England

Benefit Points

Each business gains Benefit Points, representing the leeway there is to sponsor and support other businesses and increase their profit.

You can assign the Benefit Points of your businesses to any other business that can reasonably be believed to be supported by yours as a supplier. For example, a coal mine could benefit a power plant, a steam ship or a railroad, but not a haberdashery or a butchers shop.

When a business receives a benefit point, it gains an additional die on its profit check. A business can gain at most as many extra dice as it has benefit points to give, plus one.

Profit Roll

Every month, you roll a profit check for your business to determine how much money you earn. You roll one die for every rank your assigned agent has, plus additional dice for benefits given to your business.

In certain circumstances you may be granted additional dice or you may have to omit dice, at the discretion of the story teller (for example if your company was recently involved in a scandal or if you made a large investment or ran a big marketing campaign).

Your number of successes is multiplied by the economic factor and the base rating of your business determined by its size to produce the amount earned. Any fractional amounts are rounded down.

If you fail your roll (0 successes), you make no profit. If you botch, your company runs at a loss and will instead run a deficit as if you had -1 successes.

Economic Factor

The economic factor is a factor that depends on generic economic conditions, which include the general economy, the local economy as well as the economy of the specific sector and product produced. It is determined each season.

Influencing the Economy

If your business is large enough, their profit check may influence the economy.

A ••• Large Business that rolls 6 or more successes will have a positive effect on the Economic Factor in the area, while a botch will have a negative effect.

A •••• Corporation that fails to roll any successes or that has 5 or more successes will similarly affect the Economic Factor in the area.

A ••••• International Corporation has an effect on a failure or 5 or more successes but affects the entire country, and has a bigger effect in the local area.

Charities

The base cost of a charity 1 is 30 pounds. Use normal business rules but half the profit of a business 1: roll 5 pounds x number of successes (DC 7), that is profit to counter the costs.

XP cost is as a background 1 rating. The same construction can scale up as a charity 2, costing 60 pounds, bringing in 10 profit per success. Charity 3 costing 120 pounds, 20 profit per success.