Advancing Your 5E D&D Franchise with Acquisitions Incorporated

Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons’ campaign setting books do a masterful job providing all the tools and resources players need to create unique experiences within each particular environment including inspiration, encouragement and guidance for developing your own ideas. My favorite book of the bunch — Acquisitions Incorporated — expands tremendously on the concept of running a business included in the 5E D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide. Let’s get into it.

Dark office comedy for 5E D&D

Running a business in 5E D&D falls under downtime activities as described in the DMG but Acquisitions Incorporated takes this concept and makes it the centerpiece for an entire campaign. Exploring dungeons, overcoming obstacles and slaying monsters remain key parts of these D&D adventures but in the business savvy world of Acquisitions Incorporated the most important factor, which ties all these activities together, is branding.

The gist of an Acquisitions Incorporated game is adventure for profit. Thanks to the Acquisitions Incorporated book 5E D&D players everywhere can guide their characters towards acquiring not only fantastic powers but also expert business acumen through dark office comedy in a world of swords, sorcery and of course dungeons and dragons. The book includes lots of terrific resources for incorporating this into a campaign not the least of which is how to grow the adventuring party’s own franchise.

The conceit of an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign is the party’s license to operate a franchise of the eponymous company. To get started a franchise is assigned a region where they’ll operate the business, a headquarters and a steward to manage the affairs of the home base. Growing the franchise and advancing it’s scope falls to the adventurers whose deeds contribute to rising in status and power.

Franchise Rank

Unlike an individual character’s rank with a faction gained through renown, with a deity through piety or some other entity through another system this is extremely straightforward. A party’s franchise begins at rank 1 and advances when the party reaches a new tier of play. This means a franchise automatically advances at 5th, 11th and 17th levels by default.

A Dungeon Master for an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign certainly can adjust this advancement. A franchise rank could increase — or decrease! — at arbitrary times, after certain goals are completed or any other criteria. Advancing franchise rank indicates business success and brings benefits like larger operational regions, more staff and expansions to the headquarters.

Licensed Region

Tying the rank to the tier of play by default goes hand in hand with the idea of a licensed region in the sense they’re both benchmarks of a party’s influence in the world at large. In the same way advice overwhelmingly points DMs to starting small when a new franchise is established the area where their adventures take place focuses on a relatively small region. Following the same structure for a party’s adventures as well as the growth of their franchise reinforces the scope of each tier of play both implicitly and explicitly since a franchise cannot operate outside this region without permission.

This section includes a wonderful sidebar about group dynamics, which become especially important in an Acquisitions Incorporated style game. Despite the individual roles characters assume as stakeholders in their franchise and therefore gain authority over certain aspects of the business the decisions on how to run the franchise overall ought to be made together by the group. The book’s default assumption is for all the characters to have an equal say.

• Rank 1: Settlement. Tier One adventures entail relatively minor threats usually posing a danger to local farmsteads or villages, which pairs perfectly with the party’s license to operate in a settlement and the surrounding territory. Once the group makes a name for themselves as adventurers and savvy business people then it’s time to move onward and upward.
• Rank 2: Small Territory. Tier Two characters have become important and face dangers threatening cities and kingdoms. The burgeoning business likewise expands their operational territory to encompass a small kingdom or similar region with an expected uptick in trade, branding, new markets and offerings, contacts and so forth.
• Rank 3: Large Territory. Tier Three’s mighty adventurers often confront threats to whole regions and continents. While doing so the franchise undergoes tremendous growth through greatly expanded shipping opportunities and distribution deals. But the same increased danger to adventurers confronts franchisees too — overlapping business territories, powerful rivals and managing larger staff keeps characters busy on all fronts.
• Rank 4: Limited Extraplanar. Tier Four puts the fate of the world or even the fundamental order of the multiverse in the balance during adventures. From a franchise perspective this means a business can also expand beyond the Material Plane itself! Establishing connections for trade in extraplanar cities is just the tip of the iceberg but remember — success breeds rivals and at this stage these adversaries will be as powerful in the board room as they are in the dungeon room.

