Acquisitions Incorporated

PHILANTHROPIC ENTERPRISE COMPLICATIONS

d6 Complication

The se lected cause is secretly the purview of a

thieves' guild or other criminal organization. The or-

ganization resents th e franchise's efforts and decides

to undermine th e characters' future endeavors.*

2 A local reporter or official becomes convinced that

the franchise's efforts are all about the characters'

personal gain. The individual begins to monitor the

franchise, and reports on any missteps.*

3 A group of individuals objects to the franchise's

efforts, believing that the problem underlying the

selected cause is part of the natural order. The group

actively tries to convince others of the terrible side

effects (real or otherwise) of the franchise's philan-

thropy.t•

4 Another philanthropic group is already involved in the

franchise' s cause. That group tr ies to cast the fran-

chise's efforts as ineffective and insincere.'~

S Hearing of the franchise's good works, people who

are affected by some other issue requiring philan-

thropic assistance show up at franchise headquarters

in huge numbers.

6 Members of the franchise work with an established

group to perform the philanthropic enterprise. But it

soon becomes clear that the group is a sham-and

that local officials are looking into their activities. The

characters need to fix the situation, or risk being im-

plicated in scandal by association.*

*Might involve a rival

RUNNING A F RANCHISE

Runni ng a business is one of the downtime activities

presented in the Dungeon Master s Guide, but an Acqui-

sitions I ncorporated franchise is no mere business. This

new downtime and franchise activity cover s the many

and varied duties necessary to keep a franchise running

smoothly, a nd determines how well the character s and

their staff manage those duties.

Resources. Unless the OM decides otherwise, this

franchise task must be run at the end of each month

of game time. Unlike other activities, results are deter -

mined for running a franchise even if specific characters

and staff member s are not allocated to the activity. How-
ever. allocating characters or staff member s to running
the franchise greatly improves t he chances for a favor-
able outcome.
During any given month, the player s decide how
many days t hei r characters and t he franchise staff can
dedicate to this acti vity. Characters and staff member s
cannot perfor m other activities while focused on this ac-
tivity (as nor mal}. and any days spent a dventuring or en-
gaged in other activities cannot be used for this activity.
Resolution. Percentile dice are rolled by a player
nominated for this task by the group. T he number of
to tal days spent by al I characters and staff members on
this activity arc added to the roll. That total is then com-
pared to the Running a Franchise table to determine
what happens for the month.

C HAPTER 2 CROWIN(; YOUR l'RANClllSE

RUNNING A FRANCHISE

dlOO +Days Result

01 - 10 The franchise has a ruinous month. Declining

11-20

21 - 30

31- 40

41 - 50

51- 60

61 - 70

71 - 80

81 - 90

91 +

sales and rising expenditures increase the

franchise's monthly cost by 150 percent.

The franchise suffers severe setbacks.

Monthly cost increases by 125 percent.

The franchise struggles. Monthly cost in-

creases by 100 percent.

The franchise performs poorly. Mo nthly cost

increases by 50 percent.

The franchise operates normally. Monthly

cost does not change.

The franchise sees strong sales and trims

expenses. Monthly cost decreases by SO per-

cent.

The franchise improves operations and sales.

Monthly cost decreases by 100 percent.

The franchise has an excellent month.

Monthly cost decreases by 110 percent.

The franchise has a fantastic month. Monthly

cost decreases by 125 percent.

The franchise is a shining example to other

Acquisitions Incorporated franchises.

Monthly cost decreases by 150 percent.

Determining Monthly Cost. A franchise's base

monthly cost i s a combination of the cost for t he fran-

chise's headquarter s and a multiplier for franchise rank.

The fancier the headquar ters, t he more the upkeep. A nd

the bigger the franchise, t he more overhead it has. T he

"Franchise Advancement" section earlier in this chapter

has more infor mation on determining a franchise's base

monthly cost.

Whenever a downtime or franchise activity modifies

a franchise's costs for a given month, that increase

or decrease is to tal ed up with all other incr eases and

decreases. For example, a successful m arketeering

campai gn might decrease the franchise's monthly costs

by 25 per cent , but then a major threat as a result of ex-

ploring franchise territory increases monthly costs by

50 percent- a net incr ease of 25 per cent.

Whenever the final result indicates that the franchise's

monthly costs have decreased 100 percent, profits

and expenses exactly balance each other out, s o that

the franchise has no payment to make for that month.

Whenever the final total is a decrease in monthly costs

of more than 100 percent, this means the franchise

has paid its expenses and earned a profit to boot. Cal-

culate the profit based on the amount of the decrease

above 100 percent. For example, a franchise whose

monthly costs come out at a decrease of 150 per cent

earns a profit equal to 50 percent of the franchise's base

monthly cost.

Nonpayment Penalties. At the end of this activity. the

franchise makes a payment to Head Office to cover its

monthly costs. If it does not do so. the franchise begins

to fail. See the rules for defaulting in t he "Franchise

Costs" section, earlier in this chapter. Regardless of

what act ion Head Office takes, a franchise's inability