Acquisitions Incorporated

on the more rarefied pursuits of killing monsters and
taking their stuff. Before your party sets out for the For-
tress of Eternal Peril. an intern can be sent to research
that magic book found in a previous adventure. Your
majordomo might spend time currying favor with nobles
as a means of expanding the franchise's reputation. And
what could be more fun (for you) than to have the staff
engage in a bit of dangerous criminal activity? If they're

successful, the franchise gets the profits! And if they get

caught, who are these people you barely know?

FRANCHISE TASKS I N THE CAMPA IGN

By allowing franchise tasks to take place not just during

downtime but while the characters are adventuring.

it's possible for players in an Acquisitions Incorporated

game to try to push the pace of the campaign. Charac-

ters might try to avoid taking downtime of their own

in favor of having franchise employees take care of all

that boring not-adventuring stuff. But because an Acq

Inc campaign makes great use of social encounters,

resear ch. and intrigue, players should be encouraged to

not treat downtime as optional. Moreover, DMs can and

will make use of rivalries and complications during fran-

chise tasks to drag characters into that part of the game.

BETWEEN ADVENTURES

Using the traditional approach to downtime. franchise

tasks can be run at set break points during the cam-

paign. When the characters return from adventuring,

they take on some of the responsibility for bookkeeping,

maintenance, long-term planning, and the like, making

franchise staff available for other activities under the

characters' guidance. In this model. characters and staff

run downtime simultaneously between sessions of ad-

venturing. This follows the standard approach of using

downtime to advance the timeline of the campaign.

ONGOING ACTrVTTTES

A more wide-open approach^10 franchise tasks sees the

character s direct those activities at any point during the

campaign. alongside traditional adventuring. During any

game session, the player s can decide to focus on what

the franchise staff are up to by selling assignments, giv-

ing orders, and making checks to determine the success

of franchise tasks. If those tasks tie strongly into the ad-

venture, franchise tasks can effectively become a fourth

pillar of an Acquisitions Incorporated game. alongside

exploration. social interaction. and combat.

SELECTING FRANCHISE TASK S

Whether franchise tasks arc undertaken during regular

downtime or alongside other adventuring activities,

a franchise's rank puts a hard limit on the number of

tasks the franchise's staff can undertake. See the " Fran-

You can't expect to get everything done yourself.

Delegation is key. And the consequenc~s for.
fumbling a simple task should be r eal. immediate.
and serve as a lesson to other s who serve y ou. No
dessert for a tenday! That 'II t each 'em.

• Rosie Beestinger

chise Advancement" section earlier in this chapter. (This

limit is only for franchise tasks undertaken by staff. The

characters are free to undenake whatever downtime ac-

tivities the DM allows, as normal.)

For each available franchise task slot, players can al-

locate one or more staff members to a chosen franchise

task. Those tasks can include any of the downtime activ-

ities in the Player's Handbook or the Dungeon Master's

Guide, the new and revised downtime activities in Xana-

thar's Guide to Everything, and the new activities in this

section. When all of a franchise's task slots are filled.

one of those tasks must be completed before staff can

be allocated to a new franchise task. (The one exception

to this rule is the running a franchise activity. presented

later in this section. That activity must be performed by

a franchise, but does not require that specific characters

or staff members be allocated to it.)

Staff allocated to a franchise task ar c no longer avail-

able for other needs, including other franchise tasks.

Any costs or resources associated with a franchise ta sk

must be provided by the franchise (which is to say. by

the characters).

For example. a rank 2 franchise can undertake two

concurrent franchise tasks. I f the characters are set-

ting out to explore the Swamp of Lingering Malaise.

they might order their majordomo to send messages to

various noble families while they're away, carrying out

the sowing rumors activity from the Dungeon Master's

Guide. The task follows the regular rules for that down-

time activity, but is carried out by the majordomo. At the

same time. the characters might send out another staff

member to engage in the explore territory activity (a new

activity detailed below).

MAKING TASK CHECKS

When a franchise task requires an ability check. a staff

member can use their own ability check modifier to

determine success. (This modifier might depend on the

staff member's statistics. if an NPC. or it might be based

on the franchise's rank. See the "Franchise Advance-

ment" section.) Alternatively. the staff member can use

the check modifier of a character overseeing the task

and giving the staff member direction. This can encour-

age the characters to develop closer relationships with

franchise staff through roleplaying. and keeps the play-

ers involved in staff-focused franchise tasks.

FRANCHI S E TASK S AS NARRATIVE

Franchise tasks can be an exciting. story-rich part of a

gaming session. Over time, franchise tasks and char-

acter downtime activities can expand the story of a

franchise and add depth to the characterizations of its

NPC staff members. The successes, failures, and com-

plications of franchise tasks might even become pivotal

moments in the campaign.

As with all aspects of an Acquisitions Incorporated

campaign. franchise tasks are about creating narrative.

As such, to make those tasks a part of the campaign

story, the DM and the players can work together to

break tasks down into distinct scenes using the follow-

ing guidelines.

CtlAPTER 2 l O ROWl"IG YOUR FRANCHISE