So my EotE group has expressed a lot of interest in starting and running their own Cantina (in game). This is an idea that we had while playing AD&D 2nd ed, mostly because "Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue" provided everything that you needed to run a tavern.

We're looking to make this a pretty central part of our campaign. Rather than simply focusing on the adventurous side of living in the Star Wars galaxy, there would be a lot of attention to keeping the canteen stocked, hiring help, and book-keeping associated with canteen running.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to do this? How many credits should the location cost, and the general supplies? How would you do this in your own campaign?

I would think about everything a bar needs and make each one a mini adventure.

Credits to buy or build an establishment.

A place, whether land or an old building or even a space station

permits to sell substances and what not

Goods to sell such as booze and food.

Entertainment

Workers

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You definitely want to make sure the bar is built like another member of the party. Make sure it has character. The more history it has or PCs invest into it, the more attached they will be come. This would be a great base for them should they want to experience more in the galaxy than owning a bar.

I'd consider making the location acquisition it's own adventure and/or Obligation.

Think about it: they are now responsible for it and the workers there, so having a proper Obligation would be PERFECT.

Otherwise, it'd be based on the location. I'd go somewhere between 80-200k to own the place, possibly into the millions if they are in a very affluent planet/area.

If you want to consider the cantina supplies, think of how much a bottle of something would cost the player (I heard there's a few examples in Suns of Fortune; otherwise look into old SW resources for options) and cut the price down when buying in bulk. Same with food and the like.

Hired help can range from a few dozen credits a day to hundreds each day, again based on location, risk (the bouncer should clearly be paid well), and if you want them to remain loyal to you.

Of course, this is the sort of nightmare bookeeping that they were trying to avoid in EotE. I'd settle it as Obligation across the whole party and make various plot hooks involving it whenever it shows up on a roll.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to do this? How many credits should the location cost, and the general supplies? How would you do this in your own campaign?

C'mon man, haven't you ever seen Casablanca? Just yoink that plot; guaranteed none of your players will complain.

Or I you could come up with an original idea or something. I'unno.

Funny you mention D&D: in a game I played, we ended up turning a bandit's half-wit trap into the world's first amusement park. Many of the villains we encountered were given an ultimatum: surrender and work for us, or be destroyed. By the time the campaign petered out, we had two dragons working opposite shifts as rides, a lich king taking tickets, and an army of skeleton janitors who, well, cleaned up after the dragons.

I guess the point of that story is the potential for great fun is present, plus it'll give the players a little extra coin to spend. The Obligations also practically write themselves.

ahhhhhh

these are such amazing ideas.

The AD&D 2nd ed idea never took off because the campaign died. But my characters definitely had the money. But the EotE characters that we have right now are still in their infancy and don't have a lot of credits to their names.

The idea of taking on obligation is an excellent idea, I think I'm going to have an npc step forward as a potential financial backer.

I'm also thinking a bit more long term, as we transition into Age of Rebellion, this cantina will probably be working secretly for the rebellion - possibly with a secret safehouse or something.

So many possibilities...

One thing that could definitely come up, perhaps as Obligation, would be a local gangster organization stepping in to require 'protection' payments periodically.

Or, like in Casablanca, the corrupt local officials might require that you conduct certain business at your bar, or that you tip them off if certain characters come around.

In Casablanca, Rick has to choose between betraying Ugarte, a smuggler who is wanted by the law. Rick doesn't interfere and Ugarte is gunned down by the police in the bar. But first, Ugarte stashes an important McGuffin within the bar and this becomes the plot of the story!

Lots of potentials stories from the intersection of a business and corruption of various kinds.

In Star Wars Galaxies, my guild (Severed Shade on Starsider) roleplayed as a criminal organization based out of Chalmun's cantina in Mos Eisley.

You could get your bar set up and find that it starts attracting a dangerous element who decide to make it their home base. And they're powerful enough to 'insist'...

Anothing thing I'd recommend is, you could give them an adventure which involves them becoming owners of an already-established enterprise. The cantina exists, it has history, and it has clientele who frequent it.