This section finishes up with a Franchise Advancement chart detailing what each Franchise Rank entails. These components include the region, staff, tasks, headquarters features and modifiers for operational costs.

Staff

Players love NPCs and the most beloved NPCs are those who the players themselves have a hand in creating, selecting or otherwise engaging with on their own terms. Since the conceit of a 5E D&D Acquisitions Incorporated campaign involves the party ostensibly managing their own business on a parallel source with their adventures the idea of NPC staff makes perfect sense.

Like each of the 5E D&D books beyond the three core rulebooks Acquisitions Incorporated highlights and expands on material found in those titles. In the case of staff this means finding a source of inspiration inside the DMG through the rules for creating NPCs. This section of franchise development includes all the players in the process because as the principle stakeholders the adventurers can of course hire any NPCs they want — just be sure not to forget about paying their wages!

I can relate from experience how much players love this sort of activity. During the years long 5E D&D Spelljammer campaign I ran the players spent a great deal of time recruiting and roleplaying with the ragtag crew of their ship, getting involved in their individual stories and more than once taking on the role of playing those characters themselves. Their very first employee was a goliath impound lot attendant they convinced to help them retrieve their ship and join them, which set the tone for the whole campaign to follow.

You’ll learn in another post about the various company positions, which adventurers take on in addition to the other main components of character creation (race, class and background). One specific kind of staff member can potentially take on one of these special roles as well. Although Acquisitions Incorporated leans on the material in the core rulebooks it definitely puts its own spin on things with little details like renaming untrained hirelings as subemployees and skilled hirelings as interns. Individual franchisees are encouraged to bestow their own awesome titles on underlings too.

• Majordomo. A franchise’s first and most important staff member is this administrator who typically resides at the headquarters and who ensures the franchise runs according to the party’s goals while they’re away.
• Untrained Hirelings. These are all those individual laborers found in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook under Services in the equipment section. Someone’s got to build, clean and move stuff around and it’s certainly not going to be the company owners.
• Skilled Hirelings. Any workaday hireling can manage the simple stuff but when more specialized work is called for these skilled hirelings are ready to work (for increased wages of course).  These hirelings can go above and beyond their untrained counterparts by joining franchise owners on adventures, performing downtime tasks and more.
• Crew. If I’m honest I’m not entirely sure of the distinction between skilled hirelings and crew except perhaps to say they’re involved to a greater degree. Whereas skilled hirelings are employed for their expertise in a particular area I believe crew are more broadly employed to utilize a variety of skills.

Headquarters Features

If players love their NPCs they dig their own home base even more in my experience. Whether it’s a spelljamming vessel, an ocean faring ship, a decrepit tavern they earn as a reward or something else entirely it’s a ton of fun to have a special location all their own. New franchisees in an Acquisitions Incorporated campaign receive a headquarters right from the start. As the company develops and grows a party gains access to greater benefits and expansions for their headquarters and all of the decisions on what to do with a headquarters is designed as a group activity.

