Running a TL 5-6 Business - How to Model?

[Trainik]

Hey everyone!

I'm starting a campaign set in a tech level roughly equivalent to the American Civil War era. Long story short, the players slowly become the leaders of the town, have business interests, and organize public works projects, in addition to fighting. At the moment they all just showed up in town (we're playing out the first 5 years of the campaign quickly on forums before we actually sit down to play, so that the town is up and running).

The players will probably end up running businesses, like stores, banks, restaurants, farms, etc. I'd like to model these in a little more detail than a simple monthly job roll, but I also don't want them to have to worry about keeping nails and bolts in stock in a general store. The level of detail I'd like to hit is wages for employees, basic stocking fees, and construction costs, as well as of course income. Any advice on this? I know the Low-Tech Supplement 3 (which I don't own but would be willing to buy) has stuff about this, but that only covers up to TL 4. Has anyone used it, and would it apply equally here? Is there a similar supplement for a slightly higher TL? Alternatively, does anyone have any other advice?

Bottom line: I'm looking to add some fun by making their choices matter (e.g. whether to start a new business, whether to expand an existing one, etc.), without turning this into a PBEM accountancy correspondence course.

Thanks!

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Trainik

The players will probably end up running businesses, like stores, banks, restaurants, farms, etc. I'd like to model these in a little more detail than a simple monthly job roll, but I also don't want them to have to worry about keeping nails and bolts in stock in a general store. The level of detail I'd like to hit is wages for employees, basic stocking fees, and construction costs, as well as of course income. Any advice on this? I know the Low-Tech Supplement 3 (which I don't own but would be willing to buy) has stuff about this, but that only covers up to TL 4. Has anyone used it, and would it apply equally here? Is there a similar supplement for a slightly higher TL? Alternatively, does anyone have any other advice?

The material in LTC3 would apply perfectly well to a small business venture at TL5. The concepts are quite general. The big difference at TL5 is that you started having larger businesses like railroads and factories, which would need expanded rules for organization management. Chapters 4 and 5 of GURPS Social Engineering discuss this briefly: see Being in Charge, The Benefits of Rank, and Relationship Advantages in Organizations in Chapter 4, and The Benefits of Status, Advertising and Propaganda, and Economic Rivalry in Chapter 5. Very little of this material focuses on dollars and cents; it's more designed for business management as drama.

Bill Stoddard

[Trainik]

Thanks for the response!

Originally Posted by whswhs

Very little of this material focuses on dollars and cents; it's more designed for business management as drama.

Where would you recommend I go if I wanted a little focus on dollars and cents - just enough to get ballpark numbers? (Or did this comment only apply to Social Engineering, not Low Tech Companion 3?)

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Trainik

Where would you recommend I go if I wanted a little focus on dollars and cents - just enough to get ballpark numbers? (Or did this comment only apply to Social Engineering, not Low Tech Companion 3?)

LTC3 has a couple of simpleminded dollars and cents formulae, and an example. Not quite at the level of detail you're looking for, but it could be a framework.

Bill Stoddard

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

Corporations were pretty rare in mid-19th century England and the US; in the UK they required an act of Parliament IIRC.

If so your entrepreneurs will either run single-owner businesses or be in partnership with others. Note that in either case the owners are fully liable for all debts and damages incurred by the business.

So if a careless employee starts a fire at your character's general store that burns down half the town the character will be liable for ALL of the damages; none of this "oh gee, the company has only so much money, so I'll close it down & walk away." Only with a corporation.

Major businessmen in small towns were also supposed to be active in local charitable functions; were they not their reputation might drop and their business suffer. They almost always were close to the town's politicians and were, in effect, what my grandmother used to call the "city fathers." How they managed the town's finances or politics often determined how well the town survived. Such business men were also civic boosters -- traveling to various places to drum up new businesses and activity and (brass ring!) a railroad connection to the town. Daniel Boorstin's "The American Experience" has a fair amount on these activities.

There also was often fierce rivalry among towns for key developments that might aid the town. In the early 19th century gaining, for example, a county seat (the courthouse, lawyers, and business that went with it) could produce trickery, bribery, threats, use of exterior political pull, and even gunfire on certain occasions.

Of course, small towns were rarely the late Andy Griffith's Mayberry; they often had intense internal rivalries between groups, based on ethnicity, US city of origin, livelihood (sheepmen vs. cattle baron disputes did not halt at the town's edge) and simply personal dislikes. Often club and church membership might spell out who was on which side.

The late 19th century was also the heyday of the fraternal organization; there was an article in American Heritage (see http://www.americanheritage.com/cont...n-gilded-age-0) regarding this. Such fraternal organizations quickly became not only a gathering place for like-minded fellows but a center for political activity and charity. Tammany Hall of New York City, for example, started as a fraternal organization.

Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu has elaborate rules for "credit rating" and you might want to review them for activities that might add/subtract from your characters' status or local reputation.

Just some thoughts -- hope you let us know how this game (presumably with little firepower and LOTS of social activity) plays out.

One example from my family's history. I read in the archives of the local paper that c. 1923 my great-grandfather was bidding for a municipal contract to paint a newly-constructed civic building. The local municipal building council was in charge of seeking and assessing the bids. My great-grandfather put in a bid at near cost for the job, figuring that he would get it, do a good job, then use that building's paint job as advertising for other work in town.

Oddly, a rival painter who had close ties to a couple of the guys on that building council came in with the winning bid -- about 3/4 percent under that of my great-grandfather. Agggh! Then after he was awarded the contract that rival painter said "You know -- this job is going to require a special paint." Then his buddies on the council gave him a 30 percent raise in his fee!

My grandfather raised a major stink -- but, according to the paper, was warned off by the "urban powers." They apparently said that if he made an issue very serious consequences would occur. Then as a token he was awarded a small contract worth about 1/5th of the one he lost.

So that's one model of how things could work in a small American town.

[dcarson]

A possible sort of plot hook.

During the early days of opening the west up with railroads the three reasonable places to end the one line was Colorado Springs, Denver and Cheyenne. The Denver business owners bought several hundred miles of right of way and gave it to the railroad. So when the time came to extend the rails through the Rockies they started in Denver. When the Interstates were built they ran one through Denver. So that sort of action can have major long term impact on the town.