Then, for one reason or another, your characters maybe rescue the daughter of one of the owners, and the owner pledges your group the bar just before they're gunned down by gangsters. Just one idea!

TV shows often use this kind of setup when they want to change the characters' main base of operations. This happened on Buffy and Angel several times. The group takes over an abandoned hotel with its own ghostly history, or the local Magic Shop, or an evil law firm...

My group actually took over the cantina in Mos Shuuta. They hired a Barabel to own and operate the cantina, and they collect a percentage of the take. It seems like your group wants to play this out in more detail, while my group is taking a more simplified approach as they are more adventurous and don't want to be bogged down in all the minutia. But if it works for your group, go for it.

On a humorous side note, the name of the Barabel is "Bar Bar" and the name of the cantina is "Bar Bar's Bar and Barby." So whenever a new customer enters the cantina, the Barabel greets them by saying "Welcome! I'm Bar Bar the bargaining Barabel bartender, owner and proprietor of Bar Bar's Bar and Barby. How can I serve you today?"

I would think about everything a bar needs and make each one a mini adventure.

Credits to buy or build an establishment.

A place, whether land or an old building or even a space station

permits to sell substances and what not

Goods to sell such as booze and food.

Entertainment

Workers

Advertisement

You definitely want to make sure the bar is built like another member of the party. Make sure it has character. The more history it has or PCs invest into it, the more attached they will be come. This would be a great base for them should they want to experience more in the galaxy than owning a bar.

Also, don't forget the "Say, this is a nice establishment. Real shame if something happened to it." angle. That'd be good for a game at least.

I have done this in a game called SLA Industries. The PCs acquired an establishment which they used as sort of a headquarters, as well as a small black market to deal weapons and drugs through.

What I did was came up with a list of costs associated with the bar over a period of time. In that game, our game was moving at roughly a week of in-game time each time we got together. I decided how much the cost of food/drink was going to be over a period of time, assigned that a credit value, and depending on what they were doing for the neighborhood and its residents, roughly how much credits would be coming into their bar over that same period of time.

They had to acquire a security system for the bar, because SLA is a nasty, nasty game world, as well as physical security folks, and a bartender who was going to need to get paid as well.

Where the weapons were concerned, they could unload stuff they acquired on their black market and set their own prices for it. Then we'd resolve their black markets check with SLA's equivalent of Negotiation (applying the additional difficulties or boosts if they were over or under charging) and if they were successful, their stuff sold for what they wanted it to.

It basically came down to two charts, which I maintained. Incoming credits and outgoing credits. It wasn't as bad as it might sound. The objective for the PCs was to keep their incoming credits higher than their outgoing.

Obligatory: the occasional attacks from a mob of droids demanding to be served. Because, why not?

Don't forget to throw in some dice rolls! Things like negotiating prices with suppliers, interaction with any hired employees, success of ad campaigns to drum up business, what kind of customers show up, how much money you may bring in (or lose) in a given week... Heck, could even come up with a D100 list of possible weekly events (both good and bad) to keep things interesting. The possibilities are really endless. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Don't forget to throw in some dice rolls! Things like negotiating prices with suppliers, interaction with any hired employees, success of ad campaigns to drum up business, what kind of customers show up, how much money you may bring in (or lose) in a given week... Heck, could even come up with a D100 list of possible weekly events (both good and bad) to keep things interesting. The possibilities are really endless. Sounds like a lot of fun.

If you could somehow convert the chart into relying on the Success/Failure, Advantage/Threat, Triumph/Despair mechanic, all the better.

Don't forget to throw in some dice rolls! Things like negotiating prices with suppliers, interaction with any hired employees, success of ad campaigns to drum up business, what kind of customers show up, how much money you may bring in (or lose) in a given week... Heck, could even come up with a D100 list of possible weekly events (both good and bad) to keep things interesting. The possibilities are really endless. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Something like this would be perfect if the campaign wasn't about spanning the galaxy, but setting up a "home" for the players to stay in. Stick around the sector, do some smaller smuggling jobs "locally," be a member of the community. . .

I think of Badger in Firefly when I look at this. It's the concept that this is their home, they don't want to ruin it, and can be tied to the community in some way, shape, or form.