• Group Design. Both the players and their characters share equal responsibility when it comes to design decisions for their headquarters. If nothing else this is a fantastic way to get players engaged with each other, which for my 2 cp is a top priority for any RPG.
• Incorporating Benefits. Building on the concept of group design the book suggests players look to their character sheets for inspiration when it comes to the design and construction of their headquarters. In particular the book spotlights tool proficiencies and I could not be more happy about this!
• Starter Headquarters. I love how the book presents this information as a collaborative process involving the DM and the rest of the players together. There’s some back and forth as the DM offers some options to the group who then pitches their concept and develops ideas together. The headquarters functions as a residence for characters too and allows them to benefit from lifestyle options depending on the franchise rank. The book includes several suggestions like an abandoned lighthouse or a worn carriage and horses.
• Cosmetic Features. Aside from the aesthetics a group comes up with together when a franchise rank advances the headquarters begins to get really spectacular. In addition to improving their curb appeal these cosmetic effects can stimulate increased opportunities like better branding or even manufacturing capabilities.
• Expansion Features. Essentially the headquarters doubles in size. Other than the cosmetic improvements this is an undertaking where again the players are encouraged to collaborate together and this makes me very happy.
• Transportation Features. A huge uptick in versatility comes through this benefit, which transforms a previously stationary headquarters into a mobile unit. Aside from the limitations on how far the headquarters can travel in a day the means of movement are left entirely to the imagination of the players. A teleporting tower is not out of the question.
• Weapon Features. Running a fantasy business isn’t all fun and games so when rival companies come gunning for the Acquisitions Incorporated franchisees they won’t find a defenseless corporate headquarters. Here again the details are left to the imagination but there’s some terrific suggestions like a giant hollow metal statue with battering fists or an energy blast from a lighthouse’s beacon.
• Arcane Features. With transportation and weapons covered a headquarters of sufficient rank can start incorporating truly fantastical features. Some suggests include the ability to change the entire appearance with illusion magic or attract an entire staff of spectral servants.
• Defensive Features. Increased statistics sounds great for something like a seafaring ship or tower in danger of a siege but this is 5E D&D and as the book points out Acquisitions Incorporated is all about magic. Electrified floors, ejector seats or grease trapped chambers are only the beginning.
• Franchise Choice Features. At the highest ranks a franchise headquarters begins to double back on previous benefits and increase their existing capabilities. Transportation range expands, new cosmetic features become available, weapons deal more damage and so forth.
• Secret Features. Franchise operators who advance all the way to the upper echelon of performance can incorporate features even more extraordinary and exciting than anything they’ve done before. Think a flying escape pod and extraplanar access and go upwards from there.

Franchise Costs

All of the amazing benefits new Acquisitions Incorporated franchisees can expect to enjoy don’t all come for free. This is a business after all! The book very astutely points out how the structure of a campaign like this might proceed, which is a lot like one of the common motivations for wizard characters — gaining and maintaining power and influence ain’t cheap. When operational costs take the party into the red then it’s time to go adventuring.

What I appreciate the most about this whole style of play is how much onus it puts in the players’ hands. Presumably everyone in the group is on the same page (because of Session Zero right?) so it’s perfectly reasonable to assume the players are going to direct a lot of the action. Whether this amounts to using downtime, pursuing their own self-motivated goals or simply experiencing life in and around their headquarters the focus in squarely on the characters.

• Baseline Costs. Tying the monthly cost to the kind of headquarters makes so much sense and can really be a tool for setting the tone of a campaign. At the lowest end of the scale a wagon costs 15 gp each month while at the other end a palace runs a party 12,000 gp every month. Take a moment and consider a fresh party of 1st level adventurers who imagine their headquarters as a small keep. They’d better come up with some amazing business strategies before next month’s 3,000 gp cost comes due!
• Franchise Rank Multiplier. Nothing too in depth here other than a factor applied to the baseline cost for franchise ranks beyond the first. You’ve got to spend gold to make gold.
• Monthly Business Performance. It’s not all about spending money and a franchise performs business tasks outside the purview of the group’s adventures. The books covers these tasks and the results, which we’ll cover in a later post.
• Defaulting. What happens when the monthly cost goes unpaid? As fantastical as things are for the adventuring characters their corporate masters can take equal advantage of 5E D&D trappings when the time comes to collect. Do not mess with the Head Office!

*Featured image — An Acquisitions Incorporated franchise’s Occultant, Decisionist and Documancer perhaps discussing what to do about their Hoardsperson currently engulfed in a gelatinous cube. Perhaps their headquarters’ weapon is a gelatinous cube generator and it’s on the fritz? [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

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